Abstract
For decades, scholars have been calling out a spatial turn in media and communication studies. Yet, in public sphere research, spatial concepts such as space and place have mainly been used metaphorically. In recent years, the abundance of digital trace data offers new opportunities to locate communicative interactions, sparking new interest in the spatial turn in media and communication and opening up new perspectives on spaces and places also within public sphere research. Digital location data enables one to: study the places and spaces in which (semi-)public communication is embedded; uncover geographical inequalities between countries, regions, cities, and peripheries; and highlight the local contexts of public spheres. This thematic issue gathers some of these endeavors in one place, bringing together conceptual, methodological, and empirical contributions that spell out the spatiality of public spheres in detail and combine the analysis of spaces, places, and geographies with long-standing concepts of public sphere research.
Highlights
Scholars have been calling out a spatial turn in media and communication studies (e.g., Couldry & McCarthy, 2004; Jansson & Falkheimer, 2006), highlight‐ ing spaces and places as relevant categories of analysis and acknowledging the spatial embeddedness of media and communication
We further argue that the specific interactions of public communica‐ tion with spaces and places need much more scholarly emphasis and exploration
The articles gathered in this thematic issue provide a wealth of insight on spaces, places, and geographies in public spheres
Summary
Scholars have been calling out a spatial turn in media and communication studies (e.g., Couldry & McCarthy, 2004; Jansson & Falkheimer, 2006), highlight‐ ing spaces and places as relevant categories of analysis and acknowledging the spatial embeddedness of media and communication. This focus on the spatiality of com‐ munication has been driven by the diffusion of mobile technologies (Sheller, 2017). We want to foster the spatial turn in public spheres research and offer a forum for scholars to spell out and explore the different spatial dimensions conceptually and empirically
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