The Ontology of Public Space

Abstract

The “new governance” envisions a network of so-called actors—sometimes organizations, sometimes individuals—which collaborate with each other to accomplish policy goals. But the ontology of this model has been largely unexplored. When examined, its objectivist assumptions obscure network dynamics and render mysterious whatever collaboration manages to occur. These assumptions, it is argued, are not logically or empirically necessary. An alternative ontology, grounded in phenomenology, opens democratic vistas that comport as well or better with empirical reality and provide much stronger support for democratic governance.