Bonnie Honig, Public Things. Democracy in Disrepair. Thinking Out Loud: The Sydney Lectures in Philosophy and Society. Fordham University Press, 2017. 154 pages. ISBN-13: 9780823276400

Abstract

I visited Oodi, Helsinki’s new central library, shortly after it was opened to the public in December 2018. The building has been praised for both its architectural innovativeness and for the way in which it redefines the whole notion of a public library. The ‘Ode’ is a threestory construction made of wood, steel and glass that cost 98 million euros to build, furnish and equip. It hosts computer workstations, meeting rooms, recording studios, a cinema, a kitchen, a gaming room, 3D-printers, CDs and, yes, some books too. Walking around, I could see how the library’s various services corresponded with the interests of different visitors, including those who were there just to while away the time in the spacious interiors. Among this last group of visitors was a small gathering of Romani people who were there to seek shelter from the biting cold outside. Bonnie Honig’s Public Things is about the ability of projects like Oodi to bring together a multitude of actors with different needs and desires, but without reducing them into one. For those familiar with Honig’s work, this short book resembles her previous major publications in at least three ways. First, and quite obviously, the book deals with democracy and politics. But rather than pursue further the expressly agonistic themes of politics that have been central in her work from Political Theory and the Displacement of Politics (1993) to Antigone, Interrupted (2013), here Honig is more concerned about the prerequisites of democracy in contemporary times. More specifically, the book is about the objects and spaces that make democracy possible, but that are under constant threat in what we can, perhaps, shorthand as neoliberalism. Think of, say, a public library. Not necessarily as a building, a service or a collection, but rather as something marking the ‘publicness’ of spaces and fora that democracy requires. Second, as in most of her books, Honig delivers her own arguments mainly by engaging with a number of other authors and texts. These include familiar names such as Hannah Arendt, but some more unexpected conspirators as well. Honig has always managed to weave her more unexpected characters into the mix with delightful ease, and in Minkkinen, Panu. 2019. “Bonnie Honig, Public Things. Democracy in Disrepair. Thinking Out Loud: The Sydney Lectures in Philosophy and Society. Fordham University Press, 2017. 154 pages. ISBN-13: 9780823276400.” Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory 22(1): 68–70. DOI: https://doi.org/10.33134/rds.307 REDESCRIPTIONS