New Transnational Configurations, Inequaltities and the Public Sphere
My research proposal deals with the complex relationships between socio-political inequalities and the public sphere. The possibility to access the public sphere indeed constitutes an essential part of being a citizen, since it is the place where inequalities are being dealt with and often reproduced due to its control by elites. In this sense, the unequal access to the public sphere can be seen as an overarching kind of inequality. It shows that the different kinds of inequality are actually interdependent. Access to the public sphere therefore needs to be considered to understand broader dynamics of inequality production. I chose to analyze the relations between the two through the use of new technologies by citizens and because they allow for a multidimensional approach, andto help us take into account the questions regarding transnational underpinnings. To address this question in a dynamic fashion, I will focus on the transnational configuration of social actors, public spaces and communication flows which deal with controversies on Cuban political issues, as it materializes in an emergent and semi integrated transnational blogosphere. This configuration indeed seems especially relevant because it is at the juncture of multilevel interdependencies between different types of inequalities, between diasporas and home countries, between macro actors states, institutions, micro actors, citizens and activists also between local and global dynamics. To put it in a nutshell, this configuration enables us to take into account the local, transnational and transregional aspects of the question.