The public space tour

Prisons and hospitals are segregated spaces where entry is compulsory and exit depends on clearance documentation. Barracks require passwords or coded symbols upon entry and screening upon exit. The number of closed-off spaces in any city is enormous, incorporated into what appears to be, but is not, nature. Even in pre-Christian times, city walls referred to physical obstacles. During the Middle Ages, the same was true, and castles were walled up inside walled cities. In the modern world, the territorial boundaries of nations have replaced the solid and extensive ancient constructions with customs posts, sentinels, and symbolic stones or monuments. That is, until recently, when the revival of walls began.

The best-known examples are the gigantic fence built by the United States on its border with Mexico and the recent wall erected by Israel separating it from the Arabs and Palestinians. South Africa even maintains electrified fences on its border with Zimbabwe. Saudi Arabia has erected a very tall concrete structure on its border with Yemen and is planning another on its border with Iraq. For various reasons, India has been establishing material arrangements to prevent transit between its territory and its neighbors Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Burma. These arrangements include burying explosive mines and installing electrified devices along its border. Uzbekistan isolated itself from Kyrgyzstan in 1999 and from Afghanistan in 2001, and was in turn isolated by Turkmenistan.

The policy of preclusion of spaces is also used by Botswana, Thailand, Malaysia, Iran, and Brunei, among other countries. The list is impressive and growing, highlighting an important aspect of the vulnerability of the age-old institution of national sovereignty, as demonstrated by the magnificent research of Wendy Brown of Berkeley (Walled States, Waning Sovereignty, 2010). But the phenomenon is also intra-national.

The scandalous conflicts in Maranhão's prisons are closely related to the controversies caused by the "rolézinho" (a type of youth gathering) attributed to young people from the urban peripheries. Related, but not Siamese twins. Prisons are founded on the uncontested sovereignty of their administrators and the almost total suspension of that sovereignty in the eyes of their inmates. Just as in hospitals, there is a relationship between doctors and staff on one side and patients on the other. The "rolézinho" conflict revolves around contested sovereignties, and that makes all the difference.

Iron gates preventing entry into buildings are a demarcation of sovereignty, a defense against presumed assaults. Shards of glass embedded in the walls of mansions are equivalent to buried Indian mines. The extraordinary security apparatus displayed by high-income residential condominiums is reminiscent of the militarization of borders, only crossed with appropriate passwords or symbols. The separation between public and private, preventing the invasion of the private by the public, is a matter of law and custom. There are places in the world where cars are not locked nor are the entrances to residences closed. When I taught at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the back doors of houses were only slightly ajar, and in Palo Alto County, California, cars were left open in the open air.

There is also physical segregation of the public to prevent intrusion by the private. Squares have fences, as do monuments. The homeless inhabitants of cities are denounced for bathing in urban fountains. The consensus on the invasion of sovereignties here is extensive. The potential for conflict lies in the subtle distinction between the end of private sovereignty and the beginning of public sovereignty. These are spaces of contested sovereignty whose clarification demands negotiation and a sense of measure, according to the space disputed. While the nighttime closure of some public parks seems reasonable, preventing their transformation into dormitories for impoverished groups (the humanism of political correctness does not yet accommodate this variant), charging admission fees for the use of coastal beaches would stimulate gigantic disturbances. However, some luxury beachfront hotels have been doing precisely that without major public outcry. Customarily, private sovereignty has replaced public sovereignty.

The shopping malls in major Brazilian cities have become spaces of contested sovereignties. In principle, they are public spaces for private business transactions, much like weekly markets. Passersby or simple observers of the stalls are not required to show identification to walk around, observe the businesses, and, if they wish, negotiate. The merchants have no way of knowing if passersby have arranged to meet for lunch, if they are potential customers, or if they are opportunistic criminals. Their businesses are certainly private, but established in a public space. Defining the boundary between these two sovereignties is not a simple task. Figuratively, democratic practice resembles a revolving door, with little difficulty in entering or exiting. The devil is in figuring out what the hinges are made of.

Originally published on the website Major Card