Shared spaces with Rosemary Bechler, writer, journalist, and former editor of the e-zine OpenDemocracy.

Shared spaces spoke with Rosemary Bechler in May 2012 when the former editor of OpenDemocracy visited the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) to participate with Albena Azmanova, Claus Offe, Markha Valenta, Jordi Vaquer and Pep Subirós in the debate “Reinventing democracy in Europe". In our conversation Bechler confessed that it is difficult to speak of public space in a society like that of Great Britain where people “are subjects rather than citizens”. She notes that when Margaret Thatcher said things like “there is no such thing as society" and "there are individual men and women and there are families”, she meant exactly what she said. Bechler adds that many British people have experienced their relationship with their surroundings from precisely that perspective. In any case, Bechler finds reasons for some optimism about the present because she believes that “we’re starting to see new attempts to create shared space and shared meaning”.