A Comparison of Cornelius Castoriadis’s Agora Metaphor and Feminist Perspectives Rejecting the Public-Private Divide

Abstract

This study examines debates on women’s representation in relation to the public-private sphere through the feminist theoretical slogan “the personal is political,” questioning how the boundaries of the political sphere have been expanded. Feminist theory rejects the public-private divide by arguing that representation should be considered not only at the institutional and parliamentary level, but also through everyday life practices and arrangements within the private sphere. In the article, this critique is linked to discussions of the public sphere, particularly through the metaphor of the agora, which Cornelius Castoriadis reinterprets on the basis of the Ancient Greek experience; for Castoriadis, the agora represents a third space of “encounter” that connects the private and the public, where citizens directly participate in discussing and deciding on public matters. However, the public sphere that Castoriadis explains with reference to Ancient Greece is historically grounded in a political order that excluded women, foreigners, and slaves. Feminist theory therefore goes one step further by questioning to whom and to which issues the public sphere is open. As the Ancient Greek experience also demonstrates, it criticizes the fact that women have been excluded from the public sphere from the very beginning.