Public connection repertoires and communicative figurations of publics: conceptualizing individuals’ contribution to public spheres

As public sphere(s) have been ascribed core functions for democratic societies, correlating theories have a long tradition in communications research. Yet they often fail to bridge the conceptual gap between the macro level of public sphere(s) and the micro level of individual citizens. In this article, we propose a conceptual approach that helps to describe and explain the contribution of individuals to the construction of publics. Following Elias’ figurational approach, we propose a framework for the analysis of different kinds of publics as communicative figurations. To capture individuals’ contribution to these publics, we introduce the concept of public connection repertoires which represent individuals’ structured patterns of connection to different publics. This results in the figurational analysis of publics, based on the public repertoires of all individuals who connect to that public. We discuss implications of this approach for theoretical work on public spheres in changing media environments.