publikukogemusel

Publikukogemusel is a theoretical concept used in social sciences to describe the lived experience of public life and the way individuals collectively interpret public events. The term combines Estonian words publik (public) and kogemus (experience), with a suffix that signals relation or state, roughly translating to “in the public experience.”

Origin and usage: The concept emerged in Estonian and Baltic scholarship in the late 2010s as researchers sought to capture how ordinary people experience democracy, media, and urban life beyond official narratives. It has since been used in comparative studies of public communication, participatory design, and civic technology to analyze how publics make sense of public phenomena.

Scope and model: Publikukogemusel centers on subjective perception, memory, sensory cues, and social context that shape interpretation of public phenomena. It emphasizes everyday practices—casual conversations, local media, street-level encounters—over formal institutions. Researchers may use mixed methods, including surveys on perceived public atmosphere, ethnographic observation of community spaces, and qualitative interviews, to understand how people experience and negotiate public life.

Applications: In journalism, the concept helps analyze audience reception to reporting and framing. In urban planning, it guides design by considering residents’ felt safety, belonging, and visibility. In policy, it informs understanding of legitimacy and trust in public initiatives and government communication.

Criticism: Some scholars caution that the concept risks overemphasizing subjective experience at the expense of structural analysis. Others note its reliance on culturally specific language, which can limit cross-cultural comparability and transferability.