The Dublin Mechanics’ Institute (1824–1919), like others of its kind, was established with the declared purpose of providing technical education to the city’s working classes. While its educational objectives were at best partially achieved, the Institute made a significant contribution to the development of Dublin’s public sphere. Especially after 1848, when the Institute acquired the building that would later become the Abbey Theatre, its premises became a hybrid space where the lower middle and working classes could not only attend courses and lectures, but also receive political training on the managing board, organise their own public events at the lecture hall and negotiate relations with their ‘social betters’ in the common area of the reading room. This article looks at the Dublin Mechanics’ Institute through the different venues it occupied between 1824 and 1904, in order to examine the connection between the provision and regulation of physical space and the development of civic and political culture. It argues that the Institute, far from representing a history of failure, must be understood as a key piece in the incorporation of the lower middle and working classes to Irish civic life during the middle decades of the nineteenth century.

中文翻译：

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“当地住所和名字”：都柏林力学研究所和都柏林公共领域的演变，1824-1904

都柏林机械学院（1824-1919 年）与其他同类学院一样，其成立的目的是为该市的工人阶级提供技术教育。虽然其教育目标最多只能部分实现，但该学院为都柏林公共领域的发展做出了重大贡献。尤其是在 1848 年之后，当学院收购了后来成为修道院剧院的大楼时，它的场地变成了一个混合空间，中下层和工人阶级不仅可以参加课程和讲座，还可以在管理委员会接受政治培训，组织他们在演讲厅举行自己的公共活动，并在阅览室的公共区域与他们的“社会精英”协商关系。本文通过都柏林力学研究所在 1824 年至 1904 年间占据的不同场所进行研究，以研究物理空间的提供和调节与公民和政治文化发展之间的联系。它认为，研究所远非代表失败的历史，而是必须被理解为 19 世纪中叶将中下层和工人阶级纳入爱尔兰公民生活的关键部分。