The global pandemic and consequent economic tumult have strained conventional theoretical accounts of what it means to be a citizen. The notion of a “new normal” has been widely adopted to describe the potential historical reframing that the pandemic has engendered. Drawing on previous theoretical accounts of crises and their ramifications, this article explores how the communicative features of democratic citizenship might be imagined and practised differently in the aftermath of the pandemic. It considers the spatial and ontological recasting of the idea of the civic public that has been precipitated by the present global crisis. The article calls for the elaboration of a language of public discourse by which people can develop new forms of communicative agency, enabling them to respond to urgent contingencies; negotiate tensions between historical possibilities; and cultivate emergent futures.

全球大流行和随之而来的经济动荡使传统的理论解释成为公民意味着什么。“新常态”的概念已被广泛采用，以描述大流行引起的潜在的历史重塑。借助先前关于危机及其后果的理论解释，本文探讨了在大流行之后如何想象和实践民主公民的传播特征。它考虑了由于当前全球危机而引发的公民公众观念的空间和本体论重塑。文章呼吁阐述一种公共话语，人们可以借此发展新形式的交流代理机构，使他们能够应对紧急情况；谈判历史可能性之间的紧张关系；培育新兴的期货。