Seeking common ground: three perspectives on public space

Abstract

Public spaces have been a central concern of urban planners for centuries; more recently they have also captured the attention of sociologists, geographers, political scientists and economists. Focusing on urban public spaces, this review outlines three major perspectives on public space. The legal–economic perspective seeks to answer the most concrete questions about public space (what is it and who pays for it?), thereby laying the definitional and institutional groundwork for other enquiries. The socio-spatial perspective takes the existence of public space for granted and is more concerned with questions of design and application (what does it look like and how is it used?). Finally, the political perspective asks about public space's role in democracy, both abstractly as a site for discursive activities and concretely as a site of exclusion or empowerment. While these three perspectives frequently overlap in practice, they are nonetheless distinguishable in their origins, assumptions and foci. This paper thus serves to illustrate the potential for further cross-disciplinary connections that would enhance understanding of how public space works.

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