Problems, publicity and public space: A resurgent debate

Abstract

Urban public space is once again high on the agenda of social science researchers across disciplines.The reasons for this renewed interest include a range of dramatic events that are redefining its importance as a centre for social encounter and interaction, forum for discussion and dissent, interface of virtual and material connections and stage for the reinstatement of democratic practice and resistance in the face of state repression.Beginning with occupations of squares, parks and streets in a global wave of revolutions and demonstrations from the Middle East to Europe, North-America, Africa and the Asia-Pacific, public space has been reinstated as the symbolic core of urban life.Equally significant are transformations associated with new mobile media and computing technologies that enable large and diverse groups of people to communicate with each other in order to plan social activities from political uprisings to do-it-yourself housing interventions and other forms of informal urbanism.Public spaces increasingly host violent conflagrations and vigilante policing associated with resurgent nationalisms.At the same time, persistent privatization and securitization in response to perceived threats of financial and national security and the desire for 'clean' and 'safe' redevelopment to attract elite and middle class users are creating sanitized public spaces that increase realestate values rather than enhance civic life.In this set of papers, we want to establish some parameters for this resurgent debate.While persisting as one of the key terms of urban geographical and sociological studies across several decades, 'public space' remains a notoriously difficult concept to define and put to work.The papers in this collection seek to demonstrate both its on-going utility and importance, and to chart a course for scholarly investigation that can better understand its variable, fragile and contested emergence through social struggle, expanding publicity and collective action.Most importantly, this theme issue emphasizes the making of public space

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