Ageographia, Heterotopia, and Vancouver's New Public Library

1997 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loretta Lees
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Theme Park ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Illustrative Case Study ◽  
Variations On A Theme

Different critical positions have emerged around the restructuring of space in postmodernity. I consider two sets of literature: the sceptical thesis (theses) of the ‘ageographia’ in Sorkin's edited collection Variations on a Theme Park and Foucault's affirmative thesis (theses) of the ‘heterotopia‘. These authors' works relate to a number of themes relevant to this paper: democratic public space, public space (comparing Canada and the USA) and its demise, spatial utopias, and the public library as public space and as ‘other’ space. Vancouver's newest civic landmark, the Vancouver Public Library, provides an illustrative case study with both ageographic and heterotopic qualities.

Interfaith Dialogue in Silicon Valley

2019 ◽  
pp. 272-292
Author(s):  
Annapurna Devi Pandey
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Silicon Valley ◽  
Public Culture ◽  
Public Places ◽  
The Public ◽  
Religious Rituals ◽  
Identity And Agency ◽  
The Usa

Silicon Valley, known as the technology hub of the USA, has emerged as a medley of places of religious worship. It has become a home to wealthy Indian Americas and to many gods and goddesses who have come to reside there as well. Indian Americans have contributed significantly to the mushrooming of temples in this region. This chapter attempts to answer the following questions: How does diaspora provide a space to reconstruct the identity of the women practitioners? How does religion enable them to negotiate their roles in the public space? In this chapter, the author argues that Hindu women in the diaspora play a very significant role in selectively performing religious rituals in public places of worship as brought from their homeland. In performing these rituals, women are creating a distinct space in mainstream public culture to reconstruct their identity and agency beyond their roles as homemakers and professionals. In this specific case study, Odia women living in Northern California are not only reshaping their traditions but are engaged in interreligious dialogue in Silicon Valley corporate culture.

A Tale of Two Schools

2012 ◽  
pp. 180-192
Author(s):  
Karen Ellis
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Summer Programs ◽  
Local School ◽  
Independent School District ◽  
The Public ◽  
Satellite Campus ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Temple

This case study illustrates two partnerships between the Taylor Public Library and two area schools, first with the Taylor Independent School District for facility use, and second with the Temple College satellite campus at Taylor for their use of the public library facilities in exchange for a free student worker. The partnership with the local school district was specifically during 2002 through 2006 to continue providing programming during the summer. The Taylor Public Library lost its old facility, and while temporarily located elsewhere, had no venue for summer programs. The library and the school district partnered to hold the summer events on local campuses until the new public library building opened in 2007. The partnership between the Taylor Public Library and Temple College consisted of use of library space to house the college’s nursing and medical collections, allow access to these holdings to enrolled college students, and grant students public library cards. For this use, the Taylor Public Library acts as supervisor for a qualifying student worker, funded by Temple College.

scholarly journals In the Shadow of the Public: Enlightenment and the Pitfalls of Modernity

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 256-277
Author(s):  
Antoine Lilti
Keyword(s):  
Critical Thinking ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
New Public ◽  
Current Events ◽  
The Media ◽  
Collective Dimension

Abstract The Enlightenment has often been presented as the ideological programme of modernity, the set of ideas and values from which modern, democratic and secularized Western societies have emerged. This reading, however, fails to account for the diversity and polyphony of the Enlightenment. Another reading, that of Michel Foucault, insisted on the ethos of modernity that the Enlightenment would have brought: a critical relationship with the present and current events. Conversely, this interpretation neglects the militant and collective dimension of the Enlightenment that favoured emancipation through knowledge. This article suggests, rather, seeing in the Enlightenment a way of problematizing modernity, of thinking about its contradictions. It develops this argument from a case study: the philosophes’ reflections on the public and its ambivalences. The optimism of the Enlightenment’s fight against prejudice was counterbalanced by a more pessimistic analysis of the new public space and of the media obstacles to the dissemination of knowledge and critical thinking.

Revisiting the End of Public Space: Assembling the Public in an Urban Park

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Madden
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Park ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Development

A case study of the renovation of New York City's Bryant Park, this article revisits the end of public space thesis. the renovated park signifies not the end of public space but the new ends to which public space is oriented. in Bryant Park, a new logic of urban publicity was assembled and built into the landscape. the social and technical means by which this transformation was achieved are analyzed. New public spaces of this sort promulgate a conception of the public that is decoupled from discourses of democratization, citizenship, and self–development and connected ever more firmly to consumption, commerce, and social surveillance. If such places do not herald the end of public space, they do represent “publicity without democracy.”

Information as currency, democracy, and public libraries

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (5) ◽  
pp. 295-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Stilwell
Keyword(s):  
Public Libraries ◽  
Public Library ◽  
Access To Information ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Access To Knowledge ◽  
Current Concerns

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to endorse the notion that information is the currency of democracy and explore the question of the public library’s role in promoting democracy through the provision of access to information. Design/methodology/approach A review of the literature and a case study are used. Findings From the early days of the public library, there has been a certain democratic paternalism in librarians’ views on public libraries, and ambivalence about the extent to which these libraries have provided information to the whole population. Despite this finding, the paper explores the public library’s role in providing information; the currency of information. Public libraries can contribute to the renewal of a democratic public sphere by providing free and ready access to knowledge and information, as well as safe and trusted social spaces for the exchange of ideas, creativity, and decision making. Originality/value The paper examines material from the dawn of the public library to current concerns about the role of these libraries in providing access to information, in revitalising citizenship and fostering democracy. It draws on the well-known example of the birth of democracy in South Africa and on discussions of public library neutrality and activism in contemporary France, describing limits on the achievements of libraries in these countries in the context of some current, promising examples from the USA, Britain, Denmark, and Australia.

scholarly journals Urban Animals—Domestic, Stray, and Wild: Notes from a Bear Repopulation Project in the Alps

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 576-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Mubi Brighenti ◽  
Andrea Pavoni
Keyword(s):  
Brown Bear ◽  
Boundary Line ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
The Public ◽  
Natural Park ◽  
The Alps ◽  
Urban Contexts ◽  
Illustrative Case Study

Abstract This piece explores “domesticity” as a social territory defined by its relationship with the conceptual and ecological space of “the wild,” and asks whether these spaces stand in opposition to each other or more subtle relations of co-implication are at play. As we look into the domestic and the wild, a conceptual map of notions emerges, including the public, the common, the civilized, and the barbarian. The paper suggests the domestic and the wild constitute two semiotic-ecological domains constantly stretching into each other without any stable or even clear boundary line, and it elaborates on a series of corollaries for studying non-human animals in urban contexts. As an illustrative case study, we follow the story of Daniza, a wild brown bear introduced in the Brenta Natural Park on the Italian Alps in the 2000s. Declared a “dangerous animal,” Daniza was accidentally, and controversially, killed by the public authorities in 2014.

Managing Change: Politicians and Experts in the Age of Privatization

1992 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 486-501 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Massey
Keyword(s):  
New Right ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
The Public ◽  
Perceived Need ◽  
The Us ◽  
Supply Industry ◽  
Illustrative Case Study ◽  
Professional Power

THIS ARTICLE COMPARES THE US AND BRITISH EXPERIENCE OF privatization policies. In both countries there is no ‘proof’ that privatization has led to any empirically measurable benefit, or that the new structures are necessarily more consumer-oriented. First the perceived need for change in the public sector is explored, outlining the dynamic provided by the New Right. Next the importance of managerial and professional power to this process of change is explained, before the role of privatization as a ‘cutting edge’ used by liberal/conservative governments (that is governments conventionally labelled as conservative, but which have adopted ideologically liberal policies) is discussed. The paper concludes with an illustrative case study of the privatization of the British Electricity Supply Industry.

Systemic Unsustainability as a Threat to Democracy

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Felicetti
Keyword(s):  
Research Agenda ◽  
Ecological Crisis ◽  
Illustrative Case ◽  
Sustainability Transition ◽  
Ways Of Thinking ◽  
Illustrative Case Study ◽  
New Research

Resilient socioeconomic unsustainability poses a threat to democracy whose importance has yet to be fully acknowledged. As the prospect of sustainability transition wanes, so does perceived legitimacy of institutions. This further limits representative institutions’ ability to take action, making democratic deepening all the more urgent. I investigate this argument through an illustrative case study, the 2017 People’s Climate March. In a context of resilient unsustainability, protesters have little expectation that institutions might address the ecological crisis and this view is likely to spread. New ways of thinking about this problem and a new research agenda are needed.

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