Social Topography in a Wireless Era: The Negotiation of Public and Private Space

2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Humphreys

Talking on the phone is usually a private activity, but it becomes a public activity when using a cellphone in certain spaces. Unlike a traditional payphone in public, cellphones do not have privacy booths. Therefore, the ways in which people respond to cellphone calls in public spaces provide markers for social topographical space. In this study I explore how cellphone users negotiate privacy when using cellphones in public space and how those within the proximity of the caller negotiate space in response to these callers. Based on a year-long study involving observation fieldwork and in-depth interviews, I discuss the flexibility with which people constantly negotiate their private and public sense of self when using and responding to cellphones in public spaces.

IDEA JOURNAL ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 88-101
Author(s):  
Menna Agha ◽  
Els DeVos

In 1964, indigenous Nubians were displaced from their original land – the land between what is now Egypt and that of Sudan – to modernised settlements built by the Egyptian state. The Nubians dissatisfaction with the novel built environment translated into transgressive public spaces. One of the most common transgressions was the addition of an external bench called Mastaba. Since power relations between men and women have changed, the built environment now acts as a catalyst in the exclusion of women from formal public spaces such as conventional coffee shops and squares. Mastabas function as liminal spaces, spaces which blur the boundaries between public and private spheres. As these spaces do not suit the formal understanding of public spaces, we investigate these liminal spaces in order to reveal the spatial tactics of the marginal. We argue that the existence of these spaces raises issues of spatial justice and spatial resistance.    The behaviour of liminal public spaces varies; they have the ability to transform adjacent spaces. This research investigates the role of the Mastaba in opening up the public space for women, thereby giving them the ability to contribute to the writing of their social contract. We base our analysis on extensive fieldwork, consisting of auto-ethnographic observations and participation, informed by a feminist epistemology. We use tools of spatial analysis to explore an alternative public space offered by liminality. To question the binary notions of private and public space, we ask ourselves: where does that space start? As spatial professionals, we also wonder: can we contest the hegemonic definition of public space and contribute to spatial resistance? Drawing lessons from the case of the Mastaba, we propose contingencies for designing the liminal that serve the marginal.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (19) ◽  
pp. 5396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yang Yu ◽  
Hui Xu ◽  
Xiaohan Wang ◽  
Jiahong Wen ◽  
Shiqiang Du ◽  
...  

Green infrastructure (GI) plays a fundamental role in achieving urban pluvial flood management, mitigating urban heat island effect, and improving living suitability. Residents’ participation is the main driving force of GI implementation. Based on semi-structured interviews, GIS spatial analysis, and multiple regression, we investigated residents’ willingness to participate in the implementation of GI in public and private space and identified the influence factors in Shanghai, China. The results show that, compared with private space, residents prefer to implement GI in public space, where they have different preferences of GI measures. On urban scale, residents’ willingness to participate in the implementation of GI in private space is characterized as “high in the inner city, low in the suburban areas”, while the spatial difference is insignificant for public space. In addition, the factors affecting residents’ willingness to participate in the implementation of GI are different in private and public space. The deterministic factors of GI participation are gender, education level, and floor for private space, while only include building age for public space, in addition to the common factors of free time, cognition of GI, perception of pluvial flood risk, supportive factors, and environment-improving factors that can influence both private and public space GI participation. Our analysis therefore provides valuable information for policymakers concerning nature-based solutions to climate change adaptation and urban sustainability.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Artur Jasiński

The coronavirus COVID-19 outbreak and its immediate impact on all aspects of human life have changed the way we use public space in our cities. People have been forced to adopt social isolation measures and wear masks. Street life has ground to a halt and public transport use has plummeted, while social facilities such as restaurants, clubs and cinemas have been closed. The relationship between private and public space has been reversed: public space has become deserted while private space, one of luxury, has been available only to the richest. The behaviour and interactions between people in public space have also changed. The paper analyses the above phenomena and raises questions about the future of metropolitan public spaces after the COVID-19 pandemic.


Author(s):  
Alia Kiran

This article examines how immigrant culture in modern-day France is communicated through Turkish associations as a medium of the public space. Through interviews with members of various types of cultural associations, I explore how public and private space dictate how culture and identity are understood within the French context. To better explain their goals and how they fit into larger French "cultural" discussion, I develop a simple typology of these cultural associations as "localizing" or "orientalizing" immigrant culture. Pointing to the space between these categories, I show the need for the immigrant experience to be recognized as part of French history in these public spaces in order to directly confront the issue of "neo-racism."


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-29
Author(s):  
Ahmed Latif ◽  
Muhammad Siddique Ansari ◽  
Muhammad Ibrahim Ansari ◽  
Rabia Malik ◽  
Abdul Ahad Sohoo ◽  
...  

Background:  To explore the influences of pharmaceutical companies on prescription practices and to find out types of incentives of pharmaceutical companies on medical doctors in private and public hospitals in Islamabad, the capital city of Pakistan  Methods: A qualitative exploratory study was conducted in 06 months May-Oct: 2017 in Islamabad (Capital City of Pakistan). Data were collected from doctors and pharmaceuticals representatives through snowballing sampling techniques through open ended questionnaire in which In-depth interviews were taken. In depth interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded. Qualitative sub-component was included to triangulate the data, sub themes and themes were generated. Results: Respondent’s prescription is a basically document in which we suggest minimum effective medication therapy to the patient, that is also cost effective and give maximum treatment to the patient.  Few of the respondents are also agreeing on the point that most of the times patient itself influences to prescribe the particular product. Patient itself influences to prescribe the particular product that is redundant in its treatment regimen. Other respondents stated that prescription is varying from patient to patient and our priority is to give the medicine to the patient which shows good efficacy. Conclusion: Most doctors were maintaining protocol of prescription and using brand name of medicine. Pharmacists were visiting them on regular basis conditionally.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 549-573
Author(s):  
Honor Brabazon

While the privatisation of public space has been the subject of considerable research, literature exploring the shifting boundaries between public and private law, and the role of those shifts in the expansion of neo-liberal social relations, has been slower to develop. This article explores the use of fire safety regulations to evict political occupations in the context of these shifts. Two examples from the UK student occupation movement and two from the US Occupy movement demonstrate how discourses and logics of both private and public law are mobilised through fire hazard claims to create the potent image of a neutral containment of dissent on technical grounds in the public interest – an image that proves difficult to contest. However, the recourse to the public interest and to expert opinion that underpins fire hazard claims is inconsistent with principles governing the limited neo-liberal political sphere, which underscores the pragmatic and continually negotiated implementation of neo-liberal ideas. The article sheds light on the complexity of the extending reach of private law, on the resilience of the public sphere and on the significance of occupations as a battleground on which struggles over neo-liberal social relations and subjectivities play out.


Leonardo ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 379-382
Author(s):  
Juliet Conlon

The author describes how her recent installation work combines video, velvet, and interactivity into an opportunity for intimate navigation over the skin of a composite body. She discusses how the installation engages the senses using touchscreens, virtual projectors, and the human form to contrast private space with public space.


2008 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 324-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishan Kumar ◽  
Ekaterina Makarova

Much commentary indicates that, starting from the 19th century, the home has become the privileged site of private life. In doing so it has established an increasingly rigid separation between the private and public spheres. This article does not disagree with this basic conviction. But we argue that, in more recent times, there has been a further development, in that the private life of the home has been carried into the public sphere—what we call “the domestication of public space.” This has led to a further attenuation of public life, especially as regards sociability. It has also increased the perception that what is required is a better “balance” between public and private. We argue that this misconstrues the nature of the relation of public to private in those periods that attained the greatest degree of sociability, and that not “balance” but “reciprocity” is the desired condition.


2012 ◽  
pp. 128-155
Author(s):  
Tiago Estevam Gonçalves ◽  
Tatiane Rodrigues Carneiro

Iniciar uma reflexão acerca da cidade atual nos remete à necessidade de construirmos uma análise sobre os shopping centers como espaços que tem atraído um fluxo considerável da população, ocasionando mudanças na relação dos citadinos com os espaços públicos.  Nesta perspectiva, temos como objetivo analisar o  North Shopping, localizado na cidade de Fortaleza, como um espaço de uso popular onde as camadas de menor poder aquisitivo podem adentrar e usufruir de seus atributos. Imbuídos de tal finalidade nosso aporte teórico fundamentou-se em Pintaudi (1992), Dantas (1995), Silva (1996) Lefebvre (1999), Carlos (2001), Gomes (2002) e Serpa (2007). Conclui-se que na cidade de Fortaleza, o North Shopping é um verdadeiro simulacro da realidade, substituindo as experiências cotidianas dos espaços públicos, configurando-se, assim, a supervalorização do espaço privado que se traveste de público tendo repercussões na nova urbanidade fortalezense.  Public Space and Shopping Mall in the Contemporary City: New Meanings of North Shopping in Fortaleza/CE  Abstract Start a discussion about the current city us the need to build an analysis on malls as spaces that have attracted a considerable  flow of people, causing changes in the relationships of the townspeople with the public spaces. In this perpective, we have to anlyze the North Shopping, located in Fortaleza, as a space where the popular use of lower purchasing power can enter and enjoy its atributes. Imbued with this purpose our theoretival approach was bases on Pintaudi (1992), Dantas (1995), Silva (1996) Lefebvre (1999), Carlos (2001), Gomes (2002) e Serpa (2007).  It’s concluded that in the city of Fortaleza, the North Shopping is a true simulation of reality, replacing the daily experiences of public spaces, becoming  thusovervaluation of private space of public who dresss as having impact on new fortaleza’s urbanity. Espacio Público y Centro Comercial en Ciudad Contemporánea: Nuevos Sentidos del North Shopoing en la Fortaleza/CE ResumenIniciar uma reflexión acerca de la actual ciudad nos recuerda la necesidad de construir um análisis acerca de los centros comerciales como espacios que han atraído um flujo considerable de personas, provocando câmbios en la relación de los habitantes de la ciudad com los espacios públicos. Em esta perspectiva, tenemos que analisar el North Shopping, que se encuentra en Fortaleza, como um espacio de uso popular donde lãs camadas de menor poder adquisitivo pueden entrar y disfrutar de sus atributos. Imbuido de esa finalidad nuestro aporte teórico se fundamento em: Pintaudi (1992), Dantas (1995), Silva (1996) Lefebvre (1999), Carlos (2001), Gomes (2002) y Serpa (2004). Se puede concluir que en la ciudad de Fortaleza el North Shopping es uma  verdadera simulación de la realidad, sustituición de las experiencias diárias de los espacios públicos, convertiéndose, asó, la sobrevaluación del espacio privado que se passa por el público tenendo impactos en la nueva urbanidad de Fortaleza.10.7147/GEO10.1573


2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Lea Berg

The literature on religious place-making has largely prioritized an emic perspective of religious actors often reducing the secular aspect of such place-making to a mere ‘emptying out’ of religion from public space. Based on ethnographic observations and in-depth interviews with political and religious representatives in Montreuil, one of the flagship towns of the ‘red belt’ of municipalities around Paris, this article looks at secular aspects of religious place construction. The discussion focusses on two practices of secular place-making: defining of religion ‘worthy’ of place and shifting the boundary between public and private space. Comparing the municipality’s interactions with Muslim groups on the one hand, and evangelical churches on the other, I show that politics and sensibilities of the secular towards the religious vary for different religious groups over time. Locality can thus be understood as dynamic mode of secularism, enabling a constant placing and re-placing of religion.


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