scholarly journals The Paradoxes in the Use of the Panopticon as a Theoretical Reference in Urban Video-surveillance Studies: A Case Study of a CCTV System of a Brazilian city

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (27) ◽  
pp. 144-161
Author(s):  
Iafet Leonardi Bricalli
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Surveillance Studies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Ethnographic Studies ◽  
Control Rooms

This article aims at introducing the relation between the use of CCTV systems in urban spaces and social control. More specifically, its purpose is to problematize and reaffirm the use of the theoretical background of the panopticon in order to interpret such a relation. In CCTV studies, as a consequence of literal interpretations, as well as the existence of a hegemony in ethnographic studies carried out in control rooms, the theoretical use of the panopticon is then questioned. In this article, based on an ethnographic study conducted in the public spaces surveilled by a CCTV system in a Brazilian city, it can be concluded that the effects of social control through surveillance are paradoxical. The indifferent way in which citizens deal with surveillance, or even the lack of awareness of it, imposes limits to the interpretation of the system as a tool of social control. Thus, the use of the panopticon becomes problematic. However, this research has shown how the presence of cameras in public spaces makes it conducive for a state of control in the form of a network whose project would be a mythical and homogeneous ordering of the spaces. The importance of the interpretation of Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon by Michel Foucault is then reaffirmed, that is, panopticism as a trend of normalization and moralization of the public spaces.

scholarly journals The London Spikes Controversy: Homelessness, Urban Securitisation and the Question of ‘Hostile Architecture’

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Petty
Keyword(s):  
Social Control ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Ground Level ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Explanatory Framework ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Scrutiny ◽  
New Feature

This article examines an ostensibly new feature of the securitised urban landscape: ‘hostile architecture’. Following controversy in 2014 London over ‘anti-homeless spikes’– metal studs implanted at ground level designed to discourage the homeless from sleeping in otherwise unrestricted spaces – certain visible methods of environmental social control were temporarily subject to intense public scrutiny and debate. While contests over public and urban spaces are not new, the spikes controversy emerged in the context of broader socio-political and governmental shifts toward neoliberal arrangements. Using the spikes issue as a case study, I contextualise hostile architecture within these broader processes and in wider patterns of urban securitisation. The article then offers an explanatory framework for understanding the controversy itself. Ultimately the article questions whether the public backlash against the use of spikes indicates genuine resistance to patterns of urban securitisation or, counterintuitively, a broader public distaste for both the homeless and the mechanisms that regulate them. 

scholarly journals PECREATIVITY | PEOPLE ECONOMY CITY: THE CASE OF LONDON AS A PROACTIVE INVESTIGATION TOOL

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 142-151
Author(s):  
Giuliana Bonifati
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Urban Environment ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Radical Change ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Urban Transformation ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Social Fields

The current historical context is characterised by a significant change in the economic and social fields that have led to the development of the economy of creativity and knowledge. This condition has laid the basis for the rise of a new social class. This radical change in the productive paradigm has started a series of modifications to urban spaces, setting in place a rooted change in the fabric of the city.The objective of this paper is to understand and interpret the nature of the changes under way and to investigate how what occurred in economic and social fields influenced the processes of urban regeneration. Starting from a theoretical background it will examine the concept of creativity applied to economics and social sciences. Secondly, by identifying the urban environment of London as a case study, it will analyze single cases that will show the root of these practices within urban spaces. The purpose of it will be verified by the possibility of building urban transformation strategies that use creativity as the tool of change.

scholarly journals Produção do espaço urbano pelos homens ordinários: antropologia de dois micro-espaços na cidade de Salvador

ILUMINURAS ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (36) ◽  
Author(s):  
Urpi Montoya Uriarte
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Recent Theory ◽  
Use Value ◽  
Henri Lefebvre ◽  
Production Of Space ◽  
Differential Spaces ◽  
The City

Este trabalho se insere no que se chama hoje de antropologia da cidade, que se preocupa com a forma como os citadinos – em sua condição alternada de usuários, moradores, transeuntes ou consumidores – fazem a cidade (Agier, 2011). Nossa compreensão de cidade está marcada pela recente teoria do espaço no interior da Geografia (Massey, 2012) e nossa compreensão da produção do espaço se baseia na teoria de Henri Lefebvre, especialmente em seu La production de l´espace (1974). Com esta bagagem teórica, propomos uma antropologia dos espaços urbanos preocupada com a forma como os espaços na cidade são produzidos por pessoas comuns ou homens ordinários. Os dados empíricos analisados provêm de uma etnografia de dois micro-espaços na cidade de Salvador. As leituras teóricas destes micro-espaços nos levam a afirmar a atualidade e força dos espaços diferenciais que emergem no espaço abstrato, a significação política dos espaços apropriados e a vigência do valor de uso e as relações costumeiras na cidade contemporânea.Palavras-chave: Espaços urbanos. Produção do espaço. Espaços diferenciais. Apropriação de espaços. Valor de uso.Production of urban space by ordinary men: anthropology of two micro-spaces in the city of SalvadorAbstractThis work is part of what is today called anthropology of the city, that is concerned with how the townspeople – in their alternating condition of users, residents, bystanders or consumers – make the city (Agier, 2011). Our understanding of the city is marked by the recent theory of space inside the geography (Massey, 2012) and our understanding of the production of space is based on the theory of Henri Lefebvre, especially in its The production of the space (1974). With this theoretical background, we propose an anthropology of urban spaces concerned with how the spaces in the city are made by ordinary people or ordinary men . The data analyzed come from an ethnographic study of two micro-spaces in the city of Salvador. The theoretical interpretations of these micro-spaces lead us to affirm the relevance and strength of differential spaces that emerge in the abstract space, the political significance of the appropriate spaces and the duration of use value and customary relations in the contemporary city.Keywords: Urban spaces. Production of space. Differential spaces. Appropriation of spaces. Use value.  

Privatization of Public Space: Spatial Practice in the Umbrella Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 449-459
Author(s):  
Kin-Ling Tang
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Spatial Practices ◽  
Dominant Ideology ◽  
The Public ◽  
Spatial Practice ◽  
Representational Space ◽  
Radical Critique ◽  
Temporal Dimensions

This article argues that in order to understand the resistance potentials of taking space movements, the temporal dimensions and spatial practices implied cannot be neglected, or else there would be a tendency to be overoptimistic about resistance in these movements. Using the Umbrella Movement that took place in Hong Kong in 2014 as a case study, this article notes that representational space and spatial practice by protesters were guided by a dualistic view of the public and the private, which in turn is the dominant ideology in neoliberalism, and that their acts of resistance were not able to go beyond the confines of conceived space. In the movement, protesters reclaimed public spaces through privatizing them. Based on the work of Lefebvre, this article argues that only with a radical critique of neoliberal values embedded in capitalism including the public-private dualism can any real transformations of everyday life and hence revolution be possible.

Transmedia Journalism and the City

2018 ◽  
pp. 147-161
Author(s):  
Renira Rampazzo Gambarato
Keyword(s):  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Housing Crisis ◽  
The Public ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The City ◽  
Alternative Solutions

This chapter discusses the participatory flair of transmedia journalism within the concreteness of urban spaces by examining The Great British Property Scandal (TGBPS), a transmedia experience designed to inform and engage the public and offer alternative solutions to the long-standing housing crisis in the United Kingdom. The theoretical framework is centered on transmedia storytelling applied to journalism in the scope of urban spaces and participatory culture. The methodological approach of the case study is based on Gambarato's (2013) transmedia analytical model and applied to TGBPS to depict how transmedia strategies within urban spaces collaborated to influence social change. TGBPS is a pertinent example of transmedia journalism within the liquid society, integrating mobile technologies into daily processes with the potential for enhanced localness, customization, and mobility within the urban fabric.

scholarly journals Supporting Children’s Independent Activities in Smart and Playable Public Places

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (20) ◽  
pp. 8352
Author(s):  
Chiara Garau ◽  
Alfonso Annunziata
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Historic Center ◽  
Physical Attributes ◽  
Process Of Urbanization ◽  
The City

The global process of urbanization, and the modification of social interaction determined by the pandemic crisis, poses the issue of the place of vulnerable users and, in particular, children, within the contemporary city. This research aimed to elaborate a theoretical and methodological framework, based on the concepts of affordance and capability, for analyzing the potential of public spaces to enable and support children’s independent activities. This potential, or meaningful usefulness, is expressed by the Index of Meaningful Usefulness of public Urban Spaces (IUIS). The latter is calculated via the tool ‘Opportunities for Children in Urban Spaces’ (OCUS). This methodology is applied to the analysis of significant public spaces within the historic center of the city of Iglesias in Sardinia, Italy. The results reveal adequate usefulness of the selected spaces, while underlining criticalities related to intrinsic spatial and physical attributes. The application to the case study confirms the validity of the theoretical and methodological framework embodied in the OCUS tool for supporting urban design and planning by orienting place-shaping processes towards the acknowledgement of children’s needs.

Public Space, Common Space, and the Spaces In–Between: A Case Study of Philadelphia's LOVE Park

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 676-703
Author(s):  
Luke M. Cianciotto
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
General Public ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Public ◽  
Common Space ◽  
The Common

This study concerns the struggle for Philadelphia's LOVE Park, which involved the general public and its functionaries on one side and skateboarders on the other. This paper argues LOVE Park was one place composed of two distinct spaces: the public space the public engendered and the common space the skateboarders produced. This case demonstrates that public and common space must be understood as distinct, for they entail different understandings of publicly accessible space. Additionally, public and common spaces often exist simultaneously as “public–common spaces,” which emphasizes how they reciprocally shape one another. This sheds light on the emergence of “anti–common public space,” which is evident in LOVE Park's 2016 redesign. This concept considers how common spaces are increasingly negated in public spaces. The introduction of common space to the study of public spaces is significant as it allows for more nuanced understandings of transformations in the urban landscape.

scholarly journals Understanding children’s perceptions and activities in urban public spaces: The case study of Zrêbar Lake Waterfront in Kurdistan

Urban Studies ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 004209802090300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soran Mansournia ◽  
Bakhtiar Bahrami ◽  
Leila Mahmoudi Farahani ◽  
Farshid Aram
Keyword(s):  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Children's Perceptions ◽  
Children’S Perceptions ◽  
Behavioural Patterns ◽  
Mental Mapping ◽  
Children's Activities ◽  
Zrebar Lake

As public spaces are often designed based on adults’ behavioural patterns and perceptions, children’s perceptions and physical needs based on their body size have received less attention in both the design of urban spaces and urban studies. Focusing on the interpretive reproduction theory, this study aims to investigate children’s perceptions of urban spaces. Using behaviour and mental mapping, this paper examines children’s activities in public spaces as well as their mental images of such spaces. Behaviour mapping was conducted over 37 days on the Zrêbar Lake Waterfront in Kurdistan. Sketches drawn by 36 children were then analysed to identify children’s perceptions of the Waterfront. Unlike conventional methods in which children’s demands are determined through caregivers, this study focuses on engagement with children. Results indicate that two main factors of actualised environmental affordances (AEA) and safety-conscious parenting practices (SPP) have a significant influence on children’s freedom of movement (CFM) and consequently children’s activities in public spaces.

Coffeehouses, Urban Spaces, and the Formation of a Public Sphere in Safavid Isfahan

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-220 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farshid Emami
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Physical Structure ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Capital City ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
Visual Evidence ◽  
The Social ◽  
Urban Topography

This essay examines the urban topography, physical structure, and social context of coffeehouses in Safavid Iran (1501–1722), particularly in the capital city of Isfahan. Through a reconstruction of the architecture and urban configuration of coffeehouses, the essay shows how, as an utterly novel institution, the coffeehouse opened up a new sphere of public life, engendered new conceptions of urbanity, and altered the social meaning of urban spaces. The essay will specifically focus on the drinking houses that existed in the Maydan-i Naqsh-i Jahan and Khiyaban-i Chaharbagh, the grand urban spaces of seventeenth-century Isfahan. The remaining physical traces, together with textual and visual evidence, permit us to reconstruct Isfahan’s major coffeehouses. This analysis not only reveals a less-appreciated aspect of urbanity in the age of Shah ʿAbbas (r. 1587–1629) but also elucidates the ways in which the public spaces of Safavid Isfahan contained and shaped novel social practices particular to the early modern age.


scholarly journals Supporting Children’s Independent Activities in Smart and Playable Public Places

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chiara Garau ◽  
Alfonso Annunziata
Keyword(s):  
Urban Design ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Spaces ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Public Places ◽  
Historic Center ◽  
Physical Attributes ◽  
Process Of Urbanization ◽  
The City

The global process of urbanization, and the modification of social interaction determined by the pandemic crisis poses the issue of the place of vulnerable users, and in particular children, within the contemporary city. This research aims to elaborate a theoretical and methodological framework, based on the concepts of affordance and capability, for analyzing the potential of public spaces to enable and support children’s independent activities. This potential, or meaningful usefulness, is expressed by the Index of Meaningful Usefulness of public Urban Spaces (IUIS). The latter is calculated via the tool ‘Opportunities for Children in Urban Spaces’ (OCUS). This methodology is applied to the analysis of significant public spaces within the historic center of the city of Iglesias in Sardinia, Italy. The results reveal adequate usefulness of the selected spaces, while underlining criticalities related to intrinsic spatial and physical attributes. The application to the case study confirms the validity of the theoretical and methodological framework embodied in the OCUS tool for supporting urban design and planning by orienting place-shaping processes towards the acknowledgement of children’s needs.

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