scholarly journals Simulation, Control and Desire. Urban Commons and Semi-Public Space Resilience in the Age of Augmented Transductive Territorial Production

2019 ◽  
pp. 179-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manfredo Manfredini
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
External Control ◽  
The Public ◽  
Spatial Production ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right ◽  
Urban Commons

Considering place-based participation a crucial factor for the development of sustainable and resilient cities in the post-digital turn age, this paper addresses the socio-spatial implications of the recent transformation of relationality networks. To understand the drivers of spatial claims emerged in conditions of digitally augmented spectacle and simulation, it focuses on changes occurring in key nodes of central urban public and semi-public spaces of rapidly developing cities. Firstly, it proposes a theoretical framework for the analysis of problems related to socio-spatial fragmentation, polarisation and segregation of urban commons subject to external control. Secondly, it discusses opportunities and criticalities emerging from a representational paradox depending on the ambivalence in the play of desire found in digitally augmented semi-public spaces. The discussion is structured to shed light on specific socio-spatial relational practices that counteract the dissipation of the “common worlds” caused by sustained processes of urban gentrification and homogenisation. The theoretical framework is developed from a comparative critical urbanism approach inspired by the right to the city and the right to difference, and elaborates on the discourse on sustainable development that informs the United Nations’ New Urban Agenda. The analysis focuses on how digitally augmented geographies reintroduce practices of participation and commoning that reassemble fragmented relational infrastructures and recombine translocal social, cultural and material elements. Empirical studies on the production of advanced simulative and transductive spatialities in places of enhanced consumption found in Auckland, New Zealand, ground the discussion. These provide evidence of the extent to which the agency of the augmented territorialisation forces reconstitutes inclusive and participatory systems of relationality. The concluding notes, speculating on the emancipatory potential found in these social laboratories, are a call for a radical redefinition of the approach to the problem of the urban commons. Such a change would improve the capacity of urbanism disciplines to adequately engage with the digital turn and efficaciously contribute to a maximally different spatial production that enhances and strengthens democracy and pluralism in the public sphere.

‘Party in the street’: The partisan politics of space

2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110338
Author(s):  
David Jenkins ◽  
Lipin Ram
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
State Power ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere

Public space is often understood as an important ‘node’ of the public sphere. Typically, theorists of public space argue that it is through the trust, civility and openness to others which citizens cultivate within a democracy’s public spaces, that they learn how to relate to one another as fellow members of a shared polity. However, such theorizing fails to articulate how these democratic comportments learned within public spaces relate to the public sphere’s purported role in holding state power to account. In this paper, we examine the ways in which what we call ‘partisan interventions’ into public space can correct for this gap. Using the example of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPIM), we argue that the ways in which CPIM partisans actively cultivate sites of historical regional importance – such as in the village of Kayyur – should be understood as an aspect of the party’s more general concern to present itself to citizens as an agent both capable and worthy of wielding state power. Drawing on histories of supreme partisan contribution and sacrifice, the party influences the ideational background – in competition with other parties – against which it stakes its claims to democratic legitimacy. In contrast to those theorizations of public space that celebrate its separateness from the institutions of formal democratic politics and the state more broadly, the CPIM’s partisan interventions demonstrate how parties’ locations at the intersections of the state and civil society can connect the public sphere to its task of holding state power to account, thereby bringing the explicitly political questions of democratic legitimacy into the everyday spaces of a political community.

scholarly journals NYC POPS: Exploring Human Agency of the Public Sphere

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Anna Constable
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Privately Owned

<p>This thesis aims to investigate, through design, spatial agency within the realm of New York City’s Privately Owned Public Spaces. The notion of agency in architecture is directly linked to social and political power. Starting in 1961, New York’s city planners introduced an incentive zoning scheme (POPS) which encouraged private builders to include public spaces in their developments. Many are in active public use, but others are hard to find, under surveillance, or essentially inaccessible. Within the existing POPS sites, tension is current between the ideals of public space - completely open, accessible - and the limitations imposed by those who create and control it. Designed to be singular, contained, and mono-functional, POPS do not yet allow for newer ideas of public space as multi-functional, not contained/bounded but extending and overlapping outward.  As public-private partnerships become the model for catalyzing urban (re)development in the late 20th century, bonus space is an increasingly common land use type in major cities across the world. The quality and nature of bonus spaces created in exchange for floor area bonuses varies greatly. In many cases, tensions in privately owned space produce a severely constricted definition of the public and public life. Incentive zoning programmes continue to serve as a model for numerous urban zoning regulations, so changing ideas of public space and its design need to be tested in such spaces.  These urban plazas offer a test case through which to examine agency, exploring how social space is also political space, charged with the dynamics of power/ empowerment, interaction/ isolation, control/ freedom. This thesis looks at one such site, the connecting plaza sites along Sixth Avenue between West 47th St and West 51st St. This is an extreme example of concentrated POPS sites in New York City. Here one’s perception and occupation of space is profoundly affected by the underlying design of that space which reflects its private ownership. Privately Owned Public Space can be designed that is capable of/ challenging the notion of the public in public space, and modifying the structure of the city and its social life.</p>

Public Space and the Public Sphere: Political Theory and the Historical Geography of Modernity

1993 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 303-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Howell
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Historical Geography ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Normative Political Theory

This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of the historical geography of modernity. It is argued that the exclusive focus on social theory has detrimental effects on the appreciation of normative political concerns and that it ignores the resurgence of normative political theory. Habermas's concept of the public sphere, and its place within his theoretical and empirical studies, is, by contrast, commendably concerned with linking the social and historical work with normative political theorising, and its usefulness for geographical investigation is applauded. However, the criticisms directed from, in particular, communitarian political theorists and contextualist social researchers would seem to make his attempt to bring a ‘strong’ theory of public political life back within the remit of a reconstructed social theory less plausible. One set of responses to this criticism comes in the form of the attempt to build geography into this normative political theory, turning public spheres into public spaces; Arcndt's political theory, in conclusion, is thus held to be a significant contribution to the historical geography of modernity.

‘A Church in a Cinema Hall?’ Pentecostal Appropriation of Public Space in Nigeria

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olufunke Adeboye
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Media Technology ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Church

AbstractOver the past two decades Nigeria has become a hotbed of Pentecostal activity. It is the view of this study that Pentecostal visibility in Nigeria has been enhanced not just by Pentecostals’ aggressive utilization of media technology for proselytization as claimed by previous scholars, but also by their appropriation of public spaces for worship. This study not only focuses on the church in the cinema hall, but also on churches in nightclubs, hotels, and other such places previously demonized as ‘abode[s] of sin’ by classical Pentecostals. This paper argues that users’ perception of public spaces having rigid meanings and unchanging usage was responsible for much of the tensions experienced. It would be more useful for academic analysts and various ‘publics’ to construe such spaces as dynamic sites, at once reflecting mutations in the public sphere, responsive to local and global socio-economic processes, and amenable to periodic reinventions and negotiations.

City as Performance

2014 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 18-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Imanuel Schipper
Keyword(s):  
Urban Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
The Public ◽  
Living Together ◽  
Artistic Interventions ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

While artistic interventions in urban space multiply continuously, there seems to be a lack of knowledge about what is really happening in and with public spaces in such processes. David Harvey’s proposition that “the right to the city” means the “right to change ourselves” begs the question: Who is producing the city, and in turn, what new ways of living together are they producing? Artistic productions in urban environments produce new modes of engaging with public spaces and initiate a process in which a city’s inhabitants and users make and remake the public sphere.

scholarly journals Obtaining Educational Rights: Contemporary Views and Challenges of the Bulgarian Woman

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-70
Author(s):  
Petrana Stoykova
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Educational System ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Equal Rights ◽  
School Life ◽  
The Public ◽  
Unrestricted Access ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
The Right

The importance of the Bulgarian woman in the public space from the Renaissance to nowadays is presented in the article. The woman was restricted to participate actively in the Christian world and school life during the Renaissance. She received equal rights to men in the public sphere only after 1944. The socialistic development in Bulgaria during the period from 1944 to 1989 had a great significance to the enlightenment of the whole Bulgarian nation, which also provided an unrestricted access of the women to the educational system. The development of the Bulgarian education has been marked by reverse process after the democratic changes. The „total crisis“ of the Bulgarian society leads to a significant shortage in the educational system. In comparison to the previous socialist period, lower indicators in overall population literacy can been observed. Gender inequalities in education are being fairly reduced. Bulgarian wоmеn have gradually conquered school environment and are being engaged in educational causes more often compared to men. However, in the contemporary Bulgarian society, the right to education continues to be a challenge in respect of various social groups.

scholarly journals Rigiditas dan Fleksibilitas Diskursus Fiqih Wanita Hizbut Tahrir

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 459-492
Author(s):  
Umi Chaidaroh
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Pivotal Role ◽  
Islamic Movements ◽  
The Public ◽  
Modern Times ◽  
The Public Sphere

Many women in modern times take part in public spaces. Moreover, women are also involved with Islamic movements which are often associated as fundamentalist movements such as Hizbut Tahrir (HT). In Indonesia, HT has a wing of women’s organization called the Muslimah Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (MHTI). Women’s activists play pivotal role in the public space to help HT achieve its goals. Fundamentalist women who work in the public sphere seem to contradict with the growing assumption asserting that Islamic fundamentalist movements are often associated with the magnitude of oppression against women. It has been, however, seems to be a paradox. Considering the aforement-ioned argument, it is important to examine the thoughts concerning women’s jurisprudence of HT. Using compara-tive approach this study focuses on written literature as the main source. The results of the study prove that the thought concerning women’s jurisprudence of HT tends to be rigid. Interestingly, however, the study also finds that within particular cases the jurisprudence shows its flexibility, but it is even can be called liberal.

scholarly journals The Reconfiguration of Urban Public–Private Spaces in the Mall: False Security, Antidemocratization, and Apoliticalization

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 12447
Author(s):  
Luis Alfonso Escudero Gómez
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Shopping Centers ◽  
Shopping Malls ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Using Data

In cities across the world, public spaces are being reconfigured, and their functions are being appropriated by private areas, such as shopping malls. The aim of the present article was to analyze this problem and, more specifically, to study shopping centers as secure spaces in cities, as well as the antidemocratic and apolitical nature of such malls. The study takes a positivist approach, beginning with the existing theoretical framework and using data from case studies to generate findings. The theoretical framework is established through a review of the literature, while the case study data are drawn from an analysis of news content from digital media and from autoethnography. The findings suggest malls are perceived as safe spaces, also in addition to being home to minor offenses, as well as a number of tragic events and crimes. Additionally, a growing number of demonstrations and political acts are being staged inside malls, which are seen as symbols of consumption and the neoliberal capitalist system. The owners and managers of shopping centers condone and permit the least conflictive acts and ban and repress the remainder, on occasions with the support of state security forces. The relocation of civic life to malls reduces the use of public spaces and erodes the value of the public sphere. The article ends by proposing public actions to reverse this process.

scholarly journals Art, Power and Knowledge: Claiming Public Space in Tunisia

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 250-274
Author(s):  
Charles Tripp
Keyword(s):  
Public Sphere ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Street Art ◽  
Political Dissent ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Artistic Interventions ◽  
The Public Sphere

Charles Tripp argues that through artistic interventions – graffiti, visual street art, performances, demonstrations, banners, slogans – citizens have appropriated the public sphere. Despite the monitoring of political dissent through persuasion or coercion, an activist public has created highly visible public spaces, assisted and encouraged by citizen artists. They have generated debates and have helped to give substance to competing visions of the republic.

The right to live in the city

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (7/8) ◽  
pp. 550-564 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Krebs
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Social Rules ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
Official Control ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

Purpose – Moral values and behavioural codes that governed the urban life and the appropriation of urban spaces changed significantly in Baku over the last two decades leading to conflicts over the right behaviour in the city and about the question who has the right to set the rules in public spaces. The purpose of this paper is to explore the current political as well as social rules that govern the public spaces in Baku and how they are discussed in order that the city should appear “European” in contrast to “oriental”. Design/methodology/approach – The author focuses on everyday practices of people acting in the public sphere, how they use the space and which discussions emerge around different behaviour in public places. The paper is based on observations and interviews the author made between August 2010 and May 2012. Findings – The paper shows new ways of appropriation of public space and dealing with social as well as official control. Originality/value – The paper presents new research on a quickly changing post-Soviet city.

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