Short description:

The Companion to Public Space draws together an outstanding multidisciplinary collection of specially commissioned chapters that offer the state of the art in the intellectual discourse, scholarship, research and principles of understanding and the construction of public space.

Long description:

The Companion to Public Space draws together an outstanding multidisciplinary collection of specially commissioned chapters that offer the state of the art in the intellectual discourse, scholarship, research, and principles of understanding in the construction of public space.

Thematically, the volume crosses disciplinary boundaries and traverses territories to address the philosophical, political, legal, planning, design, and management issues in the social construction of public space. The Companion uniquely assembles important voices from diverse fields of philosophy, political science, geography, anthropology, sociology, urban design and planning, architecture, art, and many more, under one cover. It addresses the complete ecology of the topic to expose the interrelated issues, challenges, and opportunities of public space in the twenty-first century.

The book is primarily intended for scholars and graduate students for whom it will provide an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current thinking across the range of disciplines that converge in the study of public space. The Companion will also be of use to practitioners and public officials who deal with the planning, design, and management of public spaces.

Table of Contents:

Part 1: Perspectives  1. Public space: a critique of a metamorphosis  2. Crossing disciplinary and locational boundaries in public space-research  3. The collective outdoors: memories, desires and becoming local in an era of mobility  4. Appropriation of public space: a dialectical approach in designing publicness  5. Landshape urbanism: the topography of public space  6. Social justice as a framework for evaluating public space  Part 2: Influences  7. Planetary public space: scale, context, and politics  8. Public Space and the New Urban Agenda: fostering a human-centered approach for the future of our cities  9. Safety, public health and public space  10. Inclusiveness and exclusiveness in public open spaces for the visually impaired  11. Public space, austerity and innovation (the London case)  12. Cultural visibility and place quality  13. (Post?)-Colonial parks: urban public space in Trinidad and Zanzibar  14. Global homogenization of public space? a comparison of Western and Eastern contexts  15. Right to the city (at night): surveillance and spectacle in public space  16. No, Hiroba is not public space; so what?!  Part 3: Types  17. Types as descriptive and analytic tools in public space research  18. Public space use: a classification  19. How public is public space?: a public/private typology  20. Private, semi-private, and public spaces: Urban design quality critique, comparisons, and recommendations  21. Throwntogether spaces: disassembling ?city beaches?  22. Parks and open spaces for older adults?  23. Expanding common ground  24. The skyscraper and public space: an uneasy history and the capacity for radical reinvention  25. Memory, monuments and creating inclusive public spaces  Part 4: Actions  26. Public space as a space of resistance and democratic resilience  27. Public space and the political ? reconnecting urban resistance and urban emancipation  28. Performing protestability: the dynamic between protests and public spaces  29. Public space, publicness and public-facing art  30. Public space, immigration, and gentrification in the Raval  31. Public space challenges and possibilities in Latin America: the city?s socio-political dimensions through the lens of everyday life  32. Typologies of the temporary: constructing public spaces  33. Bringing public spaces to life: the animation of public space  Part 5: Futures  34. Public space and the terror(ism) of time  35. Solidarism: exploring the publicness of parks  36. Events on our urban parkland: scrutinizing public private partnerships in parks governance regimes  37. The private lives of public spaces  38. How can big data transform public space research and design?  39. Digital Technologies and Public Space in Contemporary China  40. What if? Forecasting and composing public spaces  41. The idea of the commons: challenges of enclosure, encroachment, and exclusion