1826 Pages 99 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    By closely examining its public spaces, we can decipher the social, cultural and political life of a city. Public space is the arena for individual and group expression; a forum for dialogue, debate, and contestation; a space for conviviality, leisure, performance, and display; a place for economic survival and refuge; a site for the exchange of information and ideas; and a setting for nature. Public space has concerned philosophers, political thinkers, social scientists, legal scholars, planners, and architects and has also intrigued writers, painters, musicians, film-makers, and other artists.

    In this new four-volume collection from Routledge, Vikas Mehta brings together the key literature that encompasses the social and political issues in the making and experience of public space. It addresses the complete ecology of public space and the many interrelated issues. The set journeys the vast territory of public space to compile a multidisciplinary selection of materials that offer new as well as traditionally recognized principles of understanding and the making of public space.

    Public Space is fully indexed and includes comprehensive introductions, newly written by the editor, which place the collected materials in their historical and intellectual context. It is an essential reference collection and is destined to be valued by scholars and students—as well as policy-makers and practitioners—as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

    1. Hannah Arendt, ‘The Public Realm: The Common’, The Human Condition, 2nd edn. (University of Chicago Press, 1958), pp. 50–8.

    2. Walter Benjamin, ‘Arcades’ and ‘The Arcades of Paris’, The Arcades Project, trans. H. Eiland and K. McLaughlin (Belknap Press, 1999), pp. 871–84.

    3. Frederick Law Olmstead, ‘Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns’ (a paper read before the American Social Science Association, Lowell Institute, Boston, 25 February 1870), The Rise of Urban America (Arno Press and New York Times, 1970), pp. 8–25.

    4. Michel de Certeau, ‘Walking in the City’, trans. S. Rendall, in The Practice of Everyday Life (University of California Press, 1984), pp. 91–103.

    5. Marshall Berman, ‘The Family of Eyes’ and ‘The Mire of Macadam’, All That is Solid Melts into Thin Air (Simon and Schuster, 1982), pp. 148–64.

    6. Richard Sennett, extract from ‘The Public Realm’.

    7. Chris Webster, ‘Property Rights, Public Space and Urban Design’, Town Planning Review, 2007, 78, 1, 81–101.

    8. Stephen Carr and Kevin Lynch, ‘Openness of Open Public Space’, in L. Taylor (ed.), Urban Open Spaces (Rizzoli, 1981), pp. 17–18.

    9. Peter Marcuse, ‘The Five Paradoxes of Public Space, with Proposals’, Peter Marcuse’s Blog.

    10. Mark Kingwell, ‘Masters of Chancery: The Gift of Public Space’, in M. Kingwell and P. Turmel (eds.), Rites of Way: The Politics and Poetics of Public Space (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009), pp. 3–22.

    Part 2: Defining and Situating

    11. Neil Smith and Setha Low, ‘Introduction: The Imperative of Public Space’, in S. Low and N. Smith (eds.), The Politics of Public Space (Routledge, 2006), pp. 1–16.

    12. Stephen Carr, Mark Francis, Leanne Rivlin, and Andrew Stone, ‘The Value of Public Space’, Public Space (Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 3–21.

    13. Michael Walzer, ‘Pleasures and Cost of Urbanity’, Dissent, 1986, 33, 4, 470–5.

    14. Marshall Berman, ‘Take it to the Streets: Conflict and Community in Public Space’, Dissent, 1986, 33, 4, 476–85.

    15. Margaret Kohn, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Conclusions: Three Rationales for the Provision of Public Goods’, Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatization of Public Space (Routledge, 2004), pp. 1–22, 189–206.

    16. Ali Madanipour, ‘Why are the Design and Development of Public Spaces Significant for Cities?’, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 1999, 26, 6, 879–91.

    17. Ash Amin, ‘Collective Culture and Urban Public Space’, City, 2008, 12, 1, 5–24.

    18. Kurt Iveson, ‘Putting the Public Back into Public Space’, Urban Policy and Research, 1998, 16, 1, 21–33.

    19. Karen Franck, ‘Isn’t all Public Space Terrain Vague?’, in M. Mariani and Patrick Barron (eds.), Terrain Vague: Interstices at the Edge of the Pale (Routledge, 2014), pp. 153–70.

    Part 3: Histories

    20. Camillo Sitte, George Collins, and Christiane Collins, Camillo Sitte: The Birth of Modern City Planning: With a Translation of the 1889 Austrian Edition of his City Planning According to Artistic Principles (Rizzoli, 1986), pp. 151–97.

    21. Richard Sennett, ‘The Public Domain’, The Fall of Public Man (Knopf, 1977), pp. 3–5, 12–27.

    22. Spiro Kostof, ‘Public Places’, The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History (Little, Brown and Company, 1992), pp. 123–36.

    23. Spiro Kostof, ‘The Street’, The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History (Little, Brown and Company, 1992), pp. 189–212.

    24. Bernard Rudofsky, ‘The Canopied Street’ and ‘The Canopied Street, Continued’, Streets for People (Doubleday, 1969), pp. 69–96, 201–23.

    25. John Brinckerhoff Jackson, ‘The American Public Space’, The Public Interest, 1984, 74, 52–65.

    Volume II: Surveying and Appraising Public Space

    Part 4: Dying, Declining, or Transforming?

    26. Ray Oldenburg, ‘The Problem of Place in America’, The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (Paragon Books, 1989), pp. 3–13.

    27. Michael Sorkin, ‘Introduction: Variations on a Theme Park’, in Sorkin (ed.), Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space (Noonday, 1992), pp. xi–xv.

    28. Trevor Boddy, ‘Underground and Overhead: Building the Analogous City’, in M. Sorkin (ed.), Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space (Noonday, 1992), pp. 123–53.

    29. Michael Brill, ‘Transformation, Nostalgia, and Illusion in Public Life and Public Place’, in I. Altman and E. Zube (eds.), Public Places and Spaces (Plenum, 1989), pp. 7–29.

    30. Paul Goldberger, ‘The Rise of the Private City’, in J. Vitullo-Martin (ed.), Breaking Away: The Future of Cities (The Twentieth Century Fund Press, 1996), pp. 135–47.

    31. Ken Greenberg, ‘Public Space: Lost and Found’, in M. Kingwell and P. Turmel (eds.), Rites of Way: The Politics and Poetics of Public Space (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2009), pp. 29–41.

    Part 5: Types and Typologies

    32. Rob Krier, ‘Typological and Morphological Elements of the Concepts of Urban Space’, Urban Space (Rizzoli, 1979), pp. 15–29.

    33. Clare Cooper-Marcus, with Carolyn Francis and Rob Russell, ‘Urban Plazas’, People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space, 2nd edn. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998), pp. 13–23.

    34. Johann F. Geist, ‘A Typology of the Arcade’ and ‘Literature on the Arcade’, Arcades, The History of a Building Type (MIT Press, 1983), pp. 91–120.

    35. Jerold Kayden, ‘The Department of City Planning of the City of New York and the Municipal Art Society of New York’, Privately Owned Public Space: The New York Experience (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000), pp. 21–41.

    36. Galen Cranz and Michael Boland, ‘Defining the Sustainable Park: A Fifth Model for Urban Parks’, Landscape Journal, 2004, 23, 2, 102–20.

    37. Matthew Carmona, ‘Contemporary Public Space, Part Two: Classification’, Journal of Urban Design, 2010, 15, 2, 164–73.

    Part 6: Territories and Claims

    38. Karen Franck and Quentin Stevens, ‘Tying Down Loose Space’, in K. Franck and Q. Stevens (eds.), Loose Space: Possibility and Diversity in Urban Life (Routledge, 2007), pp. 1–33.

    39. Margaret Crawford, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Blurring the Boundaries: Public Space and Private Life’, in J. Chase, M. Crawford, and J. Kaliski (eds.), Everyday Urbanism (Monacelli Press, 2008), pp. 6–10, 22–35.

    40. Ray Oldenburg, ‘The Character of Third Places’, The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community (Paragon Books, 1989), pp. 20–42.

    41. Vikas Mehta, ‘A Ubiquitous Urban Space for People’, The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space (Routledge, 2013), pp. 9–20.

    42. Regan Koch and Alan Latham, ‘Inhabiting Cities, Domesticating Public Space: Making Sense of the Changing Public Life of Contemporary London’, in A. Madanipour, S. Knierbein, and A. Degros (eds.), Public Space and the Challenges of Urban Transformation in Europe (Routledge, 2014), pp. 144–54.

    Part 7: Sensing

    43. Jane Jacobs, ‘Uses of Sidewalks: Contact’, The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Vintage Books, 1961), pp. 55–73.

    44. Jan Gehl, ‘Three Types of Outdoor Activities and Life Between Buildings’, Life Between Buildings (Van Nostrand-Reinhold, 1987), pp. 11–31.

    45. William H. Whyte, ‘Introduction: The Life of Plazas, Sitting Space, Sun, Wind, Trees, Water, and Food’, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (The Conservation Foundation, 1980), pp. 10–53.

    46. Stephen Carr, Mark Francis, Leanne Rivlin, and Andrew Stone, ‘Needs in Public Space’, Public Space (Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp. 87–136.

    Part 8: Studying and Evaluating

    47. Rianne Van Melik, Irina Van Aalst and Jan Van Weesep, ‘Fear and Fantasy in the Public Domain: The Development of Secured and Themed Urban Space’, Journal of Urban Design, 2007, 12, 1, 25–41.

    48. George Varna and Steve Tiesdell, ‘Assessing the Publicness of Public Space: The Star Model of Publicness’, Journal of Urban Design, 2010, 15, 4, 579–98.

    49. Jeremy Nemeth and Stephen Schmidt, ‘The Privatization of Public Space: Modeling and Measuring Publicness’, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 2011, 38, 9–23.

    50. Vikas Mehta, ‘Evaluating Public Space’, Journal of Urban Design, 2014, 19, 1, 57–88.

    Volume III: Owning Public Space

    Part 9: Rights, Power, and Resistance

    51. Mike Davis, ‘Fortress L. A.’, City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles (Verso, 1990), pp. 223–36.

    52. Don Mitchell, ‘The End of Public Space? People’s Park, Definitions of the Public, and Democracy’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1995, 85, 1, 108–32.

    53. Neil Smith, ‘After Tompkins Square Park: Degentrification and the Revanchist City’, in A. King (ed.), Re-presenting the City: Ethnicity, Capital and Culture in the 21st-Century Metropolis (New York University Press, 1996), pp. 93–108.

    54. Rosalyn Deutsche, ‘Tilted Arc and the Uses of Democracy’, in Deutsche (ed.), Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics (MIT Press, 1996), pp. 257–68.

    55. Kristine Miller, ‘Condemning the Public in the New Times Square’, Designs on the Public: The Private Lives of New York’s Public Spaces (University of Minnesota Press, 2007), pp. 45–69.

    Part 10: Managing and Securing

    56. Sharon Zukin, ‘Whose Culture? Whose City?’, The Culture of Cities (Blackwell, 1995), pp. 24–47.

    57. Steven Flusty, ‘Building Paranoia’, in N. Ellin (ed.), Architecture of Fear (Princeton Architectural Press, 1997), pp. 47–59.

    58. Michael Sorkin, ‘Introduction: The Fear Factor’, in M. Sorkin and S. Zukin (eds.), Indefensible Space: The Architecture of the National Insecurity State (Routledge, 2008), pp. vii–xvii.

    59. Rowland Atkinson, ‘Domestication by Cappuccino or a Revenge on Urban Space? Control and Empowerment in the Management of Public Spaces’, Urban Studies, 2003, 40, 9, 1829–43.

    60. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Renia Ehrenfeucht, ‘Controlling Danger, Creating Fear’, Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation Over Public Space (MIT Press, 2009), pp. 225–42.

    61. Matthew Carmona, Claudio de Magalhaes and Leo Hammond, ‘Models of Public Space Management’, Public Space: The Management Dimension (Routledge, 2008), pp. 65–80.

    62. Peter Marcuse, ‘Occupy and the Provision of Public Space: The City’s Responsibilities’, Peter Marcuse’s Blog (2014).

    Part 11: Diversity, Conflict, and Negotiation

    63. Ali Madanipour, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Whose Public Space?’, in A. Madanipour (ed.), Whose Public Space? International Case Studies in Urban Design and Development (Routledge, 2009), pp. 1–15, 237–42.

    64. Susan Ruddick, ‘Constructing Differences in Public Spaces: Race, Class and Gender as Interlocking Systems’, Urban Geography, 1996, 17, 2, 132–51.

    65. Rosalyn Deutsche, ‘Agoraphobia’, in Deutsche (ed.), Evictions: Art and Spatial Politics (MIT Press, 1996), pp. 269–90.

    66. Setha Low, Dana Taplin, and Suzanne Scheld, ‘The Cultural Life of Large Urban Spaces’, Rethinking Urban Parks: Public Space and Cultural Diversity (University of Texas Press, 2005), pp. 1–18.

    67. Karen Franck and Lynn Paxson, ‘Women and Urban Public Space: Research, Design and Policy Issues’, in I. Altman and E. Zube (eds.), Public Places and Spaces (Plenum, 1989), pp. 121–46.

    68. Kristen Day, ‘Feminist Approaches to Urban Design’, in T. Banerjee and A. Loukaitou-Sideris (eds.), Companion to Urban Design (Routledge, 2011), pp. 150–61.

    69. Karen Malone, ‘Street Life: Youth, Culture and Competing Uses of Public Space’, Environment and Urbanization, 2002, 14, 2, 157–68.

    70. Robin Moore, ‘Streets as Playgrounds’, in A. V. Moudon (ed.), Public Streets for Public Use (Van Nostrand-Reinhold, 1987), pp. 45–62.

    71. Roger Hart, ‘Containing Children: Some Lessons on Planning for Play from New York City’, Environment and Urbanization, 2002, 14, 2, 135–48.

    72. George Chauncey, ‘Privacy Could Only Be Had in Public: Gay Uses of the Streets’, in J. Sanders (ed.), Stud: Architectures of Masculinity (Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), pp. 224–60.

    73. Lynne Elizabeth, ‘Openhearted Cities’, in R. Shiffman, R. Bell, L. Brown, and L. Elizabeth (eds.), Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space (New Village Press, 2012), pp. 170–7.

    Volume IV: Futures for Public Space

    Part 12: Global and Multicultural Perspectives

    74. Setha Low, ‘Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space in Costa Rica’, in S. Low (ed.), Theorizing the City (Rutgers University Press, 1999), pp. 117–37.

    75. Tim Edensor, ‘The Culture of the Indian Street’, in N. Fyfe (ed.), Images of the Street (Routledge, 1998), pp. 205–21.

    76. Michael Rios, ‘Claiming Latino Space: Cultural Insurgency in the Public Realm’, in J. Hou (ed.), Insurgent Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities (Routledge, 2010), pp. 99–110.

    77. James Rojas, ‘Latino Urbanism in Los Angeles: A Model for Urban Improvisation and Reinvention’, in J. Hou (ed.), Insurgent Public Space: Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities (Routledge, 2010), pp. 36–44.

    78. Peter Rowe, ‘Civic Realms and Public Places’, Civic Realism (MIT Press, 1997), pp. 46–68.

    79. Heng Chye Kiang, ‘Chinese Public Space: A Brief Account’, in M. Douglass, K. C. Ho, and G. L. Ooi (eds.), Globalization, the City and Civil Society in Pacific Asia: The Social Production of Civic Spaces (Routledge, 2008), pp. 79–103.

    Part 13: Design Principles

    80. The Urban Task Force, ‘The Public Realm: A Public Responsibility’, Towards an Urban Renaissance (E. & F. Spon, 1999), pp. 28–31.

    81. Suzanne Crowhurst Lennard and Henry Lennard, ‘Public Space Design’, Livable Cities Observed (Gondolier Press, 1995), pp. 25–47.

    82. Henry Shaftoe, ‘How Can One Create and Sustain Successful Public Spaces?’ and ‘Conclusions: The Constituents of Conviviality’, Convivial Urban Spaces: Creating Effective Public Places (Routledge, 2008), pp. 81–143.

    83. Allan Jacobs, ‘Making Great Streets’, Great Streets (MIT Press, 1993), pp. 269–92.

    84. Vikas Mehta, ‘Street Characteristics and Sociability’ and ‘Making Sociable Streets’, The Street: A Quintessential Social Public Space (Routledge, 2013), pp. 165–72, 188–207.

    85. Clare Cooper-Marcus and Carolyn Francis, ‘Urban Plazas’, People Places: Design Guidelines for Urban Open Space, 2nd edn. (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998), pp. 23–54, 80–4.

    86. Ann Forsyth and Laura Musacchio, ‘Design Development Issues in Brief’, Designing Small Parks: A Manual for Addressing Social and Ecological Concerns (John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005), pp. 150–73.

    87. Christopher Leinberger and Gayle Berens, ‘Executive Summary: Creating Better Urban Parks and Open Space’, in A. Garvin and G. Berens (eds.), Urban Parks and Open Space (ULI, 1997), pp. 25–42.

    88. Matthew Carmona, ‘Re-theorising Contemporary Public Space: A New Narrative and a New Normative’, Journal of Urbanism, 2014, 27–33.

    89. Michael Sorkin, ‘The Sidewalks of New York’, in R. Shiffman, R. Bell, L. Brown, and L. Elizabeth (eds.), Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space (New Village Press, 2012), pp. 143–5.

    Part 14: Looking Ahead: New Directions, New Meanings

    90. Lyn Lofland, ‘Uses of the Public Realm’ and ‘Epilogue’, The Public Realm: Exploring the City’s Quintessential Social Territory (Aldine De Gruyter, 1998), pp. 231–49.

    91. Tridib Banerjee, ‘The Future of Public Space: Beyond Invented Streets and Reinvented Places’, Journal of the American Planning Association, 2001, 67, 1, 9–24.

    92. Maarten Hajer and Arnold Reijndorp, ‘Public Domain as a Brief for Design and Policy’, In Search Of The New Public Domain (NAi Publishers, 2001), pp. 109–35.

    93. Gill Valentine, ‘Children and the Future of Public Space’, Public Space and the Culture of Childhood (Ashgate, 2004), pp. 99–111.

    94. Peter Bishop and Lesley Williams, ‘The City as Stage’, The Temporary City (Routledge, 2012), pp. 87–97.

    95. Michael Kimmelman, ‘Foreword’, in R. Shiffman, R. Bell, L. Brown, and L. Elizabeth (eds.), Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space (New Village Press, 2012), pp. xiii–xviii.

    96. Jeffery Hou, ‘Making Public, Beyond Public Space’, in R. Shiffman, R. Bell, L. Brown, and L. Elizabeth (eds.), Beyond Zuccotti Park: Freedom of Assembly and the Occupation of Public Space (New Village Press, 2012), pp. 89–98.

    97. Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and Renia Ehrenfeucht, ‘Revisiting Public Space and the Role of Sidewalks’, Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space (MIT Press, 2009), pp. 265–73.

    98. Michael Southworth, ‘Public Life, Public Space, and the Changing Art of City Design’, Journal of Urban Design, 2014, 19, 1, 37–40.