Public Space and Relational Perspectives: New Challenges for Architecture and Planning

In: Routledge research in planning and urban design

Abstract

Traditional approaches to understand space tend to view public space mainly as a shell or container, focussing on its morphological structures and functional uses. That way, its ever-changing meanings, contested or challenged uses have been largely ignored, as well as the contextual and on-going dynamics between social actors, their cultures, and struggles. The key role of space in enabling spatial opportunities for social action, the fluidity of its social meaning and the changing degree of ""publicness"" of a space remain unexplored fields of academic inquiry and professional practice. Publi