The contemporary North American believes that you can purchase happiness. We search in boxes labeled new and improved, looking for products that are forever bigger, stronger, and faster. We want these things because they will make our lives easier, make us look prettier, and bring us social acceptance. It is our social insecurities that blindly drive this lifestyle. Happiness cannot be sold, and we have become mindless in our consumption. It is in the heart of the suburban world where you can find the beginning of the end. It is the North American shopping mall. We created it as means to meet our demands for more convenient access to stores and services. Its design was manipulated, unapologetically perfected, and rigorously overproduced. The mall has replaced our town squares and main streets with fields of asphalt, yields of the same giant signs, neon lights and brand names. The public realm has been privatized and commercialized. The zombie apocalypse is upon us. The shopping mall stands among us as the reanimated corpse of the dead downtown and represents the loss of great space. Through horror films and personal inflection, a biography of the mall, and a literary dissection of its contemporaries, this thesis examines the misconceptions of North American public spaces through the shopping mall and branded culture. This thesis rediscovers the practise of creating great space through an architectural discourse of the Humbertown Shopping Centre. We desperately need spaces for the living. I argue for public spaces that serve no commercial intent, but rather nourish our desires for authentic human interaction.

The reality of cities is that, no matter how designed, controlled, or planned they are, people will do as they like. They will find ways to live and move through them that suit their purposes, even if this means going against a ‘designed’ system. In the case of South Africa during apartheid, this movement was obstructed by institutionalised segregation and State oppression. Apartheid, which means ‘apart’ and ‘hood’ in Afrikaans, was an attempt to inscribe a power structure into the spatial framework of a territory, based on notions of capitalism, race, and hygiene. As a mechanism of social control, it relied heavily on concepts of space and power to achieve the white ideal of racial segregation. Although the spaces of apartheid may be seen as fixed and concrete, internal contradictions contested their authority. While apartheid legislated, controlled, and monitored the movement of all South Africans, the actions of many of its citizens created counter mechanisms which diminished its effect. Despite the official days of apartheid now being over, the question remains: how do people create and maintain public life in the face of an administrative system of control? The spaces created by the everyday actions of those living under apartheid - the stories, music, dance, and protests that were part of the country’s culture of subversion and resistance - were, for years, the site of public life in South Africa.

Thesis (MArch(Prof)) -- University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

A spontaneous act is done because of a sudden urge to do something. I am interested in creating a space that exists with the purpose of hosting opportunities and action that are not predefined. My point of departure is a green area in Axelsberg where I have created a proposal for a type of public space, that differs from current ones. In my process I have actively worked with the site by physically being there to experience it. I have transformed the space in various ways both by combining improvisational and performative techniques with more planned actions. Afterwards, I have analyzed and learned from people’s reactions and behaviors towards the changes.

Children have long been one of the biggest user-groups of public space. Children’s experiences of public space have not been fully explored by the planning practice. Children’s viewpoint regarding the city have often been overlooked by the adult world, since children are often seen as lacking rational thought and dependent on parents.  A relatively new planning method for public open space, called Sociotop Mapping has long been used in the city of Stockholm. The Sociotop Mapping have been an effective way of implementing people’s experiences into the process of planning.  The aim of this study was to explore children’s experiences of Public Space by using the Sociotop Method, as developed in Stockholm. The Sociotop Mapping gives actual meaning to human experiences of the city by describing its public space with qualitative values. This study was performed with a qualitative method consisting of two parts. The first part gathered data on public space with placeinventories in the district of Ålidhem in Umeå. The second part of the study derived the experiences of children with in-depth focus group discussions with 14 children living in Umeå. The study concluded that children often find enjoyment in public space, but sometimes might the public space be in crisis, since it cannot handle people that are strangers to one another.

In this dissertation I examine the social functions of neighborhood plazas by tracing the development of a Classic Maya (AD 200-900) ritual and residential complex at the ancient city of Xultun, Guatemala. In ancient as in modern times, public open spaces were essential to urban life; yet their functions and meanings could vary within and among societies. Using archaeological and architectural data from three plazas and an adjacent residential complex, I identify a shift towards increased public spaces in the Late Classic period, and link this to the rising importance of displays of power for Xultun's growing population. Located on the northern periphery of Xultun, Los Aves, the focus of the study, is an architectural group consisting of a central residential area with three adjacent plazas to the east, west and northwest. During the Early Classic (AD 250-600) period, only one of the plazas had been built and the layout of the complex was balanced between public and private space. Residents carried out domestic activities within six modest patio groups and used a round platform in the western plaza, Plaza Colibrí, for group rituals. The construction of two new plazas during the Late Classic period (AD 600-900) dramatically changed the composition of Los Aves, tripling the amount of public space. Dominating the neighborhood was a new, larger plaza, Plaza Tecolote, with monumental, ritual architecture that opened to the south towards the city center, easily accessible to those outside of Los Aves. An increase in population at this time necessitated the construction of more domestic structures within the house groups, reducing the amount of proximate patio spaces. Such activities now took place in a new, smaller plaza, Plaza Loro, located in the northwest of the complex, that contained broad steps for seating. In the Early Classic period, Los Aves contained equal parts public and private space, while in the Late Classic period public plazas dominated. I argue that as populations grew, public displays of power became increasingly important, and new, larger plazas were built to accommodate these events. This development broadens our understanding of Classic Maya urbanism.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF UMIT KARTAL, for the Master of Arts degree in PHILOSOPHY, presented on September 29, 2011, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PUBLIC SPACE MUST BE DEFENDED. HANNAH ARENDT'S CONCEPTION OF POLITICS AND THE PUBLIC SPACE: ITS PROMISES AND LIMITS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Kenneth Stikkers This thesis is an examination of Hannah Arendt's reconsideration of the meaning of politics and her systematic search for the recovery of the public spaces. Her scrutiny of the meaning of politics is determined by the disastrous outcomes of totalitarian experiences from both ends of the political spectrum, namely, Nazism and Stalinism. For Arendt, the phenomenon of totalitarianism deserted the human world and brought new issues forth, such as statelessness, rightlessness, homelessness, and worldlessness. These phenomena, Arendt holds, run parallel to the collapse of the essential articulations of the human condition, which can be distinguished in sheer thoughtlessness, speechlessness, and lack of judgment. It is due to these unprecedented and unanticipated issues, which cannot be addressed by traditional political categories, Arendt invites us to grapple with the meaning of politics anew. The basic definition of politics, for Arendt, is human plurality, namely, our coexistence in a common world which enables differences and diversities of perspectives to appear. The question what politics means, for Arendt, is inextricably tied to what its distinctive locus is, namely, the public space or space of appearances. The emergence of the social resulted in blurring the distinctive line between the public realm and the private realm. Then, the recovery of the public space is of a central place in Arendt's political theory. Through Arendt's reconsideration of the meaning of politics and the recovery of the public space we are provided a comprehensive framework to think about a more inclusive and democratic politics. Nevertheless, we are challenged by a set of problems: a very sharp distinction between the public realm and the private realm, a contrast between the social and political, and a lack of systematic interest in democracy. First, I concentrate on Arendt's insightful analysis of politics and the public space in turn. Then I focus on the problematic aspects of her political theory. Finally, I argue that these problematic aspects can be complemented by a comparative reading of Arendt with John Dewey. I conclude that Dewey offers us a more dynamic criterion to decide the line between the private realm and the public realm. Instead of opposing the social to political, Dewey extends the scope of politics by taking every aspects of social life into consideration. The recovery of the public, for him, depends essentially on democracy, which is identified to the experience of local community.

Este trabalho parte de uma reflexão acerca da noção de espaço público a fim de debater, em dois níveis, tal conceito. Em uma primeira problematização, buscaremos evidenciar a dimensão de gênero presente na acepção dominante de espaço público ao questionar os parâmetros históricos de constituição da dicotomia público-privada como uma tecnologia de produção de espaços generificados tradicionalmente cindida entre homens-públicos e mulheres-privadas. A discussão sobre a instauração destas esferas separadas é tratada à luz da história, geografia e teoria feminista, bem como dos recentes estudos que associam as teorias de gênero a reflexões do campo da arquitetura e urbanismo. Em um segundo nível de argumentação, buscaremos vislumbrar de que maneira um modelo agonístico de democracia, preconizado por Chantal Mouffe (2013) pode ser posto em marcha a partir de práticas artísticas críticas que evidenciam o caráter sempre dissensual e disputado do espaço público. Ao considerá-lo enquanto lócus de disputas, a arte crítica (MOUFFE, 2013; RANCIÈRE, 2012) produzida em espaços urbanos por artistas feministas desponta como possibilidade de produção de dissensos (RANCIÈRE, 1996) que tornam visíveis os limites da noção hegemônica e consensual pressuposta nos termos de espaço público. A partir de imagens produzidas em performances realizadas em diferentes espaços públicos, apresentamos quatro montagens de imagens de quatro artistas visuais como modo de tramar relações visuais e teóricas que emergem da contestação pública destas ações. As montagens são analisadas à luz dos conceitos de práticas artísticas agonísticas (MOUFFE, 2013), dissenso (RANCIÈRE, 1996) e partilha do sensível (RANCIÈRE, 2009) / This work starts from a reflection about the notion of public space in order to discuss it, at two levels. In a first level, we seek to highlight the gender dimension within the dominant common sense of public space by questioning the historical parameters of constitution of the public-private dichotomy as a technology producing gendered spaces, traditionally divided between public men and private women. The establishment of these separate spheres is approached in the light of feminist history, geography, and theory, as well as recent studies that associate gender theories within the architecture and urbanism fields. In a second level of argumentation, we seek to see how an agonistic model of democracy, advocated by Chantal Mouffe (2013), can be set off from critical artistic practices that evidence the ever dissensual and disputed character of public space. In considering it as a locus of disputes, the critical art (MOUFFE, 2013; RANCIÈRE, 2012) produced in urban spaces by feminist artists emerges as a possibility of dissent production (RANCIÈRE, 1996) that makes visible the limits of the hegemonic and consensual notion assumption in the hegemonic terms of public space. Starting from images produced in artistic performances performed in different public spaces, we present four montages of images of four visual artists as a way of plotting visual and theoretical relations that emerge from the public contestation of these actions. The assemblies are analyzed in the light of the concepts of agonistic artistic practices (MOUFFE, 2013), dissent (RANCIÈRE, 1996) and the distribution of the sensible (RANCIÈRE, 2009)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005-03-11Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:44:28Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 sobarzomino_oa_dr_prud.pdf: 2979281 bytes, checksum: 539c25c5a61a58547b3171964ba19c41 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Os espaços públicos de Presidente Prudente são analisados na perspectiva de sua dinâmica geral, visando o entendimento da cidade. Nesse sentido, no seu processo de produção e apropriação demonstram a existência de uma sociabilidade segmentada. As reflexões sobre a produção do espaço público são organizadas em três níveis analíticos: a dominação política, a acumulação de capital e a realização da vida. Os dois primeiros níveis estão relacionados ao campo da dominação – no primeiro caso, trata-se da dominação política analisada por meio das ações do poder municipal e das elites locais; no segundo caso, da dominação econômica, as reflexões giraram em torno dos processos de acumulação e reprodução do capital. O terceiro nível de análise desloca o foco da dominação para a apropriação do espaço, ou seja, para as relações socioespaciais produzidas pelo uso, nas práticas cotidianas que conformam o plano do vivido. É, precisamente, nesse plano que as reflexões permitem a leitura das possibilidades de transformação e abrem campo para a esperança. / The public spaces of Presidente Prudente are analyzed in their general dynamics perspective, looking for the urban space understanding. In this sense, in their production and reproduction process they reveal the existence of a segmented sociability. The concerns about the production of the public space are organized in three analytic levels: political domination, accumulation of capital and the accomplishment of the life. The first and second levels are related to the domination ground. In the first case we argue the political domination analyzed through the local power and the local elites actions. In the second case, the economic domination, our concerns are the accumulation and reproduction of capital. In the third level the focus is the appropriation of space, we mean, the social-spatial relationships, which are produced by the use, in the everyday practices, which conform the lived space. It’s, just, in this level that our concerns allow us to read the possibilities of transformation and hope.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:33:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-10-23Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T21:06:34Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 loboda_cr_dr_prud.pdf: 5569448 bytes, checksum: abac79c978d174a6077e166f905821f0 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Por meio dessa pesquisa, realizamos uma reflexão acerca do espaço público no contexto da cidade. Num momento em que a sociedade clama por direito à cidade, procuramos enfatizar que lugares do espaço urbano podem contribuir para a formação de uma noção de espaço público enquanto lugares de sociabilidade urbana. Assim posto, esse trabalho aborda o processo de produção do espaço urbano na cidade de Guarapuava, Estado do Paraná, considerando sua dinâmica e relação com o espaço público, por meio das práticas socioespaciais que lhes são inerentes. Do ponto de vista teórico-conceitual, buscamos uma noção mais clara de espaço público, frente a uma generalização das acepções em torno do conceito, fato que leva à incompreensão do que, realmente, seja o espaço público na cidade, considerando as atuais circunstâncias. A partir desses pressupostos, trabalhamos com algumas acepções e perspectivas sobre o espaço público, destacando certas distinções teórico-conceituais que possam subsidiar a qualificação e atribuição de um estatuto a determinados lugares da cidade, enquanto espaços públicos. Ainda, no que concerne aos aspectos teóricos, essa pesquisa visa contribuir para os estudos da cidade e do urbano, enfatizando as práticas socioespaciais enquanto mediadoras das múltiplas formas de utilização e apropriação do espaço público, ou seja, os conteúdos que dão movimento ao processo de constituição da cidade, enquanto um espaço complexo e de múltiplos lugares e identidades. Tendo como base o trabalho de campo (instrumental empírico), associado ao referencial teóricometodológico, voltados a dimensões analíticas apoiadas nas idéias de centralidade e acessibilidade, além da opinião dos diferentes sujeitos sociais, buscamos compreender, com base na articulação dialética desse conjunto de procedimentos, como o espaço... / The aim of this research was analyzing public spaces in urban contexts. When society demands its right to the city, we have sought to emphasize which locales in urban space may contribute to develop a public space concept as a place for urban sociability. This investigation, held in Guarapuava, a city in Paraná State, had its focus on the process which produces urban space, taking into account its dynamic and relation to public spaces, by means of its intrinsic social-spatial practices. On the theoretic-conceptual point of view, we have tried to clarify the idea of public spaces, since this concept generalization has not helped to understand the real meaning of urban public spaces, considering the current circumstances. Based on this premise we have analyzed some public spaces perspectives and acceptations, considering theoretic-conceptual distinctions which permit classify certain city locales by attributing them the status of public space. This research aims also to contribute to city and urban studies, giving emphasis to the role of social-spatial practices as mediators of the multiple ways public spaces are used and appropriated, in other words, the elements responsible for the city constitution as a complex space with many locales and identities. After having performed field work (empirical procedure), related to theoretic-methodological reference, focused on analytic dimensions based on the ideas of centrality and accessibility, as well as on different social individuals’ opinions, and trying to articulate dialectically all these procedures, we have sought to understand the way public spaces appear in city constitution processes by studying the expression of different social-spatial practices. Starting with these assumptions, public spaces have been analyzed as socially generated places, considering their general dynamic... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)