Contested Places: Public Spaces

Question 1

What is the definition of public space? What is its meaning, and what are the defining features?

Answer 1

Public Space = all areas that are open and accessible to all members of the public in society (e.g. outdoor areas, schools, libraries, jails, etc.).
- In principle, but not always the case in practice.
- Public places can be sites where the politically powerful attempt to exert control over the population.
- Can also be sites of self or group expression.

Meaning of public space:
- The public as a space AND manifestation of beliefs, values, and behaviors, is never static.
- It is a SHARED space where the inhabitants collective rights to performance and speech are entrenched.
- Takes on attributes of those who use it, symbolizes the community and reflect values of society.
- Meaning of the shared space develops over time, what is acceptable and expected mediated over years of competing claims.

Defining Features:
1. Ownership:
- Spaces outside of private sphere (not owned by any one group, but collectively owned).
- Owned by the “public”. Members of the public can be defined differently in law and cultural practices.

2. Accessibility:
   - Assumed right of access without discrimination.
   - People allowed to use the space for its intended purposes, not restricted by gender, age, politics, religion.
3. Variety of activities and purposes:
   - effort to assure accessibility and generality of use. Meaning attached to public spaces.

Question 2

What are the 3 levels of public space?

Answer 2

1. Quintessential Public Form:
   - “Ideal” form, few limits on expression.
   - Ex. streets, parks.
2. Non-Public Form:
   - Public property that is not regarded as a forum for public communication.
   - Ex. post offices, libraries, jails.
3. Limited Public Form:
   - Mid-way definition between the first two.
   - Public property that us not TRADIIONALLY open BUT the state has opened for use of public expression.
   - Controversy over how limited a limited public forum is.
   - Ex. public schools during after school hours, interior of city hall.

Question 3

What is the Public sphere and why is understanding the difference between this and public place important? What is a democratic site?

Answer 3

Public sphere = a discursive space –> where political talk or discourse takes place.
- Private people come together and claim public, which is regulated from above and against public authorities themselves.

Democratic Site:
- Collective behavior in public unique –> not like business people or individuals.
- Citizens behave as a public body when they confer in an unrestricted manner about matters of general interest.

Question 4

What are the 3 ways public spaces organize social/political/public lives?

Answer 4

1. Facilitators of Civil Order:
   - Interactions with others in public spaces allow social networks and give sense of belonging and security.
2. Site for Power and Resistance:
   - Streets are essentially a political domain, and a site of struggle and repression.
   - Struggle between those who claim space for their use and those excluded from space.
3. Stage for Performance, Theatre:
   - Stage for identity expression.

Question 5

What are the different types of public spaces?

Answer 5

1. Agora of Athens:
   - Focal point of public life in early ancient Greece.
   - Male dominated, place where legal, educational, and commercial activities took place.
2. The Commons (Medieval):
   - Related to struggle for survival. Land was owned by the king, but open for everyone to use for particular purposes (ex. farming).
   - The commons = everyone working towards a common goal.
   - Using the common land for INDIVIDUAL purposes = Tragedy of the Commons.
3. The Plaza, Italy:
   - Large, open space, monument in the center.
   - Place of public gathering, sometimes protest.
   - Made statements of power, authority, and state (why use money and power to build such a large open area like this?).
4. Coffeehouses:
   - Upper-middle class sights for men to discuss politics. Also to assert class identity.
   - Different from pubs, allowed for private conversations.
5. Streets:
   - Recent invention as public space.
   - Grand Boulevard (Paris) allowed for sidewalks and connections between neighborhoods.
   - Brought different social classes together into interactions on the streets, created awareness.
   - Influenced how people in a society interpret one another.
6. Public Accommodations:
   - Schools, libraries, rec centers, etc.
   - Allowed for more employment in 1930’s Canada during the Great Depression

Question 6

Discuss the Jubilee Riots of 1875: What was the original issue, how was this managed, and what did the riots result in?

Answer 6

Original issue:
- Central streets in Toronto were used by Catholics (in a protestant city) for processions. Religion was a consistent issue in the city as the protestant people did not like the Catholics.
- 1875 was a year of Jubilee, those that took pilgrimage would receive an indulgence, so Catholics walked from one church in Toronto to another and asserted their identity every Sunday.
- Orange Order = protestant group that was very anti-Catholic, wanted to maintain Protestantism and civil liberty’s.

How it was Managed:
- Orange Order demanded the city do something about the Catholics parading in the streets.
- Mayor Metcalfe of Toronto (protestant + OO) tried to end the procession, but was told by legal providers that he could not tell people they can’t parade on the street.
- On Oct 3rd, Metcalfe allowed for a riot to happen. He did not initiate the riot act because military would have gotten involved and he wanted the Catholics to be involved against the protestants.

Riot Results:
- 15,000 Catholics met by 20,000 Protestants who opposed them.
- Many Catholics injured, 40 of 60 police officers also injured.

Access to public space is negotiated in an unfair way, power is associated with public space.