Common ground?
Subtitle: readings and reflections on public space
By: [edited by] Anthony M. Orum, Zachary P. Neal.
Contributors: Orum, Anthony M.; Neal, Zachary P.
Series: Metropolis and modern life
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2008
Place of publication: New York, NY
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780415996891; 9780415997270; 9780203873960
Subjects: Public spaces -- Social aspects; City planning -- Social aspects
Description: Public spaces have long been the focus of urban social activity, but investigations of how public space works often adopt only one of several possible perspectives, which restricts the questions that can be asked and the answers that can be considered. In this volume, Anthony Orum and Zachary Neal explore how public space can be a facilitator of civil order, a site for power and resistance, and a stage for art, theatre, and performance. They bring together these frequently unconnected models for understanding public space, collecting classic and contemporary readings that illustrate each, and synthesizing them in a series of original essays. Throughout, they offer questions to provoke discussion, and conclude with thoughts on how these models can be combined by future scholars of public space to yield more comprehensive understanding of how public space works. -- Publisher description from http://www.routledge.com (Oct. 3, 2011).