Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space
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Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space “Orum and Neal offer a wonderful collection of readings about public space. Their cogent arguments synthesize literatures and raise key empirical questions for readers to ponder and to further study.” —Robert M. Adelman, Sociology, University of Buffalo, SUNY “This is by far the most comprehensive, focused, and perceptive work on public space to appear in many years, with selections that cover everything from basic concepts to critical theories. It is an essential work for anyone interested in the ongoing debate over the relative virtues of public and private realms in contemporary societies.” —Evan McKenzie, Political Science, University of Illinois at Chicago “This outstanding collection is an important work from many disciplines focusing on critical issues related to public space. It is a perfectly designed book for an advanced undergraduate or master’s level seminar related to urban sociology, urban geography, and urban planning.” —Kevin Romig, Geography, Texas State University 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 under- standing public space, collecting classic and contemporary readings that illustrate each, and synthesiz- ing 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. Anthony M. Orum is Professor of Sociology and Political Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2007 and 2008, he was a Fulbright Scholar at Fudan University in Shanghai, China where he began his first systematic studies of public spaces. He also has written, among other books, Introduction to Political Sociology, the most recent edition (Oxford University Press, 2008) of which was co-authored with John Dale. Zachary P. Neal is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Global Urban Studies at Michigan State Uni- versity. In addition to public space, he has written about restaurants as urban cultural markers, the influence of networks among cities on their economic development, and quantitative methodology in the social sciences. Anthony Orum and Zachary Neal were the Founding Editor and Managing Editor of City & Com- munity, a journal of the American Sociological Association. Together, they edit the book series The Metropolis and Modern Life. METROPOLIS AND MODERN LIFE A Routledge Series Edited by Anthony M. Orum, University of Illinois at Chicago Zachary P. Neal, Michigan State University This Series brings original perspectives on key topics in urban research to today’s students in a series of short accessible texts, guided readers, and practical handbooks. Each volume examines how long-standing urban phenomena continue to be relevant in an increasingly urban and global world, and in doing so, connects the best new scholarship with the wider concerns of students seeking to understand life in the 21st century metropolis. Forthcoming The Gentrification Debates by Japonica Brown-Saracino Urban Tourism and 21st Century Cities by Costas Spirou Common Ground? Readings and Reflections on Public Space Anthony M. Orum University of Illinois at Chicago Zachary P. Neal Michigan State University First published 2010 by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Simultaneously published in the UK by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2010 Taylor and Francis All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Common ground? : readings and reflections on public space / [edited by] Anthony M. Orum, Zachary P. Neal. p. cm.—(Metropolis and modern life) 1. Public spaces—Social aspects. 2. City planning—Social aspects. I. Orum, Anthony M. II. Neal, Zachary P. HT153.C594 2008 307.1′216—dc22 2009005964 ISBN 0-203-87396-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0–415–99689–9 (hbk) ISBN10: 0–414–99727–5 (pbk) ISBN10: 0–203–87396–3 (ebk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–99689–1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–99727–0 (pbk) ISBN13: 978–0–203–87396–0 (ebk) CONTENTS Rights and Permissions List ix Locating Public Space 1 Setting the stage for this exploration of public space, Zachary Neal addresses two questions: (a) What is Public Space and (b) When and Where are Public Spaces? He defines public space as including all areas that are open and accessible to all members of the public in a society, in principle, though not necessarily in practice. The individual pieces of this definition, as well as distinct legal, political, and social conceptions of public space are considered. Then, focusing on the social conception, he examines how different forms of public space have emerged during major historical periods from antiquity through the twentieth century, and how these forms continue to be relevant today. PART 1: PUBLIC SPACE AS CIVIL ORDER Introduction 13 Proceeding from the definition of public space developed in “Locating Public Space,” Anthony Orum argues that there are three distinct models of public space. Here he defines a model of public space as civil order. This model insists that the constant and regular use of public space for social activities, such as conversations or public gatherings, is absolutely essential to the workings and the social vitality of cities and societies. He provides some firsthand observations on these matters, among them that there are important differences in the ways in which public space is made available and used by residents of cities and suburbs. The Death and Life of Great American Cities—Jane Jacobs 18 This selection is one of the earliest and still most significant writings on the importance of public spaces. Drawing on her own experiences while living in New York City, Jane Jacobs argues that the everyday activity on the streets and sidewalks of neighborhoods is essential to the life of cities and, therefore, that urban areas must be designed to encourage the use of such spaces. She notes, among other things, that such everyday social life promotes trust among neighbors as well as providing for the safety of urban inhabitants, especially young children. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces—William H. Whyte 32 William Whyte and his associates systematically studied various parks, plazas, and sidewalks in New York City in the 1970s in order to understand how people used them. They found, for example, that people gather in various ways on plazas, and during specific times, such as the lunch hour, many people cluster in small groups, chatting and conversing with one another. They also discovered how people sometimes gather in unconventional sites such as at the edges of sidewalks. Based on the results of this work, Whyte consulted with officials in New York City to improve the placement and design of its parks and plazas. vi | CONTENTS The Character of Third Places—Ray Oldenburg 40 Ray Oldenburg argues here for the importance of “third places”: those public sites outside the home and the workplace. He believes that places like bars and taverns, even coffee houses, furnish a space where people can meet and converse, and thus expand their social and political horizons. Such public spaces, he insists, can be inclusive and work mainly through the social conversations in which people engage. The Moral Order of Strangers—M. P. Baumgartner 49 In one of the very few systematic studies of life in a modern American suburb, M. P. Baumgartner observes the unique ways in which suburbanites deal with one another in public. She observes that people rarely encounter one another in public in the suburb as most use their automobiles to get from one place to another. Also, there are very few public spaces, like parks, and most people keep to themselves. Those people who are strangers and are found on sidewalks in the suburb tend to arouse suspicion, in part because so few people actually use the sidewalks. All of this, she argues, tends to create a very thin veneer of sociability, in which people maintain their distance from one another. Street Etiquette and Street Wisdom—Elijah Anderson 56 In a classic examination of life in a Northeastern city, Elijah Anderson writes about how people of diverse class backgrounds and race negotiate the use of sidewalks and other public spaces. He observes that people deal with issues of trust and fear as they share sidewalks with one another, and that young black males often create the greatest fear among pedestrians. People eventually acquire a certain wisdom and etiquette about passing one another on sidewalks—rules that alert them to possible situations of danger but that also enable them to engage in their daily routines without a constant sense of fear.