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Measures are taken to make the public space less attractive to them, including the removal or design of benches to restrict their use for sleeping and resting, restricting access to certain times, locking indoor/enclosed areas. Police forces are sometimes involved in moving 'unwanted' members of the public from public spaces. In fact, by not being provided suitable access, disabled people are implicitly excluded from some spaces.
Measures are taken to make the public space less attractive to them, including the removal or design of benches to restrict their use for sleeping and resting, restricting access to certain times, locking indoor/enclosed areas. Police forces are sometimes involved in moving 'unwanted' members of the public from public spaces. In fact, by not being provided suitable access, disabled people are implicitly excluded from some spaces.

==== Pakistan ====

According to Zofeen Ebrahim in spite of existence of active feminist movement in Pakistan against gender-based violence, women still risk attacks in public places in Pakistan.<ref>{{Cite web |last=EBRAHIM |first=ZOFEEN |date=2021-10-13 |title=Women in Pakistan - Unsafe in Public Spaces |url=https://www.thecitizen.in/index.php/en/NewsDetail/index/7/20996/Women-in-Pakistan---Unsafe-in-Public-Spaces |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=www.thecitizen.in |language=en}}</ref> According to Shumaila Imtiaz and Anila Kamal study Pakistan does have a social problem of sexual harassment in public spaces.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Imtiaz |first=Shumaila |last2=Kamal |first2=Anila |date=2021-10 |title=Sexual Harassment in the Public Places of Pakistan: Gender of Perpetrators, Gender Differences and City Differences Among Victims |url=https://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12119-021-09851-8 |journal=Sexuality & Culture |language=en |volume=25 |issue=5 |pages=1808–1823 |doi=10.1007/s12119-021-09851-8 |issn=1095-5143}}</ref>

According to Themrise Khan in Pakistan many public spaces like public parks, restaurants etc. provide for designated 'families only' spaces where single men or groups of men are not allowed as part of gender segregation thus issue of safe spaces for women is addressed with notion of ‘families only’ spaces. <ref>{{Cite web |last=Khan |first=Themrise |title=Women and a safe space |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/798630-women-and-a-safe-space |url-status=live |access-date=2021-03-04 |website=www.thenews.com.pk |language=en}}</ref>

According to ''[[The News International]]'' editorial discussing August [[2021 Minar-e-Pakistan mass sexual assault]] says access to public spaces for women is already scares and restrictions are practically increasing.<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 24, 2021 |title=Finding space |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/882134-finding-space |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=www.thenews.com.pk |language=en}}</ref> Since July 2022 north Pakistan province of [[Khyber Pakhtunkhwa]] has seen proactive instances and agitations to restrict women from entering in any recreational public spaces including public parks.

''In July 2022 a local [[jirga]] of [[Salarzai]] tribal elders have declared unratified ban on entry of any single women or even as couple in any hill stations and picnic spots in [[Bajaur District|Bajaur]] tribal district as being vulgar and against their local traditions.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |first=Hanifullah |date=2022-07-15 |title=Women’s entry in Bajaur picnic spots banned |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/2366174/womens-entry-in-bajaur-picnic-spots-banned |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220719122146/https://tribune.com.pk/story/2366174/womens-entry-in-bajaur-picnic-spots-banned |archive-date=2022-07-19 |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=[[The Express Tribune]] |language=en |quote=.. A Jirga of local elders of ultra-conservative Salarzai, Bajaur tribal district, banned the entry of women or couples in the picnic spots, terming it against the local traditions. .. Maulana Rashid announced the decision agreed upon including ban on the entry of women in the hill stations calling it vulgar. .. “We ask the authorities to end this practice as we will not take law into our own hand,” he said, adding that the decision has been made by all clans of Salarzai. .. “Taking women to picnic spots could not be allowed under the cover of tourism,” he added, saying that if government failed to take any action in this regard then the Jirga would ban it. .. It may be mentioned here that despite merger of tribal districts with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), local elders often try to impose their own decisions which are considered against the constitution and law. .. In February 2021, local elders of Tehsil Mamond in Bajaur banned the visit of womenfolk to the Citizen Facilitation Center (CFC) as well as their phone calls to local FM Radio stations. ..}}</ref>''<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=Correspondent |first=A. |date=2022-07-15 |title=JUI-F concerned at ‘unethical’ activities at Bajaur dam |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1699626 |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=[[Dawn (newspaper)|dawn.com]] |language=en |quote=.. leaders here on Thursday expressed their concern over what they called ‘unethical’ activities in the name of entertainment at Ragagan Dam and said these activities, including musical concerts, were against the local customs and traditions and should be stopped immediately. .. alleged that the ongoing activities at Ragagan Dam were promoting obscenity among the youth. .. They said several transgender persons from areas outside the district were also part of the musical concerts, which was polluting the minds of visitors, mostly teenagers. ..}}</ref> According to the correspondent of [[Dawn (newspaper)|Dawn]], the tribal leaders are interested in getting their areas promoted for tourism but they are just against participation of women in tourist places since lot many of the local [[Women in Pakistan|women]] with their husbands, relatives and even independently have been visiting various picnic and tourist spots for recreation, participating in music concerts or taking boating rides at [[Raghagan Dam|Raghagan dam]] together with men, including on Eid holidays amounting to spreading of unethical obscenity which is against local customs based on Islam.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Khan |first=Anwarullah |date=2022-07-17 |title=Jirga bars women from recreational spots in Bajaur tehsil |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1700005 |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=[[Dawn (newspaper)|dawn.com]] |language=en |quote=.. A jirga of elders of the Salarzai tehsil in Bajaur tribal district on Saturday banned women from visiting tourist/picnic spots, and announced that if the government didn’t implement the decision by Sunday (today) the jirga members would take it upon themselves to impose it. .. The all-male jirga (tribal council), held at the hilly Danqool area, .. The move comes just days after the World Economic Forum, in its Global Gender Gap Report, ranked Pakistan as the second worst country in terms of gender parity in the world as well as the region. .. The participants were told that it was noted that besides men, scores of local women either with their husbands and other relatives or separately had visited different tourist and picnic spots in the Eid holidays in the region, including Ragagan dam, to attend musical concerts and boat rides, which they claimed were against the local customs and traditions ‘based on Islamic principles’. .. He said all the participants approved a complete ban on women’s visits to tourist spots -- with or without husbands. .. “We want to promote tourism in our areas as it is vital for socioeconomic development of the region. We are only against women visiting such areas as it was in contrast to our customs and traditions. Hence, the jirga banned it,”}}</ref><ref name=":6" />''<ref name=":5" />'' ''The unratified bans of the jirga shall also be applicable on any movement for selling goods by local vendors, visit of women to the Citizen Facilitation Center or aid centers and the ban also includes giving any calls by women to the local FM Radio stations.<ref name=":5" /> According to Hanifullah of [[The Express Tribune]] (Pakistan), the jirga informed the government if it takes action as expected by them then they won't take the law in their hands otherwise they would ban the said activities themselves. Hanifullah says the elders of the local tribes many times try to foist their own rules even if they have to go against the [[Constitution of Pakistan|constitution]] and law of Pakistan.''<ref name=":5" /> According to ''[[The News International]], the [[Women’s Action Forum]] denounced the tribal Jirga's unconstitutional rulings about stopping women’s entry at picnic spots in Bajaur.''<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-07-22 |title=Ban on women at picnic spots condemned |url=https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/975744-ban-on-women-at-picnic-spots-condemned |url-status=live |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=www.thenews.com.pk |language=en |quote=.. The Women’s Action Forum Thursday condemned the decision of a tribal Jirga about banning women’s entry at picnic spots in Bajaur. .. the WAF said the decision was not only a blatant violation of several fundamental rights guaranteed in the Constitution of 1973, including, Article 25 on Equality of Citizens and Article 26 on Non-Discrimination in respect of access to public spaces, it also raised serious questions on extent of application of the writ of the state and the increasing audacity of the informal sittings of all-male local elders issuing such proclamations in defiance of the Constitution. .. “Such proclamations imply that women are not fully autonomous, are unable to exercise rights over their person and are therefore not to be included in decisions that impact them,”}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Editorial |date=2022-07-22 |title=Absurd jirga decision |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1700978 |access-date=2022-07-24 |website=[[Dawn (newspaper)|dawn.com]] |language=en}}</ref>

In Lakki Marwat a man harassed and forbade veiled women from enjoying public park ride even in women's section on Pakistan's independence day 2022 August 14.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Correspondent |first=The Newspaper's |date=2022-08-16 |title=Man arrested for harassing women in Lakki park |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1705086 |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Man in KP booked for filming women on park's ride |url=https://www.geo.tv/latest/433778-man-booked-for-filming-women-on-parks-ride |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=www.geo.tv |language=en}}</ref> Where as at Bannu a large march was taken out by followers of religious clergy against access to public family parks to women immediately after 2022 August 14 since hundreds of couple visited the park on independence day and clergy thought that to be vulgar.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-21 |title=Bannu clerics want family park shut |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/2372442/bannu-clerics-want-family-park-shut |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=The Express Tribune |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Correspondent |first=A. |date=2022-08-22 |title=Protesters demand closure of family park in Bannu city |url=https://www.dawn.com/news/1706079 |access-date=2022-08-26 |website=DAWN.COM |language=en}}</ref>


===As a site for democracy===
===As a site for democracy===

Revision as of 00:27, 27 August 2022

"In public" redirects here. For the song by Kelis featuring Nas, see In Public. For the film, see In Public (film).
Urban space (Piazza della Signoria, Florence)

A public space is a place that is generally open and accessible to people. Roads (including the

public libraries, are public spaces, although they tend to have restricted areas and greater limits upon use. Although not considered public space, privately owned buildings or property visible from sidewalks and public thoroughfares may affect the public visual landscape, for example, by outdoor advertising. Recently, the concept of shared space
has been advanced to enhance the experience of pedestrians in public space jointly used by automobiles and other vehicles.

Public space has also become something of a touchstone for

visual art, cultural studies, social studies and urban design. The term 'public space' is also often misconstrued to mean other things such as 'gathering place', which is an element of the larger concept of social space. Public spaces have often been valued as democratic spaces of congregation and political participation, where groups can vocalize their rights.[1]

Commons are early examples of public space. Malls, regardless of private ownership percentage, are examples of 'public space' since no fees or paid tickets are required for entry. However most indoor shopping malls and strip malls are private property and subject to the rights of the owners.

Filming in public spaces is legal, but shopping malls are privately owned properties and often require permission for photography and video.

Use of public spaces

Right to common passage

In Nordic countries, like Norway, Sweden, Finland, and also Estonia, all nature areas are considered public space, due to a law, the

allemansrätten
(the right to common passage).

Restrictions on state action in public spaces in the United States

If Members of the public had no right whatsoever to distribute leaflets or engage in other expressive activity on government-owned property...then there would be little if any opportunity to exercise their rights of freedom of expression.

— Supreme Court of Canada, defending right to poster on public utility poles and hand out leaflets in public government-owned buildings[2]

In the United States the right of the people to engage in speech and assembly in public places may not be unreasonably restricted by the federal or state government.[3] The government cannot usually limit one's speech beyond what is reasonable in a public space, which is considered to be a public forum (that is, screaming epithets at passers-by can be stopped; proselytizing one's religion probably cannot). In a private—that is, non-public—forum, the government can control one's speech to a much greater degree; for instance, protesting one's objection to medicare reform will not be tolerated in the gallery of the United States Senate. This is not to say that the government can control what one says in their own home or to others; it can only control government property in this way. The concept of a public forum is not limited to physical space or public property, for example, a newspaper might be considered a public forum, but see forum in the legal sense as the term has a specific meaning in United States law.

Parks, malls, beaches, waiting rooms, etc., may be closed at night. As this does not exclude any specific group, it is generally not considered a restriction on public use. Entry to public parks cannot be restricted based upon a user's residence.[4]

Social norms in public spaces

In some cultures, there is no

expectation of privacy in a public space, however civil inattention is a process whereby individuals are able to maintain their privacy
within a crowd.

Controversy regarding restrictions on use

Leyton Marshes, London
, an example of land with long established rights of access, and equally long-standing restrictions

Public space is commonly shared and created for open usage throughout the community, whereas private space is owned by individuals or corporations. The area is built for a range of various types of recreation and entertainment. The physical setting is

socially constructed, which creates a behavior influence. Limitations are imposed in the space to prevent certain actions from occurring—public behavior that is considered obnoxious or out of character (i.e., drug and alcohol consumption, urinating, indecent exposure, etc.)--and are supported by law or ordinance
. Through the landscape and spatial organization of public space, the social construction is considered to be privately ruled by the implicit and explicit rules and expectations of the space that are enforced.

Whilst it is generally considered that everyone has a right to access and use public space, as opposed to private space which may have restrictions, there has been some academic interest in how public spaces are managed to exclude certain groups - specifically homeless[5] people and young[6] people.

Measures are taken to make the public space less attractive to them, including the removal or design of benches to restrict their use for sleeping and resting, restricting access to certain times, locking indoor/enclosed areas. Police forces are sometimes involved in moving 'unwanted' members of the public from public spaces. In fact, by not being provided suitable access, disabled people are implicitly excluded from some spaces.

As a site for democracy

Human geographers have argued that in spite of the exclusions that are part of public space, it can nonetheless be conceived of as a site where democracy becomes possible. Geographer Don Mitchell has written extensively on the topic of public space and its relation to democracy, employing Henri Lefebvre's notion of the right to the city in articulating his argument.[7] While democracy and public space don't entirely coincide, it is the potential of their intersection that becomes politically important. Other geographers like Gill Valentine have focused on performativity and visibility in public spaces, which brings a theatrical component or 'space of appearance' that is central to the functioning of a democratic space.[8]

Privatization

Main article: Privately owned public space

A privately owned public space, also known as a

urban redevelopment.[9]

Beginning roughly in the 1960s, the privatization of public space (especially in urban centers) has faced criticism from citizen groups such as the

Private-public partnerships have taken significant control of public parks and playgrounds through conservancy groups set up to manage what is considered unmanageable by public agencies. Corporate sponsorship of public leisure areas is ubiquitous, giving open space to the public in exchange for higher air rights
. This facilitates the construction of taller buildings with private parks.

In one of the newer U.S. incarnations of the private-public partnership, the business improvement district (BID), private organizations are allowed to tax local businesses and retail establishments so that they might provide special private services such as policing and increased surveillance, trash removal, or street renovation, all of which once fell under the control of public funds.

Semi-public spaces

A broader meaning of public space or place includes also places where everybody can come if they pay, like a

shop
is an example of what is intermediate between the two meanings: everybody can enter and look around without obligation to buy, but activities unrelated to the purpose of the shop are not unlimitedly permitted.

The

rest stop or truck stop
is a public space.

For these "semi-public" spaces stricter rules may apply than outside, e.g. regarding

Segway
, etc.


Public space in design theory

Public space, as a term and as a concept in design, is volatile. There is much conversation around what constitutes public space, what role it plays, and how design should approach and deal with it.

Historical shift

Historically, public space in the west has been limited to town centres, plazas, church squares, i.e. nearly always engineered around a central monument, which informs the program of the space. These spaces acted as the 'commons' of the people; a political, social and cultural arena. Of the thirteen colonies that became the United States, three were comprehensively planned with integrated physical, social, and economic elements. These planned colonies of Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Georgia each placed emphasis on public space, in particular the public square. The plan for Georgia, known as the Oglethorpe Plan created a unique design in which a public square was created for every ward of forty residential lots and four civic or commercial lots. The design has been preserved in the Savannah historic district.[10][11][12]

Jürgen Habermas' concept of the public sphere links its emergence with the development of democracy.[13] A good example of this is the New Deal projects. The New Deal was a brief period in the US under Franklin Delano Roosevelt's government that produced a huge number of public works in an economic effort to boost employment during the depression. The result, however, was more than this. They constituted a legacy of what has been called the cultural infrastructure underlying American public space.[14] The New Deal projects have been credited with significantly contributing to the quality of American life and encouraging unity between all aspects of the community. It has been recently argued, however, that the democratic ideal of public life through the use of public space has deteriorated. As our cities accelerate towards segregation (social, economic, cultural, ethnic), the opportunity for public interaction is on the decline. John Chase writes, "The importance of voluntary and obligatory participation in civic life has been usurped by the consciousness of the arbitrary nature of assigned cultural meanings and by the increasingly important role that consumption of goods and services plays in the formation of individual identity."[15]

Modern critique

Modern architectural critics have lamented on the 'narrative of loss' within the public sphere. That is, modern society has withdrawn from public life that used to inform city centres. Political and social needs, and forums for expression, can now be accessed from the home. This sentiment is reflected in Michael Sorkin's and Mike Davis' declaration of "the end of public space" and the "destruction of any truly democratic urban spaces."[16] Another side of the debate, however, argues that it is people who apply meaning to public space, wherever it may be. It has been suggested that the concepts of public, space, democracy, and citizenship are being redefined by people through lived experience.[17] Discussion has surfaced around the idea that, historically, public space has been inherently contradictory in the way that it has always been exclusive in who has been able to participate. This has caused the "counterpublics", as identified by Nancy Fraser,[18] to establish their own public spaces to respond to their own concerns. These spaces are in constant flux, and in response, its users restructure and reinterpret physical space. An example of this is in the African-American neighbourhood, Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles. Here, a parking lot has evolved into a scene of intense commercial and social activity. Locals gather here to meet and socialise, sell and consume goods. The example has been used to illustrate that the historical ideal of fixed public space around a monument is not viable for a contemporary diverse social range as "no single physical space can represent a completely inclusive 'space of democracy'."[17]

Art in public space

Piazza del Popolo in Cesena with the artistic Fontana Masini
Martin Firrell The Royal National Theatre London 2016
Main article: Public art
See also: Anti-monumentalism

This sense of flux and change, informs how contemporary public art has evolved. Temporal art in public spaces has been a long established practice. But the presence of public art has become increasingly prevalent and important within our contemporary cities. Temporal public art is so important because of its ability to respond to, reflect, and explore the context which it inhabits. Patricia Phillips describes the "social desire for an art that is contemporary and timely, that responds to and reflects its temporal and circumstantial context."[19] Public art is an arena for investigation, exploration and articulation of the dense and diverse public landscape. Public art asks its audience to re-imagine, re-experience, re-view and re-live. In the design field, a heavy focus has been turned onto the city as needing to discover new and inspired ways to re-use, re-establish and re-invent the city, in step with an invigorated interest in rejuvenating our cities for a sustainable future. Contemporary design has become obsessed with the need to save the modern city from an industrialized, commercialized, urban pit of a death bed.[citation needed]

Approaching urban design

Contemporary perception of public space has now branched and grown into a multitude of non-traditional sites with a variety of programs in mind. It is for this reason that the way in which design deals with public space as a discipline, has become such a diverse and indefinable field.

Iris Aravot puts forward an interesting approach to the urban design process, with the idea of the 'narrative-myth'. Aravot argues that "conventional analysis and problem solving methods result in fragmentation...of the authentic experience of a city...[and] something of the liveliness of the city as a singular entity is lost."[20] The process of developing a narrative-myth in urban design involves analysing and understanding the unique aspects of the local culture based on Cassirer's five distinctive "symbolic forms".[21] They are myth and religion, art, language, history and science; aspects often disregarded by professional practice. Aravot suggests that the narrative-myth "imposes meaning specifically on what is still inexplicable", i.e. the essence of a city.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 9780415252256
    .
  2. ^ Petersen, Klaus & Allan C. Hutchinson. "Interpreting Censorship in Canada", University of Toronto Press, 1999.
  3. ^ First Amendment to the United States Constitution
  4. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-04-14. Retrieved 2011-10-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. ^ "Illegal to be Homeless". National Coalition for the Homeless. 2004.
  6. ^ Malone, K. "Children, Youth and Sustainable Cities" (PDF). Local Environment. 6 (1).
  7. ^ Mitchell, Don. 2003, The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. New York: The Guilford Press.
  8. ^ Valentine, Gill, 1996, Children should be seen and not heard: the production and transgression of adults' public space . Urban Geography 17, 205-220.
  9. ^ Vasagar, Jeevan (11 June 2012). "Privately owned public space: where are they and who owns them?". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2012-09-01.
  10. ^ Fries, Sylvia. The Urban Idea in Colonial America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1977. Chapters 3 and 5 discuss the designs of Pennsylvania and Georgia
  11. ^ Wilson, Thomas D. The Oglethorpe Plan. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press, 2012. See chapter 3 for design details.
  12. ^ Rivers, William J. A Sketch of the History of South Carolina. Charleston: McCarter and Co., 1856. See pp. 358-394 for design details; Carolina thus far has received less attention in the urban design literature than Pennsylvania or Georgia
  13. ^ Jurgen Habermas, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989)
  14. ^ Robert D. Leighninger, Jr., 1996, 'Cultural Infrastructure: The Legacy of New Deal Public Space', Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 49, No. 4 (May, 1996), pp. 226-236
  15. ^ John Chase, "The Garret, the Boardroom, and the Amusement Park," JAE 47/2 (Nov. 1993)
  16. ^ Michael Sorkin, "Introduction", and Mike Davis, "Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space," in Michael Sorkin, ed. Variations on a Theme Park: The New American City and the End of Public Space (New York: Hill and Wang, 1992)
  17. ^ a b Margaret Crawford. 1995, "Contesting the Public Realm: Struggles over Public Space in Los Angeles", Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Sep, 1995) pp. 4-9
  18. ^ Nancy Fraser, "Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy," in Bruce Robbins, ed., The Phantom Public Sphere (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993)
  19. ^ Patricie C. Philips, 1989, "Temporality and Public Art", Art Journal, Vol. 48, No. 4, Critical Issues in Public Art (Winter, 1989), pp. 331-335
  20. ^ Iris Aravot, "Narrative-Myth and Urban Design", Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 49, No. 2 (Nov., 1995), pp. 79-91
  21. ^ Ernst Cassirer, An Essay on Man (New York: Bantam, 1970)

Bibliography

External links
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