Innovations in the Management of Public Space: Reshaping and Refocusing Governance

Abstract

Attempts to explain recent changes in the nature and governance of public spaces, however defined, have become prominent in cultural geography, social sciences and urban design. This article aims to contribute to that discussion by examining ongoing changes in the management of public spaces across England and analysing how local authorities are responding to English government policies and initiatives that explicitly link the quality of public spaces, especially ordinary streets and squares, to a broader urban policy agenda. Looking at the way centrally defined policy initiatives are taking root at local level, and on the basis of an extensive survey of current and emerging public space management practices in England, the article makes the case for an understanding of changes in the nature of public space and its governance that is better anchored in the institutional context in which those changes take place. It also suggests that a policy focus on the quality of ordinary public spaces, with its implicit assumptions on how their users perceive quality and react to it, is creating a new field of policy with its own stakeholders, power relations, and governance mechanisms.