Mapping Everyday Public Spaces in Urban Neighbourhoods

Abstract

Central public spaces in cities have always played an important role in urban experience, and continue to have a city-wide significance, often described as the meeting spaces of cultures, politics, social and individual trajectories. Peripheral and/or neighbourhood public spaces, where the everyday life of citizens unfolds, rarely enjoy any of this significance and may not receive the attention needed from the main stakeholders involved. Many researchers have highlighted the significance of these public spaces in cities, pointing out that the patterns of everyday life in residential neighbourhoods – whether it is the chance encounters in the local market or conversations in the local square– are the essential material of society and may well have integrative social functions, of an individual or collective initiative. This paper aims at an empirical contribution to a better understanding of the synthesizing mechanisms, which shape public spaces in cities’ neighbourhoods, by addressing the variety of factors involved and their relations and by highlighting the need for manifold perspectives on the localized ‘meaning’ of places, constructed, and shaped by local practices and behaviours. Drawing on the theoretical framework of relational theories, the paper sets out to explore the links between the physical sphere and the social sphere of three different residential public spaces in the city of Limassol, critically exploring the ways in which the boundaries of public space are challenged and negotiated. Both spatial analysis and social sciences methods are employed to map and unveil the essential role residential public spaces play, in bringing together what society divides in contemporary, multicultural cities, where multiplicities of identities, languages, religions and cultures may naturally give rise to tensions and even hostilities. The potential for interaction and meetings between different people backgrounds in the public realm is shown to be a crucial prerequisite for shaping encounters during their everyday life, encouraging tolerance and a feeling of belonging.