Local Public Spaces Research Articles

The Neighbourhood in Pieces: The Fragmentation of Local Public Space in a Swedish Housing Area

AbstractIn this article, we investigate the transformation of local public spaces in the ethnically and socially diverse housing area Norra Fäladen during 1970–2015. After being built, the area soon faced stigmatization and became known as a problem area. This was followed by a series of investments in local public spaces aiming for a stronger appropriation of the neighbourhood by its inhabitants. The production of a ‘neighbourhood spirit’ has, however, slowly deteriorated over the last two decades. Through the introduction of new areas, with large single‐family houses on the one hand, and a densification of the existing housing stock on the other, the inhabitants’ dependence on the existing (but now decreasing) public spaces within the area has been polarized. Local public spaces are also being increasingly relocated from central parts of the neighbourhood to the peripheries or outside the area. In this article, we investigate how this quite slow, yet steady, transformation has affected the local public spaces and the everyday life of the area.

BEHAVIORAL MAPPING OF ABU DHABI’S PUBLIC SPACES: URBAN RESEARCH PHOTOGRAPHY AND CULTURAL CLASHES

While the study of quotidian practices and daily experiences is now fully appreciated in western urbanism, it is still at an embryonic stage in the emerging new cities of the Middle East. This paper presents an ongoing research project of social-behavioral mapping of Abu Dhabi’s public spaces and its correlation with the existing urban morphology, in an attempt to shed empirical light and update the local public space design guidelines. Photography is one of the observation tools used. However, due to sociocultural conditions, special techniques had to be used. Timelapse, high-contrasted, undirected street photography was key to visualize both formal and informal activities in the realm of the private.

Gender relations in Bedouin communities in Israel: local government as a site of ambivalent modernity

In this article, we examine the perceptions towards women and gender relations maintained by male, local authority officials within two Bedouin towns in Israel. As such, the current research lies at the intersection of local politics, gender, space and culture. We argue that analysis of these perspectives provides insights into the ambivalent nature of modernity: into the tension between the desire to preserve the traditional role of women in maintaining the family, and the recognition of the powerful potential of women to act as agents of change. Based on an analysis of personal interviews, the study traces the ways in which both power and vulnerability impact the attitudes and perspectives of these men officials. By applying narrative analysis, gendered power structures are examined within Bedouin society in the context of the local authority – zooming in on the narratives provided by the male authority officials. The findings reveal that the officials maintain a series of ambivalent and conflictual attitudes towards the role of women. Bearing in mind their potential impact on the quality of women's daily lives in local public spaces, it seems vitally important to account for the entire matrix of tensions and vulnerabilities that impact the municipal policy instruments at their disposal. The findings are relevant beyond the Bedouin communities in Israel and may serve as a platform for a wider discussion of the dilemmas of minority women in rapidly changing cultural environments, and ambivalent modernity.

Rescaling belonging in “Brexit Britain”: Spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals in Scotland after the U.K. Referendum on European Union membership

AbstractThis paper discusses how the 2016 U.K. Referendum on European Union membership has shaped the spatial identities and practices of Polish nationals living in Scotland. On the basis of original qualitative data collected in Edinburgh after the referendum, we make two key arguments. First, the referendum was a catalyst for Polish nationals to rescale spatial identities and challenge normative definitions of nationalism and citizenship. We highlight the role of emotion as a key driver in this process, showing that multiscalar attachments to place and strategies for onward mobility, adaptation, and integration after Brexit are constructed through emotionality. Second, the paper argues that Polish nationals' spatial practices have been shaped by anti‐immigrant discourse and sentiment surrounding the Brexit vote. In particular, local public spaces are viewed simultaneously as sites of potential conflict and sites of meaningful intercultural engagement and everyday citizenship. A broader aim of the paper is to advance feminist theory and praxis in population geography through a focus on nonhierarchical and relational scales of experience to better understand migrant identities and practices in a changing Europe.

EVOLUTION OF RESIDENTIAL ELEMENTS AND PUBLIC SPACES OF THE EXTERNAL LIVING ENVIRONMENT IN SAMARA

The article deals with the problem of the discrepancy between the quality of the external residential environment of the local level and the current needs of the townspeople and the problem of formalizing the approach to the transformation of public spaces of the residential environment. The search for solutions is proposed to be based on individual features of the elements of the residential environment of the city and the specifi cs of local public spaces in them. An important factor in choosing measures for the transformation of local public spaces (LPS) is the study of the historical background and degree of «centrality » of the territories. The evolution of residential quarters from the position of public spaces formed in them is considered. The typology of residential cells and public spaces in the process of formation and at the present stage is revealed. The types of planning structure of residential elements of the urban environment in Samara are analyzed in chronological order from the time of the fi rst regular city plan to the present.

Denuncia y representación mediática de los sobrevivientes en la posdictadura: el caso de El Vesubio (1983-1984)

El retorno de la democracia en la Argentina se caracterizó por el debate sobre los modos de enjuiciar a los responsables de la violencia del pasado inmediato y por la difusión masiva de los crímenes de la dictadura en el espacio público local. En este contexto, se produjo la aparición pública de un actor central del activismo en derechos humanos, cuyo papel fue fundamental en la visibilización de los crímenes del período 1976-1983: los sobrevivientes de los centros clandestinos de detención. Este artículo aborda la experiencia de esta porción de las víctimas de la represión durante los dos primeros años de democracia a partir de los sobrevivientes de “El Vesubio”, un lugar de detención ilegal ubicado en la provincia de Buenos Aires. A través del análisis de las acciones de denuncia realizadas por este grupo de sobrevivientes y del examen de las representaciones mediáticas de su figura, este trabajo pretende echar luz sobre el proceso histórico que condujo a la formación de una primera imagen pública de este segmento de las víctimas de la represión, asociada a la figura del testigo.

Immigrant parents’ everyday encounters with exclusion and public space mobilities: ‘Some type of force field’

ABSTRACTThis paper explores everyday feelings of exclusion experienced by Western immigrant parents of preschool aged children in public park playgrounds in Tokyo. These parental feelings of exclusion and unbelonging arose from negative encounters with the majority population where children's visible bodily differences led to unintegrated play. The paper argues that this sense of exclusion is socially problematic as immigrant parents feel negative emotions when using public playgrounds, turn away from local public space mobilities towards online play dates with their countries of origin, and focus more on private home centred play through a style of self-segregation as coping techniques.

Active Neighbourhoods Canada Project: Bridging Community and Municipal Decision-Making to Impact the Built Environment ( breakout presentation )

Active Neighbourhoods Canada consists of 12 community-based projects in Quebec, Alberta and Ontario. Funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Innovation Strategy, these projects use participatory planning activities to develop a community vision and plan for the future of local streets and public spaces. The ultimate goal is to work alongside community members to identify local strengths, weakness and opportunities for active transportation and community vibrancy. Through engaged events and mapping activities out in the community, residents describe their experiences and also access opportunities to learn about how the built form can influence how public spaces are used. Building on this information, these projects engage local municipal staff and professionals in urban planning, engineering, architecture and community development to begin developing potential interventions that can address the concerns and desires of local residents. By linking residents, experts in their community, with professionals, experts in the built form and municipal decision-making/standards, we bridge these two groups to raise community voices and develop options for the future of neighbourhoods that reflect residents’ desires. This presentation will discuss the Peterborough, Ontario based Active Neighbourhoods Project in the Stewart St. Neighbourhood as a case study. It will illustrate the progression of our three-phased project process, the engagement tools used and the strategic touch points created for bridging community voices with decision-makers.

Enfrentando el envejecimiento desde el gobierno local: recovecos entre la ciudadanía y la burocracia

El presente artículo es el resultado de una investigación cualitativa, que indagó en torno a cómo se enfrenta el envejecimiento desde el gobierno local, específicamente desde los municipios asociados a la conurbación urbana de La Serena y Coquimbo, en el norte de Chile. Los resultados del estudio arrojan interesantes reflexiones en cuanto a las nuevas formas de envejecimiento positivo del que dan cuenta los planificadores, situando a las personas mayores como incidentes en el espacio público local. Sin embargo, esta mirada choca y se contrapone con un quehacer planificador que debe enfrentar mecanismos de burocracia política, que convergen en una capacidad de gobierno normativa e inmediatista. Ello da origen a una investigación que pretende sumar al debate de cómo estamos co-construyendo la dimensión sociopolítica del envejecimiento en su relación con el Estado, desde los aportes del trabajo social en el campo gerontológico

Urban diversity and the production of public space in Budapest

Public spaces are spaces for representation of individuals, social groups, ideologies, values, cultures. At the same time, public spaces are commodifi ed and “disneyfi ed” in capitalism, thus, the creation of a homogeneous, “desirable” spatial form and use of public space is often intended. Therefore, their production is characterised by constant rivalries and struggles and causes social confl icts. In addition, the production of public spaces in post-socialism has distinct development paths which is often characterised by contradicting traditions and objectives regarding the spatial form and the everyday practices taking place there. These contradictions create confl icts between various individuals, social groups, actors of urban policies etc. The aim of the paper is to investigate how urban social diversity is (re)presented in the public spaces of the 8th district of Budapest, Jozsefvaros. Which groups and values are more visible than others? How do local people use public spaces? The research is based on the content analysis of policy documents and interviews conducted with local residents of Jozsefvaros – one of the most diverse districts of Budapest. According to our results, the fragmented nature of the local society is refl ected in the use of public space: diversity is present between the public spaces and not within them. Furthermore, some of the recent developments support the homogenisation of values and behaviours in public spaces.

“La biblioteca es importante”: A Case Study of an Emergent Bilingual Public Library in the Nuevo U.S. South

ABSTRACTResearch examining ethnolinguistic community schools (García, Zakharia, & Otcu, 2013) proposes that local spaces not directly affiliated with schools sustain bilingualism and identity. Though researchers often theorize about how community schools sustain home language literacies, less research examines how local public spaces sustain bilingualism among immigrant communities and, more broadly, what this would resemble. With a conceptual framework modeled after García's (2009, 2011) theorization of translanguaging as a dynamic bilingual practice, we offer a counter to monolingual assumptions permeating current language education policy and ideologies. This case study of a public library examines a translanguaging space that offers a window into an emerging Latin American immigrant community in the U.S. South and the complexities of bilingual contact in the United States as a whole. We found that this nurturing public library fostered bilingualism, intentionally refuting language-minoritized stigmas for students learning English. With targeted programming and mentorship, the library challenged misinterpreted “deficit” views of emergent bilingual communities with reoriented views of English language learning to a translingual orientation (Horner, Lu, Royster, & Trimbur, 2011) that extends the innovative and critical practices of shuttling across diverse language repertoires. The public space of the library honored and cultivated the literacy practices of its local communities, and the importance of this is, without overstating, that public spaces for bilingual learning further the missions of all schools.

International Lifestyle Migration in the Andes of Ecuador: How Migrants from the USA Perform Privilege, Import Rurality and Evaluate Their Impact on Local Community

AbstractUsing the example of Vilcabamba in Ecuador, this article explores the ways that migrants from the USA materialise their quest for better lives by relocating to small communities in the Global South. Taking a lifestyle migration approach, we explore the ways migrants interpret and perform rurality in their post‐migration lives according to their economic and symbolically privileged status. Empirical data gathered from biographical narrative interviews with immigrants and guideline‐based interviews with experts show that migrants construct their own, mostly idealised, meanings of rurality; for instance, through the enactment of a healthy way of life close to nature, and social community spirit. Performing their privileged status through everyday practices, lifestyle migrants transfer their mostly Western understandings of rurality, derived from notions of the rural idyll, to other socio‐cultural settings. Consequently, they foster various transformations of local society, economy and public space. At the same time, however, via critical self‐reflection, they exhibit an ambivalent attitude to these transformations.

Še enkrat o neoliberalizmu I: ekonomija

Že vsaj od začetka nedavne recesije leta 2008 je javni prostor poln razprav o neoliberalizmu, kjer je neoliberalizem razumljen kot igra ničelne vsote med državo in ekonomijo, v kateri ekonomija (vsaj začasno) zmaguje, tj. kot prenos predobstoječe »družbene logike« kapitalistične ekonomije na področje javnih institucij in javne uprave, kar naj bi pomenilo vrnitev v deregulirani, liberalni kapitalizem 19. stoletja skozi procese množičnega razlaščanja in privatizacij, iracionalnega razraščanja finančne sfere in širitve neoliberalne ekonomske ideologije. Teza tega članka je nasprotna: neoliberalizem spremeni delovanje – tako delovanje države kot ekonomije in je nov, in ne povratniški socioekonomski in politični proces. V članku se ukvarjamo predvsem z ekonomsko razsežnostjo neoliberalizma (vitka produkcija, nove oblike dela in financializacija), pri čemer poskušamo zajeti tako novost kot kompleksnost neoliberalnih sprememb.

Simulation reframed.

BackgroundSimulation is firmly established as a mainstay of clinical education, and extensive research has demonstrated its value. Current practice uses inanimate simulators (with a range of complexity, sophistication and cost) to address the patient ‘as body’ and trained actors or lay people (Simulated Patients) to address the patient ‘as person’. These approaches are often separate.Healthcare simulation to date has been largely for the training and assessment of clinical ‘insiders’, simulating current practices. A close coupling with the clinical world restricts access to the facilities and practices of simulation, often excluding patients, families and publics. Yet such perspectives are an essential component of clinical practice.Main bodyThis paper argues that simulation offers opportunities to move outside a clinical ‘insider’ frame and create connections with other individuals and groups. Simulation becomes a bridge between experts whose worlds do not usually intersect, inviting an exchange of insights around embodied practices—the ‘doing’ of medicine—without jeopardising the safety of actual patients.Healthcare practice and education take place within a clinical frame that often conceals parallels with other domains of expert practice. Valuable insights emerge by viewing clinical practice not only as the application of medical science but also as performance and craftsmanship.Such connections require a redefinition of simulation. Its essence is not expensive elaborate facilities. Developments such as hybrid, distributed and sequential simulation offer examples of how simulation can combine ‘patient as body’ with ‘patient as person’ at relatively low cost, democratising simulation and exerting traction beyond the clinical sphere.The essence of simulation is a purposeful design, based on an active process of selection from an originary world, abstraction of what is criterial and re-presentation in another setting for a particular purpose or audience. This may be done within traditional simulation centres, or outside in local communities, public spaces or arts and performance venues.ConclusionsSimulation has established a central role in clinical education but usually focuses on learning to do things as they are already done. Imaginatively designed, simulation offers untapped potential for deep engagement with patients, publics and experts outside medicine.

New political economies of film distribution for South Africa's townships? A critical survey of the ReaGilè concept

ReaGilès are pre-fabricated, self-contained, education and entertainment complexes situated on 400m2 sites at local schools or public open spaces consisting of a 60-seat cinema, 30- seat computer and Internet facility, community care and policing centre. These complexes are intended to service historically underserviced peri-urban black dormitory townships of South Africa and to help create jobs, especially amongst the youth, women and the disabled. The ReaGilè concept, on roll-out, has the potential to revolutionise exhibition and distribution in local film industries in ways mirroring the ground-breaking Nollywood straight-to-DVD model. The article discusses the potential of the ReaGilè concept to offer solutions to the twin crises of 1) representation stemming from existing film distribution networks that limit micro- budget filmmakers, and 2) of government departments and local municipalities' tendency towards dividing practices that objectivise the subject through frustrating development via delays, paperwork, never-ending meetings, fees, endless formalities and legalities, and red tape. The authors posit that ReaGilè has the potential to creatively disrupt and redesign formal distribution models and to fracture the narrow modernisation paradigm they deploy, replacing them with a responsive communication re/ordering and flexible distribution that restore subjectivity to the disenfranchised South African subject (the filmmaker and audience from the township).

The role of public spaces in creating place attachment (example of Zacisze, Warsaw housing estate)

Abstract This article raises the question of place attachment in the context of an increasingly important factor, that is the use of gathering and leisure places. The author publishes findings of a survey conducted among the residents of Zacisze, Warsaw, a detached housing estate with a very poor range of public places for gathering and leisure. The study has proved that the use of local public spaces, as a specific category of place, reinforces attachment to the whole housing estate. The study also confirms the important role that social factors have in building place attachment. Conditions already exist for considering social factors more important than physical ones in building a positive relationship with a territory.

Struggle over public space: grassroots movements in Moscow and Vilnius

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore urban mobilisation patterns in two post-Soviet cities: Vilnius and Moscow. Both cities were subject to similar housing and urban policy during Soviet times, and they have implemented urban development using neoliberal market principles, provoking grassroots opposition from citizens to privatisation and marketisation of their housing environment and local public space. However, the differing conditions of democratic Lithuanian and authoritarian Russian public governance offer different opportunities and set different constraints for neighbourhood mobilisation. The purpose is to contrast local community mobilisations under the two regimes and highlight the differences between and similarities in the activists’ repertoires of actions in two distinct political and economic urban settings.Design/methodology/approach– The paper employs qualitative methodology using data from semi-structured interviews conducted with community activists and state officials, presented using a comparative case study design.Findings– Although, citizens’ mobilisations in the two cities are reactions to the neoliberalisation of housing and local public space, they take different forms. In Vilnius they are institutionalised and receive formal support from national and local authorities. Moreover, support from the EU encourages organisational development and provides material and cognitive resources for grassroots urban mobilisations. In contrast, residents’ mobilisations in Moscow are informal and face fierce opposition from local authorities. However, even in an authoritarian setting, grassroots mobilisations evolve using creative strategies to circumvent institutional constraints.Originality/value– Little attention has been paid to grassroots urban mobilisations in post-Soviet cities. There is also a lack of comparative attempts to show variation in post-Soviet urban activism related to housing and local public space.

Partnership of science and business in socially innovative project management / Partnerstwo nauki i biznesu w zarządzaniu projektem innowacyjnym społecznie

Due to the modern developmental challenges, more and more often in the discussion of the transfer of knowledge, new technologies and modernization of the intelligent economy there appear social innovations. An effective way of promoting the implementation of social innovations seems to be indirect actions, involving the creation of a good climate for innovativeness, entrepreneurship and creativity. The examples of such activities dedicated to improving the quality of local space are intensively developed networks of cooperation between the sectors of science and economic activity. The aim of the study is characterization of the role of science and business partnerships in the effective management of projects, in particular socially innovative projects. The paper offers mainly descriptive method on the example of an application project entitled “NEMO Creativity Station – Social Innovation for Communes.” The object of the research is a socially innovative service offered to users of the local public space in Polish communes, promoting mentally and physically healthy lifestyle.

What is the impact of the web on local journalism? Two case studies in Toulouse, France.

Our article aims to explore how the emergence of independent journalism could reconfigure local news. Our field research, carried out from January to April 2013, focuses on two news-based websites in Toulouse: Carré d'infos and LibéToulouse. The results of our research show how newcomers to the world of independent journalism are struggling to maintain their business. A business which is even more precarious than that of their national counterparts, also highlighting the low number of readers and limited exposure they get within the local public space. However, our study has shown that these new players concentrate on field reporting, covering issues that mainstream media often does not and, in particular, cherishing their independence from local politics and economics.

La gráfica como artefacto cultural. Una aproximación semiótica al cartel social en Chile

This article presents a critical review of the contribution of semiotics to the study of image, with the aim of formulating a proposal of analysis applied to poster in Chile. It seeks to contribute to the study of image, incorporating new approaches to complement the classical perspectives of analysis. The method used keeps using semiotics categories and includes the contexts of production and decoding of messages, when analyzing them as part of a bigger symbolic context. The sample analyzed was composed of posters that addressed social issues developed between 1970 and 1973, for the government of Salvador Allende,that had a huge impact in the local public space. The results of the analysis shows an aesthetic and communicational proposal that expressed the desire to build a new kind of society and its way of being represented through functional stakeholders to the political and social project at the time and incorporating visual references from the popular world and the mass culture. This visual synthesis, gave to the Chilean poster a great communicative potential able to tune with the changing demands of a wide audience, and also to validate its own narrative as part of narrative from a larger ideological framework.