Politics Of Public Space Research Articles

Moving behind the scenes of public space: the differentiation of market traders’ routinized mobilities

ABSTRACT The politics of public space, such as food and retail markets, has predominantly been studied from place-based perspectives. Most studies focus on the intercultural interactions and social dynamics of inclusion and exclusion as they develop in these places. Less research attention has been devoted, however, to how questions of accessibility and emplacement are intrinsically related to everyday mobilities that surround and come together in public space. By interviewing and physically following market traders who work on the central outdoor market of a town in the Netherlands, this article approaches traders’ mobilities to and away from markets as social practices that involve careful navigation. Three contrasting narratives of mobility-as-navigation are outlined, relating to the stories of the ‘established’, ‘searching’ and ‘roaming’ trader. The findings demonstrate that differences in navigation can be explained by the interdependencies between both individual and material/structural factors. The focus on mobility-as-navigation reveals not only the complex and sometimes contested ways in which people differently move to and away from public space, but it also shows how it leads to differentiated presence on, and access to, these places.

The politics of public space at São Paulo’s Parque Minhocão

São Paulo’s Minhocão (Big Worm) is a 3.5 km elevated expressway that cuts across a dense part of the central city. Opened in 1971, it was controversial from the start, and widely held responsible for the decline of the city’s historic centre in the 1970s and 1980s. However, it has been gradually tamed over the years, first closed to traffic at night, and then at weekends and on holidays, becoming an impromptu park, the Parque Minhocão, which has had official status since 2014. Those informal closures have been accompanied by numerous architectural schemes over the years to make the Minhocão a permanent park on the lines of New York’s High Line. The Parque Minhocão in its present condition represents a stand-off between various interest groups, all of whom have claims on it as public space. The paper explores the history of the Parque Minhocão since 1969 through different forms of visualisation, arguing that its present condition, however imperfect, keeps multiple and contradictory interests in balance.

Political Discourse of Indonesian Raya Daily Newspaper in Indonesian Political Public Space 1955-1957

This research aims to examine the democratization process carried out by Indonesia Raya Newspaper through the political discourse raised and its role as a political public space in 1955-1957. The research method used is the historical method, which consists of 5 stages, namely topic selection, heuristics, verification, interpretation, and historiography. This research is supported by the theoretical framework of political public space to examine the role of Indonesia Raya Newspaper in raising political discourse and its function as a political public space. The results of this study show that (1) Indonesia Raya Newspaper practices personal journalism in its journalistic work so that the characteristics of the political discourse contained in its news are in line with the characteristics of its leader, Mochtar Lubis. (2) The role of Indonesia Raya Newspaper as a political public space is carried out by loading political discourse containing criticism of the government and politicians related to the social, political, and economic life of the community, which is published in the political section of Tajuk Rencana. (3) The process of forming political discourse is carried out using the investigative journalism method so that relevant topics are obtained. Topics found, such as indications of fraud in the 1955 elections and the controversy over the implementation of the KAA, were raised to become political discourses that affected the dynamics of Indonesian national politics at that time. Indonesia Raya Newspaper was able to play a role in Indonesia's democratization process by raising political discourse and providing political public space.

Political Public Space In The 2024 Election Social Media Platform; Between Expectations And Reality

Political public space in social media platforms the 2024 election will be attention Lots circles. Conflict discourse in room public political via social media platforms of course is something common and significant in context modern democracy. However when blunt make room public in social media disturbing or not Healthy. Social media has become receptacle for individual, group and society for convey opinion, discourse, opinion, information, interact in a way wide and others. Social Media has significant role in shape, influence opinions and choices political in election. Moment election is notes important in system democracy in Indonesia. Study This aim for analyze phenomenon conflict political public space in social media platforms. Use approach qualitative descriptive with analyze various source news, reports, public opinion and social media realit. Research result show that discourse conflict public space in social media the 2024 election occurs in a number of aspect among others; conflict between party politics, team success, conflict support and inter supporters. Social media often present incident violence and provocation. Even conflict between social media platforms That Alone. Competition business and interests politics. Conflict This can influence content, discourse and narrative. Study this is also revealing that phenomenon conflict public space in social media own significant impact to the public and the democratic process. Conflict can increase polarization and strengthening extreme attitudes between public. Besides Therefore, conflict can also occur obscure issue substance and diversion attention public of the important agendas that must be done discussed in election. Needed social media literacy, digital literacy and politics No only for public, also share party politics, the government is also a social media activist. Guard ethics, politeness and present regulations media social in every elections in Indonesia. In context this is important collaboration in a way harmonious both media platforms, actors capital business, government, party politics, organizer elections, and the public for you're welcome responsible answer presents a step-by-step process the 2024 election will mature, educate, give birth to an aura of harmonization.

Framing urbanities: invisible/visible urban assemblages

This visual essay provides a reflective journey through the complexities of urban places. Drawing on curated juxtapositions of photographs from different places, I explore the transformations of public spaces and their role in shaping urban environments. The included frames offer a critical perspective on themes such as urban informality, affordance, temporality, urban transformation, mobility, visibility, performance, and public space. Informed by the theoretical frameworks of assemblage thinking and comparative urbanism, this visual essay enables a more sophisticated exploration of the relations between various elements across different scales and contexts. It cuts across geographical boundaries and highlights the evolving nature of urban places as they are continuously being made, unmade, and remade over time. I delve into the complexities of urban transformation and questions of urban inequalities, while also shedding light on the dynamics of visibility and the politics of public space. This visual essay highlights the capacities of urban photography to facilitate critical reflections on urban environments and the dynamic processes that shape them.

Politics in the street: the materiality of urban public spaces in Renaissance Italy

Abstract In Renaissance Italy, the political power of authorities found one of its expressions in material symbols of sovereignty. The placing of inscriptions, sculptures and columns and the commissioning of frescoes in streets, piazzas and public spaces, for example, were essential ways of communicating political or spiritual authority to the populace. Sometimes perceived as representations of a top-down form of communication, in the urban context these same material emblems of power became political objects through which to express dissent, as in the case of public loggias, speaking statues or graffiti on walls and civic palaces. Presenting case-studies from various cities in northern Italy, this article investigates the dialectics between the people and the authorities in the urban fabric, especially in everyday life. Combining a spatial and a material approach to politics, this article reveals the dynamic and relational nature of political public spaces.

НЕКОММЕРЧЕСКИЕ ОРГАНИЗАЦИИ В СИСТЕМЕ МЕЖНАЦИОНАЛЬНЫХ ОТНОШЕНИЙ: ИСТОРИЯ И СОВРЕМЕННОСТЬ

To understand the modern role of nonprofi t organizations in the system of interethnic relations, it is important to analyze the historical experi-ence of public participation in the formation of ethnic policies in Russia. The goal of this article is to identify the potential of civil society organizations in the field of harmonization of interethnic relations, and to consider the possibilities and limitations of the potential of national-cultural autonomies based on reference to historical experience and its comparison with modern phenomena. To achieve research goals, the article uses a historical-genetic method that allows us to identify cause-and-eff ect relationships of historical processes and phenomena, as well as classifi cation methods that allow to systematically analyze the mechanisms of cross-sector partnership. Th e idea of national-cultural autonomy as a tool for maintaining and harmonious development of the cultural identity of “non-dominant” ethnic groups gained particular popularity in Austria-Hungary and Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century. The revival of this concept in our time is due to the fact that NCA is a historically established and theoretically substantiated “classical” principle for implementing ethnocultural development that does not violate the political structure and territorial-administrative composition of multinational states. However, the national-cultural autonomies created in accordance with the 1996 law are heterogeneous both in size and development potential. Due to this inconsistency, the possibilities of civil society in the ethnocultural and ethnopolitical sphere are realized not only in the form of creating national and cultural autonomies, but also using other organizational and legal forms. Th e nonprofi t sector is the organizational and economic basis of civil society, and it is in this capacity that it reflects the diversity of public interests. Th e role of the nonprofi t sector is not limited to representing the interests of diverse groups, including national and religious groups, in the public political space. Nonprofi t organizations are called upon to solve specifi c problems of society, provide social assistance, prevent crises and help resolve them. It is in this capacity that they are most useful as a tool for harmonizing interethnic relations. Civil society organizations, due to natural resource limitations, cannot eff ectively solve the problems of harmonizing interethnic relations without cooperation with the state and business. The issues of development of national culture and national heritage, social assistance and support for representatives of various ethnic groups, public participation in the activities of government bodies on issues of interethnic relations become the responsibility of various civil structures involved in the system of intersectoral social partnership

“Hot+Noisy” Public Space: Conviviality, “Unapologetic Asianness,” and the Future of Vancouver’s Chinatown

Questions of change and the future have become increasingly salient in Vancouver’s Chinatown in the last decade, as gentrification proceeds apace. Various actors have used the neighbourhood’s public spaces to express their visions of Chinatown’s future. These claims are articulated through attempts to demonstrate and strengthen the vitality of Chinatown in the face of growing narratives of its putative decline and death. By engaging with the contemporary sociological literature on conviviality, where relatively “thin” versus more radical conceptualizations of conviviality are being debated, and putting it into conversation with both the geographical literature on the politics of public space and political theory discussions of agonism, we argue that the uses of public space must be analyzed without romanticizing conviviality or consensus in order to understand the productive possibilities of “political conviviality” and agonistic encounters. Our focus is the “Hot+Noisy Mahjong Socials” held in recent summers in an iconic plaza in Chinatown. These are organized by a community group that builds connections between mostly Chinese Canadian youth and largely Cantonese-speaking seniors. These groups espouse a goal of “place-keeping” in the context of planning trends toward “placemaking.” Through this case, we consider how activists from marginalized communities build solidarities through agonistic “place-keeping” in the face of gentrification and threats of cultural erasure.

UNDERSTANDING FREEDOM IN THE CREATIVES OF THE REVOLUTION

The article considers the meaning of freedom in the context of the revolution, its interpretation by social philosophers of the second half of the 20th century (H.Arendt, H.Marcuse, E.Fromm, Y.Habermas and other scientists). It is emphasized that the struggle for freedom can be one of the factors of the beginning of revolutionary events, at the same time, revolutionary events can cause a new round of the struggle for freedom. Investigating the genesis of the concept of “revolution”, it is noted that in the political aspect, the origins of the revolution lie in the plane of “civil disorder” of the ancient polis. At the initial stage, there was an understanding of the revolution as a restoration, an attempt to find the absolute in the past, and a fear of founding something completely new. Based on the comparative characteristics of the French and American revolutions, it is noted that initially they were perceived by their participants primarily as an uprising against tyranny and oppression, as a return to the old just order. The revolutionary goals of the American and French revolutions were identical – freedom from domination. But unlike the French, the American revolution focused not on liberation, but on the establishment of a new republic, a new type of government. Thus, the French revolution was the revolution of the liberators, and the American revolution was the revolution of the founders. A key difference between the French and American revolutions was the assessment of freedom as the main goal of the revolution: the French revolution rose against a limited monarchy, the American revolution against an absolute one. The American Revolution was aimed at the formation of new institutions, a system of checks and balances, and the division of power into separate branches of government. The French Revolution almost immediately lost the public political space, personal “political freedom” was replaced by the “unified will of the people”, and the destruction of the old system did not lead to the proper formation of the new one. Despite the obvious success of the American revolution, it was the French revolution with all its problems and pitfalls that became the prototype of almost all revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries.

In, Of, and For the City: Acknowledging the 2022 Anthony Leeds Prize in Urban Anthropology

In, Of, and For the City: Acknowledging the 2022 Anthony Leeds Prize in Urban Anthropology

Places, non-places, spaces

This study aims to provide an insight into the typology of spatialization in public spaces. Non-places characterized by anonymity, and places, imbued with significance, coexist without static or fixed meanings, serving as spaces of negotiation. The study will explore their possible relations with external spaces, including crisis and deviant heterotopias, former workers' spaces as (non-)places of resistance, the evolution and adaptation of consumerist spaces, and public spaces as political arenas, where alternative spaces challenge the tendencies of globalization in an age of liberal atomism. Furthermore, the study will question the conceptualization and identity of geographical spaces such as Eastern Europe and the Balkans, examining cultural hegemony and Orientalism as imposed conceptual schemes that demand scrutiny. The representation of non-place in films and the tendency to negate place through travel will be explored, along with the consumerist logic of ephemeral shopping centers as alternative (non-)places of culture. These spaces act as sites of consumer tactics and strategies of resistance, countering the normativity of urban everyday life through micro-procedures of resistance, ultimately creating a public-political space of resistance. 8 The text is based on the essay Nemjesta (Non-Places) read on the Third Program of Croatian Radio in 2007.

КОММУНИКАТИВНОЕ ПРОСТРАНСТВО ЗАБАЙКАЛЬСКОГО КРАЯ КАК ОСНОВОПОЛАГАЮЩИЙ ФАКТОР УСТОЙЧИВОСТИ РЕГИОНАЛЬНОЙ ПОЛИТИЧЕСКОЙ СИСТЕМЫ

In the conditions of informatization, digitalization and complication of the communicative space, the ability of authorities to effectively build communication with the regional community is gaining more and more influence on the functioning of regional political systems. The sustainability of regional political systems is of particular importance within the framework of the federative organization of the territorial space. Based on previous studies, the authors differentiate the factors affecting the sustainability of the regional political system in accordance with the functional role methodology of G. Almond into five main groups: institutional, normative, ideological, cultural and communicative. This article focuses on the communicative factors and their impact on the regional political system sustainability. The object of the research is the sustainability of the regional political system. The subject of the research is the parameters of the communicative space of the Transbaikal Territory and their impact on the regional political system sustainability. The purpose of the article is to establish a verifiable relationship between the parameters of the communicative subsystem and the regional political system sustainability on the case of the Transbaikal Territory. The methodological basis of the research is a set of methodological approaches: structural-functional, systemic, political-communicative approach, interdisciplinary. In this research, the authors proceeded from the fact that the communicative subsystem of the subject of the Federation is a fundamental segment of the public political space for the implementation of the idea of federalism, its structure includes not only communications arising in connection with power relations, but also the entire spectrum of communications within the subject of the Federation. Therefore, the regional community, as a subject of the communicative subsystem, having certain characteristics and possibilities of inclusion in the communicative process, will affect both the functioning of this subsystem and the sustainability of the regional political system as a whole. The main result of the research is the establishment of a statistically significant relationship between the analyzed parameters of the communicative space of the Transbaikal Territory (involvement, competence of the recipient (participant), trust /quality of information) and the regional political system sustainability. The reported study was funded by RFBR and EISR, project number 21-011-31406

Radical Commemoration, the Politics of the Street, and the 150th Anniversary of the Paris Commune of 1871

Abstract The memory of the Paris Commune of 1871 has long been summoned as an example of urban revolutionary struggle. In 2011 a Parisian street art collective, RaspouTeam, produced a series of commemorative installations across Paris to mark the 140th anniversary of the Commune. They intended the project to make an explicit link between the politics of the Paris Commune of 1871, and the politics of public space in the twenty-first century city. 2021 marks the 150th anniversary of the Commune. In the last decade the struggle to halt the encroachment of capital upon community and the demand for democratic public spaces (as called for by the Communards of Paris) have remained at the forefront of urban political projects. As pseudo-public open spaces and corporate-owned urban areas present new battlegrounds for economic and social justice protests in cities across the globe, the anniversary of the Paris Commune offers an opportunity to reflect on how and why we remember radical urban resistance of the past, and to ask whether doing so has the potential to arm us for the struggles of today.

Online Communities in the Public Space of Politics: Subjective Features and Possibility for Control (Exemplified by “ВКОНТАКТЕ” Russian Social Networking Platform)

The article presents the study researching the potential of political subjectivity of online communities functioning in the online space of Russian public policy. The empirical object of the study is action-oriented communities functioning as hybrid networked entities having a complex of identifications and values that allow them to maintain stable interactions and being the basis for real political action. The authors identify operational characteristics of online communities and political subjectivity profiles, and single out social-discursive, civic-discursive, collaborative, socially proactive, and politically proactive types. Interpretation of data allows the authors to assess the potential of these communities to actualize their subjectivity in politics, both online and offline, and technological capabilities of their management.

Occupying Paulista: Housing activism, the new right and the politics of public space during the Brazilian crisis

Brazilian society has frequently been described as polarized during the country’s recent political and economic crisis. In 2018, a wave of opposition to the centre-left Workers’ Party culminated in the election of Jair Bolsonaro, a right-wing populist who portrays the political left as a malevolent force in Brazilian society. In this paper I explore this polarization through drawing on ethnographic research with the Homeless Workers’ Movement ( Movimento de Trablhadores Sem-Teto, MTST), a large urban social movement that develops settlements on underutilized land in the city, and a prominent civil society opponent of Bolsonaro. More specifically, I examine a key site of socio-spatial tension in São Paulo, Paulista Avenue, as a new political right came to predominate on the city’s main thoroughfare during the campaign to impeach the Workers’ Party President, Dilma Rousseff. I show how the perceived intolerance of the mobilized right helped to establish new normative codes that regulated the political symbolism which could be displayed in public spaces. Lastly, I consider how the vilification of the MTST in particular and the political left in general by the new right is embedded in broader structures of stigmatization.

Communication strategies in the public political space of Russia: from integration to protest

The article is devoted to the analysis of communication strategies of various political actors in the public space of Russia, as well as the conceptual understanding of integration and protest moods in Russian society. The research problem is to clarify the optimal strategies for the communicative interaction of various subjects of the political process, including society and the authorities in the process of implementing public policy. Special attention is paid to the interpretation of the integration and protest moods of the population of the Russian Federation in the conditions of constant transformations of the Russian political system. The methodological basis of the study was the basic provisions of political communication studies, as well as a non-institutional paradigm according to which the communication process is presented in the form of multidimensional interactions influenced by formal and informal factors of public policy implementation.The research is aimed at conceptualizing mass communication in the context of achieving public consensus. Quantitative content analysis of strategies of socio-economic development of the regions of the Russian Federation, as well as statistical analysis of secondary empirical data of Russian sociological centers were used as special methods. In the course of the study, the conditions for the functioning of public policy determining the variability of communication strategies are determined, consisting both in the regulatory differences in the involvement of various public institutions and in the uncertainty of the actions of communication subjects to achieve public consent. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that, based on the results of empirical research, three strategies of communication and institutional interaction between various subjects of the domestic political process are proposed, taking into account their socio-psychological attitudes: "integration dialog interaction", "separate coexistence", "patron-client relations".

The politics of the street: Street art, public writing and the history of political contest in Chile

This commentary focuses on the politics of public space in democracy and dictatorship. It delves into what Peter Winn calls the revolution ‘from below’ from the perspective of urban conflict, suggesting a political history that attends to urban and visual culture as a crucial arena of political practice. It suggests that the often-conflictive battle over public spaces was, and continues to be, a mechanism by which an unprecedented range of citizens entered into an ongoing debate over the boundaries of citizenship, practice, politics and that this practice was adapted, transformed and reimagined over the last five decades. The struggle over streets and walls continues to be central to Chilean political history, and urban space remains a field of ongoing contest and debate: the estallido of social unrest in contemporary Chile connected a new generation of activists to this longer history of creative politics of protest and protest art and gave them the opportunity to articulate new forms of intersectional political thought in public space, even in the face of state-sponsored violence. Studying these forms of unrest reveals that theirs is an incisive, intersectional critique of the limits of the ‘transition to democracy’, of neoliberal democracies and of the legacies of dictatorship.

«НЕУПРАВЛЯЕМАЯ ИМПЕРИЯ» VS «СОЛОМЕННОЕ ЧУЧЕЛО НА ОГОРОДЕ» (конструирование образа С.Ю. Витте на страницах «Воспоминаний»)

The article examines the views of one of the most authoritative officials at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries on the subject of constructing his own image of a public politician in memoir reflection. The main sources are Sergei Witte’s “Memoirs”, unpublished archival materials stored in the Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA) and the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (RGALI), and periodical press materials. The methodological basis of this study is the interdisciplinary research paradigm of the performative turn. The results of a comparative analysis of the images of S. Witte during different periods of his government service are discussed. A significant difference is revealed in the self-presentation of S. Witte as the Finance Minister and as the Prime Minister. Special attention is paid to the analysis of the author’s tactics in the struggle for his own positive reputation in the public political space of the Russian Empire. The questions related to nuances of S. Witte’s appointments and resignations to the positions on civil service presented by him in the extremely subjective optics are considered. It is concluded that the author of the memoirs seeks to strengthen the positive components of his own image, constructs a reputation for himself as an outstanding civil servant, the “Savior of Russia” who surpassed the managerial talents of other statesmen. At that point, S. Witte tried to dissociate from the image of a power lover widely spread in the public opinion. Describing the short period of his premiership, the memoirist presents himself as a victim of general bullying, which did not allow him to fully realize his managerial abilities. Depending on external conjunctures, S. Witte built his own image through victimized narrative, alternative view of the situation or strengthening of his own positive characteristics.

‘This land is not for sale’: Post-1994 resistance art and interventionism in Cape Town's precarious publics

Abstract The control, regulation and commodification of space has been fundamental in reinforcing structural racism and social identities. In a city such as Cape Town, where colonial architecture and heritage as well as apartheid racial zoning forms part of the spectacularisation of the city, racial conflict seems to have deepened. Through discussing public protest, artistic public interventions and live art, we argue that young black artists in South Africa are heralding a new phase of post-1994 resistance art which exposes conflictual cultural politics of public space in Cape Town rather than a healing democracy and multi-culturalism. As protesters and activists, artists deface the myth of a reconciled non-racial post-Apartheid society by targeting officially sanctioned art. Drawing from Faranak Miraftab's notion of ‘invited’ and ‘invented’ spaces as well as Chris Dixon and Angela Davis' concept of prefigurative politics, we argue that precarious South African publics are experienced as a ‘battleground’ rather than a space for liberal deliberation and democracy. New resistance art, therefore, tends to be protest-centred in engaging with the conflictual nature of the city.

“Re-placed” - Reconsidering relationships with place and lessons from a pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a reconsideration, perhaps even a fundamental shift in our relationships with place. As people worldwide have experienced ‘lockdown,’ we find ourselves emplaced in new and complex ways. In this Commentary, we draw attention to the re-working of people-place relations that the pandemic has catalysed thus far. We offer insights and suggestions for future interdisciplinary research, informed by our diverse positionalities as researchers based in different continents employing diverse approaches to people-place research. The article is structured in two sections. First, we consider theoretical aspects of our current relationships to place by proposing a framework of three interdependent axes: emplacement-displacement, inside-outside, and fixity-flow. Second, we identify six implications of these dialectics: for un-making and re-making ‘home’; precarity, exclusion and non-normative experiences of place; a new politics of public space; health, wellbeing and access to ‘outside’ recreational spaces; re-sensing place, virtual escapes and fluid places, and methodological and ethical considerations. Across these topics, we identify 15 key questions to guide future research. We conclude by asserting that learning lessons from the global pandemic is necessarily tentative, requiring careful observation of altered life circumstances, and will be deficient without taking relationships with place into account.