Urban Public Space Research Articles

Mediating Mundane Life

Abstract The recent and ongoing exodus of Venezuelans to the surrounding Latin American region has sparked international humanitarian intervention. Drawing on research conducted in Brazil in late 2019, this article focuses on the state-led humanitarian response to Venezuelan migration and its collaborative efforts with the military and leading organizations. Looking at two sites of institutional care, I argue that temporal structures created by military-humanitarian agencies work to govern the everyday mobilities of urban migrants living without shelter, who are often framed as criminals or threats within neoliberal securitization narratives. This article further reveals conflicting temporalities with regard to the practice of waiting, whereby the act is viewed as risky when visible in urban public spaces but favored in institutional settings where it can be closely monitored.

Places to be young: The dispossession of public space in Old Havana

The touristification of Old Havana is resulting in unique patterns of gentrification that rely on a new spatial imaginary, the enforcement of which is resulting in the loss of places for residents to be young. The Cuban state’s preservation of significant proportions of social housing as part of its investments in the heritage tourism industry is disrupting common housing-led displacement in the city. The neighbourhood’s economic transition is concentrated instead in public spaces, as squares and streets are taken over by new tourist-serving businesses. This process of enclosure dispossesses locals of both public and private leisure spaces, as the cost of consumption in said businesses is beyond the purchasing power afforded by Cuban salaries. The dispossession of public space is particularly problematic for local youth who, given the persistence and pervasiveness of Havana’s housing crisis, spend the majority of their free time in streets and squares. This displacement of youth reinforces existing patterns of exclusion and discrimination along lines of race, class and gender. Given the particular value of public space for youth development in communities like Old Havana, this article documents the three main processes through which young people are being displaced from or dispossessed of urban public space in their neighbourhood, enclosure, sanitisation and temporary appropriation, and discusses the impacts on young peoples’ place-related identity.

Transforming Contemporary Public Urban Spaces with Planting Design. Shifting from Monocultural Planting Blocks to Naturalistic Plant Communities

Transforming Contemporary Public Urban Spaces with Planting Design. Shifting from Monocultural Planting Blocks to Naturalistic Plant Communities

The distribution and abundance of woody invasive alien plants in small towns in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

Invasive alien plants (IAPs) are rapidly increasing around the world, mainly due to land transformation, climate change, and urbanisation. Whilst urban areas are highly susceptible to invasion by IAPs, crucial information on the distribution and abundance of woody invaders in small towns is limited. Here, we determined the distribution and abundance of woody IAPs across different suburbs and land use types in 12 small towns in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. We enumerated 38 427 individual woody IAPs, and their abundance and distribution varied across surveyed towns. Although species such as Melia azedarach, Pinus elliotti, Jacaranda mimosifolia, Eucalyptus camaldulensis, and Ligustrum lucidum were the most distributed, species density varied across towns. More than half of the woody IAPs were identified in affluent (56%) suburbs compared to the townships (23%), Central business district (CBD) (16%), and low-income housing neighbourhoods (5%). There were significant differences in woody IAPs distribution across different land use types, with more than half (54%) found in the residential areas compared to road verges (32%) and public urban green spaces (14%). Some socio-economic and environmental predictors such as town population, mean temperature, unemployment rate, and Gross domestic product (GDP) showed significant and positive correlations with woody IAPs species richness and density. Our findings suggest an uneven spatial distribution and diversity of woody IAPs across the different small towns, suburbs, and land use types in the region. It is recommended that small towns in South Africa need financial and human resources support to effectively manage IAPs.

Research on the Design Strategies of Public Outdoor Spaces in Government Centers from a Health Perspective

This study delves into an investigation of urban public outdoor spaces (POSs) from a health-oriented perspective, recognizing varied health needs encompassing physical, psychological, social, and environmental aspects. In this study, POSs of two typical government service centers (GSCs) were analyzed based on their structure, user demographics, and user satisfaction, revealing several problems with the current GSC POS designs. To address these problems, principles for GSC POS design were proposed for natural, playing, and social spaces and applied to redesign the Wuchang GSC. Firstly, through on-site surveys, questionnaire surveys, and data analysis, the existing problems in promoting residents’ health in the GSC POSs were revealed, such as the insufficient greening of natural spaces, lack of interest in playing spaces, and unreasonable design of the scale of social spaces. Based on the above analysis, a health design optimization principle based on Maslow’s theory is proposed. Firstly, improvement solutions were proposed and implemented for green spaces, such as using more diversified natural elements, zone differentiation, and landscape improvements to promote the health of users. Secondly, the leisure and sports needs of different age groups can be met simultaneously by diversifying the layout and functional settings of playing spaces. Finally, public spaces suitable for social interaction were redesigned to promote the psychological health of citizens in social activities by optimizing the scale of communication spaces. The proposed design optimization strategies for GSCs not only provide theoretical support for the healthy design of POSs but also provide useful references for the healthy development of urban public spaces.

Rooftop Exploration and the Creation of Alternative Spaces in St. Petersburg

ABSTRACT This article investigates the ways in which power relations structure urban public space and privilege certain behaviors, while marginalizing others, and how these structures are resisted by young people through the creation of alternative spaces on the city’s rooftops. It examines the activity of “roofing” in St. Petersburg, a popular youth-culture practice of urban exploration, investigating the factors that have enabled the widespread flourishing of this activity, despite its illegality. The article explores how the rooftops offer a distinctive realm for the youth in modern-day St. Petersburg to defy authority; reestablish their rights to the city; and counteract the escalating social, economic, and political control that has come to define Russia’s public sphere during Putin’s reign.

Evaluating the vitality of urban public spaces: perspectives on crowd activity and built environment

PurposeIn urban planning, sustainability is closely linked to the quality of urban public spaces (UPS). However, some UPS encounter issues of low attractiveness and underutilisation. Vitality serves as a crucial measure in this context. The research perspective on the vitality of UPS centres on the balance between human activities and the built environment. Therefore, this article aims to systematically review critical aspects of UPS vitality evaluation system, including research objects, vitality components and research methods, from the dimensions of crowd activity and the built environment.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review using PRISMA analysed English-language publications from 2008 to 2023 in Scopus and Web of Science (WOS) databases, employing keywords related to UPS and vitality, with defined inclusion and exclusion criteria.Findings(1) Research objects, including parks, squares, waterfronts, blocks and streets. (2) The factors contributing to crowd activity characteristics originate from five dimensions, namely spatial, temporal, visitor, activity and feedback. Environmental factors, both external (accessibility, surrounding function mix and population density) and internal (service facility mix and water presence), significantly impact vitality. (3) The study primarily relies on quantitative data, including traditional surveys and emerging significant data sources like dynamic location and traffic, social media, geospatial and point of interest (POI) data. Data analysis methods commonly used include correlation analysis and comprehensive evaluation techniques.Originality/valueThe findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the vitality evaluation system for UPS from multiple perspectives for urban planners, aiding in identifying key factors and research methods in the vitality evaluation of various types of UPS.

Research on the Application and Development of Digital Media Art in Urban Public Space Design

Digital media art is an emerging art form that combines digital technology and media art. It has huge potential to bring innovation to urban public spaces and provide them with vibrant artistic experiences. This article analyzes the design significance and value of digital media art in urban public space, its various forms of application in urban public space design, and the innovative ideas and paths that digital media art can take in urban public space to guide the future. The application and innovative methods of digital media art in urban public space design provide certain theoretical and practical references for urban planners and designers.

The analysis of pedestrian flow in the smart city by improved DWA with robot assistance

With the acceleration of urbanization in China, the urban population continues to grow, leading to frequent occurrences of crowded public spaces, which in turn trigger traffic congestion and even safety accidents. In order to more effectively control pedestrian flow, enhance the efficiency and safety of public spaces, this experiment conducts in-depth research and improvement on the traditional Dynamic Window Approach (DWA), and applies it to the fine control of pedestrian flow. Specifically, this study comprehensively reviews and analyzes the characteristics of pedestrian traffic flow and the working principles of traditional DWA. Based on this, the shortcomings of traditional DWA in dealing with complex pedestrian flow scenarios are identified, and targeted improvement solutions are proposed. The core of this improvement scheme lies in the introduction of a new evaluation function, enabling DWA to more accurately balance various factors in the decision-making process, including pedestrian movement speed, direction, and spatial distribution. Subsequently, the improved DWA is validated through simulation experiments. The experimental scenario is set in an area of 18 m*18 m, and compared with traditional DWA, the improved DWA shows significant advantages in trajectory length and travel time. Specifically, the trajectory length of the traditional DWA robot is 19.4 m, with a required time of 34.8 s, while the trajectory length of the improved DWA robot is shortened to 18.7 m, and the time is reduced to 18.6 s. This result fully demonstrates the effectiveness of the improved DWA in optimizing pedestrian flow control. The improved DWA proposed in this study not only has strong scientific validity but also demonstrates high efficiency in practical applications. This study has important reference value for improving the safety of urban public spaces and improving pedestrian traffic flow conditions, and provides new ideas for the further development of pedestrian flow control technology in the future.

Dynamic multi-layer walkability model for transit-oriented movement: Nodes and Routes optimization method

This paper presents a novel approach to optimizing movement in urban areas through a dynamic multi-layer walkability model. This research uncovers new facets of walkability modeling within transit-oriented movement, aligning pedestrian pathways (Routes) with urban architecture, public spaces, and green spaces (Nodes). The dynamic multi-layer (DML) approach involves optimizing both the Nodes and Routes of the transit system using a multi-objective optimization method. This method improves accessibility and connectivity by aggregating the results of agent-based modeling for route simulations and considers multiple criteria, including greenness, distance to transit, and destination accessibility. Experimentation with a case study produced several findings that underscore the value of multi-layered models for transit movement and the power of computational methods in optimizing both Nodes and Routes. This discovery offers valuable insights into the DML process and its potential applications in the field of urban design and architecture.

ParkLIV – engaging non-users in green space management

ABSTRACT Everyone has the right to feel welcome, safe and be able to access public green spaces without fear, anxiety or stress. However, the term “accessibility” is primarily used in relation to physical accessibility, while social and cultural dimensions of accessibility to urban public green spaces remains underexplored. Methods and tools for universal design and management that also meets the needs of marginalised groups, are needed. This requires involvement of both users and potential users through participatory methods, building on individual needs and perspectives. In Sweden, traditionally marginalised groups and non-users are rarely engaged in the development of public urban green spaces. Local governments may have the will, but lack resources and appropriate methods in order to do so. Research has recently described a further engagement of users as an unleashed potential in relation to planning and management of urban green spaces. Based on the study of three test beds and the use of public green space governance and management theory, we developed a process model for user participation in green space maintenance with focus on involving marginalised groups and non-users. The model balances what is theoretical optimal with what is practically feasible within the daily work of a municipal organisation. We present an empirically tested process model that can form the basis for future maintenance of urban green spaces, with the use of limited resources.

Am I Safe at My Educational Place? Creating Secure and Sustainable Urban Learning Spaces Through Green Infrastructure and Ecological Education

Green infrastructure has become a critical part of society for environmental sustainability. Students studying in public urban spaces seem less satisfied with their living standards and environmental conditions. This research aims to determine the impact of perceived danger in urban public spaces, green infrastructure, and ecological education on student satisfaction. Additionally, this study considers the moderating effects of ecological education and green infrastructure. Data were collected from 350 students at public schools and colleges. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used for data analysis. The study found a significant direct relationship between perceived danger in urban public spaces, green infrastructure, ecological education, and student satisfaction. Moreover, the moderating effects of green infrastructure and ecological education are significant in increasing student satisfaction. This research is based on a novel idea and contributes a newly developed model to the body of knowledge on student satisfaction and ecological education. The research has both theoretical and practical implications for improving student satisfaction through ecological education and green infrastructure. The limitations of this research are described, along with future directions to guide researchers in their future studies.

Conflicts and interactions in urban tourism: Use of urban public space by residents, tourists, and migrant domestic workers in Hong Kong

Conflicts over the use of public resources are not uncommon in urban destinations. While tourist-resident conflicts are well-researched, previous studies have not considered marginalized groups who cannot be categorized as tourists or locals, such as migrant domestic workers (MDWs). This study aims to explore the use of urban public spaces by residents, tourists, and MDWs and whether their co-presence leads to conflicts or interactions and understanding. In-depth interviews with MDWs and short interviews with residents and tourists were conducted. Findings revealed the sources of public space conflicts, including place, recreationist, and behavioral factors, and the varied experiences sought in open spaces. Nevertheless, residents and tourists expressed a high level of tolerance and understanding of MDWs' circumstances, which prevented direct conflicts. Although sharing the same public space did not necessarily facilitate cross-group social interactions, tourists and residents appreciated the diversity in public spaces, which also transformed tourists’ impression of Hong Kong.

Gendered urban cycling and the ethics of caring: coming to voice in the streets of Tijuana and Oaxaca amidst the patriarcarro

ABSTRACT This article explores grassroots organisations and collectives of women cyclists in the cities of Tijuana and Oaxaca, Mexico. Taking a narrative approach, it delves into the idea of public space that emerges from their life histories, chronicles, and talk groups. It contends that the narratives of their urban practices and interventions, and of their lives as a whole, are a radical resignification of the meaning and purposes of streets and other urban public spaces. Currently sites of different forms of oppression, in these women’s actions and narrative formulations, they become places ‘from which I come to voice’, intersubjective locations of ‘radical openness and possibilities’ developed through an ethics of caring. This collective vision pushes against capitalist ideas of streets as places for the efficient transit of individuals for productivity and consumption, and against oppressive boundaries of gender, sex, and class. Instead, what emerges from their narrated experience is a relational form of mobility, a way through the city that fosters self-affirmation, inclusivity, and community. Our contribution is based on five years of ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico and on ‘disappropriative writing’ exercises with our participants to produce the collaborative public archive of community narratives of urban cycling (www.reciclarseenlaciudad.com) upon which this and other research outcomes of this project are based.

COVID-19 violence and the re-making of urban space through solidarity networks among transgender women in Lima, Peru

ABSTRACT Extreme instances of COVID-19 policy-related violence against transgender (trans) communities in Latin America highlight the imperative to better understand how gender, power, and rights are entwined within public spaces. Peru is a useful vantage point to explore the intersections between gendered power asymmetries, violence, and access to safe public spaces, given the brief COVID-19 public health policy that restricted the mobility of its citizens based on binary understandings of sex and associated cisheteronormativity. These policies restricted access to public spaces and essential services to women on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, and to men on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and were enforced based on sex assigned at birth reported via identity documents. Drawing on 25 in-depth interviews with Peruvian trans women, this paper examines the impacts of these COVID-19 policies on trans communities and documents grassroots activism efforts to navigate public space that ultimately demand and assert human rights both during and post-COVID-19. Findings illustrate that while short-lived, the sex-based policies and associated policing in urban public space significantly impacted the well-being of Peruvian trans women. Participants illustrated numerous community-enacted strategies to navigate COVID-19 inequities, including information sharing, crowd-sourcing funds to secure food, pay rent and/or secure housing, and grocery shopping provided by trans people for trans people. Further, community mutual aid efforts have continued and evolved years into the pandemic. Jointly, findings advance understandings of the critical role of public spaces as arenas of political struggles that reveal and challenge a wider spectrum of intersecting oppressions and power structures that trans women continually navigate and resist.

Plaza las Pioneras: an urban feminist space and the politics of the commons

ABSTRACT There are very few feminist urban public spaces in the world and even fewer urban feminist commons. This paper focuses on the initiative and functioning of the Plaza las Pioneras in Montevideo, Uruguay. The Plaza is an innovative feminist public space and urban commons experience that opened in 2020 as an effort by the city’s Urban Development and Gender Equity divisions to contribute to a more feminist city. The authors describe the specific context and history of both the urban space and its actors that led to political opportunities but also agency and sociopolitical dynamics on the part of different actors. Its inception and foundation are considered feminist by its stakeholders both in terms of process and finality. The article details and analyses how the Plaza las Pioneras provides fertile ground for feminist claims and initiatives while enabling women to appropriate the space and emerge as actors and beneficiaries of innovation, creation, and collective self-management of urban commons. Since its inauguration, the Plaza has become a community territory as a space, a resource, and meeting grounds. It is used by the feminist collectives that make up its Assembly as a way to promote solidarity, care, and commoning not only among its members but also with other civil society groups and social movements while working with the municipality to promote feminist urban initiatives.

Subversive visibility: Gender, feminist protests, and public spaces in Argentina

ABSTRACT The paper explores the intricate character of public urban spaces, unveiling their almost contradictory nature as both a source of gendered fear and as potential spaces where subjects gain political visibility through collective interventions. Globally, nearly 90 per cent of young women below 30 years of age report feeling unsafe in public spaces. Despite the fear of public spaces, feminist mobilisations, exemplified in the paper by the dynamic movements for women’s rights in Argentina between 2015 and 2022, carry the potential to reclaim public spaces. The research examines the Ni Una Menos (Not One [Women] Less), the National Campaign for the Right to Legal, Safe and Free Abortion, and the Plurinational Meeting of Women and Dissidents protests to understand young women’s experiences of political mobilisations. I introduce the concept of ‘subversive visibility’ to capture instances where public spaces become fear-pacifying rather than fear-inducing spaces, disrupting traditional gendered spatial logic. The disruptions in the form of protests and occupations challenge the conventional division of private and public spaces, showcasing transformative potential. The paper employs theoretical perspectives on the gendered implications of the public–private binary, urban safety, and draws on scholarship related to massive protests and women’s rights struggles.

Evaluating efficiency of metro-led urban underground public space: a case study in Shanghai

Metro-led urban underground public space (UUPS) are among the most common and important types of underground and public spaces. The need to measure metro-led UUPS performance and improve urban planning and public services has facilitated the development of various evaluation methods. However, the essential performance aspects of efficiency and effectiveness are rarely balanced. Most methods focus on evaluating effectiveness while neglecting the cost incurred. This study proposed two sets of efficiency indicators of cost (input) and effectiveness (output) separately and used data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyze the relative efficiency of 20 metro-led UUPS in Shanghai, China. The results indicated that the UUPS of People’s Square, Hanzhong Road, and Huamu Road were the most efficient. Whereas, the South Shanghai Railway Station UUPS and other five cases were neither technically efficient nor scale efficient; a waste of space volume was observed in half of the inefficient cases. Through comparisons of the results with previous studies, it was determined that different conclusions could be drawn when considering efficiency. Moreover, the evaluation framework based on the DEA method proposed in study paper can provide a comprehensive and holistic approach to guide metro-led UUPS planning optimization.

Riding the change: Exploring women’s navigation of risk and respectability through two-wheeler mobility in Dhaka

This paper sheds light on the understudied phenomenon of female two-wheeler riders in Bangladesh, and their everyday negotiations of moto-mobility in patriarchal public spaces. In transportation research, female riders have traditionally been characterized as occupying the pillion seat. By conducting ethnographic observations of two-wheeler training clubs in Bangladesh (Dhaka) and qualitative interviews with female riders, the paper expands the discussion of gender and mobility beyond the usual focus on car and public transport in the Global South, which is critical for planning equitable and inclusive transport policies. Using the motility framework (access, competence and appropriation), this paper unravels the cultural, spatial and social dynamics of women's everyday moto-mobility. Through engagement in women-only training clubs which also serve as gendered social spaces, female riders actively build technical and spatial competence. They opt for safety-conscious approaches in driving behaviour, subverting traditional/masculine notions of dominance and authority. The findings also reveal how young riders subvert families and communities to acquire and ride motorbikes, but still largely conform (and adapt) to social norms to manufacture respectability (following normative sartorial choices, sex-segregated seclusion/purdah). In other words, their resistance is in proportion to how much they can assert themselves without facing negative repercussions from communities and society at large. As their presence and performances of micro-subversions rewrite spatial geographies (of risk and respectability), this has implications for reshaping the everyday transport geographies of women in urban public spaces. By presenting gender scripts as an element of appropriation in the constant negotiation of mobility, this paper contextualises motility in a non-western setting, and shows how multiple (seemingly contradictory) gender performances can feed into each other and regroup to facilitate women's access (to mobility) and rights in a gendered city.

The Nation on the Corners: The Politics of Street-Naming in Lima during the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century

AbstractRecent studies on the figuration of the nation in nineteenth-century Hispanic America have used sophisticated analyses of different media to suggest that Indigenous references were progressively excluded from urban public space as national symbols. In these spaces, the creole authorities placed themselves and their ancestors centre stage. However, these studies have neglected a highly representative medium: street names. This article demonstrates that street nomenclature was key in figuring the nation in a capital city and shows a different trend from that established using other media. Specifically, after the 1861 municipal reform of street names in Lima, Peru, the majority of official names were Indigenous and did not celebrate creole or military elites. This article examines this reform and the conflicts it provoked.