public space

Reviews

Episodes from the Social Life of the Delhi Metro

Sneha Mandhan - 20 January 2023

What is the impact of a new metro on a large and growing city? As new metros are cropping up across Asia, Rashmi...

From the Field

Holding Their Own: Gilets Jaunes’ Occupation of Public Space

Antoine Bernard de Raymond & Sylvain Bordiec & translated by Oliver Waine - 30 April 2021

The Gilets Jaunes (“Yellow Vests”) movement that emerged in France in the fall of 2018 was striking by dint of both...

Debates

When Revolution Reinvents Public Space in Beirut

Ines Lakrouf & translated by Oliver Waine - 18 September 2020

In the fall of 2019, peaceful protesters in Lebanon were demanding an end to corruption and calling for a movement...

From the Field

Nuits Debout Across Greater Paris: The Spread of a Political Innovation

Laurent Beauguitte & Nicolas Lambert & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 December 2019

As France experiences strikes and demonstrations in protest against pension reforms, we look back to the spring of...

Debates

Diverting Eyes and Bodies: The Management of Homeless Visibility in New York City

Eric Goldfischer - 19 November 2019

Eric Goldfischer argues that homeless diversion programs in New York City simultaneously divert the bodies of...

From the Field

Saving Ivy Island: A Civil War in North Portland

Lauren Everett - 15 January 2019

Lauren Everett examines two different approaches by community activists confronting change in a tight-knit Portland...

Essays

Migrants’ Occupation of Lycée Jean Quarré: The Refugee Cause and the Cause of a Neighborhood

Isabelle Coutant & translated by Oliver Waine - 16 November 2018

The flows of migrants seeking refuge in Europe since the summer of 2015 have led to temporary settlements—legal or...

From the Field

Excluding Fast and Slow: Charlottesville’s Long Battle over Public Space

Frank Muraca - 9 January 2018

The “Unite the Right” white-supremacist rally in downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, erupted into violence, killing...

Essays

Counterpublic Spaces and Movement-Building

Oksana Mironova - 8 March 2017

To make themselves and their causes visible in traditional public arenas like streets and parks, social activists...

Reviews

Citadels, Cores, and Confetti: Urban Festivals in the New Political Economy of the Music Industry

Johan Jansson - 5 January 2017

How have changes in the music industry—especially regarding the way music is produced and consumed today—affected...

From the Field

The French Republic and the Paris Spring

Gregory Smithsimon - 6 September 2016

Has the French Spring arrived yet? Gregory Smithsimon documents La Nuit Debout, a self-named social movement that...

From the Field

The Flea Market of Marseille

Michèle Jolé & William Kornblum - 17 May 2016

Marseille’s flea market (“marché aux puces”) lies at the heart of a vast urban renewal project that could end up wiping...

From the Field

“Enfantillages”: photographing children (and their parents) in public space

Fabien Desage & translated by Oliver Waine - 4 March 2016

Why are children photogenic? Political sociologist Fabien Desage reflects upon his practices as a photographer and...

Debates

Impossible Compliance: Policing as Violent Struggle over Bodies and Urban Space

Michelle Billies - 1 March 2016

The absence of charges brought in the case of a police murder of a Black lesbian in front of the homeless shelter...

From the Field

A Geography of Revolt in Alexandria, Egypt’s Second Capital

Youssef El Chazli - 23 February 2016

How does the layout of a city affect how protest unfolds? How does urban space constrain and enable the choices...

Essays

Urban renewal and the “defensible space” model: the growing impact of security issues on the way our cities develop

Camille Gosselin & translated by Oliver Waine - 12 February 2016

In transforming the urban planning and architecture of social-housing estates, urban-renewal policies are not just...

Essays

Democratic public spaces in the face of terrorism

Carole Gayet-Viaud & translated by Oliver Waine - 29 January 2016

The collective harm inflicted by the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday 13 November 2015 results in part from the...

From the Field

Beyond the stadium: how “ultra” supporters fit into the urban space

Bérangère Ginhoux & translated by Oliver Waine - 11 December 2015

Based on an ethnographic survey conducted in Saint-Étienne, in south-eastern France, Bérangère Ginhoux shows how the...

Debates

Understanding São Paulo’s Bicycle Wars

Derek Pardue - 8 December 2015

In São Paulo, Brazil, bike lanes are a new phenomenon in a city historically dominated by automobiles. In the...

Essays

What we can learn from babies’ sociability

Carole Gayet-Viaud & translated by Oliver Waine - 9 October 2015

The sociability of very young children reveals a neglected dimension of relations and interactions in public, and...

Series

Children in the City

Carole Gayet-Viaud & Clément Rivière & Philippe Simay - 2 October 2015

After a long period of neglect, the field of urban studies in France is showing a marked revival of interest in...

Debates

Hardening Racial Lines in Public Space

Naomi Adiv - 7 July 2015

On Friday, June 5, Black teenagers in McKinney, Texas, were violently subdued by a police officer following a...

Reviews

Good neighbours? Homeless people as seen by those who live alongside them

Marine Maurin & translated by Oliver Waine - 5 June 2015

Prejudices regarding the poorest in society die hard. Does living in proximity to some of these populations help...

From the Field

Clitoral Mass: A Women-of-Color Ride Through Los Angeles

Jennifer Candipan - 2 June 2015

Every year in the summer, a group of women, women of color, and women-identified riders cycle through the city of...

Reviews

The Dangers of Security

Médéric Martin-Mazé & translated by Oliver Waine - 22 May 2015

In Against Security, Harvey Molotch highlights – through various examples, including the New York subway, airports,...

From the Field

The participatory production of temporary public spaces in times of crisis

Paula Orduña-Giró & Sébastien Jacquot & translated by Oliver Waine - 8 May 2015

Are participatory measures a viable solution when it comes to developing urban spaces in times of crisis? According...

From the Field

Social Norms and Resistance on the City Bus

Sofya Aptekar - 5 May 2015

While subways are hailed as the quintessential New York experience, with their own museum, T-shirts, and lore, the...

Debates

Occupy Mall Street?

Anthony Maniscalco - 21 April 2015

The quintessential suburb is home to the shopping mall, an indoor space of anchor departments stores, small...

Essays

Programming play into public space?

Sonia Curnier & translated by Oliver Waine - 20 March 2015

With the rise of the “ludic city”, the work of Roger Caillois and Marc Breviglieri allows us to question the...

Debates

The Right to Public Space

Gregory Smithsimon - 10 March 2015

Many of the commonly defended human rights (freedom of expression, of assembly, of information, of movement, etc.)...

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