Stand up for Public Space

Public space is more and more an emerging issue in our contemporary societies. On one hand we record the increasingly privatisation of the public domain in direct and indirect ways; on the other hand the lack of public spaces or facilities segregate communities and their freedom to engage in the public sphere. Around the world different tactics, project and researches are addressing this issue, but often access to knowledge is limited by current practices in the publishing industry, which requires scholars to pay not only to access resources, but also to share their own work. The discourse is often limited to specific national or linguistic areas. The dominance of exempla from the so-called global West or global North are limiting our knowledge about public space and often imposing an oversimplified view of public space design, management and use. The event is a discussion on public space in cities as a common good, meant to be open, inclusive and democratic, a right for everybody that belongs to everybody. Through the photo campaign “My favourite public space”, that will be launched during the event, we expect to collect experiences, stories, habits and activities, thus documenting public space and its users from different geographical contexts, for the definition of a new set of topics. Outcomes of the campaign will be published on a dedicated website and on a brand new academic journal, The Journal of Public Space, an international, interdisciplinary, open access platform intended to embrace diversity, inconvenient dialogues and untold stories, from various fields and all countries, especially from those that usually do not have voice. The event is open to scholars, students, professionals, public and private institutions, civil society organizations, city managers, artists, community members and citizens.