Protests from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park have brought the crisis of public space to the forefront of our attention: Where can the public congregate? How can city planning, design, and policies support First Amendment rights to public assembly and free speech?
Forty experts in social science, planning, design, civil liberties, urban affairs, and the arts use the Occupy movement as a springboard for original, multidisciplinary essays that address these exigent questions. This foundational book puts issues of democracy and civic engagement back into the center of dialogue about the built environment.
“[The contributors’] takes on public space and assembly could be read as recipes for making urban open spaces amenable for exercising democratic rights. It’s certainly a goal that goes well beyond design; or more accurately, the context that design works within is much more charged and contested than in other realms of building and landscape. Consensus won’t be found in the varied collection, but like OWS itself, there is a shared dissatisfaction with things, in this case how the public fits into public space.”