Geographies of public space Variegated publicness, variegated epistemologies

Abstract

This article proposes new ways of thinking about publicness—epistemologies of publicness—that expand the scope of study beyond the narrow confines of presence, accessibility, and visibility in light of the fast changing nature of public life and public spaces throughout the world. Public space as assemblage, public space as a liminal zone between inclusion and exclusion, and public space as placed and lived are the three theoretical perspectives that are developed. This essay is one of the first efforts to systematically map the permutations of new theoretical and conceptual innovations in the investigation of public space. It signsposts more open-ended, flexible, processual, performative, and ambiguous notions of publicness and public space.