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    Progress in Human Geography

    DOI: 10.1177/03091325070835092007; 31; 792Prog Hum Geogr

    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don MitchellLocating the public in research and practice

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    Progress in Human Geography 31(6) (2007) pp. 792811

    2007 SAGE Publications DOI: 10.1177/0309132507083509

    Locating the public in research and practice

    Lynn A. Staeheli1* and Don Mitchell2

    1Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street,

    Edinburgh EH8 9XP, UK2Department of Geography, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University,

    NY 13244, USA

    Discussions of public space and the public have become complicated in recent years. This article

    seeks to bring some clarity to these discussions by examining where participants in public spacedebates locate the public those spheres or realms where participants believe a public is constituted

    and where public interest is found. To identify the ways in which public space is conceptualized

    and located, we analyze the literature on public space, interviews with scholars actively involved

    in public space research, and interviews with participants in a series of public space controversies in

    the USA. We find that differing definitions of the public that underlie these conceptualizations are

    rooted in strongly held political orientations and normative visions of democracy. But we also find

    that there is considerable overlap in how participants frame their understandings of publicity, and

    thus there is a basis for more thorough debate and even transformation of policy and practice.

    Key words: community, democracy, public, public space, publicity

    *Author for correspondence. Email: [email protected]

    The meaning of public space has become

    increasingly complex in recent years, as

    research grounded in diverse theoretical

    perspectives and personal experiences has

    burgeoned. Whereas it once may been un-

    problematic to equate public space with

    open or accessible space, this is no longer

    the case, as a range of questions about what

    makes a space public have been introduced.

    Similarly, theoretical debates and political

    action have pried open the meanings of thepublic, publicity, and public-ness, consid-

    erably complicating discourses in normative

    political theory, critical geography, and other

    fields. Thirty or 40 years ago it might have

    been possible to write about an abstract, dis-

    embodied public to which a public interest

    could be attributed or for which a public good

    could be produced, but successive identity-

    based movements in politics and the acad-

    emy have called to the fore assumptions

    about how the public is constituted and who

    populates it. As Sallie Marston (1990) to

    pick just one of many contributors to this

    movement asks: Who are the people?

    The prying open and complicating of dis-course about the public also complicates

    what is meant by public space. If one ques-

    tion animating political theory is who are

    the people?, then other questions, raised

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 793

    especially in human geography, are what

    makes a space public? and therefore how does

    space shape who counts as the people?.

    The reconsideration of public space, the

    public, and publicity are not disconnected.

    Yet is it not simply a matter ofwho the

    public is that makes talking about publicspace difficult and so important. Scholars

    also take differing perspectives on what

    constitutes the public realm or public sphere.

    Scholars disagree as to whether the public is

    equivalent to the government. Or whether

    the public realm is defined by the issues

    discussed in public. Or whether the public

    realm is any venue or forum in which discus-

    sions of communal concerns are held. It is

    even more confusing when activists and

    scholars transgress the boundaries of publicand private whatever they may be to make

    a political point. In arguing that the personal

    is political, for instance, does it mean that

    the private realm is public? And is that really

    what people advocating reproductive and

    sexual freedom want, knowing that the

    personal being political may also make private

    decisions susceptible to public debate and

    perhaps state surveillance over freedoms

    that would otherwise be exercised in pri-

    vate? The multiplicity of meanings of publicin this paragraph alone is enough to make a

    theorists or an activists head spin.

    Furthermore, it is not just scholars and

    activists who have challenged the meaning

    of public. As one might expect, given scholarly

    and social movement agitation, the meaning

    of the term has become the subject of formal

    political and policy debates, including debates

    about faith-based initiatives for social ser-

    vices, about funding for non-state schools,

    and about extending rules regarding non-discrimination to organizations that do not

    take governmental money. From the per-

    spective of academic researchers, one of the

    most important debates about the meaning

    of public comes in the context of disciplinary

    calls for increased relevancy and debates

    over how research should serve the public

    interest since, as already noted, such a

    singular interest is almost impossible to find

    (see Blomley, 1994; Tickell, 1998; Castree,

    2000; Martin, 2001; Massey, 2004; Beaumont

    et al., 2005; Murphyet al., 2005; Staeheli and

    Mitchell, 2005; Ward, 2005).

    Perhaps some clarity can be brought to

    the swirling and somewhat confused dis-cussion of the public and publicity and their

    relationship to public space by attempting

    to understand where various participants

    in the debate locate the public. By locate,

    we mean the spheres, realms and even

    physical spaces where participants believe

    a public is constituted and where a public

    interest is to be found. We want to understand

    the different uses of public in everyday

    and academic discourse, and to relate these

    different families of usage to the normativegoals that participants bring to debates about

    the public and public space.

    We attempt to address these issues

    through an extensive review of the academic

    literature on public space in geography,

    interviews with academic researchers, and

    interviews with participants in controversies

    over public space. In so doing, we rely on a

    previously developed taxonomy of the public

    and compare the ways in which academics

    and participants in public space controversiesconceptualize the relationship between

    publicity and public space. In the following

    section of the article, we explain our concep-

    tual and methodological approach to this

    analysis more fully. We then describe the

    taxonomy we use to evaluate the meanings

    of public deployed in research and practice.

    The final sections of the article explore the

    location of the public in both realms.

    I Approaching the publicWe rely on a previously developed tax-

    onomy of the public developed by Jeffrey

    Weintraub (1995) explained more fully

    below as a starting point for our analysis of

    a close reading of the public space literature

    in geography, interviews with researchers

    on public space, and interviews with partici-

    pants in public space controversies in five

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    794 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    US cities. Weintraubs taxonomy is useful in

    that it culls the various definitions of public

    from a considerable range of literatures in

    political theory and discusses the implicit

    normative meanings assigned to public in

    each. As a political theorist, Weintraubs

    approach differs from that more commonlyutilized in geography, where discourses

    on the public are analyzed albeit often

    implicitly in terms of spatiality, focusing on

    whether theories and definitions are spatial

    or aspatial and whether their relational forms

    are understood to be spatial relations or not.

    Weintraubs categories productively crosscut

    the spatial-aspatial continuum and, by doing

    so, serve as a useful heuristic for clarifying

    what is at stake politically, socially, and in

    the development of geographic theory inthe complex meanings of the public that

    have evolved over the past generation. Our

    point is not to provide a singular definition

    of the public, nor is it to bemoan the com-

    plexity of the debate, as we see this complex-

    ity as a positive value. Rather, we seek to

    find ways to make sense of the complexity

    so that it can continue to be productive, both

    politically and theoretically.

    We derived the definitions of the public,

    publicity, and public space that form thecore of this analysis through a review of

    the geographical literature on public space,

    interviews with a subset of academics who

    have contributed to that literature, and

    interviews with participants in public space

    controversies in US cities that were typical

    of the sorts of controversies about public

    space and publicity that geographers study.1

    The literature review involved a systematic

    analysis of the Anglophone, geographic

    literature published between 1945 and 1998.We identified 218 articles, book chapters,

    and books as focused on public space, and as

    having either been written by a geographer

    or as having been published in a geographic

    journal or book. These items were evaluated

    in terms of their definitions of public space,

    theoretical orientations, empirical foci, data

    and methods, and constructions of relevance.

    In the second step, we identified all the authors

    of those articles who have a PhD and who

    were working in the USA during the interview

    period.2 We then conducted interviews with

    all these authors still living, willing, and able

    to participate. In total, we conducted 25

    interviews with academic geographers.In order to understand both the nature of

    public space controversies and specific

    actors roles in them, we also conducted

    interviews in spring 2001 in five US cities

    with government officials, activists, business

    owners or managers, social service providers,

    planners, and others.

    In San Diego, we asked about downtown

    redevelopment and homelessness.

    In New York City, our focus was on com-munity gardens.

    In Syracuse, New York, we explored de-

    bates over public financing for the recon-

    struction of a shopping mall.

    In Washington, DC we examined a

    classic issue in public space: protests and

    parades.

    Finally, we examined changes to the Plaza

    in the heart of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

    In these interviews, we sought to elicit howpeople framed or defined public space and

    whether and why they thought it was im-

    portant; through these questions, we sought

    to understand how they conceived of the

    public.

    As will become apparent, our analytical

    strategy has been to parse the definitions of

    public and public space at work in the litera-

    ture and in the interviews to provide insight

    into the muddled terrains of academic theory

    and research, the social and political prac-tices that shape public space, and the traffic

    between them. Weintraubs categorization

    provides a means to systematically evaluate

    this discourse, and it provides a means for

    understanding the nature of the similarities

    and differences within it. At the same time,

    the data we compile from the literature on pub-

    lic space and the interviews with academics

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 795

    and participants allow us to critically evaluate

    and elaborate upon Weintraubs categories

    themselves. Through our analysis, we show

    that not only is consensus about what con-

    stitutes the public or public space impossible,

    it is not even desirable. Nonetheless, we also

    show that understanding the source andnature of the differences in meanings is vital

    to the development of new understandings

    and new normative political projects.

    II What and where is the public:

    Weintraubs taxonomy

    Through an analysis of the literature in

    political theory, Jeffrey Weintraub (1995)

    has argued that public and private the

    relations of what we are calling publicity

    (public-ness)3 are typically conceptualizedin four (not necessarily mutually exclusive)

    ways:

    A liberal-economistic version of publicity

    rooted in mainstream economics and lib-

    eral political theory in which the public is

    defined as the state and its administrative

    functions, while the private is the realm of

    the economy. Basic rights and freedoms

    for individuals are located in the public in

    this conceptualization. Discussions in geo-graphy about public policy (eg, Martin,

    2001) and on increasing geographys rele-

    vance in the wider world (eg, Abler, 1983;

    Harman, 2003) tend, at least implicitly, to

    work from this model of publicity.

    A republican-virtue model in which the

    public sphere is conceptualized as per-

    taining to community, the polity, and

    citizens, and the private sphere is related

    to the household (and private property).

    Weitraub traces this model to the writ-ings of Aristotle, and it can be easily iden-

    tified in the work of historians such as

    Edmund Morgan (1988) and, through

    him, in the work of geographers such as

    Marston (1990) and Mitchell (1995).

    A model rooted in practices ofsociability,

    wherein the public refers to symbolic dis-

    play and self-representation; the private

    in this conceptualization is any aspect of

    self that individuals choose not to make

    public through display. Its most well-

    known expression is in the work of Jane

    Jaco bs (eg, Jaco bs, 1961) and Erv ing

    Goffman (1959), but Weintraub identifies

    Philippe Airs (1962), who tracks the de-velopment of public life in cities, as the

    best example of this. Authors such as Iris

    Marion Young (1990) and Richard Sennett

    (1970; 1992) provide more contemporary

    examples, as does the work in geography

    of authors such as Mona Domosh (1998)

    and Susan Ruddick (1996).

    A Marxist-feminist model in which public

    refers to the state and economy, and pri-

    vate refers to the domestic and familial.

    Early socialist-feminist work in geography(eg, McDowell, 1983) seems to work

    through this model, as does much of the

    research on the relations between public

    and private (eg, Rose, 1990; Staeheli,

    1996).

    The range of different approaches to pub-

    licity is obviously wide, especially since this

    is not an exhaustive taxonomy, but rather

    one that describes the main trends in pol-

    itical theory. As such, it is not surprising thatsimilar language talk of public and private

    boundaries, of publicity and privacy, of pub-

    lic and private goods, of public and private

    spaces and spheres often invokes different

    meanings and points to divergent political

    projects. For some, the public refers to the

    economy, for others the state (and decidedly

    not the economy), for yet others it will mean

    the polity, the community, the crowd on the

    street, or the street itself.4 The public, in other

    words, is differently located in each of thesediscourses.

    Weintraubs (1995) taxonomy sought

    to categorize the political discourse. But it

    is conceivable that the kinds of spaces that

    foster publicity might be different for each

    category. That is, it is conceivable that the

    public is not only differentially located dis-

    cursively, but also geographically, and that

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    796 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    different kinds of publics occupy different

    kinds of spaces. For example, a public space

    that would foster a liberal-economistic version

    of publicity might be one that facilitates state

    functioning and makes it easier for the state

    to safeguard and regulate individual rights

    and to promote economic development andgrowth. Put another way, such a model of

    publicity might require (or produce) a space

    that allows for free political expression, but

    requires such expression to be in a form that

    is decorous and that can be regulated to fit

    within the logics and rationalities of the gov-

    ernmental system (Habermas, 1970; Healy,

    1992).

    A public space fostering republican-

    virtue, on the other hand, might facilitate

    public interaction, but not necessarily inter-action with the formal apparatus of govern-

    ment. Rather, these spaces might be where

    communities or civil associations set rules

    of inclusion according to the moral values

    and social expectations of the community

    in order to enhance (in part, by making

    more comfortable) interactions between

    community members. Exclusion might be

    acceptable if people refuse to conform to

    agreed upon behaviors or if an individual is

    seen as disrespectful or disruptive (Cohenand Arato, 1992; Etzioni, 1993).5 Similarly

    but with a different political inflection

    the republican virtue model might indicate

    the need for public spaces where subaltern

    counterpublics (Fraser, 1990) or other outsider

    groups can form, engage in debate, and make a

    bid for either inclusion in or the transformation

    of the wider public sphere.

    By contrast to the first two kinds of public

    spaces, a space of sociability might be more

    chaotic or unpredictable, as it would notnecessarily be based on governmentally-

    or socially-defined rules of conduct and

    conformance; spaces of sociability might

    be produced precisely through the act of

    being sociable (Berman, 1983; Wilson, 1992;

    Amster, 2004). And yet, many argue that

    to promote sociability to make people wel-

    come relatively highly regulated spaces must

    be produced (hence the perceived success

    of malls and festival marketplaces as social

    spaces (Goss, 1993; 1999; see also Lees, 1998).

    The point here is what is being struggled

    over: a public space of sociability is meant

    to be a space of display and publicity in

    this sense a literal coming-into-the-public ofprivate individuals rather than a space of

    overtly political struggle or a space defined

    by the state. It may or may not be relatively

    open or chaotic; it may or may not be heavily

    regulated by the state, or by specific private

    interests such as mall owners.

    Finally, the model of publicity outlined

    in Marxist-feminist theory might look (if crit-

    ically) for those public spaces that facilitate

    economic activities, that reinforce hege-

    monic norms of gender or class, and in whichthe power of the state and powerful private

    interests are clearly present. One would ex-

    pect to see spaces that are tightly regulated,

    but in ways that encourage accumulation, ease

    commerce, and strengthen the power to govern,

    rather than encourage self-development,

    community building, or political transformation

    (McDowell, 1983; Davis, 1990; Sorkin, 1992;

    Fincher, 2004). Partisans in this discourse might

    seek to promote spaces that do encourage the

    latter goals, and thus will often turn to oneof the other models of understanding pub-

    licity the republican or sociability models,

    for example as a means for developing argu-

    ments and practices.

    Thus, while the theoretical perspectives

    on publicity canvassed by Weintraub (1995)

    may not have been developed as a typology

    of public space, per se, we would be surprised

    if this taxonomy did not go far in logically

    categorizing the ways that researchers and

    people involved in creating (and recreating)public spaces talk about publicity. At the

    same time, geographers strong focus on

    space is likely to inflect the discourse on pub-

    licity in different ways than political theory.

    Thus, we expect that the geographical litera-

    ture will remake the meaning of Weintraubs

    categories in significant ways, ways that shed

    light on the value or lack thereof of locating

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 797

    the public geographically. Finally, it is likely

    that there will be systematic similarities and

    differences between how geographers define

    and theorize publicity and public space and

    how lay people directly involved in public

    space controversies will define and theorize

    these. These similarities and differences, tothe extent they exist, are politically important,

    and they are important to the broader public

    sphere discourse. Our analysis in the rest of

    the article, therefore, explores how discussions

    of the public, its significance, and its location

    unfold in academic research and political

    practice.

    III Locating the public in public space

    research

    1 Analysis of the Literature

    Even a cursory glance at the geographic

    literature on public space indicates that

    geographers vary widely in how they define

    the public, public space, and publicity. To

    undertake our analysis, we coded each of

    the 218 public space books, chapters, and

    articles first in terms of keywords that de-

    fined public space for the author (eg, street,

    park, danger, place of sociability, meeting

    place, open space, etc.). Many pieces con-

    tained more than one definitional element

    (eg, public space was the street, and it

    was a place of display; public space wasopen space and it contained an element of

    danger). Second, we also determined through

    keyword or more accurately key phrase

    analysis, the reasons authors understood

    public space to be important (eg, it is a place

    of politics, it provides open space in a crowded

    city, it is essential to democracy). Determin-

    ing definitions and recording importance

    was an inductive exercise. The categories we

    created arose from the literature itself. This

    strategy allowed us to assess both the rangeof definitional elements and their relative

    frequency.

    The most common definitions of public

    space are unsurprising (Table 1). Definitions

    that stressed the physical aspects of public

    space were apparent in 37% of the literature,

    while some 27% of the literature defined public

    Table 1

    Definition of public space* Number of articles % ArticlesPhysical definition (eg, streets, parks, etc.) 80 37%

    Meeting place or place for interaction 58 27%

    Sites of negotiation, contest or protest 51 23%

    Public sphere, no physical form 34 16%

    Opposite of private space 32 15%

    Sites of display 28 13%

    Public ownership, public property 25 12%

    Places of contact with strangers 23 11%

    Sites of danger, threat, violence 21 10%

    Places of exchange relations (eg, shopping) 19 9%Space of community 18 8%

    Space of surveillance 17 8%

    Places of open access no or few limits 16 7%

    Places lacking control by individuals 15 7%

    Places governed by open forum doctrine 12 6%

    Idealized space no physical form 5 2%

    * Multiple definitions in an article are possible. Definitions are not mutually exclusive.

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    798 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    space as a meeting place stressing its social

    and/or political function. Perhaps reflecting a

    critical edge in geographic research on public

    space, the third most common definition

    seemed to link public space to negotiation

    and contestation an agonistic view of pub-

    lic space (23%). It is notable that some 16%of the literature in geography linked public

    space to the public sphere and specified no

    identifiable material form. Another 2% de-

    fined public space as idealized and with no

    material form, but did not make reference

    to the public sphere.

    The variety of definitions of public space

    in the literature was matched by the variety

    of stated reasons as to why public space

    was important (Table 2). Here, public space

    was indicated as important for functionalor sociable activities such as meeting and

    walking (33%), but also because of its role in

    democracy and political movements (30%).

    A like number (30%) figured public space as

    important for socialization into community

    norms, while 15% noted it as important for

    building community, and 16% for forming

    and affirming identity. In short, all these

    stated reasons of importance indicate that

    geographers see public space as crucial for

    creating or sustaininga public. Meanwhile, and

    not necessarily at odds with the above, some

    23% of the articles stressed the importance

    of public space as a site where conflicts are

    expressed and sometimes worked through.

    Based on this counting method, it seemed

    that there were two primary ways in which

    public space and publicity were discussed inthe geographical literature. One set of dis-

    cussions emphasized the democratic and

    political nature of public space (both affir-

    matively and critically), and the second

    emphasized its social function (also both

    affirmatively and critically). This impression

    was confirmed through a cluster analysis

    of the definitions of public space and the

    importance of public space. Using K-means

    cluster analysis,6 two clusters emerged.

    The first cluster included those articles thatdescribed public space as a meeting place,

    but one characterized by danger, contact

    with strangers, and lack of individual control.

    The importance of public space, in this first

    cluster, was as a place for socialization and

    for identity formation and affirmation made

    possible by the functions that occurred in

    public space, such as walking, recreation,

    and casual interactions; 141 articles were

    included in this cluster. The second cluster

    (74 articles) included those articles that also

    Table 2

    Importance of public space Number of articles % Articles

    Important due to function (eg, walking, gathering) 72 33%

    Socialization, behavior modification, discipline 66 30%

    Democracy, politics, social movemements 65 30%

    Sites of contest 51 23%

    Sites of identify formation 35 16%

    Places for fun, vitality, urbanity, spirit of city 33 15%Building community or social cohesion 32 15%

    Sites of identity affirmation 30 14%

    Living space (eg, for homeless people) 26 12%

    Justice** 0 0%

    Number of articles 218

    * Multiple senses of importance are possible. Answers are not mutually exclusive.

    ** Identified by researchers in interviews, but not in articles.

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 799

    described public space as a meeting place,

    but this time characterized by negotiation

    and conflict, surveillance, displays of ideas,

    public ownership and accompanying legal

    doctrines, and high degrees of accessibility.

    The importance of public space in this second

    cluster was as a location for democracy,politics, and social movements.

    In Weintraubs terms, the literature on

    public space primarily conceives of it in

    terms of the sociability and republican virtue

    models. While Marxist, feminist, and liberal-

    economic theories might significantly influ-

    ence approaches taken and the construction

    of research project,normatively geographers

    seem to be primarily interested in public space

    in relation to politics, community, and identity.

    If the state or business interests have a role toplay in these, it is in terms of enabling or under-

    mining the possibilities for sociability and

    politics, not as publics in and of themselves.

    2 Analysis of interviews with researchers

    Inferring definitions of public space and its

    importance from the literature is difficult,

    however, as many articles define terms and

    signal importance only indirectly. Further-

    more, authors often tailor their operation-

    alization of terms and concepts to the goalsof a journal or edited book, to address re-

    viewer commentaries, or to intervene into

    specific debates in the literature. To look

    more deeply into the ways researchers them-

    selves understand the relationship between

    publicity and public space, therefore, we

    conducted 25 interviews with a subset of the

    authors of this literature. In these interviews

    we asked respondents directly to define pub-

    lic space and to discuss its importance; in so

    doing we sought to understand how theydefined the public.7

    These interviews showed, in fact, that

    there are identifiable differences or perhaps

    nuances between how geographers write

    about public space and how they articulate

    their interest in and knowledge of it. The

    most common definitions of public space in-

    ferred from the interviews was as a meeting

    place (occurring in 44% of the interviews8)

    and as a place lacking control by specific

    individuals (44%) (Table 3). What was strik-

    ing in the interviews, however, was the re-

    duced importance of definitions that stressed

    material, physical spaces (8%) as compared to

    the idealized spaces of the public sphere thatwas woven into the fabric of the city in ways

    that could not easily be separated from private

    spaces. Similarly, definitions of public space

    as a site of contestation were relatively rare

    in the interviews (8%) in comparison with the

    literature.9 Perhaps reflecting a more abstract

    way of discussing publicity and public space,

    many of the researchers we interviewed

    noted that the meaning of public space and

    its importance were contingent historically,

    spatially, and with regard to the issue beingstudied a position not absent, but also not as

    readily apparent, in the literature itself.

    As in the articles, the importance of public

    space was discussed in terms of engaging

    in democratic action (32% of interviews)

    (Table 4). More strongly represented in the

    interviews than in the articles, however, were

    arguments that stressed the importance of

    public space in terms of identity formation

    (24%), identity affirmation (24%), and com-

    munity building/social cohesion (32%). Con-versely, interviewees downplayed the im-

    portance of public space as a site for specific

    functions such as walking or gathering (8%

    of interviews) or socialization/behavioral

    modifications (4%). In essence, most of the

    respondents held a conceptualization of the

    public (and thus the importance of public

    space) that is rooted in forms of sociability.

    However, central to many of the interviews

    was an argument that sociability was vital for

    building a more inclusive public realm. At work,therefore, was a conceptualization of public

    space and the public that was normatively

    political, to some degree bridging Weintraubs

    categories of sociability and republican

    virtue, in a way that was less apparent in the

    published literature, where more clear-cut

    categorizations were apparent.

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    800 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    Table 3

    Definition of public space*

    Number of

    articles

    %

    Articles

    Number of

    researchers

    %

    Researchers

    Physical definition (eg, streets, parks, etc.) 80 37% 2 8%

    Meeting place or place for interaction 58 27% 11 44%

    Sites of negotiation, contest or protest 51 23% 2 8%

    Public sphere, no physical form 34 16% 5 20%

    Opposite of private space 32 15% 5 20%

    Sites of display 28 13% 1 4%

    Public ownership, public property 25 12% 3 12%

    Places of contact with strangers 23 11% 0 0%

    Sites of danger, threat, violence 21 10% 0 0%

    Places of exchange relations (eg, shopping) 19 9% 1 4%

    Space of community 18 8% 2 8%

    Space of surveillance 17 8% 1 4%

    Places of open access no or few limits 16 7% 0 0%Places lacking control by individuals 15 7% 11 44%

    Places governed by open forum doctrine 12 6% 1 4%

    Idealized space no physical form 5 2% 3 12%

    * Multiple definitions in an article or interview are possible. Definitions are not mutually exclusive.

    Table 4

    Importance of public space*

    Number of

    articles

    %

    Articles

    Number of

    researchers

    %

    Researchers

    Important due to function (eg, walking,

    gathering)

    72 33% 2 8%

    Socialization, behavior modification,

    discipline

    66 30% 1 4%

    Democracy, politics, social movemements 65 30% 8 32%

    Sites of contest 51 23% 4 16%

    Sites of identify formation 35 16% 6 24%

    Places for fun, vitality, urbanity, spirit

    of city

    33 15% 3 12%

    Building community or social cohesion 32 15% 8 32%

    Sites of identity affirmation 30 14% 6 24%

    Living space (eg, for homeless people) 26 12% 3 12%

    Justice** 0 0% 3 12%

    Number of articles/researchers 218 25

    * Multiple senses of importance are possible. Answers are not mutually exclusive.

    ** Identified by researchers in interviews, but not in articles.

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 801

    3 Summary and conclusions: academic

    perspectives

    In sum, it appears from the literature and

    interviews that academic geographers

    primarily work with models of publicity

    that associate the public with community,

    polity, and citizenship, and that emphasizesociability. They associate (both positively

    and negatively) such models of publicity with

    spaces that are open, struggled over and in,

    and that are sites, or foundations, for identity

    formation, community building, and social

    cohesion. In so doing geographic discourse

    tends to outline a narrower conceptual uni-

    verse focusing on only two of Weintraubs

    four categories than does political theory

    more broadly. Yet even within this narrower

    universe there are identifiable differences inhow geographers write about publicity and

    public space as compared to the ways they

    talk about it (Table 5).

    Yet, it is important to note that not all

    of the respondents linked sociability with

    politics, in part because of the ways they

    conceptualize publicspace. Indeed some re-

    spondents actively rejected the relationship

    between sociability, politics, and public space

    giving voice to a significant undercurrent in

    the literature and indicating how varied thefield really is. As one person argued:

    I think that the term public space, when used

    in academia perhaps, has been maybe over

    politicized or prematurely politicized. In other

    words, if someone says public space, planners

    and architects kind of look at each other like

    oh-oh, here we go again. I have a basic

    disagreement with a lot of critical geographers in

    that Ive found that almost everyone is allowed

    in [public space]. Im more optimistic, Im

    happier with the situation than I believe most

    critical geographers are. I dont see very many

    people being excluded. And the ones who are,very often, are the ones that I would exclude if

    I had the option.

    Throughout the interview, this person

    allies himself with the general, non-academic

    public, and he suggests that people outside

    the academy may hold another set of ideas

    about what makes a space public, about the

    significance of public space, and about the

    appropriateness of different uses of space.

    Following his lead, we explored this possibility

    through interviews with people actively

    involved in public space controversies in five

    US cities.

    IV The public according to the public

    1 Similarities and differences with the

    academic discourse

    The participants in public space controver-

    sies whom we interviewed were identified

    through newspaper searches and snowball

    strategies, and thus it is unlikely that theyare representative of how the public as a

    whole conceptualizes publicity and public

    space. Nonetheless, because our interviews

    concerned five quite different public space

    struggles, and included a range of people

    from planners to activists, from business

    leaders to architects, and from police to inter-

    ested lay people, they do give an idea of

    the range of conceptualizations. From their

    responses to our questions, it seems that

    participants in public space controversies maythink about these issues differently than do

    academic researchers. The results reported

    in Tables 6 and 7 undoubtedly reflect the

    very different kinds of issues we addressed

    in the case studies and the contingency in

    the ways people understand publicity a

    contingency that many of the academic re-

    searchers highlighted in interviews. Given

    Table 5

    Classification of

    public

    Academic

    research

    Academic

    interviews

    Liberal-economistic:

    Public is state

    Not

    mentioned

    Not

    mentioned

    Republican-virtue

    Public is polity

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Sociability: Public is

    representation

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Marxist-feminist:

    Public is market

    and state

    Not

    mentioned

    Secondary

    empasis

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    802 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    Table6

    Definitionofpublicspace*

    Number

    articles

    %Articles

    N

    umber

    acad.

    int.

    %of

    acad.

    int.

    Total

    siteints.

    %Siteint.

    NewYork

    San

    Diego

    SantaFe

    Syracuse

    Washington

    Physicaldefinition(eg,streets,

    parks,etc.)

    80

    37

    2

    8

    11

    17

    3

    3

    4

    1

    Meetingplace,placeofinteraction

    58

    27

    11

    44

    11

    17

    2

    8

    1

    Siteofnegotiation,contestor

    protest

    51

    23

    2

    8

    1

    2

    1

    Publicsphere,nophysical

    form

    34

    16

    5

    20

    0

    0

    Oppositeofprivatespace

    32

    15

    5

    20

    3

    5

    1

    2

    Siteofdisplay

    28

    13

    1

    4

    0

    0

    Publicownership,publicp

    roperty

    25

    12

    3

    12

    15

    24

    4

    4

    2

    2

    3

    Placeofcontactwithstrangers

    23

    11

    0

    0

    1

    2

    1

    Sitesofdanger,threat,vio

    lence

    21

    10

    0

    0

    0

    0

    Placesofexchangerelations(eg,

    shopping)

    19

    9

    1

    4

    3

    5

    2

    1

    Spaceofcommunity

    18

    8

    2

    8

    9

    14

    7

    1

    1

    Spaceofsurveillnace

    17

    8

    1

    4

    0

    0

    Placeofopenaccessnoorfew

    limitations

    16

    7

    0

    0

    12

    19

    5

    1

    3

    1

    2

    Placeslackingcontrolbyindividuals

    15

    7

    11

    44

    0

    0

    Placesgovernedbyopenforum

    doctrine

    12

    6

    1

    4

    3

    5

    1

    2

    Idealizedspacenophysicalform

    5

    2

    3

    12

    1

    2

    1

    Places

    forpeop

    le/pu

    blic

    byuse**

    5

    8

    3

    2

    Placesma

    de

    bythepu

    blic/p

    ublic

    sweatequity**

    8

    13

    8

    Numberofarticles/interviews

    218

    25

    63

    17

    17

    14

    6

    9

    *Multipledefinitionsarepossible.Itisalsopossiblepeopleofferednodefinition.

    **Definitionsfrominterviewswithparticipants,butnotidentifiedintheliteratue.

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 803

    Table7

    Impotanceofpublicspace

    *

    Number

    articles

    %ArticlesN

    umber

    acad.

    int.

    %of

    acad.

    int.

    Total

    siteints.

    %Siteint.

    NewYork

    San

    Diego

    SantaFe

    Syracuse

    Washington

    Functionalimportancew

    alking,

    meetingplace

    72

    33

    2

    8

    9

    14

    0

    0

    6

    3

    0

    Socialization,behaviormodification,

    discipline

    66

    30

    1

    4

    1

    2

    0

    1

    0

    0

    0

    Democracy,politics,socia

    l

    movements,etc.

    65

    30

    8

    32

    13

    21

    3

    2

    1

    1

    6

    Sitesofcontest

    51

    23

    4

    16

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    Sitesofidentityformation

    35

    16

    6

    24

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    Placeforfun,vitality,urbanity,

    spiritofcity

    33

    15

    3

    12

    7

    11

    3

    2

    1

    1

    0

    Buildingcommunity/socia

    lcohesion

    32

    15

    8

    32

    17

    27

    9

    0

    6

    2

    0

    Sitesofidentityaffirmatio

    n

    30

    14

    6

    24

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    Livingspace(eg,forhomeless

    people)

    26

    12

    3

    12

    4

    6

    1

    3

    0

    0

    0

    Justice**

    0

    0

    3

    12

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    Pu

    blicgoo

    d***

    0

    0

    0

    0

    2

    3

    0

    0

    0

    0

    0

    Greenspace***

    0

    0

    0

    0

    4

    6

    3

    0

    1

    0

    0

    Psychic,spiritua

    lgoo

    d***

    0

    0

    0

    0

    4

    6

    2

    0

    2

    0

    0

    Economicdeve

    lopment***

    0

    0

    0

    0

    6

    10

    0

    6

    0

    0

    0

    Numberofarticles/interviews

    218

    63

    17

    17

    14

    6

    9

    *Multiplecommentsarepossible.Somerespondentsmaynothavesaidwhyitwasimportant.

    **Offeredbyacademicin

    terviewees,butnotinliteratureor

    bysiterespondents.

    ***Offeredbysiterespondentsbutnotidentifiedintheliteratureoracademicinterviews.

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    804 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    the uneven numbers of people interviewed

    and who spoke about publicity in each case

    study, direct comparisons are rather difficult,

    although they do provide a rough indication

    of the importance of particular definitions

    and meanings in each of the controversies.

    We are more interested, then, in the relativeimportance of the different definitions of-

    fered by the participants, than we are in the

    absolute numbers.

    As with the research literature and re-

    search interviews, defining public space in

    terms of physical attributes (17%), relative

    openness (19%), and as a meeting place (17%)

    is common (see Table 6). But the single most

    common definition among our public space

    interviewees was defining public space in

    terms of ownership (24%). The academicliterature, by contrast, turned up instances

    of public space being defined by ownership

    in only 11% of the articles, and was raised in

    only 12% of the academic interviews. Simi-

    larly, our site interviews yielded definitions

    related to community (14%) far more frequ-

    ently than did the literature (8%) or academic

    interviews (8%). Finally, it was relatively com-

    mon in our site interviews for public space to

    be defined in terms of a space made through

    the sweat equity of the public (13%), a defin-ition that did not appear at all in the other two

    sources.10

    Despite these definitional differences,

    there are also clear similarities. While site

    interviewees tended to conceptualize the

    importance of public space more strongly in

    terms of community than either the academic

    literature or the academic interviews, and

    while academics tended to focus more on

    issues of democracy than community, both

    sets of respondents (and the literature) foundaspects of the sociability of public space

    to be important. And yet the differences

    are telling. None of the participants in the

    controversies defined public space in terms

    of display, danger, lacking control, or as a

    space of surveillance, all keywords in the

    critical geography literature and among geo-

    graphers who would likely adopt that label.

    No participants in the site interviews dis-

    cussed the importance of public space in terms

    of identity formation or affirmation, both

    of which were important to the researchers

    we interviewed. In addition, the participants

    had little use for the more conceptual or

    theoretical definitions of public space; theydid not talk about space in the abstract or

    public space as a foundation for the public

    sphere, as was the case in the literature and

    our interviews with researchers.

    It would be incorrect, however, to infer

    that participants in the controversies were

    less capable of or less likely to talk about

    public space conceptually. For instance,

    many people discussed public space as a site

    of community or democracy. Others talked

    about public spaces as spaces of spiritualityand about public space as a site where the

    public good could be achieved. Still others

    talked about public space almost in the

    same sense as Lefebvre (1996) as spaces

    constructed and imbued with meaning be-

    cause the publicmade the space what it was.

    There was a lot of critical theory expressed

    in our interviews with participants in public

    space controversies, albeit in a language

    that was rather different from that used by

    academics.

    2 Differences among cases

    There are interesting and important differ-

    ences among cases, however, that are also

    important. Our focus in New York City, for

    instance, was on community gardens, which

    were built by residents in (predominantly)

    low-income neighborhoods on property

    that was essentially squatted by gardeners;

    they claimed the space for the gardens even

    though the property was owned by the citygovernment (see Staeheli et al., 2002). We

    were drawn to the gardens because of the

    controversy that erupted when then-Mayor

    Rudolph Giuliani tried to auction the garden

    lands to developers, thereby threatening

    the gardens and displacing the gardeners.

    While we tried to interview city officials, many

    were reluctant to speak with us (although

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 805

    we did interview representatives of the

    Department of Housing Preservation, the

    Parks Department, and the citys Green

    Thumb community garden support pro-

    gram). As a result, most of our interviews

    were with gardeners and their supporters.

    Their definition of public space very muchfocused on spaces that were owned by the

    city, but that were actively made public by

    people coming together, creating gardens

    out of wasteland, and thereby building spaces

    in which communities were forged. Many

    respondents noted that the gardens were

    the site of nascent political mobilization,

    although most people who talked about this

    did not ascribe these mobilizations to public

    space, per se. Rather, the gardens which

    happened to be on publicly-owned property provided a venue for gathering and it was

    in the gathering that political mobilizations

    began to take hold. Public space, then, was a

    tool or a resource that was utilized in the for-

    mation of a sense of public-ness of publicity

    among the activists, but it was not a source

    orwell-spring of publicity in and of itself. The

    activists emphasized, as well, that they were

    the ones who made the space public and

    indeed who made the spaces meaningful for

    the public; the spaces did not pre-exist aspublic spaces.

    Our respondents in Santa Fe also empha-

    sized public space as a place where people

    gathered, but they talked about public space

    as very much related to physical places that

    were made by government, rather than about

    places made by the people; in this way, the

    Plaza in Santa Fe was quite different from

    the community gardens. Even with that dif-

    ference, however, people in Santa Fe also

    talked about the importance of public spacein terms of its role in providing a space for

    community and sociability (see Mitchell and

    Staeheli, 2005b). Our respondents in New

    York and Santa Fe were the only people in all

    of our interviews and our reading who ascribed

    a spiritual importance to public space. Indeed,

    one of our respondents organized a gathering

    with a shaman to purge the Santa Fe Plaza of

    evil and racist spirits that spoiled the sacred

    nature of the public spaces and of the people

    who occupied it.

    These first two examples suggested the

    importance of public space for community,

    and at least in New York, as a space of politics.

    The respondents in San Diego and Syracuse,however, were rather different. In San Diego,

    we were interested in the ways that home-

    less people who often use public space as

    their living space were treated in the eco-

    nomic redevelopment of the historic areas

    of the city (see Mitchell and Staeheli, 2006).

    In a sense we were interested in whether

    homeless people were perceived to be, or able

    to act as, part of the public. Because of that

    interest, we did not ask people directly about

    their definitions of public space, althoughsome people did define it without our asking.

    For the most part, we asked whether certain

    members of the public were excluded from

    the redeveloped spaces; from there, it was

    possible to make some inferences about our

    interviewees definition of public space. In this

    context, public space tended to be defined in

    terms of ownership and accessibility, and in

    terms of physical features, such as streets,

    parks, and sidewalks. The importance of

    public space was rather diffusely discussed,but the most common issues included the

    ways in which public space served as living

    or gathering space for homeless people and

    how this contradicted its importance to

    economic development and for creating vital,

    urbane spaces. There are differences here

    compared to the ways people discussed pub-

    lic space in New York City differences that

    may reflect our success in talking with both

    advocates for homeless people and with

    representatives of organizations workingfor economic development and further

    gentrification of the historic district of San

    Diego. In our San Diego interviews, com-

    munity was not mentioned at all, except

    by one respondent who believed that com-

    munity was threatened by the presence of

    homeless people, reflecting perhaps an idea

    that the development of community and

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    806 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    a polity were not as relevant as promoting

    urban development. How homeless people

    fit into the public of San Diego was a question

    that was not resolved, either through policies

    regulating their presence in public space or

    through public debate.

    In Syracuse, a similar emphasis on eco-nomic development permeated our interviews

    as we discussed the redevelopment of a mall

    that was reliant on public subsidies. In this

    case, public space was defined by participants

    uniformly in terms of public ownership and

    it was seen as being important because of

    the functions that could be enacted there

    functions such as walking, meeting, casual

    interactions, and a certain latitude for both

    deviant behaviors and political activity.

    Public space was contrasted directly withprivately-owned, but publicly-accessible

    spaces that might provide some of those

    functions (walking, casual interactions) but

    not others (deviant behavior, political actions).

    What does not emerge in this accounting is as

    interesting as what does. In this case, private

    spaces were seen as being more conducive to

    community formation and socialization to

    the formation of a public precisely because

    the mall owners could exclude people who

    would potentially disrupt the sociability ofcommunity.11 At the same time, many of the

    interviewees recognized that the nature of

    the public formed in the mall was shaped by

    both the rights of the property owner and the

    main function of the space shopping (Staeheli

    and Mitchell, 2006).

    In Washington, we explored a classic

    public space issue: protest. In this case, most

    of our interviews were with people who used

    public space as a site for protest or who were

    involved in the regulation and managementof protest, or litigation over it (see Mitchell

    and Staeheli, 2005a). As might be expected,

    a very different picture emerged in terms of

    what constitutes public space and its sig-

    nificance than what we found in other cases.

    In Washington, public space has a very specific

    meaning to our respondents: government-

    owned spaces that should be accessible with

    few restrictions, and where public forum

    doctrine guaranteeing rights to speech and

    assembly was in force. Above all, according

    to these respondents, public space was where

    democratic freedoms were exercised and

    sometimes tested. In a few cases, people

    discussed this in terms of fostering a politicalcommunity, but most people talked about

    the importance of individual rights. They also

    talked about the various balancing acts in

    which government owners had to engage,

    both to protect individual rights in public

    space and to maintain order. Sociability and

    the political economy were not discussed

    at all.

    What should we make of these five case

    studies exploring different kinds of public

    space controversies? Without implying thatour interviewees were representative or that

    all government officials, economic develop-

    ment promoters, or citizen-activists would

    take like positions on public space and its im-

    portance, we are nonetheless struck by the

    different ways that ideas of public and pub-

    licity were invoked in the interviews. To some

    degree, how people define public space and

    emphasize its importance seems situational.

    That is, within the context of a controversy

    about economic development, respondentsseemed to draw on framings that saw the

    public as a co-joined state-business entity,

    whether they were promoters of economic

    development or highly critical of it; when

    discussing public subsidies of private mall

    development, liberal-economist arguments

    came to the fore, including among those

    who sought to open up the mall for greater

    political action; and in discussion of protest,

    republican-virtue languages predominated,

    particularly among the police we interviewedwho were charged with managing protest,

    and who were often quite critical of protesters

    tactics. As Table 8 summarizes, across the

    cases the full range of Weintraubs categories

    were drawn upon; within cases, however,

    the discourse was much more focused and

    depended on the issues at hand.

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 807

    That is to say, as with our interviews

    with public space researchers, definitions ofpublic space, the public, and publicity, and

    discussions of their importance seem to be

    contingent, not fixed. Weintraubs categories

    are thus best seen as heuristics that allow us

    to begin to question the degree of flexibility in

    the discourse over public space and publicity

    the degree to which discursive constructs are

    a fluid resource ready to be deployed in debate

    and struggle or the degree to which they

    channel or shape understandings and perhaps

    make meanings relatively incommensurable.Our respondents could fluently, and clearly,

    shift the meaning of public in response to our

    questions and in order to make a point about

    the control and regulation of space. In common

    usage, as in academic discourse, this flexibility

    this multivalance of the term public can

    be both a discursive resource and a source

    of confusion or dissonance. Complexity of

    terminology reflects the complexity of the

    issues and the contentiousness of the politics

    that often surround them.

    V Implications for research and practice

    As heuristics, Weintraubs categories allow

    questions to be raised about the relationship

    between academic research and the ways

    it is or is not equivalent to the discourse at

    large in the public. Table 9 brings together

    the results from all our data sources. What

    is significant is the degree that particular

    framings of public are part of everyday en-gagement with the world in this case as

    revealed through public space controversies

    but not part of the conceptual lexicon of

    public space researchers. At the same time,

    it is apparent that scholars rarely work from a

    singular framing of the public such as purely

    liberal-economistic or purely Marxist-feminist

    framings even when they seek to develop

    normative political theories about what public

    space and publicityshouldbe.

    The point is not necessarily to changeacademic language, or to seek to reform pub-

    lic discourses (as if that was so simple), but

    rather to understand the different framings

    at work when the public, publicity, and public

    space are invoked. The point is to understand

    how and why these differences matter. If the

    range of definitions at work across our cases is

    at all indicative, then the fact that the public

    or lay language of publicity and public space

    draws on a larger set of discursive framings

    than does academic geographys discourseabout publicity and public space is an important

    finding. It is important empirically because it

    suggests new avenues of research, such as

    how popular understandings of the public as

    the government are translated into specific

    spatial outcomes, or conversely how different

    characteristics of space reinforce such liberal-

    economistic framings in everyday life. It is also

    Table 8

    Classification of public

    New York:

    Community

    Gardens

    San Diego:

    Redevelopment

    Santa Fe:

    Plaza

    Syracuse:

    Shopping

    Mall

    Washington,

    DC: Protest

    Liberal-economistic:

    Public is state

    Not

    mentioned

    Not mentioned Not

    mentioned

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasisRepublican virtue:

    Public is polity

    Primary

    emphasis

    Not mentioned Primary

    emphasis

    Not

    mentioned

    Primary

    emphasis

    Sociability: Public is

    representation

    Not

    mentioned

    Not mentioned Secondary

    emphasis

    Not

    mentioned

    Not

    mentioned

    Marxist-feminist:

    Public is market

    and state

    Not

    mentioned

    Primary

    emphasis

    Not

    mentioned

    Not

    mentioned

    Not

    mentioned

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    808 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    important because it suggests that there are

    othernormative framings of public space thanthose on which geographers have heretofore

    concentrated.

    Understanding the range of framings at

    large in the public, and their relation to

    academic framings, likewise points to the

    perhaps obvious point that the same words

    and concepts can be interpreted in very dif-

    ferent ways depending on a host of contin-

    gent factors, including the nature of the spe-

    cific issues at hand (eg, redevelopment vs.

    community gardening, or protest vs. publicsubsidy of publicly accessible private pro-

    perty). Though perhaps obvious, such a focus

    on contingency within overall discursive and

    material structures is crucial for understand-

    in g why both academics and lay people

    understand publicity and public space in the

    ways that they do. In the never-ending desire

    to increase geographys public relevance,

    such attention to contingency is vital. Yet at

    the same time, our interviews with particip-

    ants in public space controversies showed usthat they were often eager to hear how we

    conceptualized public space and the public.

    They saw us, not infrequently, as a resource

    perhaps not one they would seek out in the

    midst of a political struggle, but at least within

    the opportunities created by the interview

    for deepening their own understandings or

    seeing public space and its importance anew.

    The crucial issue here is that definitional

    differences matter. They matter becausethey form the basis from which social agents

    academic, activist, policy-making, or political

    attempt to intervene in the spaces of the city

    in order to achieve particular normative goals.

    They are often, thus, precisely the basis for

    conflict, since they indicate the ineluctably

    political nature of the meaning of the public,

    publicity and public space. How people

    understand the meaning and importance

    of public, publicity and public space sets the

    terms for the kinds of democracy and citizen-ship at stake in public controversies and

    how that might be achieved within actually-

    existing democracy (Fraser, 1990).

    It is therefore important to understand

    that, while def initions of public space and

    publicity vary with different positions and

    assumptions,usagevaries too. People struggling

    through specific public space controversies,

    and academics seeking to make sense of

    those, are often flexible in their usage of

    public, public space, publicity, and the like,even as that flexibility is necessarily shaped

    by well-worn discursive channels. Weintraubs

    categories are both an empirical description

    of political theory and, we suggest, an accur-

    ate representation of the taken-for-granteds

    in public discourse. Drawing on seemingly

    commonsense notions of the public as the

    state, or as the people, or on publicity as

    Table 9

    Classification of

    public

    Academic

    Research

    Academic

    Interviews

    New

    York

    San

    Diego

    Santa Fe Syracuse Washington

    Liberal-

    economistic:

    Public is state

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Republican virtue:

    Public is polity

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Sociability: Public

    is representation

    Primary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

    Secondary

    emphasis

    Marxist-feminist:

    Public is market

    and state

    Secondary

    emphasis

    Primary

    emphasis

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    Lynn A. Staeheli and Don Mitchell: Locating the public in research and practice 809

    sociability, allows for the making of points

    and staking out of positions (even as it tends

    to reproduce exactly these commonsense

    notions). This is not necessarily a handicap,

    but rather reflects both the complexity of the

    issues and ideas, and the exigencies of the

    moment. Understanding how and why spe-cific usages are employed at particular mo-

    ments is an essential clue to the different

    assumptions and positions people hold.

    As such, a crucial implication of the analy-

    sis presented here is that any analysis of how

    and why specific usages are employed must

    be wedded to an analysis of the relative

    ability to act on the normative visions and

    politics that different definitions of the public

    invoke. For example, that police officers and

    agencies charged with regulating protestunderstand publicity through something like

    a republican-virtue model is important, for

    this is a drastic change from even a generation

    ago (eg, Marx, 1998). Understanding how they

    interpret that model is even more important.

    Most important, yet, is an analysis of how

    and how they arenot able to implement their

    version of publicity-through-protest. It is an

    important analysis, as protest policing has

    been regularized through what is called a

    negotiated public order management system(McPhailet al., 1998), such that the police

    have the power to guide organizers along a

    path acceptable to the political authorities

    (Fillieule and Jobard, 1998: 78); through this

    power, they exert control over public space and

    implement a normative vision that enforces a

    particular conceptualization of the public and

    publicity.

    The people involved in debates over pub-

    licity and actions in public space just what

    locates the public are positioned differentlyin relation to social power. For those people or

    social groups who are marginalized, finding a

    space to be seen or heard, or simply tobe is vital

    to their ability to develop a political subjectivity

    and a sense of worthiness as a citizen; this is

    important for themselves as political subjects

    and to their struggles to gain recognition from

    the state and the political community. How

    they conceptualize publicity and the public,

    thus, is vital to how andwhere they struggle

    for recognition. Political communities have

    different sources of social power that may

    draw from their prior recognition, the con-

    ferral of legitimacy, and their ability to organize

    in ways that allow them to advance their ownpolitical and social goals. The state and eco-

    nomic institutions have their own sources of

    power, and as we have seen, may have their

    own ways of conceptualizing publicity. Under-

    standing these differences is important if we

    as academics and as people who may hope to

    contribute to particular visions of the public

    are to contribute to debates that are public, in

    all senses of that term.

    AcknowledgementThis research was funded by National

    Science Foundation grant BCS-9819828;

    that support is greatly appreciated. Thanks

    also to three anonymous referees and to

    Pilar Palacia and her staff at the Villa Serbelloni

    who made it possible to complete an earlier

    draft of this article.

    Notes1. The literature on the public, publicity, and public

    space, of course, is far larger than that produced by

    geographers. But it is also the case that geographic

    research over the past generation has drawn on

    an exceptionally wide range of political theory,

    epistemological foundations, and ontological

    starting points, and thus serves as a useful con-

    densation of contemporary theorizing about the

    public.

    2. We selected researchers who have a PhD because

    we assumed that their writing was more likely

    to reflect their own thinking about publicity and

    public space without the direct or guiding hand

    of the advisor. We limited our focus to academics

    working in the United States for reasons related

    to the overall project rationale, which includedresearch on how academic work becomes rele-

    vant within a particular national setting: see

    Staeheli and Mitchell (2005).

    3. The analogy is with privacy: privacy refers to the

    conditions for and of being private; publicity refers

    to the conditions for and of being public.

    4. Weintraubs categories, it must be remembered,

    are descriptive of the discourse, and thus some

    who ascribe to particular discursive positionings

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    810 Progress in Human Geography 31(6)

    might not ascribe to the label Weintraub gives them.

    Plenty of institutions many Christian churches, for

    example figure the public as the state and econ-

    omy and the private as the domestic and familial,

    but cannot themselves be described as Marxist-

    feminist. Weintraubs label reflects the fact that it

    was primarily Marxist and feminist political theory

    that named and brought to the fore this kind ofanalysis. The point is that the multiple meanings

    or understanding of public in the theoretical and

    the lay discourse is reflected in practice and that

    the multiplicity of meanings confounds debates

    over the public in public space research and in public

    space controversies.

    5. Much of the legal literature on civility in public

    space works through this model. See, for example,

    Eillickson (1996); Tier (1993); for a critique, see

    Amster (2004).

    6. Cluster analysis can be used to analyze cases in

    this instance, articles that have been coded in a

    series of yes/no variables. It then groups, or clusters,

    cases together by the degree to which they share

    definitions.

    7. The coding process for the interview transcripts was

    the same as it was for the literature.

    8. With 25 interviews, we realize that the use of per-

    centages may distort the impression of difference

    in responses. We use the percentages here, so that

    comparisons across the definitions from articles and

    interviews can be made more easily.

    9. Note that a total of 4 interviewees listed the

    importance of public space as a site of contest (see

    Table 4): that is to say, two researchers did not

    include contestation as part of their operational

    definition of public space, but did understand it aspart of its normative importance.

    10. Some of our interviewees found our questions about

    how to define public space silly. As one woman in

    Santa Fe exclaimed, Its a plaza! Duh! Of course it

    is public!, suggesting that on the ground the public-

    ness of a space often seems self-evident.

    11. Similar concerns were expressed by some of the

    respondents in Santa Fe and San Diego, where they

    noted that the easy accessibility to public spaces of

    the Plaza or downtown by undesirable people

    people who make them feel uncomfortable had

    the effect of making a different segment of the

    public feel unwilling to participate in public life.

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