Contesting Public Spaces: Social Lives of Urban Redevelopment in London

Description

This book explores concerns for spatial justice as streets, squares, and neighbourhoods are continuously made and remade through planning processes, political ambitions and everyday activities. By investigating three sites in London that have been the focus of masterplanning, Ed Wall exposes conflicts between planning offices and private developers who direct large urban change and community groups, market traders and residents whose public lives are inseparable from their neighbourhoods being reconfigured. The book uniquely brings sociological approaches to what are often considered architectural concerns, revealing challenges as London's public spaces are designed, regulated and lived. Through in-depth research, Ed Wall identifies how uncertainty caused by large-scale urban strategies, the realisation of visual priorities, and uneven relations between private interests, public organisations and daily lives determine the public realm of global cities. This work is intended for readers interested in how the urban spaces of their cities are continually produced in competing ways―from architecture and urban studies scholars to planners and politicians. Cover Half Title Title Copyright Dedication Table of Contents List of Figures Preface Introduction: Contesting public spaces Three public spaces Redevelopment of public space Approaches to public space 1. Social and spatial relations Policies and strategies for public space Masterplanning districts with public space Fixing public space architecturally Public spaces of interactions Conclusions 2. Making and taking Processes of making Scales of development Taking through remaking Conclusions 3. Place as property Making space, talking place Movement and obstructions Repackaging Paddington Conclusions 4. Ornaments and images Scenes of associations Placing ornaments and taking photographs Managing contestations and maintaining consensus Conclusions 5. Approaches to public spaces Spatial forms Visual images Social interactions Conclusions Conclusions London concerns Future considerations Epilogue: Three propositions Bibliography Appendix A List of interviews and conversations Index