Rites of WayRites of Way
There are many ways to approach the subject of public space: the threats posed to it by surveillance and visual pollution; the joys it offers of stimulation and excitement, of anonymity and transformation; its importance to urban variety or democratic politics. But public space remains an evanescent and multidimensional concept that too often escapes scrutiny.
The essays in Rites of Way: The Politics and Poetics of Public Space open up multiple dimensions of the concept from architectural, political, philosophical, and technological points of view. There is some historical analysis here, but the contributors are more focused on the future of public space under conditions of growing urbanization and democratic confusion. The added interest offered by non-academic work—visual art, fiction, poetry, and drama—is in part an admission that this is a topic too important to be left only to theorists. It also makes an implicit argument for the crucial role that art, not just public art, plays in a thriving public realm.
Throughout this work contributors are guided by the conviction, not pious but steely, that healthy public space is one of the best, living parts of a just society. The paths of desire we follow in public trace and speak our convictions and needs, our interests and foibles. They are the vectors and walkways of the social, the public dimension of life lying at the heart of all politics.
Kingwell (Philosophy, University of Toronto) and Turmel (Philosophy, Laval University) have assembled essays that examine the concept of public space from architectural, political, philosophical, and technological points of view. Guided by the notion that healthy public spaces are one of the best parts of any town or city, contributors focus on how growing urbanization and democratic confusion will affect the future of public space. Containing fiction and visual art in addition to more conventional essays, this book is a lively discussion of the role that public spaces play--or could play--in modern cities. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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- Waterloo, Ont. : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, c2009.
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