Domain and Forum: Public Space, Public Freedom

The particular problems of content and viewpoint discrimination rarely surface in copyright, though some people have argued that fair use implicates them. Nonetheless, one important lesson for copyright from public forum doctrine is that First Amendment law can take some - though not many - speech-related options off the table. In this brief comment, I argue that analogies between copyright law and public forum doctrine highlight important shared commitments to free and robust public discourse, but also substantial practical barriers to judicial enforcement of those commitments

Youth Activism and Public Space in Egypt

Examines youth activists' use of virtual and physical public spaces before, during, and after the January 25 Revolution. Profiles three organizations and analyzes the power and limitations of social media to spur civic action, as well as the role of art

Visibility and the Policing of Public Space

From studies of ‘panoptic’ CCTV surveillance to accounts of undercover police officers, it is often mooted that visibility and invisibility are central to the policing of public space. However, there has been no comprehensive and critical assessment of this axiom. Drawing on the practices of a variety of policing providers and regulators, and the work of geographers, criminologists and other social scientists, this paper examines how and why visibility underpins the policing of public space. We begin by considering the ways in which policing bodies and technologies seek to render themselves selectively visible and invisible in the landscape. The paper then moves on to explore the ways in which policing agents attempt to make ‘incongruous’ bodies, behaviours and signs variously visible and invisible in public space. We then offer a sympathetic critique of these accounts, arguing that more attention is needed in understanding: (i) how other senses such as touch, smell and sound are socially constructed as in and out-of-place and ‘policed’ accordingly; and (ii) how the policing of undesirable bodies and practices is not simply about quantitative crime reduction, but conducted through qualitative, embodied performance. The paper concludes by pinpointing key areas for future research

Synergy between public space politics and mobility strategies

¿Hasta qué punto y en qué circunstancias movilidad, como aspecto funcional e inevitable del entorno humano, se puede convertir en un elemento afirmativo de espacio público dándole un nuevo significado y un valor añadido? Diálogo entre movilidad y espacio público se puede explicar mediante la comprensión de las estrategias de movilidad como partidario de la integración de diferentes lógicas urbanas, observando infraestructura como un elemento de configuración de espacio público y al cuestionar transporte como pivote del carácter e identidad de espacio público. El objetivo principal de esta discusión es la integración urbana y contextual de los sistemas de transporte vistos como confluencias de lógica urbana y lógica de transporte desarrolladas como una sola expresión. Armonizando esta paradoja es posible crear sinergias entre espacio público y transporte que ganan nuevas dimensiones.Up to which point and under which circumstances mobility, as a functional and an inevitable aspect of the human environment, can become an affirmative element of public space giving it a new significance and an additional value? Dialog between mobility and public space can be explained by understanding mobility strategies as a supporter of integration of different urban logics, by observing infrastructure as an element of public space configuration and by questioning transport as a pivot of public space character and identity. The main focus of this discussion is on mobility lines, specifically urban and contextual integration of transport systems seen as a crossroads between urban and transport logic, developed as a single expression. Harmonizing this paradox it is possible to create synergies between public space and mobility which gain new dimensions

Public space regeneration strategies: the case of Salou

Salou, which is one of the many highly specialized tourist resorts located on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, is a hundred kilometres south of Barcelona. Within its narrow boundaries of 1.481 ha, Salou hosts 7.4 million overnight stays per year and is home to 52 hotels. A ratio which ranks Salou amongst the tenth most visited municipalities in Spain. Distance from Salou’s historical town centre, the area of Carles Buigas Avenue (CB) emerges as being the heart of the municipality’s tourism and leisure industry. Salou developed, as did so many other Spanish coastal touristic locations, during the sixties and seventies as a consequence of the increasing demand for sun and beach destinations amongst the European and Spanish middle classes. Unfortunately, the “ageing” of this built up area clamours for close attention today. The visible physi-cal degradation of the property is becoming a cause for concern and preoccupation amongst the main property owners and investors: public administration, hotel managers, shopkeepers and neighbours. Hotels emerge as the key problem within the set physical boundaries of this study. They occupy approximately 50% of the total land surface, 28 out of a total of 52 hotels within the town being con-centrated in that area. This accumulation of hotels also breaks the particularity of the predominance of second residences which is so customary along the Spanish Coast. This paper delves into the data and proposals obtained from analysing the public space of the CB area. Similarly, as a consequence of the previous analysis, a set of proposals for intervention are also presented. The proposals are conceived to be developed within different time scales, in response to political and social willingness and economic capacity. The objective of the work is to induce an urban and tourism paradigm shift in the area, thus facilitating the emergence of a new tourism model. Solu-tions are urgently needed to provide specific answers to a particular scenario, which has similitudes to those of other Mediterranean Coastal Developments specialized in tourism activities, which too, after being operative for more than forty years, are suffering from deterioration or abandonment. Despite it still being an open process, the study understands that due to the complexity of the com-mitted task and the scale of the area, the goal will require the active commitment and collaboration of the property owners (administration, hotel managers, investors and neighbours).Postprint (published version

A spatial revolution continues in Oakland

The article describes the purpose-built young adult space in Oakland Public Library\u27s (OPL) 81st Avenue Branch in California. Launched on January 29, 2011, the space emphasizes the library\u27s dedication to young adult literature. The space expands the library\u27s commitment to public space equity for teenagers as well as contributes to the facility\u27s revolution in serving young adult readers. An overview of the planning process involved in the construction of the space.