Park Avenue was once a park.
Since the ratification of the Bill of Rights, the right to free assembly has served as an outlet for popular discontent, with our parks, squares, avenues and plazas serving as our front lines. In the 20th century however, these same spaces fell as casualties to the increasing demands of private interest. Most recently, government response to threats of global terrorism has yielded tightened constraints on what little space remains in our urban landscape. National security now justifies unprecedented incursions into civil liberties, with public officials using permits, fees, and bureaucratic hassles to frustrate the vocalizations of public sentiment.
At the same time, the term ‘public space’ is being recast in the intellectual sphere: current discussions regularly define the term in a broad, figurative sense, moving away from real space to new online terrain. The Internet and mobile technologies have been heralded as the new cradle of active citizen participation and democracy.
This course will investigate both the meaning of ‘public space’ and its relationship to democracy in the 21st century. Is the public square a fading locus in which to develop and express political ideas? And, what is at stake as these spatial borders shift more and more from the physical to the virtual?
Conceivably (but not necessarily), the course could exist as a two-part seminar: part one would address the concepts/ideas at large, while part two would take New York City as a case study for detailed examination.
Some questions for further examination and discussion:
- How do we define public space in the 21st Century? What characteristics must it contain? And, how do these definitions enable movement of, and communication within, groups of people?
- Is it useful to distinguish between the terms public realm/sphere (generally used by philosophers/theorists) and public space (used by geographers architects)? Is it useful to conflate them?
- How should citizens participate in democracy and where should they do it? Is public space a necessary component for civic engagement? Does citizenship require the location of physical bodies in physical spaces?
- How do a city’s parks, squares, and boulevards enable democracy? Are they necessary?
- What is the significance of including the internet (and communication technologies more broadly) as public space?
- What are there implications, if any, if public debate and dissent move primarily online?
- How should the local authorities negotiate the sometimes fine line between free expression and havoc?
- How has public space been qualified and regulated through the creation of sanctioned speech?
- What are exclusion/free speech zones and how are they used to control public assembly?
The seminar component focusing on NYC might also consider the following: the histories/uses of Union Square, Tompkins Square Park, and Central Park; the history of the parade permit requirement (and its recent redefinition); the lack of space and poor treatment afforded to organized demonstrations at the 2004 Republican Convention. Obviously, this list is not exhaustive...
SESSION 1 (See attached note for full description; readings can be found here): Monday, April 19, 7:15 pm, at 177 Livingston; taught by Craig Willse
SESSION 2 (See attached note for full description and reading list): Thursday, May 6, 7:15pm, at 177 Livingston; taught by Hillary Angelo & Kate Louis
SESSION 3 (See attached note for full description); Monday, June 7, 7:00pm, at 177 Livingston; taught by Elena Madison
ALL SESSIONS ARE FREE