How to study public life free download

The Missing Tools At the beginning of the s, critical voices began to point out that something was very wrong in many of the new districts being built, in record numbers, during this period of rapid urban growth. Something was missing, something. Among the critics of the time were Jane Jacobs and William H. Public life and public space were historically treated as a cohesive unit. Cities have grown gradually for hundreds of years, rooted in many years of experience and an intuitive feeling for human senses and scale.

The organic growth of medieval cities encompassed a building tradition based on generations of experience in how to create cities with well-functioning interaction between life and space. But this knowledge was lost somewhere in the process of industrialization and modernization, which led to dysfunctional city environments for the important and yet ignored segment of city life on foot. Of course, society has changed since the Middle Ages.

The solution is not to recreate pre-modern cities, but to develop contemporary tools that can be applied analytically to once again forge an alliance between life and space in cities.

The Contours of an Academic Field The environmental design pioneers of the s took the basic steps needed to better understand the ephemeral concept of public life and its interaction with public space and buildings.

Their method was to study existing, and as a rule pre-industrial, cities and public space to gain basic knowledge about how we use and get around in cities. Several books published from to the mids are still considered the basic textbooks for public life studies. Up to the mids, this work was carried out primarily at academic institutions. However, by the end of that decade, it was clear that the analyses and principles regarding public life and public space should be converted into tools that could be used directly in urban planning practice.

City planners and politicians wanted to make conditions better for people in order to have an edge in inter-city competition. It became a strategic goal to create attractive cities for people in order to attract residents, tourists, investments and employees to fill new jobs in the knowledge society.

From about the year , it increasingly became taken for granted in the fields of architecture and urban planning practice generally that working with life in cities was crucial. Much bitter experience had shown that vibrant city life does not happen by itself. This is particularly noticeable in cities that are highly developed economically, because apart from commuters, people are no longer on the street by necessity to work, sell trinkets, do errands, and so on.

However, less economically viable cities are also impacted, because the rapidly growing volume of motorized traffic and related infrastructure provides obstacles for pedestrians and produces noise and air pollution for many people in their daily lives. The core of the matter is to get the large volumes of life in public spaces to function in a way that allows daily life to take place under decent conditions and partner with the physical framework instead of fighting against it.

Observations in the City Direct observation is the primary tool of the type of public life studies described in this book.

As a general rule, users are not actively involved in the sense of being questioned, rather they are observed, their activities and behavior mapped in order to better understand the needs of users and how city spaces are used. The direct observations help to understand why some spaces are used and others are not. Please look closely at real cities. While you are looking, you might as well also listen, linger and think about what you see. They could be animals or cells: counting how many there are in total, how quickly they move under various conditions, and generally describing how they behave on the basis of systematic observation.

The observations are conducted with the naked eye and occasionally using cameras or other aids to zoom in on situations or fast-freeze the moment in order to analyze the situation more closely. The point is to sharpen the gaze of the observer.

A literary author who made a virtue out of describing ordinary life as it unfolds in public space was Frenchman Georges Perec Force yourself to write down what is not of interest, the most banal, ordinary, colorless. For illustrations, please look closely at real cities. Certainly the sense of sight is key to observation, but this does not mean closing down our other senses; on the contrary. It means focusing our attention and noticing the surroundings we move through quite unconsciously every day.

Anyone who decides to observe life in the city will quickly realize that you have to be systematic in order to get useful knowledge from the complex confusion of life in public space. Perhaps the person being observed is actually running an errand, but takes time to look at other people along the way, or catches sight of a protest march in the street that becomes all engrossing.

An observer can play various roles depending on the character of the study. The role of registrar, for example, counting units, where precision is the most important function.

The registrar can also have an assessment role, categorizing people by age group, for example. Here the ability to evaluate is the most important function. It is possible to train your eye in the art of observation. Naturally, there is a difference between the eye of a professional and a lay person, but in principle, anyone can observe city life. Beginners will need to hone their skills, see the world through new eyes and use tools advisedly, while the trained, professional eye can perceive new connections.

However, there are great differences in the degree to which observers will understand the form aspects. If observers are also expected to interpret, they will need spatial training. Whyte and Jan Gehl encouraged people to see the interaction of. In using these manual methods, the observer is the human factor for good and ill. Technical solutions such as video surveillance cameras or GPS Global Positioning System tracking devices can sometimes serve as more objective solutions.

The decision must be made as to the degree of precision needed and the form of knowledge wanted. The key difference is that human registration always brings more than cold facts to the table.

He explains how to develop cities that are Lively, Safe, Sustainable, and Healthy. Focusing on these issues leads Gehl to think of even the largest city on a very small scale. For Gehl, the urban landscape must be considered through the five human senses and experienced at the speed of walking rather than at the speed of riding in a car or bus or train. This small-scale view, he argues, is too frequently neglected in contemporary projects.

In a final chapter, Gehl makes a plea for city planning on a human scale in the fast- growing cities of developing countries. People Cities tells the inside story of how Gehl learned to study urban spaces and implement his people-centered approach in car-dominated cities. It discusses the work, theory, life, and influence of Gehl from the perspective of those who have worked with him in cities across the globe.

It will inspire anyone who wants to create vibrant, human-scale cities and understand the ideas and work of the architect who has most influenced urban design. Thematically, the volume crosses disciplinary boundaries and traverses territories to address the philosophical, political, legal, planning, design, and management issues in the social construction of public space. The Companion uniquely assembles important voices from diverse fields of philosophy, political science, geography, anthropology, sociology, urban design and planning, architecture, art, and many more, under one cover.

It addresses the complete ecology of the topic to expose the interrelated issues, challenges, and opportunities of public space in the twenty-first century. The book is primarily intended for scholars and graduate students for whom it will provide an invaluable and up-to-date guide to current thinking across the range of disciplines that converge in the study of public space.

The Companion will also be of use to practitioners and public officials who deal with the planning, design, and management of public spaces.

This book takes up the challenge to find an objective way to prove or disprove this phenomenon. This pragmatic approach to analysing public space is tested then on three new public places recently created on the post-industrial waterfront of the River Clyde, in the city of Glasgow, UK. By seeing where and why certain public places fail, direct and informed interventions can be made to improve them, and through this contribute to the building of more attractive and sustainable cities.

It also bridges the gap between theory and practice as it draws from empirical research to suggest more quantitative approaches towards auditing and improving public places. The understanding of public space as an arena where individuals can claim full use and access hides a reality of constant negotiation, conflict and surveillance.

This collection uses case studies concerning the management, use, and transgression of public space to invite reflection on the way in which everyday social interaction is framed and shaped by the physical environment and vice versa. International experts from fields including geography, criminology, sociology and urban studies come together to debate the concepts of order and conflict in public space. This book is divided into two parts: spaces of control, and spaces of transgression.

Section I focuses on formal and informal surveillance and the politics of control, using case studies to compare strategies in spaces including Olympic cities, luxury skyscrapers, residential neighbourhoods and shopping malls. Section II focuses on transgressive or deviant behaviour in public spaces, with case studies examining behaviour in nightlife districts, governance of homelessness, boy-racer culture and abortion protests. The epilogue concludes the book with an exploration of possible future avenues for research on public space, and a critical appraisal of the concept of public space itself.

This interdisciplinary collection will be of interest to students, researchers and professionals in the areas of criminology, sociology, surveillance studies, human and social geography, and urban studies and planning. Anyone interested in improving city life will find inspiration, tools, and examples in this invaluable guide. Copyright Disclaimer: This site does not store any files on its server.

We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.