Public space and the ideology of place in American culture
"We typically take public space for granted, as if it has continuously been there, yet public space has always been the expression of the will of some agency (person or institution) who names the space, gives it purpose, and monitors its existence. And often its use has been contested. These new essays, written for this volume, approach public space through several key questions: Who has the right to define public space? How do such places generate and sustain symbolic meaning? Is public space unchanging, or is it subject to our subjective perception? Do we, given the public nature of public space, have the right to subvert it? These eighteen essays, including several case studies, offer convincing evidence of a spatial turn in American studies. They argue for a re-visioning of American culture as a history of place-making and the instantiation of meaning in structures, boundaries, and spatial configurations. Chronologically the subjects range from Pierre L'Enfant's initial majestic conceptualization of Washington, D.C. to the post-modern realization that public space in the U.S. is increasingly a matter of waste. Topics range from parks to cities to small towns, from open-air museums to airports, encompassing the commercial marketing of place as well as the subversion and re-possession of public space by the disenfranchised. Ultimately, public space is variously imagined as the site of social and political contestation and of aesthetic change"--Provided by publisher
Conference papers and proceedings
1 online resource (460 pages) : illustrations, maps
9781441613400, 9789042028784, 9789042025745, 9781282594593, 9786612594595, 1441613404, 9042028785, 9042025743, 1282594591, 6612594594
644525117
Print version:
Miles ORVELL & Jeffrey L. MEIKLE: IntroductionPart One: Public Space as SymbolAnna MINTA: Planning a National Pantheon: Monuments in Washington, D.C., and the Creation of Symbolic SpaceJohn F. SEARS: ‘How the Devil It Got There’: The Politics of Form and Function in the Smithsonian ‘Castle’Torben Huus LARSEN: The Museum of Appalachia and the Invention of an Idyllic PastMiles ORVELL: Constructing Main Street: Utopia and the Imagined PastJeffrey L. MEIKLE: Pasteboard Views: Idealizing Public Space in American Postcards, 1931–1953Part Two: Contesting Public Space Nadine KLOPFER: ‘Terra Incognita’ in the Heart of the City? Montreal and Mount Royal around 1900Peter B. HALES: Grid, Regulation, Desire Line: Contests Over Civic Space in ChicagoLaura LAWSON: The Precarious Nature of Semi-Public Space: Community Garden Appeal, Complacency, and Implications for Sustaining User-Initiated PlacesKay F. EDGE: Buy, Sell, Roam: The Airport Calculus of RetailBryant SIMON: Consuming Third Place: Starbucks and the Illusion of Public SpaceRickie SANDERS: The Public Space of Urban CommunitiesPart Three: The Mutability of Public SpaceEric J. SANDEEN: Walking the High LineKerstin SCHMIDT: The Search for a Democratic Architecture: A New Sense of Space and the Reconfiguration of American ArchitectureTimothy DAVIS: Designed Space vs. Social Space: Intention and Appropriation in an American Urban ParkDavid E. NYE: Public Space Transformed: New York’s BlackoutsSarah LURIA: Air and SpaceAndrew S. GROSS: Imagining the Interstate: Henry Miller, Post-Tourism, and the Disappearance of American PlaceKlaus BENESCH: Writing Grounds: Ecocriticism, Dumping Sites, and the Place of Literature in a Posthuman Age
English