Inclusiveness in Public Urban Spaces (Essay Sample)

Inclusiveness in Public Urban Spaces
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1.0 LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1 INTRODUCTION
This chapter provides existing information on the social inclusiveness in public urban spaces. Public spaces are an integral part of our modern built environment and are at the heart of public life. Often, the public space is regarded as a public resource that provides various public benefits and opportunities. (UN Habitat, 2015). However, there are various urban spaces: public urban spaces, private urban spaces, and hybrid urban spaces. By definition, public space is an environmental space available to the general public.
On the contrary, private spaces are those urban spaces owned privately and with restricted or limited access. Besides, a new concept of hybrid spaces can be introduced in urban settings. Hybrid urban spaces are defined in two ways; those that are semi-public and those that are semi-private. Compared to public spaces, semi-public areas are areas with a degree of control exerted once access is granted to an individual. On the contrary, semi-private areas are private urban areas where a member of the general public can only join if they have a reason to do so determined by the management systems.
The idea of inclusiveness in urban areas involves improving the social inclusion of residents of all ages, cultures, and ethnicities within the urban spaces through spatial integration measures. One of the most pressing issues confronting urban growth worldwide is segregation. Many urban growth trends usually result in an uneven social demographic distribution, with the population of lower classes clustered in remote, unhealthy, and disconnected areas.   As a result, there is a disparity in a variety of aspects of urban life, ranging from poor urban connectivity, inaccessibility of facilities and infrastructure to social inequity (Espino, 2015). By serving as hubs for intercultural interaction and exchange, public spaces will help improve urban segregation. Physical planning strategies can also assist in opening up previously isolated communities. In general, comprehensive urban planning initiatives, affordable housing, and well-connected public infrastructure must be included in planning urban spaces. A city's well-being depends on well-designed and protected public spaces. Social interaction, public engagements, and luxury are possible in such public environments; hence fighting spatial segregation requires restoring neighbourhoods in an integrated manner while delivering quality shared spaces. In that case, policy-makers must pay close attention to the underrepresented communities in public spaces and create opportunities to ensure inclusiveness in public urban spaces.
Citing references from books, journals, and other publications, information on how urban spaces can be more socio-spatial inclusive has been discussed regarding the public space itself, right to the city, inclusivity, and spatial affordance, and the public domain.
1.2 PUBLIC SPACE
Public spaces are urban spaces that are open to the general public at all hours of the day and night, including roads, public squares, parks, and beaches, among others. Lefebvre argues in "The Production of Space" (1974) that space is a dynamic social construction based on people's values and social sense production. Lefebvre was able to link space representation and creativity to one's identity and indicate how physical space influences them.
However, the general representation of publicness in urban space can be interpreted by two different levels: the conceptual and realistic approaches (Varna, 2010). The conceptual approach is concerned with various individual perceptions of publicness as well as the academic fields that record them. Across the humanities and social sciences fields, public spaces are attracting more publicity. On the other hand, the realistic approach entails the development of actual public spaces, which then serve as sources of understanding and interpretation for the general public.
New public spaces are being developed worldwide, and old public space styles are redesigned to suit modern needs. UN-Habitat published a Global Toolkit for Public Space in 2015, outlining many reasons why promoting high-quality public spaces should be the primary focus for all cities. This toolkit enumerated some of the advantages that public spaces have within communities, including enhanced environmental sustainability, improved public health, enhanced urban safety, and improved transportation efficiency.
The western world is currently confronted with difficulties in terms of public space inclusivity, as many of them are planned and handled in ways that exclude many individuals, thus reducing social and cultural diversity (Low et al., 2005). Following a review of the literature on public spaces, the dimensions of publicness have been identified as below:
* Ownership
The ownership of a space by a government entity (public) or a private person or company is one aspect of publicness. In most cases, Operation and ownership are related. The government is usually in charge of public spaces, while the private sector is in charge of privately owned areas (Németh, 2011).
* Control
This dimension describes how space is managed and regulated, focusing on the methods by which property owners indicate appropriate uses, users, and behaviours. Features that promote or inhibit freedom of usage and access are examples of management techniques within such spaces.
* Civility
Civility refers to how public space is handled and managed, and it entails the development of a friendly atmosphere. Being one of the most difficult dimensions to define, Kohn (2004) highlighted the differing opinions by those who call for new policing methods and legislation prohibiting begging and loitering with those who argue that variety, heterogeneity, and even destructive content of public space contribute to its vitality.
1.3 RIGHT TO THE CITY
One of the most debated concepts in urban studies is the right to the city. In the current society, private property rights and profit margins outweigh all other forms of human rights. The most valuable and undervalued human rights, according to Harvey (2017), is the ability to reinvent our cities. The right to the city is a communal rather than an individual right, seeing as changing the city necessitates the exercise of collective control over urban expansion. Claiming the right to the city entails asserting profound and progressive control over urbanization processes.
The processes involved in urbanization are directly linked to the development of capitalism in the cities. The idea of a capitalist is to make more money from the previous amounts earned. With this newly generated profit, the capitalist decides to reinvest the money or spend it on luxury goods. Successful capitalists usually make more profits to reinvest and expand their businesses, which contributes to the growth of industries and higher production rates. Such growth rates increase the demand for top-notch labour and, in some cases, require new mobilization of a new labour force. In order to meet the city's rising demands, innovative methods of swift production must be developed and other natural resources discovered. This expansion puts pressure on the natural environment and requires raw terrains to be opened up to allow fully functioning industries to be constructed. However, suppose there is the insufficient purchasing power of the surplus in the market. In that case, capitalists are forced to widen their reach by participating in foreign trade and introducing promotional products to their consumers. If the profits realized are still too low, capitalists face a crisis, and development in urban spaces stagnates.
A case study of the 2007 housing crash in the US by Harvey (2012) describes extensively how the event caused one of the largest economic stagnation in the country's history, which eventually led to disturbances in the world market with signs that it may occur again. The real estate market was flooded with buyers who could not afford the large sums of money needed to purchase the properties leaving capitalists in a crisis. In such a crisis, capitalists suffer huge losses and, in worst-case scenarios, have their properties physically destroyed—employees of the organizations that made faced devaluation through mass unemployment. Nonetheless, financial advances in the 1980s set the tone by introducing local mortgages and credit plans to consumers. These benefits from the inventions brought some hopes by spreading the risk involved.
As with the initial processes of urbanization, the most recent and rapid expansion of the urban process has resulted in remarkable lifestyle changes. The standard of urban living has become a privilege for those with financial resources in a world where culture, consumerism, and skill-based industries have become major aspects of urban economies. As a result of these changes in behavioural patterns, urban spaces have evolved.
The significance of members of the society mobilizing and taking action effective control of their community is emphasized by the right to the city. In order to protect the cities from capitalist ideas that end up derailing the economy and encroaching public space, activist groups are created. Over the recent years, these activist groups have formed under the right to the city, and its members advocate for issues such as homelessness, environmental protection, and cu...