Publics and the City E-Book

Kurt Iveson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Serie: RGS-IBG Book Series
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 526

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Publics and the City investigates struggles over the making of urban publics, considering how the production, management and regulation of 'public spaces' has emerged as a problem for both urban politics and urban theory. * Advances a new framework for considering the diverse spatialities of publicness in relation to the city * Argues that a city's contribution to the making of publics goes beyond the provision of places for public gathering * Examines a series of detailed case studies * Looks at the relationship between urbanism, public spheres, and democracy

Leseprobe

Contents

List of Illustrations

Series Editors’ Preface

Acknowledgements

Chapter One The Problem with Public Space

Finding an Audience

Public Address and ‘Public Space’

Public Address and the City

The Structure of this Book

Chapter Two Publics and the City

Public Spheres and Public Address

Public Address and Public Urban Geographies

Investigating Public Urban Geographies

Chapter Three Making a Claim: the Regulation of Protest at Parliament House, Canberra

The Making of a New Parliament House

The Place of Protest at Parliament House

Protest Snapshots, 1988–95

Finding the Right ‘Balance’: The Inquiry into the Right to Protest

The Form of ‘Legitimate Protest’

After the Guidelines

Conclusion: Authorizing Protest at Parliament House

Chapter Four Cruising: Governing Beat Sex in Melbourne

Beat-cruising as a Form of Counterpublic Address

A Brief History of Beats in Melbourne

Reshaping the Public World of Beats in Melbourne: Making Space for ‘Safe’ and ‘Legal’ Beat Sex

Conclusion: The Risks of Cruising and Claim-Making

Chapter Five Making a Name:Writing Graffiti in Sydney

Writing Graffiti

Graffiti Moves

‘Getting Tough’on Graffiti

Graffiti or ‘Aerosol Art’?

Graffiti and the Market

‘Keeping It Real’

Conclusion: The Graffiti-writing Counterpublic Sphere and the Audiences of Graffiti

Chapter Six ‘no fun. no hope. don,t belong.’: Remaking ‘Public Space’ in Neo-liberal Perth

‘City Visions’: Promoting the Revitalization of ‘Public Space’ in Perth

City Challenges Pt 1

City Challenges Pt 2

Conclusion: ‘Public Space’ and Neo-liberal Urban Governance in Perth

Chapter Seven Justifying Exclusion:Keeping Men out of the Ladies’Baths,Sydney

The Dispute

Equal or Special Treatment?

Public or Private?

Conclusion:Separate Spaces Are Not (Necessarily) Separate Camps

Chapter Eight Imagining the Public City: Concluding Reflections

The City Is Not (Just) a Stage

Seen and Unseen

Strangers on the Horizon

Notes

References

Index

RGS-IBG Book Series

The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Book Series provides a forum for scholarly monographs and edited collections of academic papers at the leading edge of research in human and physical geography. The volumes are intended to make significant contributions to the field in which they lie, and to be written in a manner accessible to the wider community of academic geographers. Some volumes will disseminate current geographical research reported at conferences or sessions convened by Research Groups of the Society. Some will be edited or authored by scholars from beyond the UK. All are designed to have an international readership and to both reflect and stimulate the best current research within geography.

The books will stand out in terms of:

the quality of researchtheir contribution to their research fieldtheir likelihood to stimulate other researchbeing scholarly but accessible.

For series guides go to www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/rgsibg.pdf

Published

Geomorphology of Upland Peat

Martin Evans and Jeff Warburton

Spaces of Colonialism

Stephen Legg

People/States/Territories

Rhys Jones

Publics and the City

Kurt Iveson

After the Three Italies: Wealth, Inequality and Industrial Change

Mick Dunford and Lidia Greco

Putting Workfare in Place

Peter Sunley, Ron Martin and Corinne Nativel

Domicile and Diaspora

Alison Blunt

Geographies and Moralities

Edited by Roger Lee and David M. Smith

Military Geographies

Rachel Woodward

A New Deal for Transport?

Edited by Iain Docherty and Jon Shaw

Geographies of British Modernity

Edited by David Gilbert, David Matless and Brian Short

Lost Geographies of Power

John Allen

Globalizing South China

Carolyn L. Cartier

Geomorphological Processes and Landscape Change: Britain in the Last 1000 Years

Edited by David L. Higgitt and E. Mark Lee

Forthcoming

Politicizing Consumption: Making the Global Self in an Unequal World

Clive Barnett, Nick Clarke, Paul Cloke and Alice Malpass

Living Through Decline: Surviving in the Places of the Post-Industrial Economy

Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson

Swept up Lives? Re-envisaging ‘the Homeless City’

Paul Cloke, Sarah Johnsen and Jon May

Badlands of the Republic: Space, Politics and Urban Policy

Mustafa Dikeç

Climate and Society in Colonial Mexico: A Study in Vulnerability

Georgina H. Endfield

Resistance, Space and Political Identities

David Featherstone

Complex Locations: Women’s Geographical Work and the Canon 1850–1970

Avril Maddrell

Driving Spaces

Peter Merriman

Geochemical Sediments and Landscapes

Edited by David J. Nash and Sue J. McLaren

Mental Health and Social Space: Towards Inclusionary Geographies?

Hester Parr

Domesticating Neo-Liberalism: Social Exclusion and Spaces of Economic Practice in Post Socialism

Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning, Alena Rochovská and Dariusz Świą tek

Value Chain Struggles: Compliance and Defiance in the Plantation Districts of South India

Jeffrey Neilson and Bill Pritchard

© 2007 by Kurt Iveson

BLACKWELL PUBLISHING

350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA

9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK

550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

The right of Kurt Iveson to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.

First published 2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd

1 2007

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Iveson, Kurt.

Publics and the city/Kurt Iveson.

p. cm. — (RGS-IBG book series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-2732-5 (hardcover: alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-4051-2732-5 (hardcover: alk. paper)

ISBN-13: 978-1-4051-2730-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 1-4051-2730-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. City planning—Australia—Case studies. 2. Public spaces—Australia-Case studies. 3. Urban policy—Australia—Case studies. 4. City and town life—Australia—Case studies. I.

Title.

HT169.A8I84 2007

307.1′2160994—dc22

2006025006

A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards.

For further information on

Blackwell Publishing, visit our website:

www.blackwellpublishing.com

For Nancy and Benji

Illustrations

1.1Dimensions of the public/private distinction3.1Map of Parliamentary Protest Zone, Canberra3.2Forecourt Mosaic, Parliament House3.3Michael Jagamara Nelson threatens to chisel out the centre stone of the Forecourt Mosaic during Native Title protest, 19933.4Protestors hoist their own flags on Coat of Arms at Parliament House during the Cavalcade to Canberra protest, 19963.5Sea of Hands protest Federation Mall, 19973.6Tent Embassy protest with media photographers in Federation Mall, 19994.1‘Fern Gully’, Fitzroy Gardens, Melbourne4.2Pocket-sized safe sex booklet distributed by the Beats Project4.3Police surveillance notice, mens’ toilets, Fitzroy Gardens5.1Garage door tags, May St.5.2Throw-up, May St.5.3Graffiti Clean, graffiti-removal contractor, May St.5.4Legal Commission, May St.5.5Graphic Art Mount wall, May Lane5.6Graphic Art Mount wall, May Lane5.7Wall opposite Graphic Art Mount, May Lane5.8Assorted graffiti, May Lane5.9Assorted graffiti, May Lane6.1Street life under the eye of a CCTV camera, Perth Central Area6.2‘See you in the city’ promotional signage, Perth Central Area6.3Café life in the adult entertainment district: James St., Northbridge6.4Map of ‘Youth Cruising Zone’

Series Editors’ Preface

RGS-IBG Book Series

Like its fellow RGS-IBG publications, Area, the Geographical Journal andTransactions, the Series only publishes work of the highest quality from across the broad disciplinary spectrum of geography. It publishes distinctive new developments in human and physical geography, with a strong emphasis on theoretically-informed and empirically-strong texts. Reflecting the vibrant and diverse theoretical and empirical agendas that characterize the contemporary discipline, contributions inform, challenge and stimulate the reader. Overall, the Book Series seeks to promote scholarly publications that leave an intellectual mark and that change the way readers think about particular issues, methods or theories.

Kevin Ward (University of Manchester, UK) and Joanna Bullard

(Loughborough University, UK)

RGS-IBG Book Series Editors

Acknowledgements

First, my gratitude to all the activists and policy workers who gave generously of their time and resources.This book would not have been possible without the information and insights they provided, and it is much better for the questions they asked of me.

The research and writing of this book have been conducted from home bases in four different cities, where I’ve benefited from the generosity and support of colleagues, friends and family.The following lovely people stimulated my thinking, assisted my writing and offered practical support: at the Australian National University, Tim Bonyhady, Brendan Gleeson, Heather Grant, Alastair Greig, Robyn Lui, Marian Sawer and Patrick Troy; at the University of Durham, Ash Amin, Kay Anderson, Peter Atkins, Donna Marie Brown, Mike Crang, Paul Harrison, Adam Holden, Emma Mawdsley, Niamh McEllheron, Gordon MacLeod, Charles O’Hara and Joe Painter; in Sheffield, Elizabeth Gagen, Paula Meth, Mitch Rose, Samuel Vardy and Glyn Williams; at the University of Sydney, John Connell, Phil Hirsch, Phil McManus, Mel Neave, Bill Pritchard and Kath Sund. Others who have provided valuable advice and support at various times include Craig Calhoun, Allan Cochrane, Michael Edwards, Ruth Fincher, Chris Gibson, the Griffiths family, Nick Henry, Jane Jacobs, Pauline McGuirk, Mark Peel, Frank Stilwell, Kylie Valentine, Kevin Ward and Sophie Watson.

Some folks’ support and love have crossed continents and been with me all the way. Sean Scalmer is a great friend and colleague, sharing ideas, passions and distractions, averting crises of confidence, and just generally being in my corner. I particularly want to thank Jim, Marg and Mike Iveson for the sacrifices they made to get me to and through university in the first place, and for the inspirational examples they’ve set in folowing their own passions and commitments.

Jacqueline Scott and Angela Cohen at Blackwell have been incredibly helpful, and I also thank them for their monumental patience in dealing with a first-time author who has a loose concept of deadlines (it’s finished, honest!).

Finally, this book is dedicated to Nancy Griffiths and Benji Iveson. Nancy has made huge intellectual, practical contributions to the writing of this book and her love and sense of adventure have made the years during which it was written so much fun. And thanks to little Benji. His uncle Mike gave him a t-shirt which says ‘I’m small, but I know stuff’. It’s true – life is already better for the stuff he’s teaching us.

Publisher’s Acknowledgement

The editor and publisher gratefully acknowledge the permission granted to reproduce the copyright material in this book. Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use of copyright material.The publisher apologises for any errors or omissions in the above list and would be grateful if notified of any corrections that should be incorporated in future reprints or editions of this book.

Chapter One

The Problem with Public Space

Finding an Audience

In 1994 William ‘Upski’ Wimsatt, a hip hop columnist, graffiti-writer, and self-described college dropout from Chicago, self-published a book called Bomb the Suburbs. Upski conceived of Bomb the Suburbs as ‘a book for people who don’t usually read’. He especially wanted his book to be read by young people in the inner cities of the United States – a group he argued were severely disenfranchised by the growth of suburbs and the ‘suburban mentality’ which he set about attacking. To make sure his book would be accessible to his target audience, Upski gave his manuscript to around 50 different readers, including one 13-year-old girl at risk of dropping out of school, who was instructed to ‘cross out the boring bits’.

Upski wrote Bomb the Suburbs after encountering difficulties trying to publish a newsletter called Subway and Elevated. This newsletter, produced by Upski and some friends, sought to raise awareness of the problems with cities in the United States and to discuss strategies for their renewal. They taped the newsletter to walls and train lines. This method of distribution had a message:

The ultimate goal of Subway and Elevated was to revive public places in America – and call attention to their necessity – by placing works of beauty and value there that were impossible to obtain in stores. It was our little way of turning the tables on the reward structure in American life. If you drove a car, lived in the suburbs, and sent your kids to private school, then for once in your life you couldn’t have one (Wimsatt 2000 (1999): 16).

This distribution method ran into some serious problems, not the least of which was its legality. In fact, Upski and the others involved were arrested for vandalism. At this point, they thought a book might provide a solution: ‘No one could arrest us for a book, we thought’ (Wimsatt 2000 (1999): 16).

But once the book was written, Upski confronted a new set of problems – if you want to write a book for people who don’t usually read books, exactly how do you find this audience? He read parts of his book to commuters on subway platforms. He put up posters and graffiti with the title of the book, first around his home town of Chicago, and then further afield as he freight-hopped and hitch-hiked his way around America. He did what he could to get the book on the shelves of stores in Chicago and other cities – not just bookstores, but also music and clothing retailers and other places where his target audience were likely to shop. People sold Upski’s book in their schools and junior colleges. He attempted to gain publicity for his book by staging a ‘Bet with America’. This bet was a kind of radical alternative to Newt Gingrich’s ‘Contract with America’, in which Upski bet that he could hitch-hike around America and walk the streets of its most feared neighbourhoods without actually getting hurt – thus demonstrating (hopefully) that the fear of strangers which seemed to characterize mainstream culture in the United States was misplaced, and that the negative hype about ghettoes served only to erase the humanity of the people who live there. He used the proceeds from sales of the book to help set up a writers’ workshop with a twist: