Tag Archives: public life

‘Outside’: filming the public spaces of Beijing.

February 28, 2011 – 8:00 am

One year ago, I wrote some notes on the urban public spaces of China (see post Reading the Urban Spaces of China). In it, I made a small reflection on the accelerating urbanization in China on the one hand and the differences in use of the public space between Western and non-Western countries on the [...]

By Patricia Simoes-Aelbrecht | Posted in Film, Public space | Also tagged , , | Comments (0)

Theorizing the ‘sociology of public space’.

December 15, 2009 – 10:17 am

The ‘sociology of public space’ is a research area still rather unknown and unexplored. Until recently, most social sciences conventional wisdom was that the public realm was inhabited and asocial (Simmel, 1903, Wirth, 1938). Their essential argument was always that public spaces of the city were densely filled with visual and sounds stimulus overload and [...]

By Patricia Simoes-Aelbrecht | Posted in Public space | Also tagged , | Comments (2)

Reading the urban public spaces of China

July 8, 2009 – 3:50 pm

 

The last two decades debates on the future of public life and public spaces have been markedly western-oriented, negativist and raising often questions: does public space still matters for our public life?
To counter these views, I would like to offer a different and non-western perspective for the discussion. Here, I will talk about the case [...]

By Patricia Simoes-Aelbrecht | Posted in Public space | Also tagged , , , | Comments Off