Memorias de investigación
Research Publications in journals:
Central Park against the streets: the enclosure of public space cultures in mid-nineteenth century New York
Year:2013

Research Areas
  • Social sciences,
  • Economy,
  • History

Information
Abstract
The industrialization of New York and its rise to economic dominance brought about a major restructuring of street life and unleashed an array of contradictory everyday urban cultures. In a still under-regulated environment, the commoning of public space became a key sociospatial capital that helped the working classes resolve their reproduction in a way the elite found disturbing and far removed from the civic order they were trying to instil. This article draws on recent theorizations of the commons/enclosure dialectic to develop a comparative analysis of the cultures of public space use vis-a-vis the practices prescribed by Central Park in its attempt to reform everyday spatialities. The park is understood here as an early episode in the project of imposing new social relations through the enclosure of public conduct?a first effort to tame the urban commons and prevent the subaltern appropriation of public space. Following a preliminary discussion of the economic and social determinants and configuration of the material cultures of public space use in Manhattan, the article studies the park?s strategies as a special type of enclosure, consisting not of the usurping of common land for private profit but of the mobilization of public space to shift behaviors from one regime of publicity to another.
International
Si
JCR
Si
Title
Social & Cultural Geography
ISBN
1464-9365
Impact factor JCR
1,764
Impact info
Datos JCR del año 2012
Volume
Journal number
online
From page
1
To page
21
Month
SIN MES
Ranking
Participants

Research Group, Departaments and Institutes related
  • Creador: Departamento: Urbanística y Ordenación del Territorio