From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Related e

Wikipedia Wiktionary Tumblr Wikisource YouTube Shop Featured visual Cenotaph for Newton (1784) by French architect Étienne-Louis Boullée.

A public space or a public place is a place where anyone has a right to come without being excluded because of economic or social conditions, although this may not always be the case in practice. One of the earliest examples of public spaces are commons. For example, no fees or paid tickets are required for entry, nor are the entrants discriminated based on background. Non-government-owned malls are examples of 'private space' with the appearance of being 'public space'.

Public Space has also become something of a touchstone for critical theory in relation to philosophy, (urban) geography, visual art, cultural studies and social studies. Its relevance seems to become more pressing as capital encloses more and more of what were thought of as 'commons'. The term 'Public Space' is also often misconstrued to mean other things such as 'gathering place', which is an element of the larger concept.