Koops, Bert-Jaap; Galič, Maša --- "Conceptualizing space and place: lessons from geography for the debate on privacy in public" [2017] ELECD 1533; in Timan, Tjerk; Newell, C. Bryce; Koops, Bert-Jaap (eds), "Privacy in Public Space" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017) 19

Book Title: Privacy in Public Space

Editor(s): Timan, Tjerk; Newell, C. Bryce; Koops, Bert-Jaap

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781786435392

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: Conceptualizing space and place: lessons from geography for the debate on privacy in public

Author(s): Koops, Bert-Jaap; Galič, Maša

Number of pages: 28

Abstract/Description:

In this literature review, we survey the rich scholarship in human geography on the conceptualization of space and place, aiming to make it accessible to legal, governance and other scholars engaged in the debate on (the right to) privacy in public spaces. Many legal, governance and other scholars still tend to think of physical place and space (expressions often used interchangeably) as empty and neutral containers relating to territory: straightforwardly empirical, objective and mappable. Human geography shows that space and place are relational, socially co-produced and dynamic. The construction of ‘places’, including places in public space, is intricately related to issues of access control, power relations and identity-building. Particularly since the 1990s, the ongoing transformation of urban public space, including shifts in design, management, financing, and the proliferation of (digital) surveillance (the ‘privatization’ and ‘securitization’ of public space) has emerged as a key focus of geographical concern. While geography’s insights are invaluable for researching and regulating the shifting urban spaces and places in relation to privacy in public, geographic research has often not yet reached the debate on this topic. This chapter remedies this gap by discussing, through a lawyer’s lens, key literature on (public) space and place, mapping out and highlighting different ways of thinking about public space and place in relation to major themes of context, power and identity, and thereby opening up this rich area to scholars grappling with the regulation of public space.