ABSTRACT
Young people are often visible actors in the streets and squares of cities. The appropriation of urban public space is one way for youth to take part in city life, and this chapter discusses such participatory processes from a spatial perspective. It discusses the notions of public space and public sphere. The chapter aims to develop further spatial concepts in order to go beyond the public-private dichotomy that is inherent in the conceptions. It focuses on the concepts of front and backstage as well as invited and popular spaces. The chapter focuses on three distinct but not necessarily exclusive modes of appropriation that were identified in various case studies and that are at the heart of social construction processes of public space: voice, sociability and activity. The link to participation lies in the activity; the ‘voice’ is in the doing.
