ABSTRACT
In recent sessions in both Paris and Washington D.C., scholars interested in issues including media policy, architecture, communication, and urban planning met to discuss the concept and qualities of a “communicative city.” When asked to develop five normative criteria to determine whether a city could be considered especially “communicative,” one of the key themes that emerged from these scholars’ responses was the necessity for such a city to have “places to interact/places of feeling.” When asked what would disqualify a city from being considered “communicative,” a major theme that emerged from the responses was “lack of public spaces for interaction.” These were not the only suggested normative criteria for qualification or disqualification. Other suggested qualifying criteria included the need for a sound infrastructure (including technological infrastructure) and for elements of a civil society, whereas disqualifying criteria included segregation, political corruption and repression, and overly controlled social spaces and practices. However, all these responses suggest that, in order to understand the nature and possibility of communicative cities more fully, we would do well to actually examine the spaces within cities that enable citizens to engage communicatively. We refer to these spaces as “communicative spaces.”
