ABSTRACT
This article explores the contested occupation and utilization of public space and the contested construction of public identity within the spatial politics of the city. Drawing on a contemporary case study, it highlights the tension between marginalized populations and those schemes of urban redevelopment and legal revanchism that would erase them from public view Ultimately, the article conceptualizes this and other cases as conflicts over cultural space, that is, over the meaning of social life as encoded in situations of everyday symbolism and perception. From this view, cultural space conflicts mark the changing dynamics of economic and political power, shape emerging images of the city and its residents, drive the contested remapping of urban identity, and suggest new designs for spatial and social justice.
