ABSTRACT
This chapter scrutinizes relationship between public space and urban citizenship through three squares that have gained iconic importance in the last decade for staging important public congregations: Taksim Square in Istanbul, Tahrir Square in Cairo and Rabin Square in Tel Aviv. Tali Hatuka and Hatuka Kallus emphasize the importance of symbolic meanings of public squares for placing the individual in a significant social hierarchy. The understanding of crowd configuration, however, is also seminal, as the scale and geometry of the space supports two kinds of crowds, that of absent and present. Following a long tradition of social science and anthropology in the study of ritual as productive social processes, Christoph Wulf determines that rituals remain a critical social activity that is fundamental for the shaping of individual and social life.
