ABSTRACT
Privacy is not a topic that has received much attention from urban theorists. When discussed, privacy has tended to be addressed through concepts such as territoriality and personal space; ‘two ways in which people create different types of boundaries to regulate their interaction with others in their environment’ (Bell et al., 2000: 253). Drawing on behavioural studies, such definitions have tended to view privacy through both spatial and social dimensions, or as Altman (1975) suggests as a boundary regulation mechanism to indicate desired level of personal and group privacy. However, what generally characterizes research into privacy is a focus on the private and domestic domains rather than with reference to public space. In these terms, writers have been most concerned with defining and explaining the social construction of privacy with reference to culturally specific aspects of the home and domestic life (Margulis, 2003). In the context of a general omission of privacy from urban theoretical debate there are nonetheless a handful of theorists who believe that the concept is important to understanding urban life (Lawson, 2001; Cowan, 2005; Caves, 2005; Parker, 2004; Saegert, 2010).
