ABSTRACT
Public space is in need of order. Of being ordered, because chaos is always looming, hovering menace-like over public space. Conversely, having chaos itself preside over public space usefully points to two other important, though less appealing, features of the notion: public space has the character of a Western myth. Its mythicized origins were constructed as stemming from ancient Greece and Italian Renaissance cities, thus embedding the idea of democracy within the idea of public space and conveniently erasing the various and actually existing exclusions from the agora and the plaza. Public space is a situated concept: genealogical research shows that its origin can be placed in space, time and social relations. It has been articulated in Western Europe and North America in the late nineteenth century during the rise of individualism and the bourgeoisie, and in the context of given race, class and gender relations.
