ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes evidence from a study of street harassment to explore the concepts of space, identity, and rights consciousness. It provides a conceptualization of space merely as a physical location or even as a constructed concept. The chapter focuses on the work of sociolegal scholars who have begun to recognize and explores the complexities not only of location and identity, but also of how conceptions about space, identity, and law interact to create expectations about their rights. It demonstrates that in addition to the organizational and institutional factors that affect rights consciousness, a variety of relational factors create multiple understandings of law at different times and in different places. Public space and interactions between strangers in public places are embedded in the locations in which they occur, the identities of the individuals involved, and the nature of the interactions.
