ABSTRACT
The chapter argues that the concept of the public space requires critical evaluation. In doing so, the chapter develops four arguments around the changing nature of and relationship between different development agencies, the predominance of economic considerations, the impact of technological change, and the challenges of social diversification and inequality. These arguments show how the emphasis on the public space emerged as a critique of neoliberal urban development, but at a time of dwindling public budgets and increasing social unequally it was gradually coopted in that development process. As the market forces take a primary role in the making of the built environment, they come face to face with the need for inclusive and accessible urban spaces. As public authorities have become more entrepreneurial, their approaches to the public space have also changed. The rhetoric of the public space as a space of civic and democratic interaction continues to be widely used, but increasingly as an instrument of attracting and generating economic resources. The rhetoric of the public space remains, but its character metamorphoses in practice.
