ABSTRACT
The world is not comprised of an infinite variety of places that are all completely different from each other. Instead it consists of kinds or types of spaces that share common features. This is certainly true of public space as can be seen in the terms commonly used to name and identify traditional kinds of public space such as street, square, or park. In this article the authors examine how type is a common organizing feature of public space research and show how the types receiving most interest from researchers have changed over time. They then identify how researchers have employed their own, newly devised classifications of public space types as a descriptive or as an analytic tool in research. They point out the analytic advantages of devising and employing classifications of types that: (a) comprise mutually exclusive and exhaustive categories; and (b) employ single features of the spaces as criteria for placing them in categories (e.g. design, use, or management).
