ABSTRACT
The second model of public space takes an entirely different tack on the nature of such space. Instead of looking at social interaction, it focuses primarily upon the availability and overall structure of such space. It brings into broad relief the whole meaning of public space, questioning how public and how open such space actually is. This is a perspective that takes a darker and more cynical view of public space as compared to the rosy and optimistic view of those who speak of such space as civil order. The public world, in the eyes of those who see it in this manner, is like a battlefield. The lives of people who live in this world are at the mercy of the major social institutions, in particular those of the corporate world and the state. Such major institutions, it is thought, do not automatically serve the interests of the broad body of citizens but instead relentlessly encroach on them.
