Public Spaces, Social Coexistence and Civility: Contributions to a Reflection on Urban Public Spaces

Abstract

The transformation of the status of the different urban and metropolitan spaces and their social practices implied a renewal of approaches to public spaces and a widening of the debate about their integrative role. This focus on the function of building and strengthening the social ties of public spaces becomes pertinent when a double process is observed in the extension of metropolization, characterized simultaneously by a recovery and reduction of community relations. Starting from an analysis of the phenomena in in the socio-spatial coexistence, we tried to understand some of the aspects that push towards the emptying of that function of the more traditional public spaces and for the emergence of new spaces. Finally, some contributions contribute to the redefinition of urbanity in the light of the new socio-spatial realities present in public spaces.