Central Park against the streets

The enclosure of public space cultures in mid-nineteenth century New York

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3978378
AutoresAlvaro Sevilla-Buitrago (0000-0002-9243-4265, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, autor de correspondencia)
Año2014
Volumen15
Número2
Páginas151-171
Fecha de publicación2014-02-17
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial & Cultural Geography (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1464-9365 • E-ISSN: 1470-1197
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14649365.2013.870594
OpenAlexW1992730356
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas50

The industrialization of New York and its rise to economic dominance brought about a major restructuring of street life and unleashed an array of contradictory everyday urban cultures. In a still under-regulated environment, the commoning of public space became a key sociospatial capital that helped the working classes resolve their reproduction in a way the elite found disturbing and far removed from the civic order they were trying to instil. This article draws on recent theorizations of the commons/enclosure dialectic to develop a comparative analysis of the cultures of public space use vis-à-vis the practices prescribed by Central Park in its attempt to reform everyday spatialities. The park is understood here as an early episode in the project of imposing new social relations through the enclosure of public conduct—a first effort to tame the urban commons and prevent the subaltern appropriation of public space. Following a preliminary discussion of the economic and social determinants and configuration of the material cultures of public space use in Manhattan, the article studies the park's strategies as a special type of enclosure, consisting not of the usurping of common land for private profit but of the mobilization of public space to shift behaviors from one regime of publicity to another

Appropriation · Commons · Elite · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Public space · Restructuring · Sociology · American Environmental and Regional History · Engineering · Law · Urban Planning and Governance · Urbanization and City Planning