On the plaza : the politics of public space and culture
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
On the plaza : the politics of public space and culture
University of Texas Press, c2000
[1st ed.]
- : cl
- : pbk
Available at 12 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [249]-266) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
In this wide-ranging, multi-disciplinary study, Setha M. Low explores the interplay of space and culture in the plaza, showing how culture acts to shape public spaces and how the physical form of the plaza encodes the social, political, and economic relations within the city. Low centres her study on two plazas in San Jose, Costa Rica, with comparisons to public spaces in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. She interweaves ethnography, history, literature, and personal narrative to capture the ambience and meaning of the plaza. She also uncovers the contradictory ethnohistories of the European and indigenous origins of the Latin American plaza and explains why the plaza is often a politically contested space. Setha M. Low is Professor of Environmental Psychology and Anthropology and Director of the Public Space Research Group at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York.
Table of Contents
- Contents: Part One: Introduction
- Notes from the Field: A Personal Account
- Public Space and Culture: The Case of the Latin American Plaza Part Two: Histories: The History of the Plaza in San Jose, Costa Rica: The Political Symbolism of Public Space
- The European History of the Plaza: The Contested Terrain of Architectural Representation
- The Indigenous History of the Plaza: The Contested Terrain of Architectural Representation Part Three: Ethnographies: Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space
- Constructing Difference: The Social and Spatial Boundaries of Everyday Life
- Public Space and Protest: The Plaza as Art and Commodity Part Four: Conversations: The Park and the Plaza in Costa Rican Literature: Imagined Places
- Conversations on the Plaza: Remembered Places
- A Concluding Conversation on the Politics of Public Space
by "Nielsen BookData"