Editing Public space (section)

==Use==

===Right to common passage===
In Nordic countries, like Norway, Sweden, Finland, and also Estonia, all nature areas are considered public space, due to a law, the ''[[allemansrätten]]'' (the right to common passage).

===Definition in the United Kingdom===
In the [[United Kingdom]] a "Public place" includes any [[highway]] and any other [[premises]] or place to which at the material time the [[public]] have or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise.<ref>[https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1972/71/section/33 ''Section 33 of the Criminal Justice Act 1972.'']</ref>

===Restrictions on state action in the United States===
{{quote box|width=40%|align=right|quote=If Members of the public had no right whatsoever to distribute leaflets or engage in other expressive activity on government-owned property...then there would be little if any opportunity to exercise their rights of freedom of expression.|source=[[Supreme Court of Canada]], defending right to poster on public utility poles and hand out leaflets in public government-owned buildings<ref name="inter">Petersen, Klaus & Allan C. Hutchinson. "Interpreting Censorship in Canada", [[University of Toronto Press]], 1999.</ref>}}
In the United States the right of the people to engage in speech and assembly in public places may not be unreasonably restricted by the federal or state government.<ref>[[First Amendment to the United States Constitution]]</ref> The government cannot usually limit one's speech beyond what is reasonable in a public space, which is considered to be a public [[forum (legal)|forum]] (that is, screaming epithets at passers-by can be stopped; proselytizing one's religion probably cannot).  In a private&mdash;that is, non-public&mdash;forum, the government can control one's speech to a much greater degree; for instance, protesting one's objection to medicare reform will not be tolerated in the gallery of the United States Senate. This is not to say that the government can control what one says in their own home or to others; it can only control government property in this way. The concept of a public forum is not limited to physical space or public property, for example, a newspaper might be considered a public forum, but see [[Forum (legal)|forum in the legal sense]] as the term has a specific meaning in United States law.

Parks, malls, beaches, waiting rooms, etc., may be closed at night. As this does not exclude any specific group, it is generally not considered a restriction on public use. Entry to public parks cannot be restricted based upon a user's residence.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://classweb.gmu.edu/jkozlows/lawarts/10OCT01.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2011-10-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414211434/http://classweb.gmu.edu/jkozlows/lawarts/10OCT01.pdf |archive-date=2012-04-14 }}</ref>

===Social norms===
In some cultures, there is no [[expectation of privacy]] in a public space, however [[civil inattention]] is a process whereby individuals are able to maintain their [[privacy]] within a crowd.

===Controversy regarding restrictions on use===
[[Image:LammasLand-485.JPG|thumb|right|180px|[[Leyton Marshes]], [[London]], an example of land with long established rights of access, and equally long-standing restrictions]]
Public space is commonly shared and created for open usage throughout the community, whereas private space is owned by individuals or corporations. The area is built for a range of various types of recreation and entertainment. Limitations are imposed in the space to prevent certain actions from occurring—public behavior that is considered obnoxious or out of character (i.e., drug and alcohol consumption, urinating, [[indecent exposure]], etc.)--and are supported by law or [[Local ordinance|ordinance]]. Through the landscape and spatial organization of public space, the social construction is considered to be privately ruled by the implicit and explicit rules and expectations of the space that are enforced.

Whilst it is generally considered that everyone has a right to access and use public space, as opposed to private space which may have restrictions, there has been some academic interest in how public spaces are managed to exclude certain groups - specifically homeless<ref name="homeless">{{cite web
|url=http://www.nationalhomeless.org/publications/crimreport2004/introduction.html
|publisher=National Coalition for the Homeless
|title=Illegal to be Homeless
|year=2004
}}</ref> people and young<ref name="youth">
{{cite journal
 | last = Malone
 | first = K
 | title = Children, Youth and Sustainable Cities
 | journal = Local Environment
 | volume = 6
 | issue = 1
 | url = http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/APCITY/UNPAN012799.pdf
 }}</ref> people.

Measures are taken to make the public space less attractive to them, including the removal or design of benches to restrict their use for sleeping and resting, restricting access to certain times, locking indoor/enclosed areas. Police forces are sometimes involved in moving 'unwanted' members of the public from public spaces. In fact, by not being provided suitable access, disabled people are implicitly excluded from some spaces.

===As a site for democracy===

Human geographers have argued that in spite of the exclusions that are part of public space, it can nonetheless be conceived of as a site where democracy becomes possible.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Felix de Souza |first1=Andre |title=Cosmopolis: public spaces, cosmopolitanism, and democracy |journal=[[GeoJournal]] |date=2023 |volume=88 |pages=1157–1173 |doi=10.1007/s10708-022-10643-2 |doi-access=free|pmc=9020761 }}</ref> [[Geographer]] Don Mitchell has written extensively on the topic of public space and its relation to democracy, employing [[Henri Lefebvre]]'s notion of the right to the city in articulating his argument.<ref>Mitchell, Don. 2003, The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space. New York: The Guilford Press.</ref> While democracy and public space do not entirely coincide, it is the potential of their intersection that becomes politically important.  Other geographers like Gill Valentine have focused on [[performativity]] and visibility in public spaces, which brings a theatrical component or 'space of appearance' that is central to the functioning of a democratic space.<ref>Valentine, Gill, 1996, Children should be seen and not heard: the production and transgression of adults' public space . Urban Geography 17, 205–220.</ref>

===Privatization===
{{main|Privately owned public space}}
A '''privately owned public space''', also known as a '''[[Privately owned public space|privately owned public open space]] (POPOS)''', is a public space that is open to the public, but owned by a private entity, typically a commercial [[property developer]]. Conversion of [[Community ownership|publicly owned]] public spaces to privately owned public spaces is referred to as the [[privatization]] of public space, and is a common result of [[urban redevelopment]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jun/11/privately-owned-public-space-map|title=Privately owned public space: where are they and who owns them?|work=The Guardian|date=11 June 2012|access-date=2012-09-01|location=London|first=Jeevan|last=Vasagar}}</ref>

Beginning roughly in the 1960s, the privatization of public space (especially in urban centers) has faced criticism from citizen groups such as the [[Open Spaces Society]]. [[Private-public partnership]]s have taken significant control of public parks and playgrounds through conservancy groups set up to manage what is considered unmanageable by public agencies. Corporate sponsorship of public leisure areas is ubiquitous, giving open space to the public in exchange for higher [[air rights]]. This facilitates the construction of taller buildings with private parks.

In one of the newer U.S. incarnations of the private-public partnership, the [[business improvement district]] (BID), private organizations are allowed to tax local businesses and retail establishments so that they might provide special private services such as policing and increased surveillance, trash removal, or street renovation, all of which once fell under the control of public funds.

===Semi-public spaces===
A broader meaning of public space or place includes also places where everybody can come if they pay, like a [[café]], [[train]], or [[movie theater]]. A [[Retailing#Shops and Stores|shop]] is an example of what is intermediate between the two meanings: everybody can enter and look around without obligation to buy, but activities unrelated to the purpose of the shop are at the discretion of the proprietor.

The [[hall]]s and streets (including [[skyway]]s) in a [[shopping center]] may be declared a public place and may be open when the shops are closed. Similarly for halls, [[railway platform]]s and [[waiting room]]s of [[public transport]]; sometimes a travelling ticket is required. A [[public library]] is a public place. A [[rest stop]] or [[truck stop]] is a public space.

For these "semi-public" spaces stricter rules may apply than outside, e.g. regarding [[dress code]], [[Trade|trading]], [[begging]], [[advertising]], [[photography]], [[propaganda]], riding [[rollerskate]]s, [[skateboard]]s, a [[Segway PT|Segway]], etc.