Copacabana Non-Public: Toward a New Public Attitude

More than a physicality, public space is a condition beyond an urban fragment or locality. Before it becomes a place, public space exists as a shared value. The devastation of the Amazon forest by multinational meat producers, the launch into space of a Tesla Roadster by Elon Musk, shootings in public schools, and the development of a new Trump tower in a big city somewhere in the world are just some examples of spaces being taken over by the relentless neoliberal advances into places that were once shared or not claimed at all, or simply considered “public.” This process of takeover happens persistently in our cities, through ever-subtle or overstated methods by corporations and governments, by disfranchised groups, empowered tribes, or simply disguised by over-regulation. Starting from the premise that, in fact, “public space” as we know does not exist, this paper explores the notion of “non-public” as a critical foundation for a new reclamation of our cities. The paper plays the devil’s advocate to counterpoint the frequent academic discourse that references public space as a normalized urban entity. Taking on a shifted direction Copacabana Non-public challenges the notion of what constitutes “public space” to change so many fixed assumptions. Instead of dancing around the subject, it exercises the consideration of the conditions that make public space in reality non-public—its constituencies and jurisdictions, its stakeholders and claimants, its crisis and promises. Taking Copacabana beach as a study case, Copacabana Non-public seeks to map out the real actors of public space to locate new strategies of engagement to transform its pseudo-public character, to identify policy and design strategies that reclaim urban spaces for more democratic citizenries.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.Intl.2018.52

Volume Editors
Ángela García de Paredes, Iñaqui Carnicero & Julio Salcedo-Fernandez

ISBN
978-1-944214-18-0