Browsing by Author "Middelmann, Temba"

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    Public space and the cohesion-contestation spectrum
    (GeoJournal, 2023) Middelmann, Temba; Rawhani, Carmel
    The urban policy assumption of public space�s generative capacity for cohesion stands out as limited in the face of the reality of South African urban public space. Drawing on observations and experiences in a range of Johannesburg public spaces, we critique the assumption contained in international, national, and local South African urban policies about cohesive public space. We argue that assuming the agency of people as tending towards cohesion and that the agency of space is enough to ensure this because it is necessarily similarly cohesive, is incorrect. Likewise, assuming the primacy of the agency of space is misleading. This dichotomy of relationships focusing on space as cohesive, and people as influenced by space, requires a third element.