City Publics: The (Dis)enchantments of Urban Encounters

Some cities have grown into mega cities and some into uncontrolled sprawl; others have seen their centres decline with populations moving to the suburbs. In such times, questions of the public realm and public space in cities warrant even greater attention than previously received.Concerned with the borders and boundaries, constraints and limits on accepting, acknowledging and celebrating difference in public, Sophie Watson, through ethnographic studies, interrogates how difference is negotiated and performed. Focusing on spaces where to outside observers tension is relatively absent or invisi

"City Publics investigates the ordinary spaces in the city where differences are negotiated. It is concerned with the borders, and boundaries, the constraints and limits on living with, accepting, acknowledging and sometimes celebrating, difference in public. Through ethnographic studies of a number of unusual, surprising and marginal sites, which are not usually the focus of debate, as well as studies of different subjects in public spaces, the book aims to interrogate how difference is negotiated and performed. When and how differences are lived agonistically, and how power is exercised often subtly, not through dominance or manipulation, represents a further focus. Also challenged are the conventional notions of the public and public space