Collaborative Research: Democracy and Public Life in the United States and United Kingdom

城市的公共空间通常被认为是两种截然不同的方式——作为人们聚集在一起，形成一种公共或社区感觉的场所，作为一个有点可怕或不舒服的场所，因为麻烦的人的行为不受控制。公共空间往往被理想化为民主社区可以聚集在一起的地方，使人们有可能建立在民主中进行辩论和分歧的纽带。然而，这种理想受到无序和破坏性行为的挑战。有时这些行为带有明显的政治性，比如抗议或静坐，以引起人们对某一特定问题的关注。其他一些行为似乎与政治无关，比如教堂在其建筑外为无家可归的人提供食物，或者清真寺播放祈祷的呼吁，但受到影响的一些人可能会认为这些行为是一种破坏，即使教堂在他们看来是对他们的使命或存在至关重要的行为。这个合作研究项目将研究公共空间中不同类型的无序、公共生活质量和扩大包括民主公众在内的人群范围的潜力之间的关系。从这个角度来看，民主与其说是一种政府制度，不如说是人与机构（如政府）之间的一系列关系。从这个意义上说，民主是一个过程，它受到规范、价值观和期望的制约，以在不同的空间中采取适当的行为。人们根据是否遵守这些社会规范来判断是否值得被纳入社区或“民主公众”。调查人员将研究如何维持秩序与无序之间的平衡，它如何影响公共生活的质量，以及这如何影响民主的质量。将在四个城市进行公共空间冲突的16个案例研究：美国加利福尼亚州的伯克利和科罗拉多州的丹佛，以及英国的曼彻斯特和苏格兰的格拉斯哥。城市间的比较有望揭示当地文化和公共行为的期望在塑造空间的使用和管理方式方面所起的作用。国与国之间的比较应该揭示各国法律结构的差异如何影响冲突的产生，如何理解冲突，以及在对公共空间提出要求时所采用的策略。案例研究将使用民族志方法和数据来构建冲突的叙述。这些叙述将结合通过密集采访、报纸搜索、政府文件和在冲突现场的观察收集到的数据。通过对公共空间中有序与无序悖论的空间敏感分析，本研究将结合16个案例研究的结果，提供更广泛的见解，了解冲突是如何产生的，无序是如何适应的，以及管理公共空间的策略是什么。它还将揭示公共生活和民主的复杂来源，并评估差异和多样性对这一点的重要性，它将通过展示地方空间和政治文化对民主化进程的重要性，帮助重新定义“最佳做法”的概念。该项目将为研究生和本科生提供教育和培训机会。除了学术出版物之外，还将提供研究成果，为每个城市编写关于民主和公共生活的“白皮书”，并制作一部关于丹佛案例研究的纪录片。

Public spaces of the city are often thought of in two contrasting ways -- as sites where people come together and forge a feeling of being a public or a community and as sites that are a bit scary or uncomfortable because behaviors of troublesome people are not controlled. Public spaces often are idealized as places where democratic communities can come together, making it possible to forge the bonds that enable debate and disagreement in a democracy. That ideal, however, is challenged by disorderly and disruptive acts. Sometimes these acts are overtly political, such as a protest or sit-in to draw attention to a particular issue. Other acts do not seem political, such as when a church offers food to homeless people outside its building or when a mosque broadcasts the call to prayer, but some people in the affected spaces may view these actions as disruption even as the churches go about what they see as acts that are central to their mission or their existence. This collaborative research project will examine the relationship between different kinds of disorder in public space, the quality of public life, and the potential for expanding the range of people included the democratic public. From this perspective, democracy is not a system of government so much as it is a set of relationships between people and institutions (e.g., government). In this sense, democracy is a process that is conditioned by norms, values, and expectations as to appropriate behaviors in different kinds of spaces. People are judged to be worthy of being included in the community or in "the democratic public" on the basis of their conformance with those social norms. The investigators will examine how the balance between order and disorder is maintained, how it shapes the quality of public life, and how this affects the quality of democracy. Sixteen case studies of conflicts in public space will be conducted in four cities: Berkeley, California, and Denver, Colorado, in the United States and Manchester, England, and Glasgow, Scotland, in the United Kingdom. Comparisons across cities are expected to reveal the roles local cultures and expectations of public behavior play in shaping how spaces are used and managed. Comparisons between countries ought to reveal the ways in which variations in national legal structures condition the kinds of conflicts that arise, the ways they are understood, and the strategies used in making claims on public spaces. The case studies will be developed using ethnographic methods and data to construct narratives of the conflicts. The narratives will combine data collected through intensive interviews, newspaper searches, government documents, and observations at the sites of the conflicts.By developing a spatially-sensitive analysis of the paradox of order and disorder in public space, this research will combine the results from the 16 case-studies to provide broader insights into how conflicts arise, how disorder is accommodated, and what strategies exist for managing public space. It also will reveal the complex sources of public life and democracy and assess the importance of difference and diversity to this, and it will help redefine the idea of "best practices" by showing the importance of local spatial and political cultures to processes of democratization. The project will provide education and training opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students. Research results will be made available beyond scholarly publications though the preparation of "white papers" on democracy and public life for each city and a documentary film on the Denver case study.