"Designing Publics" Research Network

“公共场所设计”研究网络解决了缺乏系统理解公共场所是如何通过产生公共领域的过程设计的问题，特别是通过使用全球南方城市的非正式战略。城市是人类最伟大的创造之一，公共领域可以说是它们最重要的方面。公共领域由公共空间网络（如广场、广场、公园、人行道、小路）组成，是与“其他”身体、文化和思想相遇和互动的地方。虽然公共空间往往是明确界定和有界的空间，但公共领域的意义同样是通过城市相互关联的空间网络。我们需要更多地关注居民如何通过这些空间网络感知和体验城市，以及城市的私人领域（如家庭、工作）如何联系起来，创造集体的城市动态。此外，权力关系深深植根于公共领域正在进行的空间和社会生产和再生产中，在其空间表现中，在其被控制的方式中。公共领域最有力的方面在于它有能力有意识地、创造性地创造。（“设计”）公众通过它的制作过程[即。“生产”)。“公众”从来都不是简单地存在；它们总是被创造出来的。公众是由群体创造出来的，群体是由其他人的行为形成和重塑的。例如，当出现共同的关切或愿望时（例如，在Covid-19大流行、城市不平等、缺乏负担得起的住房、公共基础设施不足等危机之后），就会发出行动呼吁，人们就愿意根据这些关切或愿望采取行动；公众因此被创造或“设计”。公众就这样被召集起来了。这项公共领域研究的一个关键方面是理解非正式性的作用。我们广泛地使用非正式策略一词来描述城市空间生产中的各种方法和技术。我们将其定义为存在于城市中可接受和不可接受之间的模糊交易。非正式战略不是被边缘化的做法，也不是其结果；相反，它们是理解城市主义逻辑的核心，因为它们构成了关于城市中什么是合法的、什么是不合法的、什么是合法的、什么是非法的、以及有什么影响的辩论。我们对非正式战略特别感兴趣，非正式战略是由那些财政或政治资源有限和/或在其他方面被边缘化的人开发和部署的创造性和变革性设计方法和技术。研究网络将通过密切注意不同背景的具体情况和在这些背景中出现的一般模式，从对多种类型的非正式战略的案例研究分析中获得见解。这意味着设计公共领域的未来实际上有比我们目前想象的更大的创造力空间，这源于这样一个事实，即每一个当前的传统都是作为对其时代给定条件的创造性反应而发明的。因此，各个领域的城市规划专家——从设计专业人士到艺术家活动家再到普通市民——总是拥有为公共领域乃至城市设计新的、变革性传统的激进可能性。这些都是设计城市的潜在变革性方法，我们希望这些方法能从网络的工作中出现。详情请参阅附件“支持案例[包括活动时间表]”。

The "Designing Publics" Research Network addresses the lack of systematic understanding of how publics are designed via processes that produce the public realm, especially through the use of informal strategies in cities of the global south. Cities are amongst humanity's greatest creations, and the public realm is arguably their most significant aspect. The public realm consists of networks of public spaces [e.g. squares, plazas, parks, sidewalks, paths] that are places of encounter and interaction with "other" bodies, cultures and ideas. While public spaces tend to be clearly defined and bounded spaces, the significance of the public realm is equally about interconnected spatial networks through the city. We need to pay greater attention to how residents perceive and experience the city through these spatial networks, and to the ways in which private realms of the city [e.g. home, work] link up to create collective urban dynamics. In addition, power relations are deeply embedded in the public realm's ongoing spatial and social production and reproduction, in its spatial manifestations, and in the ways in which it is controlled. The most potent aspect of the public realm lies in its capacity to deliberately and creatively generate [i.e. "design"] publics via the process of its making [i.e. "production"]. "Publics" never simply exist; they are always created. Publics are created out of groups who are made and remade by the actions of other people. For example, when there is a common concern or desire that emerges [e.g. out of crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, urban inequality, lack of affordable housing, inadequate public infrastructure], there is a call to action, and groups of people are willing to act upon those concerns or desires; a public is thereby created or "designed." A public is thus summoned into being. A key aspect of this study of the public realm is understanding the role of informality. We use the term informal strategies broadly to describe a wide range of methods and techniques in the spatial production of the city. We define them as the ambiguous transactions that exist between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in cities. Informal strategies are not marginalised practices nor are their outcomes; rather, they are central to understanding the logic of urbanism because they constitute debates about what is considered legitimate and illegitimate in the city, what is legal and illegal in the city, and with what effects. We are particularly interested in informal strategies as creative and transformative design methods and techniques developed and deployed by those who have limited financial or political resources and/or are marginalised in other ways. The Research Network will draw insights from case study analyses of multiple types of informal strategies for producing the public realm in the global south, by paying close attention to both the specifics of differing contexts and general patterns that emerge across them. What this implies for designing the future of the public realm is that there is actually far more room for creativity than we may currently imagine, which arises from the fact that every current tradition was invented previously as a creative response to the given conditions of its time. Thus, urbanists across the spectrum-from design professionals to artist activists to ordinary citizens-always possess the radical possibility of designing new and transformative traditions for the public realm, and indeed for cities. These are the types of potentially transformative approaches to designing cities that we hope will emerge from the work of the network. Please see the attachment, Case for Support [including Timetable of Activities], for more details.