转型期中国城市公共空间的空间实践与社会建构：以广州为例

Public space is an integral element of urban spatial structure, as well as an important locus of social life. Along the development of modern cities, public space has been extolled as a hallmark of modern urban lifestyle, and has been endowed with remarkable social and cultural significances. On the one hand, public space is viewed by political theorists such as Habermas and Arendt as the arena in which ideas and views are exchanged, which contributes to the formation of shared social identities and political claims. On the other hand, public space provides social members with opportunities to present and perform identities to others. In sum, in Western academic traditions, public space bears notable ethical and moral expectations. However, recent literature in public space research has foregrounded what may be seen as the “fall” or even “end” of public space. With the rise of modern welfare state, the intensifying privatization of public space and the regulatory regimes imposed on public space, social members are becoming ever more obsessed with private spaces, and various groups with assumedly “deviant” behaviours and identities are excluded from the access to public space. This project aims to challenge this rhetoric of decline. It is guided by a general conviction that practices of public spaces are central to the formation of social relations and contestations between social groups. While some social practices centred on the use, imagination and contestation of public space may not fit squarely with its political and civic ideals, they still provide critical lenses through which social and processes can be examined and understood. At the core of the inquiry on public space, therefore, are the ways in which social members construct context-specific conceptions of publicness. Following this perspective, the applicant proposes to employ theories on the social construction of space to reconceptualization the publicness of urban space as social product. To elucidate this theoretical reorientation, the project intends to use the construction of public space in post-reform Guangzhou as the case of empirical research. It aims to investigate how public space has been transformed against the background of economic and social transition, and how social transformation at a macroscopic level inscribes itself at the level of everyday life. It attempts to answer a number of key research questions, including: what are the general characteristics of public spaces in post-reform urban Guangzhou, and what the trajectories of evolution have been like; how the ideas of public and private spaces are conceived in the context of China’s cultural traditions and, more importantly, its post-reform social and cultural restructuring; how different social groups mobilize public spaces as stages of social interaction and identity performance; and finally, how public space becomes the focal point of contestation, conflict and regulation.

城市公共空间是城市功能区的有机组成部分，也是城市社会生活发生的重要区域。在现代城市文明的发展过程中，公共空间被赋予了重要的社会文化意义。但是，西方研究常常认为，公共空间伴随着现代国家制度的崛起、公共空间的私有化，以及公共空间的管制而逐渐衰落了。课题对公共空间“衰落”的论调提出质疑，认为围绕公共空间的实践是复杂且多样的，而过往研究忽视了社会成员如何建构特定情境下对 “公共性”(publicness) 的不同理解。课题以转型期广州作为案例地点，探讨转型背景下社会成员如何通过空间实践建构公共空间的社会与文化意义。课题将着重理解转型期中国城市公共空间的演变过程与基本特征、社会转型背景下公共空间的文化意涵、不同群体的公共空间实践、特定的社会空间情境下“公共性”的建构机制、以及公共空间实践与社会转型的对应关系。课题旨在从实践与建构的视角出发补充现有的公共空间理论，同时对理解社会转型的微观响应做出贡献。

城市公共空间是城市功能区的有机组成部分，也是城市社会生活发生的重要区域。在现代城市文明的发展过程中，公共空间被赋予了重要的社会文化意义。西方研究的核心观点包括两个维度：（1）公共空间意义的核心，在于其是城市公共领域形成的核心场域；（2）伴随着现代性社会的不断发展，公共空间伴随着现代国家制度的崛起、公共空间的私有化，以及公共空间的管制而逐渐衰落了。课题通过对转型期不同中国城市的公共空间进行实证研究（但以广州为主要研究对象），探讨转型背景下社会成员如何通过空间实践建构公共空间的社会与文化意义。研究所达到的理论贡献在于两点。首先，对公共空间“衰落”的论调提出质疑，认为围绕公共空间的实践是复杂且多样的，而过往研究忽视了社会成员如何建构特定情境下对 “公共性” 的不同理解。其次，在中国的语境之下，对公共空间的概念和定义提出质疑，认为什么是城市公共空间这一问题，必须在一定的语境下加以解决。公共空间在中国城市古已有之，而随着都市现代化的步伐，伴随着西方城市规划理念的引入，又有了新的发展与意义建构的过程。公共空间极少被社会成员当做建构公共领域与公民权的场域，权利话语在中国城市公共空间的建构过程中并不突出。在中国的语境下，普罗大众更多将公共空间看做展演身份认同、建构文化意义、塑造社会关系、营建草根社群的场域 。课题主要通过以下几个话题的研究为观点提供证据：（1）社会文化地理学的基本理论；（2）近代以来中国城市公共空间的历史脉络梳理；（3）城市公共休闲空间研究；（4）城市文化展演空间研究；（5）基于宗教的公共文化空间研究；（6）高速城市化背景下的城市空间建构和体验研究；（7）少数民族城市的城市公共空间研究。课题最终发表专著1部，论文13篇，专著章节4篇。

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