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T. Viderman:
"Production of meaning as a strategic endeavor for stirring the production of public spaces";
Talk: Europäisches Forum Alpbach, Alpbach; 2013-08-30.

Public spaces are an embodiment of society´s imaginaries and material culture, both a result of and a stimulus for multifaceted societal transformations. A broadening interest in their production reflects a paradigm shift; the modernist fragmented principles of growth-oriented spatial development have gradually been replaced by an understanding of public spaces as complex social products filled with meaningful experiences. This notion builds ever closer entanglements between multiple domains of everyday life and scientific practices, blurring the line between the production of meaningful places through everyday life practices and the production of meaning as strategic endeavors towards shaping certain urbanities. In the quest for reputation and competitiveness both public and private actors strive for appropriation of public spaces, subject to (enforced) reinterpretation of meaning. In so doing, although declaratively regarding difference as an intrinsic quality of urban cultures, they tend to take a selective approach towards everyday (cultural) practices and push forward particular imaginaries.

In spite of these seemingly negative tendencies, public spaces do (still) show an encouraging degree of vitality and diversity. Everyone can take an active part in the production of meaning (notion of collective memory, political struggle, social conflict and identity); planners and urban policy must allow for insurgent practices that will stimulate public life and action, and create an environment for cross-cultural exchange.

Raumlabor Stadt, Baukultur, Aneignung des öffentlichen Raums, production of space, production of meaning