TY - JOUR
T1 - Urban open spaces in historical perspective
T2 - A transdisciplinary typology and analysis
AU - Stanley, Benjamin
AU - Stark, Barbara
AU - Johnston, Katrina
AU - Smith, Michael
N1 - Funding Information:
1We thank our colleagues in the Late Lessons from Early History, Urban Organization through the Ages project for their continued dialogue and ideas. We particularly acknowledge and thank Sharon Harlan, Jill Grant, and George Cowgill for their useful suggestions to improve the text, but none are responsible for the content. We acknowledge the financial support of the President’s Strategic Fund at Arizona State University. 2Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Benjamin W. Stanley, School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, PO Box 875502, Tempe, Arizona 85287-5502; telephone: 914-589-3265; fax: 480-965-8087; email: bwstanley@asu.edu 3In some societies, roof tops and other spaces function as urban open spaces in terms of use, but we do not address these spaces.
PY - 2012/11/1
Y1 - 2012/11/1
N2 - Urban open space provides a unique conduit for the sociospatial study of urban history. We propose seven categories to help scholars historically situate and analyze urban open spaces: food production areas, parks and gardens, recreational space, plazas, streets, transport facilities, and incidental space. We use these categories, and the contrast between grey and green space, to compare examples from archaeological, historical, and recent times across a broad geographical range. Top-down and bottom-up actions dialectically intersect in the establishment, use, and reproduction of urban open space, and many open spaces prove to be particularly flexible in serving the general population. These findings can inform comparative urban analysis, and they help contextualize current debates concerning the socioeconomic, political, and urban ecological functions of open and public spaces.
AB - Urban open space provides a unique conduit for the sociospatial study of urban history. We propose seven categories to help scholars historically situate and analyze urban open spaces: food production areas, parks and gardens, recreational space, plazas, streets, transport facilities, and incidental space. We use these categories, and the contrast between grey and green space, to compare examples from archaeological, historical, and recent times across a broad geographical range. Top-down and bottom-up actions dialectically intersect in the establishment, use, and reproduction of urban open space, and many open spaces prove to be particularly flexible in serving the general population. These findings can inform comparative urban analysis, and they help contextualize current debates concerning the socioeconomic, political, and urban ecological functions of open and public spaces.
KW - comparative urbanism
KW - open space
KW - public space
KW - urban history
KW - urban morphology
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U2 - 10.2747/0272-3638.33.8.1089
DO - 10.2747/0272-3638.33.8.1089
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84867926439
SN - 0272-3638
VL - 33
SP - 1089
EP - 1117
JO - Urban Geography
JF - Urban Geography
IS - 8
ER -