Changing public space

embeddedness and geographically related identity such as airport plazas. The design discourse
regards the quality of public space as an important aspect of urban renewal as well as a pull factor
for tourists and economic activities. Both discourses emphasise aesthetics and entertainment as
new elements of contemporary public space. Besides secured public space, one can therefore also
acknowledge themed public space.
3.3 Themed public space
Many planning and urban design measures to improve the sense of public safety have resulted
in ‘fortress’ and ‘panoptic’ cities, something Tiesdell and Oc (1998) regret. These critics advocate
the opposite approach: creating ambience and stimulating activity to attract more people to
public spaces. Underlying this ‘animation’ approach is an assumption that crowded places are
safer. Concentrations of people will presumably make it more likely for offenders to be seen
and apprehended or even prevented from committing a crime. Now that mobile phones with
cameras are ubiquitous, people will be more likely to participate in surveillance. According
to Montgomery (1995), a varied diet of activities and leisure in public space can stimulate the
animation of city centres. This is what is meant by the development of themed public space.
The term ‘themed’, particularly in association with ‘fantasy’, bears connotations of theme parks
(Mitrašinović, 2006), but it should be interpreted in a broader sense. It is not completely similar
to the so-called Disneyfication of cities (Zukin, 1998) or the ‘theme park model’ (Mitrašinović,
2006), which refer to the use of theme park elements in actual urban design, such as high levels
of control, predictability, and cleanliness (Hannigan, 1998; Hajer & Reijndorp, 2003). Themed
public space, on the other hand, indicates a broader trend towards more leisure and entertainment
functions in urban public space, visualised by a growing number of top-down organised events,
the emergence of ‘fun shopping’, and the proliferation of sidewalk cafés. These developments
are designed for the purpose of encouraging consumption-oriented capital accumulation by
attracting people with discretionary income to the city centre (Graham & Marvin, 2001; Silk,
2007).
Public spaces increasingly serve as venues for the arts and culture, typically for performances,
festivals, concerts, parades, and outdoor film shows (Van der Wouden, 1999a; Stevens, 2007). This
is actually an age-old practice, which already occurred in the Middle Ages:
For lack of theatres, mystery plays were performed on the church steps and watched
from the plaza; ribald entertainment was staged on a scaffold. Admission was free to
bullfights and football games, for they were held in the square …. (Webb, 1990: 65)
In the course of the 20th century, this entertainment function of public space further increased to
such an extent that French situationist Guy Debord (1967) has coined the term societé du spectacle.
Debord was convinced that the rising trend of consumption and events had a destructive
effect on society, as life became more and more ruled by appearances and spectacle. This would
turn citizens into aimless consumers without identities who are only trying to survive rather
than live. To stop the process, Debord set up a short-lived, but influential critical movement
called the situationist internationale in the 1960s. Earlier, a new commercial culture, centred on
leisure, pleasure, and entertainment, had already appeared in North American cities, leading to
so-called pleasure places (Cross & Walton, 2005). Hannigan (1998) describes in ‘Fantasy City’
52