Changing public space

Table 5.2 Distribution of potential research objects in the new typology of Dutch city squares
Actors Function Total
Commercial
Non-commercial
Cultural
square
Retail
square
Café
square
Civil, residential,
or parking square
Public (I) 2 (II) 14 (III) 7 (IV) 7 30
PPP (V) 3 (VI) 16 (VII) 2 (VIII) 4 25
Total 5 30 9 11 55
Source: own calculations, see Appendix B
this typology of Dutch city squares, in line with purposive sampling (Silverman, 2000).
However, not every type is equally well represented in the inventory of city squares, as Table 5.2
reveals. Strikingly, most (30 out of 55) are retail squares. The private sector was involved in the
redevelopment of more than half of all squares on the list, while it made hardly any contribution
to the redevelopment of non-commercial squares (type VIII), as anticipated in Section 5.2.1. But
type I (cultural/public), type V (cultural/PPP), and type VII (café/PPP) also turned out to be
rare.
Because some types occur only sporadically, we decided to use a different procedure
and select clusters of two nearby squares within a single city centre. As described above, city
squares can complement and influence one another. Examining squares as clusters thus provides
Rotterdam
0 50 km
7092
Figure 5.5 Map of the Netherlands indicating the location of the cases and research objects
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