Public Space as a Field of Critical Inquiry

Abstract

This editorial introduces a special issue of The Journal of Public Space featuring the best papers from the 2024 Past Present and Future of Public Space conference in Bologna. It situates the issue within a longer trajectory that began in 2012 as a postdoctoral research project and evolved, through the founding of City Space Architecture and The Journal of Public Space, into an international platform for research, dialogue, and publication on public space. The editorial presents the 2024 conference as both a scholarly milestone and an institutional achievement, marking ten years since the first conference and reaffirming the relevance of public space as a field of interdisciplinary inquiry.
A central concern of the editorial is the role of partnerships in sustaining this trajectory. The 2024 conference brought together academic institutions, cultural organizations, professional networks, and public authorities, including the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, ISOCARP - International Society of City and Regional Planners, and the European Prize for Urban Public Space, under the patronage of the Municipality of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna Region. The editorial also highlights keynote contributions and invited speakers whose participation strengthened the conference’s international scope and intellectual depth.
The selected papers are presented as evidence of the maturity of contemporary public space scholarship. They address themes such as infrastructural marginality, inclusive design and management, digital mediation, public art, resilience, quasi-public space, and the politics of access and representation. Together, they show that public space must be understood not only as a spatial or formal category, but as a social, political, and ecological construct shaped by governance, institutions, and everyday practice.
Finally, the editorial frames the publication of this special issue within the broader institutional recognition of The Journal of Public Space, including its recent indexing in Scopus. In doing so, it affirms the journal’s role as an open, interdisciplinary, and international forum committed to advancing critical scholarship and to defending public space as a shared urban good.