The Ethics Of Public Spaces: In Between the Lived and Built Environment

Abstract

This thesis entitled The Ethics of Public Spaces: In Between the Lived and Built Environment, introduces different philosophical approaches which elaborate upon the mutual conditionality between the lived and the built environment. In addition, it contrasts those attitudes not only with each other but also with examples of active citizenship, interventions, and art in public spaces. The aim of my work is to shed light on the different layers that public spaces consist of, and reveal what the word ‘public’ in a connection of spatiality means in praxis. With Hannah Arendt as my main guide and other thinkers, including Judith Butler, Michel de Certeau, Michel Foucault and Richard Sennett, I pose the following questions: What is public about public spaces? What role do public spaces play in our lives? And how do they shape the way we perceive the world? None of the authors mentioned above dedicated their work to public spaces solely. In their research, they only touch upon certain aspects, which I abstract and layer on top of each other to draw a bigger picture, which would stress the importance of public spaces in our lives since I claim we are slowly losing not only material places itself but also its meaning.