Jiang Min, Nakajima Naoto, Lu Feng

Keywords： Public Space; Publicness; Theoretical Research; Perceived Publicness; Analytical Framework

Abstract：

Diversified participants and flexible modes of collaboration have extended the connotations and reset the boundaries of public spaces. This transition implies a new perspective that is distinct from the dichotomy between public and private. Therefore, understanding the meaning of publicness in its nature rather than regarding it as the opposite of private would provide further reference for establishing a balance between rights and interests. This study conductes an in-depth investigation of representative Western literature to analyse the dynamic public-private relationship; draws conclusions regarding the connotations and core value of publicness as openness, heterogeneity, and commonness; and further elaborates on public space’s core value of publicness. Inspired by theories of phenomenology and neobehaviourism, this study proposes a new research perspective that regards the publicness of public space as a kind of subjective perception. Then, it builds a new analytical framework based on both the objective characteristics of public space and the subjective perceptions of users. The developed framework transcends the dichotomy between public and private, changes the subjects of evaluation, and is able to reveal the characteristics of specific contexts; therefore, it would benefit future quantitative research and explorations of the mechanisms of the publicness of public space.

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