Toward a theory of contestation in public space

This study examines contestation and conflict in public space. The actual publicness of current public space is challenged. Culture and the world we inhabit are to a certain extent negotiated realities. Negotiation implies active dialogue, since reality is not static but rather constantly evolving, the act of negotiation is itself a constant. Contestation can be understood as one type of negotiation. The design and formal regulation of current public spaces explicitly or implicitly excludes classes of people and behaviors and sees contestation as a problem. Instead of understanding contestation as negative this study contends that the presence of contestation between societal, cultural and inter-cultural entities is essential to establishing the possibility of the existence and the quality of a public space system. Where the contestation involves dominant versus oppressed or unrecognized groups, the beneficial effect of contestation is significantly increased. This work provides an understanding of contestation, similar to stress, there is an optimal level. More and more contestation is not better and better indefinitely, rather there is an optimal or tipping point---up to that point more contestation is better but after reaching that point more contestation becomes negative---it is no longer civil.; This dissertation uses a narrative methodology combined with the use of case studies. Narratives or stories help us to understand contestation and its role in public space by illuminating how various people construct or think about the construction of their reality and their world, in relation to others who share their physical world if not their socially constructed world. Two case studies the Little Bighorn National Monument and Taos' Blue Lake are used to reveal the positive role of contestation. These sites are a major contrast with past public space research which has centered on the urban end of the urban to rural or wilderness scale with some researchers contending that public can only exist in urban areas. Both sites involve groups and voices which have historically been marginalized and been in contestation with the mainstream, empowered social construction of reality. Key issues that arise from this work concern control, discomfort, voice and identity.