An exploration of streets as social spaces as informative for urban planning and design

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An exploration of streets as social spaces as informative for urban planning and design

Journal Title: Challenges of Modern Technology - Year 2016, Vol 7, Issue 4

Abstract

Public open spaces can positively contribute to people’s quality of life. With the world’s growing urban population, especially in developing countries, quality public spaces are becoming increasingly important. Streets are considered important public spaces for people-environment interactions. Streets play an important social role in communities’ lives and can contribute to a sense of community. Using people-environment interaction as theoretical framework, the study used a qualitative approach to explore social dynamics in a multi-modal street (Helen Joseph Street) in a South Africa metropolitan city (Pretoria). Aspects of ethnography was applied using observations and semi-structured interviews to generate data from 32 participants about social dynamics in the street. Themes that emerged from the content analysis of the data include: the multi-functional role of the street, serving an economic, cultural, social, political and functional role; the generation of vigorous social interaction with multi-levels of contact/interaction; the interrelated nature of the social and spatial/built environment; the role of the street space in facilitating social interaction and being supportive of the social environment. The findings illustrate the interrelatedness and complexity of people and their environment in Helen Joseph Street. It is suggested that streets have the potential to positively impact on people’s social lives. Streets can act as platforms for social interaction by becoming self-reinforced social spaces that attract people and in return change urban spaces into vibrant public spaces.

Authors and Affiliations

Susan Human, Karen Puren

Keywords

EP ID EP263719
DOI 10.5604/01.3001.0010.8785
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