nicht angegeben

This book addresses everybody with a
serious interest in politics, especially those
who are concerned with the role of ordinary
citizens in the government of public affairs.
It investigates the relation between political
action and space. The central question is:
How do the spaces where citizens are
supposed to / would like to participate in
politics influence their engagement? How
does the immediate surrounding affect if
citizens act, what they do, and what results
from their engagement? The fundamental
assumption is that there are better and
worse spaces for acting politically, just as
there are better and worse spaces for
learning, playing football or drinking coffee.
This book wants to find out what it actually
is that makes a space better or worse from
the perspective of political actors. Based on
the writings of Hannah Arendt, it first
carves out the meaning of political action
and then derives from this conceptualisation
a set of principles of good political space.
The more a particular space embodies these
principles, the better it will be for political
actors. The principles can be applied not
only to evaluate existing political spaces but
also to improve them and to design new
political spaces. The book closes with a
series of case studies that may be
understood as exercises in analysing urban
political spaces designed by or for ordinary
citizens. Each essay reveals the importance
of space for political action from a different
angle. By and large, the point that this book
wants to drive home is the following: If in
the future more citizens should / will
become engaged in politics more directly,
then we need to pay close attention to the
spaces they use!