Why Public Space MattersDrawing from decades of research, Setha Low shows how public space contributes to a flourishing society through promoting social justice and democratic practices. Thriving public spaces also enhance creativity, health, urban resilience, and environmental sustainability. Yet more than ever, public spaces across the world are threatened by urban development, privatization and neglect. Public spaces where people from all walks of life play, work, meet,

a living creature

this meticulous collection nonetheless strives to unravel the similarities this occupation shares with other international and contemporary forms of discriminatory rule

the “poverty of experience” was a characteristic of modernity

At times introspective and playfully philosophical

revealing how a small region of medieval Europe transformed itself into a powerhouse of sustained economic growth

including why children need play and independent exploration to mature into competent

The enormous popular interest in the world of fungi and the mycelium testifies to its tremendous resonance as a metaphor for new ways of thinking

In medieval art

the Pulitzer-winning poet Archibald MacLeish

but that saving the planet is not sufficiently profitable

Despite these successes

bringing its members to a condition of serenity