Geography: Public Spaces are places where everyone is welcome and is free to express their identity
Introduction
Human Identity has been the topic of concern throughout the humanities, cognitive science, psychology, and psychoanalysis (Horowitz, 2012). The identity according to Dougherty (2006) is formed by natural environment and people’s reactions to the places. Though some places of the cities are called public spaces where the people come for various purposes, they are welcome but it is the social unwritten rule that they must abide by the rules and norms of the public places. Public places have traditionally being open minded according to Walzer (1995) and everyone can get access to the public places. For example, the street that is a completely public place. People gather on the street for various social, economic, political purposes. Streets are the places for walking, for protesting and number of such public acts. There is a close connection between public spaces and the human identity. Various types of public space have different social cultural, economic and symbolic functions as well as different meanings that the public ascribed to them (Lees, 1998). For example people gather in an open space for meeting, some campaign or any cultural event or it can be a market place where certain economic transactions took place.
Identity and Public Place
The person’s identity is most of the time decided by the public place he/she goes and visits. For example if you go to church, general perception of the people is that you are Christian. Even if you are not Christian and you visit church, you are allowed but in church, the person has to follow the norms of church rules. He/she cannot perform any kind of transgressed activity or we can say an odd activity. The person is not allowed to come to church or any other religious place for playing outdoor games. It means the purpose of the visit is very important. Here the identity issue starts.
Everyone use public place but he/she is not free to express their identity openly. It is because the public spaces are made for everyone and for certain purposes. If the identity is going out of the way, it will be resisted by the group of that respective place. They can freely express their identity in their private spaces such as their own house. Some activities that are performed by violating the rules of that public places are called transgressive activity. Nolan (2003) has mentioned that if someone is performing the skateboarding activities in the mall where such activity is illegal officially, it is called transgressive activity.
Expressing identity freely is possible only when the person is the part of that particular group of carrying the group’s activity. Valentine (2008) elaborates the space and the personal identity with the case study of Jeanette in the case study of in the form of five different situations in which Jeanette was facing a problem in dealing with the situation. When Jeanette was by born deaf and when she was living in the speaking community, she was not able to express herself freely. Communication was a most difficult problem for her. The hearing world around her was not able to understand her. She was like an odd man in the hearing world. In the other story it was mentioned that when she was in Deaf school, she was so relaxed and comfortable. It was because then she was very comfortable in deaf school. She could use sign language to talk to the people around her. The world around her was a deaf world and she could express herself openly. This helped her to boost her confidence. Being deaf is very normal in the particular space of the deaf school. She felt like she was ïn place”. The statement of the argument “Public Spaces are places where everyone is welcome and is free to express their identity” can be applied in the context of this Jeanette’s Deaf School days. The statement is true when we can relate ourselves to the space and we can easily be the part of that space. Jeanette was free and welcome and she could express herself openly.
The identity phenomenon sometimes creates tension among diverse groups. Connell & Iveson (2015) give the example of Sidney Eruv of Jews which was opposed as it creates the segregated Jewish community and obstructs the footpath. It means that when someone is trying to express identity by obstructing using public places in an objectionable manner, it cannot be accepted by the society.
In one more story Valentine (2008) tells her Jeanette’s experience when she finds her sexual orientation that she is a lesbian. When she tries to reveal and express her identity as a lesbian it becomes and transgressive activity for the people around her. When the person doesn’t follow the rules of the space where he/she is staying, he is the odd man, a rebel man. It is supposed that he is rebellious towards the rules and the regulations of the place. Jeanette was living in a place of heterosexual group where being lesbian was like a sin. She was humiliated even in public spaces which actually should not happen. Access to public place should be open to all individuals as long as they leave their particular subjectivity in their private spare (Iveson, 2003).ad she been in the community of Lesbians such as in Alice Springs as described in the video, she would have been living a life with respect and dignity. Alice Springs is a town situated in the Northern region of Australia. In the video it is shown that the place was occupied by the Lesbian community. Hence no one feel odd to express their identity as the lesbians.
Unfortunately in case of Jeanette, most of the time she finds herself in the public space in which various factors of her personality were not matching and consequently she was forbidden to express herself and her identity. As stated by (2013) if the person is not considered as co-constituted by others, the identity crisis takes place. Jeanette was hardly considered by the people around her in different spaces.
Conclusion
Being expressive in public place is completely dependent upon what kind of person you are and whether the place is appropriate for you to express the particular part of your identity. If the person is comfortable with the views traditional ore pre-determined rules of the place, he/she expresses the identity. If any of the person’s characteristics is not matching with the community, the person has to conceal that part if he/she wants to continue with the community. The free exposure of our identity is thus every time and everywhere is not possible. For revealing certain identity, the person has to match himself/herself with the proper place and then the person can express himself/herself freely.
References
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