Visual Public Relations

6The communicative function of public spaces

Noureddine Miladi

The study of urban spaces has attracted increasing attention over past decades partly due to the symbolic role attached to them and their use by social movements. City squares and other prominent urban spaces are becoming sites of resistance in an attempt from the public to reassert their political power (Rovisco and Ong, 2016). Unlike cities themselves, which can be viewed as spaces of transition, city squares and public spaces at large remain places of interaction and communication. Through their monuments, statues, street art and images they signify memorable glories which evoke responses with, debates about and interactions by the public.

In this chapter, I examine the communicative ...