Przestrzeń publiczna jako przestrzeń tożsamości miasta. Szansa czy balast dla rozwoju miasta?

Abstract

More than twenty years ago Wacław Piotrowski noticed that the identity of the city is defined by its essential features. These features could derive from the different city’s contexts: history, architecture, social structures and system of the public space. In this context public space in the sociological analysis is understood in the wide perspective which include its history, present and past events which take place on it, ways of everyday and holiday social using and meanings which are communicated by the public space. Consequently public space co-create the city’s identity. This identity is obvious in some cities, but in the others, with complicated history and the process of production of space, cause some diversity of meaning. Such situation could be fascinating and cause the achievement of the competitive edge but on the other side sometimes could be barrier of the cities development. It shows that the problem of the role of public space in the creation of the city’s identity is important for the research. This article presents this problem according to in-depth interviews with institutional and social experts in Gliwice and Wrocław which were conducted as a part of the wider research project in 2014 and 2015.