Navigating social justice in public spaces

This PWO project investigates public space in a metropolitan context. In these places, we want to 
examine how local residents and users relate to this space. In doing so, we focus 
on the physical aspects of public space (presence of greenery, meeting space, 
general layout) as well as the social and political dimensions of public space (sense of 
ownership, experiences, encounters, voice in the public debate). We focus on 
structural mechanisms of inequality and exclusion that people may experience because of 
their age and/or social position in the metropolitan context of Brussels. In this project, the most immediate 
context in which relationships with society are negotiated is the neighborhood and 
public space. Freie (1998) notes that it is in public space where a wide 
variety of people can meet, the habit of coming together can 
develop, and the roots of democracy can be cultivated (Saraví, 2004). The immediate 
living environment can thus be a catalyst that offers citizens the opportunity to act and have a 
concrete, visible effect in their daily lives. For public space to function fully 
as civic spaces, we must embrace the full spectrum of life within it 
(Laitio, 2022). On the one hand, intensive use of space by some groups excludes others 
and intimidates them. On the other hand, the limited amount of public space is under 
pressure from other demands on a finite resource. Using participatory qualitative 
research methods (PWO project 3, ethics of sustainable participation), we investigate in four use 
cases how local residents relate to their immediate living environment: (1) the sense of 
belonging and social networks of local residents. (2) perceptions of physical public space
and urban nature. (3) the relationship between residents and visitors/users, and (4) the discourse 
on public space.
The participatory methods are a facilitator for making visible, recognising and acknowledging the experiences, perceptions and impressions of 
children, young people and the elderly about public space, and the frictions that arise in this context, 
and for converting them into tangible recommendations via the
citizen science platform (developed within PWO project 2 “Open City”). On the other hand, the 
results provide an empirical basis for scientific output. The collective knowledge that is developed 
enables us to make policy choices at neighbourhood level that are also more widely shareable 
and applicable (socially and scientifically).