The Commons: an Everyday Space

Margaret Crawford explores bottom-up practices within public space and illuminates through these practices the differentiated meanings everyday public spaces receive and hold. Her research on Los Angeles and other American cities has shown how inhabitants occupy space and adjust these to their needs and aspirations. These practices of inhabitants and their businesses depict (political) meaning to everyday spaces, and introduce an idea of commonality.

Margaret Crawford is professor of architecture at the University of Berkeley, California, and published numerous books and articles on cities and public spaces, amongst which (together with John Chase and John Kaliski) Everyday Urbanism (2000).