Interpreting public space through a publicness–typology approach: An exploratory study of public spaces in Shanghai, China

Abstract In the context of researching public space in non-Western contexts, the paper seeks to explore an analytical framework that examines public space within contextual embeddedness. The framework combines a space–order publicness model and a typology approach. It is then empirically tested using public-space cases in Shanghai, drawing on data from observation and desktop research. By interpreting these cases with a new typology of public space comprising symbolic public space, entrepreneurial public space, community public space, and spontaneous public space, I argue that to examine public spaces as embedded in their unique contextual complexities, it is important to see publicness as a layered quality and public spaces on the ground as comprising varying compositions of different ideal public spaces (rather than public space ideals). This research contributes to existing scholarship by de-Westernizing publicness and offering an alternative perspective for interpreting public spaces in a non-Western urban context.