IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v54y2017i4p984-998.html

Being visible in public space: The normalisation of asymmetrical visibility

Author

Listed:
  • Tali Hatuka

    (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

  • Eran Toch

    (Tel Aviv University, Israel)

Abstract

Over recent decades, cities have been radically transformed by information and communication technologies (ICTs) that modify people’s daily lives by reorganising mobility, infrastructure systems and physical spaces. However, in addition to the role that technology plays in the development of the infrastructure in our cities, it is also being used ‘as a means of control’. This view of technology as a disciplinary tool that restructures space, time and the relations among activities has been promoted by scholars who have shown that technology is also a means of saturating and sustaining contemporary capitalist societies and deepening inequalities. However, the situation is far more complex than that. Technology is not only used top-down but also bottom-up, with individuals using technological devices to share and enhance their visibility in space. This bidirectional paradigm – of vertical surveillance and horizontal sharing – contributes to a sense of ‘being exposed’ in public space that normalises practices of sharing personal data by individuals and thus results in diminished privacy. This argument is supported by an experiment conducted on smartphone users that includes personal interviews and the use of a smartphone Android application that combines online tracking with experience sampling. The findings show a convergence between the online and offline worlds (a ‘public’ situation in the offline world is also considered as such in the online world), which is a condition that contributes to the normalisation of ‘asymmetrical visibility’. Based on these results, the paper ends with a discussion of the contemporary meaning of public space.

Suggested Citation

  • Tali Hatuka & Eran Toch, 2017. "Being visible in public space: The normalisation of asymmetrical visibility," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(4), pages 984-998, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:4:p:984-998
    DOI: 10.1177/0042098015624384
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0042098015624384
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0042098015624384?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Judit Bodnar, 2015. "Reclaiming public space," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 52(12), pages 2090-2104, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mohamed Saleh & Ward Rauws, 2022. "The urban political never sleeps: A framework for tracing emergent counter-responses to depoliticisation," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(6), pages 1272-1289, September.
    2. Tauri Tuvikene & Wladimir Sgibnev & Wojciech Kȩbłowski & Jason Finch, 2023. "Public transport as public space: Introduction," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 2963-2978, November.
    3. Albert Santasusagna Riu & Joan Tort Donada & Maria Teresa Vadrí Fortuny & Valerià Paül Carril, 2021. "Estimating public space metrics from nineteenth-century urban cartography: Barcelona’s Cerdà Plan of urban expansion," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 48(9), pages 2640-2655, November.
    4. Bradley Rink, 2023. "Public space on the move: Mediating mobility, stillness and encounter on a Cape Town bus," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 3027-3044, November.
    5. Sifan Guo & Xuesen Zheng & Timothy Heath, 2022. "Research on the Design of Community Museums Based on the Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-17, August.
    6. Kostov Ivo & Palicki Sławomir & Rącka Izabela, 2017. "The Activities of Local Governments in the Revitalization of Public Space in Bulgaria and Poland," Real Estate Management and Valuation, Sciendo, vol. 25(1), pages 103-111, March.
    7. Paul Milbourne, 2021. "Growing public spaces in the city: Community gardening and the making of new urban environments of publicness," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(14), pages 2901-2919, November.
    8. Gössling, Stefan, 2016. "Urban transport justice," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-9.
    9. Xuefan Zhang, 2017. "Identifying consumerist privately owned public spaces: The ideal type of mass private property," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(15), pages 3464-3479, November.
    10. Marie Gibert-Flutre, 2022. "Rhythmanalysis: Rethinking the politics of everyday negotiations in ordinary public spaces," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 40(1), pages 279-297, February.
    11. Jenny Mbaye & Cecilia Dinardi, 2019. "Ins and outs of the cultural polis: Informality, culture and governance in the global South," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(3), pages 578-593, February.
    12. Alasdair Jones, 2021. "Public realm ethnography: (Non-)Participation, co-presence and the challenge of situated multiplicity," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(2), pages 425-440, February.
    13. Ryanne Flock, 2024. "Creating the spectacular city in everyday life: A governance analysis of urban public space in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(6), pages 1094-1110, May.
    14. Anna-Leena Toivanen, 2023. "On the move in the (post)colonial metropolis: The Paris Metro in Francophone African and Afrodiasporic fiction," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 3061-3077, November.
    15. Kevin KH Tsang, 2023. "Distractions in a disruption: The soothing effect of the heritage bus ride during London Tube strikes," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(15), pages 3078-3091, November.
    16. Sverre Bjerkeset, 2025. "Hello, stranger? How attraction trumps interaction in ‘new’ public space," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 62(8), pages 1601-1629, June.
    17. Lina Naoroz Bråten, 2025. "Temporary temporariness? The (mis)use of tactical urbanism from the ‘open city’ framework," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 62(5), pages 809-827, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:54:y:2017:i:4:p:984-998. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.