Regional and Local Studies special issue 2009

– an atteMpt at RecoMpoSition Public space of the post-modern epoch is a conglomerate or blend of discontinuous functions, a collection of loosely connected fragments, increasingly more frequently unrelated to a city. Peo-ple compose for themselves their own town from individual trajectories that are outlined by means of motor roads. Neo-liberal logic of city development recognises the rule of spontaneity wherever the interest of big capital groups dominates, pushing onto the sidelines the more important task of contemporary urban planning – the protection and development of public spaces. Due to the crisis it is undergoing at present (commercial pressure), the efforts are taken to regain its social and spatial significance. The purpose of these transformations is bonding public spaces with broader surroundings (with open terrains, waterside zones, promenades, playgrounds, etc). Such recomposition is part of a re-generation process that unites the city and reconstructs the identity of the place where relationships of inhabitants with their urban environment were not completely abandoned. The sources of the fragmentation of urban space are usually sought in the speed and dynamics of changes in social life, and in the crisis of urban mas