From Festivalisation of Public Space to the Right to Public Space: Deconstructing Social Infrastructure as a Conceptual Framework for the Town Hall Square in Vienna

In our globalised, interconnected and increasingly competitive world, the importance of public space is often highlighted. This article aims at connecting public space to the concept of social infrastructure to point to the underlying and indispensable nature of public space. It builds on the assumption that public space is the physical manifestation of the interconnection between global urban processes and local tendencies where dynamics of festivalisation and restricted access are on the rise. The town hall square in Vienna and its seasonal use for different festivals and events serves as the empirical case. The square, situated in the centre of the city, shows powerful dynamics within the production of public space and gives interesting insights into the prevalent global and local tendencies of urban politics.A two-step approach towards the deconstruction of social infrastructure for the conception of public space is adopted. Using the notion of social infrastructure permits to connect public space as a product – as a physical place and organisational structure, which allows people to interact– to its process – its interpretative context, where meaning and value are assigned through the material context. The notion of the right to the city is applied to formulate an alternative approach to the right to public space. This constitutes a multi-dimensional approach, which is necessary to grasp the multiplicity of perspectives and complexity of issues manifesting themselves in public space. The aim of the paper is to understand how representational public space is used and which role the understanding of the right to the city plays in reclaiming public space as a form of social infrastructure