The politics and poetics of place: What do we mean by the public realm in contemporary urban policy?

This paper looks at the current interest in the design of the public realm in urban place-making, but argues that the public realm is, in addition to being a physical realm also a symbolic land political) sphere, as well as a relational and emotional sphere. It draws on research undertaken by the author and colleagues associated with Comedia and Demos over the past decade, into the quality of public life in British towns and cities, and cites a number of reports published in this period resulting from this research.