Nov 4 2011

OCCUPY WALL STREET
AND THE POLITICS OF PUBLIC SPACE

As Occupy Wall Street moves into its second month, debate continues over critical issues about public space. When is the space public, private or a hybrid? Who should have a right to use it, for how long and under what rules? How have zoning regulations, neoliberal regimes of public-private development, and local/global politics shaped the debate? What does location and real estate development have to do with it? What are the implications for the movements to reclaim public space and guarantee the right to the city?

Tom Angotti teaches in Urban Affairs & Planning at Hunter College and at the Graduate Center. He is author of New York For Sale: Community Planning Confronts Global Real Estate (MIT Press, 2008).

Manissa Maharawal is a PhD student in Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center. She is a well known activists and has been writing extensively on OWS.

Martin Cobian is a PhD student in Anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center. He is a long standing activists and the coordinator of the the AELLA (Latino and Latin American and Student Organizationi) at GC.