Thesis Prep Document

Sheila Moss
Thesis Abstract,  and working thoughts


Cities hold great promise for new modes of living and personal expression by the dynamics of exchange and closeness their inhabitants experience each day.  One has to be alive to the other.  Proximity and activity within cities also engenders the capacity for creative and just use of urban resources whether they be physical or cultural systems.  However, the 21st century city in North America (specifically New York City)  has sold its potential out from under the feet of its inhabitants, opting for insidious, repressive structures to spatially control and exclude marginalized people while serving the dominant power base and its desires.

The present corporatization of public space is akin to a strain of colonialism especially in lower income urban neighborhoods.  Beyond gentrification, this urban colonialism is lauded because of its privatization while being sanctioned by state and municipal governments.  Seemingly, much public good comes from these relationships on the surface, yet are cities destined to the tyranny of the trickle-down theory in order to change their shape and mission?

Current power structures orchestrate public space and dictate its use, effecting people’s sense of  possibility. Activated as contested terrain with multiple constituencies, rather than sites of acquiescence to an assumed authority, urban social space reveals the underlying dynamics along with openings for resistance, transgressions, new alliances, and regeneration.