Liminal shared space: reconceptualising public space through postcolonial Southern dimensions and the relational politics of shared urban life

Global institutions have emphasised the creation of ‘inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’ public spaces, yet in many Southern urban contexts, the very notion of public space remains conceptually strained. This paper interrogates how normative definitions of public space – anchored in parks, squares and monuments – fail to account for the plural, everyday uses of urban infrastructure, furniture and nature spaces in South African cities. Drawing on ethnographic research from Norwood, Johannesburg, this research examines how sidewalks and servitudes in historically whites-only suburbs are appropriated by residents, private security and subaltern urban dwellers for securitisation, livelihood and reprieve. Engaging postcolonial Southern urban theory, relational place theory and Black geographies, this paper argues that these urban practices expose the limits of public space. Instead, it calls for a reconceptualisation towards liminal shared space – an in-between realm where informality, need and reprieve shape the urban experience. This framework foregrounds subaltern agency, alternative orders and plural spatialities that constitute shared urban life in postcolonial cities.