At a time when cities face both local and global pressures, thinking about public space in a creative, critical, and interdisciplinary way is a task that is as complex as it is essential and urgent. Today, we are experiencing the intensification of privatization, commodification, and financialization dynamics, as well as processes of touristification and gentrification, introduced by the growing mobility of people and capital, alongside the securitization of urban space, without any debate or definition of the public interest, and often without even a vision of the desired city. This raises a fundamental question: what public are we referring to when we talk about space for collective use? What public is problematized—and how—in the vision of a better future?
Alves et al. (2026) studied this question.