Spaces of Sociability: Enhancing Co-presence and Communal Life in Canada

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dc.contributor.authorHorgan, Mervyn
dc.contributor.authorLiinamaa, Saara
dc.contributor.authorMacLeod, Katie K.
dc.contributor.authorMcIlwraith, Thomas
dc.contributor.authorHunter, Devan
dc.contributor.authorWilson, Edith
dc.contributor.authorXu, Meng
dc.date.accessioned2022-11-23T18:38:04Z
dc.date.available2022-11-23T18:38:04Z
dc.date.issued2022-11
dc.degree.departmentDepartment of Sociology and Anthropologyen_US
dc.description.abstractDigital technologies have transformed how we connect and socialize. Although virtual spaces command much of our attention, physical spaces remain essential to our everyday lives. This report synthesizes existing research on public spaces that potentiate, facilitate, and enhance relations between people beyond networks of primary relations, to better understand where sociability between strangers happens, where it does not, and how it may be enhanced. As central spaces of sociability, public spaces are an essential part of our social infrastructure.bAs spaces of sociability, public spaces improve quality of life by increasing opportunities for social contact, learning, leisure, play, and simply sharing space with strangers. Sociable public spaces facilitate interactions across social difference and create belonging; they can be both planned and flexible, and support a range of uses that respond to local needs and residents. The best sociable public spaces attend to historical, social, cultural, and community context; they include careful planning and programming and facilitate playfulness and improvised uses; they attend to basic human needs and foreground accessibility in multiple ways. To make public spaces better spaces of sociability, planners and policy makers need better more granular data on the social life of public spaces. Investments in public spaces as social infrastructure that supports diverse populations will counter social isolation, social fragmentation, and political polarization.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipCo-funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and Employment and Social Development Canada.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10214/27310
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.rightsAttribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/*
dc.subjectpublic spaceen_US
dc.subjectsocial institutionen_US
dc.subjectambiguously public spacesen_US
dc.subjectpublic realmen_US
dc.subjectcanadaen_US
dc.subjectpublic policyen_US
dc.subjectlibrariesen_US
dc.subjectcommunity centresen_US
dc.subjectneighbouringen_US
dc.subjectporchesen_US
dc.subjectPOPSen_US
dc.subjectsocial infrastructureen_US
dc.subjectshopping mallsen_US
dc.subjectintergenerationalen_US
dc.subjectfestivalsen_US
dc.subjectpublic arten_US
dc.subjectbenchesen_US
dc.subjectleisureen_US
dc.titleSpaces of Sociability: Enhancing Co-presence and Communal Life in Canadaen_US
dc.title.alternativeEspaces de sociabilité : améliorer la co-présence et la vie communautaire au Canadaen_US
dc.typeReporten_US
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