Abstract:
ABSTRACT:
Lahore has a rich history of performative, diverse and inclusive public spaces with multiple overlapping territories. Places like the walled city, despite being a gated community, are diverse and inclusive of intricate cultural, economic, political and social activities. These spaces are temporal and flexible where spatial structures are manipulated according to events and need of the human body. This makes spaces performative, allowing multiple possibilities for social interaction. In different scenarios in the same place, where distinct social groups create unique spaces on the basis of economy, identity and social values. Social and political dimensions of public performance in public space depend upon the governance system.
Public institutions related to policy making in present scenario are an example of separation of territories and controlled space which eliminate diversity and presence of public in policy and decision making process. Having an Ideological narrative and its physical manifestation in space is essential for any model of governance to work and operate successfully. A socially inclusive ideology of governance considers its citizens to be performers; operating according to their own narratives and occupying temporal roles acted out in physical space.
Understanding how a manifestation of public spaces occurs, as a place of cultural identities and expressions under a government authority, allows one an insight into the socio-cultural and political relationship between the government and its people.
This public domain can be divided into formal and informal spaces on the basis of political control. Spatial manifestation mostly represents entities that do not fulfill the needs of the place’s living patterns which act symbolically rather than being performed.
