Od veřejného ke sdílenému prostoru: městský park v symetrické perspektivě

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which the Petřín Park is territorially produced. Drawing on my own ethnographic fi eldwork in the park, I analyse various forms of territorial production with special regard to marginalised productions of homeless people who live in Petřín under the constant threat of eradication from the place by municipal authorities. The object of this article is to develop a symmetrical perspective on the study of an urban park. I deploy the concept of territoriality (Kärrholm), significantly influenced by actor network theory, which deconstructs well established dichotomies of the social and the natural, as well as the public and the private and, thus, enables more subtle analysis of relationships between humans and non-humans and private and public activities in the place. Drawing upon Mitchell who argues that free and open public space has not yet existed in our history, I propose to avoid an uncritical use of the concept of public space. Instead, I develop the term “shared place” as characterised by a high level of territorial complexity. I claim that the socio-natural inclusiveness and democracy of a particular place is a function of the degree of sharing among different territorial producers (both human and non-human), rather than by a declared public character.