Appropriating public space: transformations of public life and loose parts in urban villages

Appropriation of public space is a widespread trope of informal urbanism, attributed with supporting community bonds and economic livelihoods. Yet, appropriations remain confined to acclamations of their flexibility or chastised as encroachments, without an understanding of how and why they appear in particular urban conditions. Existing narratives that link appropriation to ambiguous demarcations, regulatory restraints, and spatial affordances, are ultimately insufficient. This paper investigates public space appropriation and its transformation through extensive mapping of twelve urban villages across China and India. As erstwhile rural communities are enveloped by the formal city, they subsequently densify, exacerbating the pressure on public space. This study draws attention to the impact of densification on the intensity and distribution of appropriation. It invokes the concept of “public space arenas” to argue that people not only passively use space but are enacting performative codes as they tacitly monitor public space appropriations in a self-regulatory process.