Pluralist democracies cannot flourish without widely shared public spaces—both real and imagined, like public schools and the common school ideal. Public spaces include physical places—like the halls of Congress and public streets, sidewalks, and parks—and public policies, services, and programs, such as Social Security, welfare, housing, police, fire, and transportation. Public spaces also include public ideas and discourse, meaning debates about all aspects of public life that are shared in the public square. 

Formally, the public square is an open space that is designed for community gatherings, social activities and public events, including city plazas, town greens, street corners, market squares. More broadly it includes any place where a story may be shared about public institutions and public life, such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, theaters, books, websites, blogs, songs, pamphlets, and so forth.

Safe, inclusive, and adequately funded public spaces strengthen democracy in three ways: 

• they create political, social, cultural, and economic capital by providing a place for neighbors to meet one another, debate public issues, spend time with family and friends, and enjoy nature, the arts, and sports; 

• they transform society by helping individuals, groups, and communities thrive; and 

• they contribute to the efficiency, effectiveness, and fairness of government policies and programs.

Too often, though, public spaces have been physically and rhetorically constructed in ways that divide rather than unite us. Our Public Space conducts, publishes, and disseminates research on ways to re-imagine public spaces with the goal of improving democratic participation; developing a more egalitarian society; fostering a sense of belonging and shared fate; and promoting healthy and thriving individuals, families, neighborhoods, and communities.