Choosing a place

Context plays a key role in planning protests, which makes describing public spaces in universal terms nearly impossible. However, mapping key urban typologies that have received significant attention from architects and town planners-the square, the street, and the park-serves as a first step in revealing the relationship between distance and the socio-spatial engagements that occur during protests. Protests that take place in squares tend to be structured events, performances that draw on a place’s symbolic characteristics. These focal gatherings are often organized events at which participants abide by an agreed-upon set of activities with known aims and distinct symbolic meanings. Distinct from the enclosed space of the square, which is attractive and often monumental due to its size and the arrangement of buildings, the street is a functional space that is a product of a settlement’s expansion. During protests, a shift occurs in the ways in which streets or routes are used.