Special Issue Public Space for Local Life journal Urbani Izziv

European partnership Human Cities (2008-2010, 2010-2012, 2014-2018) is addressing the issues of participatory approaches to contemporary urban design. A particular focus is on bottom-up initiatives that self-organise in order to improve public spaces in their living environments. Important pillars of the project are research, experimental and educational activities related to public spaces. The main goal is two-fold: to help citizens develop the affinity to common urban spaces and strengthen their approaches to participatory re-design of these spaces, as well as to advance the theoretical foundations in the field of participatory provision of urban public spaces. It also stresses the importance of shared values of community members in relation to public urban spaces, among others empathy, wellbeing, intimacy, sustainability, conviviality, mobility, accessibility, imagination, leisure, aesthetics, sensoriality, solidarity and respect. The AESOP Thematic Group Public Space and Urban Culture values a critical and constructive dialogue on the processes relating to series UNSTABLE GEOGRAPHIES - DISLOCATED PUBLICS (2016-2018) that equally involves researchers and practitioners, locals and guests. The proposed umbrella topic aims to explore and rethink relations among different concepts and meanings related to, on the one hand, cities facing austerity, crisis, and a variety of migrational patterns, and, on the other hand, a civic response in the form of emerging practices of self-organization, social innovation, and planners' investments in building solidarity, hope, and trust. The topic has been approached in a dialectical manner and conceived as a dynamic framework that allows for the exploration of various (relational) aspects of public spaces and urban cultures, as well as socio-theoretical approaches to critically investigate and shape these spaces and cultures. Theme The current scenario in which the city is affected by austerity policies, crisis and dramatic migrational flows, it would be useful to approach to the public space agenda taking into account two main issuess: ? Practicing more inclusive pathways for provision of public space, including engagement of marginal and minority groups; ? Experimenting long-term circular process in which public spaces' economic dimension could be adapted to cater for increasing solidarity, environmental concerns and criticial heritage studies. If the urban renewal process is to be undertaken in a particpatory way, the regeneration strategies shall be built around the values shared by local inhabitants and different stakeholders, such as NGOs, and local businesses. This call expresses the need to reflect on the distinctive social and cultural values expressed in public space, resulting in the finding that place attachments and idenfication with places are differently experienced and encountered by individuals and groups. The main obstacle is being the neoliberal drift that, by spreading individual and strictly private interests, is excluding instances of more vulnerable and disadvantages groups. In order to address these challenges from various perspectives, UIRS has been developing and testing various approaches to participatory and socio-cultural improvements of urban public space. Since 2014 it has been working on the issue jointly with three other partner institutions: civil initiative Skupaj na plo??ad! (self organized group of local people in Ljubljana's neighbourhood of Ruski car trying to improve the conditions of neighbourhood's public spaces), Museum of Architecture and Design - MAO (national institution dedicated to rising awareness of the importance of high quality design of urban space) and Department of Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Ljubljana (