The Organization of Territory

Whilst the metaphor of town centre describes spatial and utilitarian similarities defined by economic language, it is also useful when considering other narratives that describe shared urban space.<br />
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Two aspects of physical town centres are of particular interest: the existence, usage and enjoyment of public space; and the multiple, often unexpected, tangential uses to which urban space is subjected. The predominant economic narrative is punctuated by many others that may intersect in acceptable ways, question, oppose, avoid or play with it. In Society of the Spectacle (1967) Guy Debord defined this dominant economic ideology as spectacular and the mental environment it perpetuates as the spectacle. Spectacular society, based upon commodity fetishism and representation of culture in favour of lived experience, seeks to predefine individual behaviour in accommodation with its ideology. The spectacle isolates individualism and replaces it with consumerism. Recognising that the existence of public space renders the spectacle porous...