Work

Managing and navigating Manchester's Privately Owned Public Spaces: Understanding publicness

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper explores the processes of understanding publicness in the management of Privately Owned Public Spaces (POPS), in the context of a rapidly developing city in the UK (Manchester). By adopting a pluralistic approach that applies legal geography in place management literature in the context of POPS, we explore the intricacies of managing these spaces from the perspective of estate managers. Taking an ‘outside-in’ perspective to the complex question of publicness, we highlight how estate managers navigate such complexity through their day-to-day operations and present their important role in foregrounding the everyday and mundane in the regulatory, lived, managerial, and experiential dimensions of POPS.

Source: Journal of Urban Management

DOI: 10.1016/j.jum.2025.07.001

Authors: Evgenia (Jenny) Kanellopoulou, Nikos Ntounis, Steve Millington

Institution: Manchester Metropolitan University

Language: English

Topic: Urban Planning and Governance

Subfield: Urban Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Sustainable cities and communities

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $1,200