Before beginning drafting Project 1, we read a few essays and also listened to some podcasts regarding space to familiarize ourselves with the topic and scholarly discussion. Below is a reading response I wrote about one of the readings.

Reading Response- Fleming

David Fleming’s article, “The Space of Argumentation: Urban Design, Civic Discourse, and the Dream of the Good City”, draws from a lot of evidence to quantify characteristics of an ideal space for argumentation. One of the features he highlights is security. In the context of the article, he does not mean security in the traditional sense but it instead relates to individuals feeling secure about participating in discourse in social space. As an example of security, Fleming suggests lessening the prevalence of cars to eliminate barriers between people and make everyday happenings more public and involved. However, he also mentions in the last sentence of the paragraph about a balance between private and public. I extended this balance to mean that it is important for people to feel secure, and that they have enough privacy and safety, to enter a public arena in the first place, but once they were in this public discourse, to be more open and participatory in discussion and argument. Furthermore, Fleming also wanted to assure participants that they would still be safe and protected in the public space. Overall, security in this context is different from the tradition definition but is still an applicable term.