Identifier

etd-0711102-135846

Degree

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Geography and Anthropology

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

This thesis demonstrates how private, corporate space at the Williams Tower Park in Houston’s Galleria area, (originally conceived as an office park that was closed to the public) has becomes a public place of leisure through its use. Ethnographic fieldwork conducted at the Williams Tower Park provides evidence contrary to what some scholars have heralded as the "end of public space," characterized by placeless and homogenized spaces. Instead, the corporate landscape of Houston is being culturally constructed through its unintended use by dog owners, fly fishers, wedding and quinceañera photographers, couples and families. The analysis begins with Martin Heidegger’s notion of world that shows how humans and the world that they inhabit are mutually constitutive. Given this premise, it is argued that the people who use the park (those who inhabit it, rather than those who designed it) constitute the park as a public place of leisure. This is brought about in two ways: 1) regionalization of space – the division of the park into different regions where certain activities are conducted; 2) routinization of activities – the same activities are carried out in certain regions at certain times repeatedly, creating a time-space routine. By carrying out activities in routine spaces and times, despite the constraints of the structure that is set up by the private corporation, the agency of the users has created the place as a leisurely place rather than an office park.

Date

2002

Document Availability at the Time of Submission

Release the entire work immediately for access worldwide.

Committee Chair

Miles Richardson

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_theses.348

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