- Reconsidering the Planning and Design of urban public Spaces in the Information Age: Opportunities and Challenges    142 kb by    Gencel, Ziya & Velibeyoglu, Koray | zgencel@mmf.sdu.edu.tr    Short Outline The following will be treated: Urban public spaces and culture. Knowledge city and changing image of the city. Transformation of public spaces under the impacts of a new technological paradigm. ICT-based development strategies and policies. Abstract RECONSIDERING THE PLANNING AND DESIGN OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACES IN THE INFORMATION AGE: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been celebrated by city managers as a saviour of urban prosperity and new kind of marketing and branding the city. The most successful urban places are also seen to be breeding grounds for talent and innovation. The basic view behind such considerations in the production of places of knowledge image is as important as actuality. In this sense, urban public spaces of global cities are under transformation of centralising and decentralising forces of globally networked economy. This article therefore focuses on new technological paradigm as place marketing strategy and promoting attractive city images by exemplifying in the case of public spaces. It also discusses the new challenges and opportunities provided by this technological paradigm in terms of urban planning and design. In this context, the article aims to scrutinise (1) the tension between global and local; (2) the complex interplays between urban places and electronic spaces according to typology of relations, and (3) changing logic of space and time, in the case of urban public spaces. Knowledge economy is highly dynamic and selective, links up and connects to a network what is valuable, and this disconnects from the network what is not valuable. Coupled with the ever-increasing privatization of infrastructure, urban public services and spaces have become the new line of division between haves and have-nots. In this sense, tackling with ''the end of meaning of the localized space'' has become important that planners and designers should aware of the emerging issues and opportunities in order to create policies and tools to manage urban activities and infrastructure related to new technologies. Based on this framework, the article provides world-wide examples of urban public spaces of global cities as regards local ICT policy making, planning and design tools applied to regulate and guide ICT-driven changes, and urban development strategies. Keywords ICTs, Urban Public Spaces, knowledge city Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2006: Cities between Integration and Disintegration   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper