Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- SPEECH OUT OF DOORS
- 1 Introduction: The Geography of Expression
- 2 The Expressive Topography and Public Liberties
- 3 Embodied Places
- 4 Contested Places
- 5 Non-Places
- 6 Inscribed Places
- 7 Militarized Places
- 8 Places of Higher Learning
- 9 Networked Public Places
- Epilogue
- Index
4 - Contested Places
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- SPEECH OUT OF DOORS
- 1 Introduction: The Geography of Expression
- 2 The Expressive Topography and Public Liberties
- 3 Embodied Places
- 4 Contested Places
- 5 Non-Places
- 6 Inscribed Places
- 7 Militarized Places
- 8 Places of Higher Learning
- 9 Networked Public Places
- Epilogue
- Index
Summary
Speakers often rely upon access to specific places to facilitate, amplify, and convey particular messages. We shall call these contested places. Sites of contest and exchange have existed from the very first assemblies of the “people out of doors.” The nature and identity of contested places typically highlight the significant social and political issues of particular eras. Over time, sites of contest have shifted from the private homes of prominent individuals in the precolonial era, to jails, courthouses and lunch counters in the Civil Rights Era, to abortion clinics and, most recently, cemeteries in more contemporary eras. In this fashion and others, the expressive topography is inscribed with cycles of political and social contention.
Owing to the variety of critical functions these places serve in terms of public liberties, access to contested places is highly sought after. Contested places are perhaps the most potent venues on the expressive topography. They provide access to general and specific audiences, are often inextricably tied to the content of speakers' messages, and are often powerfully symbolic of the social or political contest itself. Today, expressive zoning, certain types of public policing, and a variety of other restrictions on access to contested places substantially inhibit the conveyance of place-specific viewpoints. The assumption, generally although not uniformly accepted by courts, is that speakers' rights are adequately preserved so long as they can speak someplace. That assumption ignores the considerable expressive power of contested places. Simply put, places are not fungible.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Speech Out of DoorsPreserving First Amendment Liberties in Public Places, pp. 105 - 143Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2008