The Effect of Slow City (Cittaslow) Membership on Public Realms

Public realm is a place where human practices in society including values, culture, language are created and shared. There are economic, political and socio-cultural factors in the background of the arrangements on public realms as top of the significant elements in urban structure. Public realms are transformed in the influence of various factors such as globalization, urban transformation, migration and so on. In this process; modern city, urban classes and urban geography are deconstructed and reconstructed. As outcomes of globalization, culture of consumption and new modes of production limit progressively the “public space” and the publicity that built up by the modern city in accordance with common life and common consumption goods. In this context, while the cities are besieged by the negative conditions of the century such as industrial food system, mega projects, air pollution, traffic jam, noise pollution; longing for sustainable city, which rise on local culture and history, are growing. Since the second half of the 20th century, various urban development movements and understandings emerged as a reaction against the urban problems and the negative effects of globalization throughout the world. At this point, Cittaslow (Slow City) is one of these movements. The movement was declared in the year of 1999 by 4 Italian cities and during 16 years it has been an international body consisting with the 208 member cities from 30 countries. Furthermore, the principles of Cittaslow understanding include own authentic perspective towards public realms. The concrete manifestation of this perspective also becomes visible with practices on public realms in the Slow Cities. At this point of view, the reflection of the philosophy of Cittaslow on public realm give significant clues that how the Cittaslow idea are internalized or not. Cittaslow has an urbanization understanding that brings out local identity and sense of place. Notwithstanding, it is important in the imagination of public realm to increase and to arrange the realms for common share. In the study, the concept of public realm and its appearance in urban structure are explained with historical background. After a discussion on the Cittaslow idea and its reasons of the emergence, it is deliberated on the public realm perception of Cittaslow. The characteristics and structure of urban realms in the Slow Cities are examined in terms of the factors affecting them. There are several arrangements on public realm in the Slow Cities are given as examples for public realm understanding of Cittaslow. As for the conclusion of the study, it is argued that the main point of the Cittaslow idea for the utilization of the public realms is the arrangement of these spaces in terms of accessible and easy utilization in advantage of the owners of the city who have right there.