Setha M. Low is Professor of Environmental Psychology and Anthropology and Director of the Public Space Research Group at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

• List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Introduction Chapter One: Notes from the Field: A Personal Account Chapter Two: Public Space and Culture: The Case of the Latin American Plaza Part II: Histories Chapter Three: The History of the Plaza in San JosÉ, Costa Rica: The Political Symbolism of Public Space Chapter Four: The European History of the Plaza: Power Relations and Architectural Interpretation Chapter Five: The Indigenous History of the Plaza: The Contested Terrain of Architectural Representations Part III: Ethnographies Chapter Six: Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space Chapter Seven: Constructing Difference: The Social and Spatial Boundaries of Everyday Life Chapter Eight: Public Space and Protest: The Plaza as Art and Commodity Part IV: Conversations Chapter Nine: The Park and the Plaza in Costa Rican Literature: Imagined Places Chapter Ten: Conversations on the Plaza: Remembered Places Chapter Eleven: Public Space, Politics, and Democracy Appendix: Recent Costa Rican Presidents and Their Terms Bibliography Index

"This is one of the best accounts of a place's history and meaning I have ever read. Low's work should be widely used in courses in architecture, urban design, planning, landscape architecture, and historic preservation, as well as Latin American studies and anthropology. What a wonderful book!" Dolores Hayden, Professor of Architecture, Urbanism, and American Studies, Yale University "Combining ethnography, history, and spatial theory, this interdisciplinary book brings the Latin American plaza to life as a spatial expression of culture and politics. A paean to the plaza as democratic public space, it is as absorbing as it is unconventional." Neil Smith, Department of Geography and Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, Rutgers University

Setha M. Low is Professor of Environmental Psychology and Anthropology and Director of the Public Space Research Group at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

• List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Introduction Chapter One: Notes from the Field: A Personal Account Chapter Two: Public Space and Culture: The Case of the Latin American Plaza Part II: Histories Chapter Three: The History of the Plaza in San JosÉ, Costa Rica: The Political Symbolism of Public Space Chapter Four: The European History of the Plaza: Power Relations and Architectural Interpretation Chapter Five: The Indigenous History of the Plaza: The Contested Terrain of Architectural Representations Part III: Ethnographies Chapter Six: Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space Chapter Seven: Constructing Difference: The Social and Spatial Boundaries of Everyday Life Chapter Eight: Public Space and Protest: The Plaza as Art and Commodity Part IV: Conversations Chapter Nine: The Park and the Plaza in Costa Rican Literature: Imagined Places Chapter Ten: Conversations on the Plaza: Remembered Places Chapter Eleven: Public Space, Politics, and Democracy Appendix: Recent Costa Rican Presidents and Their Terms Bibliography Index

"This is one of the best accounts of a place's history and meaning I have ever read. Low's work should be widely used in courses in architecture, urban design, planning, landscape architecture, and historic preservation, as well as Latin American studies and anthropology. What a wonderful book!" Dolores Hayden, Professor of Architecture, Urbanism, and American Studies, Yale University "Combining ethnography, history, and spatial theory, this interdisciplinary book brings the Latin American plaza to life as a spatial expression of culture and politics. A paean to the plaza as democratic public space, it is as absorbing as it is unconventional." Neil Smith, Department of Geography and Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, Rutgers University

Setha M. Low is Professor of Environmental Psychology and Anthropology and Director of the Public Space Research Group at The Graduate Center, City University of New York.

• List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Part I: Introduction Chapter One: Notes from the Field: A Personal Account Chapter Two: Public Space and Culture: The Case of the Latin American Plaza Part II: Histories Chapter Three: The History of the Plaza in San JosÉ, Costa Rica: The Political Symbolism of Public Space Chapter Four: The European History of the Plaza: Power Relations and Architectural Interpretation Chapter Five: The Indigenous History of the Plaza: The Contested Terrain of Architectural Representations Part III: Ethnographies Chapter Six: Spatializing Culture: The Social Production and Social Construction of Public Space Chapter Seven: Constructing Difference: The Social and Spatial Boundaries of Everyday Life Chapter Eight: Public Space and Protest: The Plaza as Art and Commodity Part IV: Conversations Chapter Nine: The Park and the Plaza in Costa Rican Literature: Imagined Places Chapter Ten: Conversations on the Plaza: Remembered Places Chapter Eleven: Public Space, Politics, and Democracy Appendix: Recent Costa Rican Presidents and Their Terms Bibliography Index

"This is one of the best accounts of a place's history and meaning I have ever read. Low's work should be widely used in courses in architecture, urban design, planning, landscape architecture, and historic preservation, as well as Latin American studies and anthropology. What a wonderful book!" Dolores Hayden, Professor of Architecture, Urbanism, and American Studies, Yale University "Combining ethnography, history, and spatial theory, this interdisciplinary book brings the Latin American plaza to life as a spatial expression of culture and politics. A paean to the plaza as democratic public space, it is as absorbing as it is unconventional." Neil Smith, Department of Geography and Center for the Critical Analysis of Contemporary Culture, Rutgers University