Public parks Going Private: Privatization impact on Socio-cultural Ecosystem

Privatization of Public space is a term that has emerged with building Gated communities, private clubs, malls etc…, where the middle and high class preferred to isolate themselves from the so-called " others " excluding low-income groups. Therefore the remaining public space has been transformed automatically into a private space for the low income groups of society. The same behaviour pattern appeared in public parks where they have been neglected and privatized by a low socioeconomic class. The Paper presents a literature review over the Importance of public space, principles of a functioning public space, and the importance of social aspect in maintaining public parks. It aims to highlight the reasons behind privatization of public parks by the low-income class, and how does it affect the nature of public parks causing social problems, affecting the parks' physical settings and social sustainability. It presents an over view of maintaining a socio-cultural ecosystem principals and an analysis to their application on two case studies that witnessed a collapse of their socio-cultural ecosystem, giving further recommendations for Public parks' redevelopment to maintain a balanced cultural Ecosystem