Book review: democracy and public space: the physical sites of democratic performance

In our extensive online world, democracy is increasingly made up of wikis and blogs, pokes and tweets. The traditional sites of democracy – assemblies, public galleries, and plazas - are becoming less relevant with every new technology. But democratic citizens are embodied, take up space, and perform democracy on physical stages at least as much as they engage with ideas in virtual space. Combining conceptual analysis with interviews and observation in capital cities on every continent, John Parkinson argues that democracy requires physical public space. Marco Scalvini especially admires the insights Parkinson offers for scholars in media and communications.