Abstract In the UK, there has been a noticeable increase in public space management arrangements based on transfer and contracting-out of managerial responsibilities to organisations outside the public sector, whether in the shape of community or private trusts, tenants organisations, Business Improvement Districts, private companies or voluntary sector organisations. Recent cuts in local authority budgets have accelerated this process. Underpinning it there is an underlying assumption that publicness, however defined, can be guaranteed by means other than public ownership, funding and management, and that public sector ownership and direct control might not be in themselves essential features of spaces that are public. This paper reports on a case study research that investigates the impact on public spaces of the transfer of management away from the public sector. Based on nine case studies of public spaces in London under a variety of different management arrangements, the paper discusses how publicness is affected by the various contractual forms of transfer and what the main implications of this process are for different stakeholders and for the public realm as a whole. The paper suggests that contracted-out management of public space might not necessarily affect publicness negatively. However, it requires judiciously designed accountability mechanisms and clear decisions by all key stakeholders, including local authorities, about whose aspirations will be privileged and how other aspirations should be protected. In a climate of austerity and spending cuts, this requires a different kind of public management and of policy.

中文翻译：

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外包公共性：城市公共领域的私人管理及其影响

摘要 在英国，基于将管理职责转移和外包给公共部门以外的组织，无论是社区还是私人信托、租户组织、商业改进区、私营公司或志愿部门组织。最近地方当局预算的削减加速了这一进程。支撑它的是一个潜在的假设，即无论如何定义公共性，都可以通过公有制、资金和管理以外的方式来保证，并且公共部门的所有权和直接控制本身可能不是公共空间的基本特征。本文报告了一项案例研究，该研究调查了管理从公共部门转移对公共空间的影响。基于各种不同管理安排下伦敦公共空间的九​​个案例研究，本文讨论了公共性如何受到各种合同转让形式的影响，以及这一过程对不同利益相关者和公共领域的主要影响是什么？整个。该论文表明，公共空间的外包管理不一定会对公共性产生负面影响。然而，它需要所有关键利益相关者（包括地方当局）明智地设计问责机制和明确决定，决定谁的愿望将享有特权以及其他愿望应如何得到保护。在紧缩和削减开支的气氛中，