In its most basic form,
public space is a type of public good, first defined by Samuelson
(1954) as a resource that individuals cannot be prevented from
consuming (i.e. non-excludable) and for which one individual’s
consumption does not diminish its potential consumption by
others (i.e. non-rivalrous). However, more recently, Webster
(2007) argued that public spaces often follow a trajectory from a
pure public good to a pure private good