Consideration of political and legal–economic perspectives together allows researchers to consider questions of the openness and accessibility of public spaces, especially as definitions of ‘the public’ evolve. Although most definitions of public space, and indeed its formal legal status, identify such places as those that are open and accessible to the public, precisely who is a member of the public and thus to whom these places ought to be accessible remains contentious (Neal, 2010). Fraser (1992) is critical of Habermas’s account of the public sphere, suggesting that it should include not just a single, dominant public, but also a variety of subaltern or counter-publics. Thus, some have advocated a multi-public model of public space wherein diversity and difference is embraced and such places are rendered open and accessible to all rather than only to members of a specific public