Public spaces and social urban interaction a case study in Johor Baharu, Malaysia

Abstract

The different usage of public places in urban areas is the focus of this study. It concentrates on the use of public places in Wong Ah Fook located in Johor Bahro city centre. The study is going to examine the way that different people utilize public places and to examine how social interactions vary by age, gender or place. Moreover, this study investigates on the physical qualities of public places in the case study. The consideration of findings is on their relation of policies due contested and shared places, safety and security, interactional relationships, and the managing of public places. Regarding the aim of this study, two methods approaches which consist of questionnaire and observation approaches is undertaken. Therefore, eight types of existing public places that considered representative of the public places of the case study as whole is carried out. In addition, due data analysis, this study investigates on SPSS software and snapshots about public activities on study area for analyzing the data of questionnaire and observation respectively. As result, most well-known and active public places from the most to least are identified. Moreover, lack of facilities and elements due decreasing interactional tasks and factors which encourage people visiting each chosen public places are revealed. In addition, the duration of visiting public places and the favorable times for users to visit public places are investigated.