Civility, contentious monuments, and public space

This chapter examines controversial public monuments through the concept of civility. First, we explain what we mean by (in)civility, distinguish between its different dimensions, and examine different ways in which they may intersect. We are particularly interested in a form of civility that is not necessarily a good thing (surface-level civility) as well as a form of incivility that is not necessarily a bad thing (critical incivility). Second, we focus on surface-level civility, which is illustrated by the statue of Joan of Arc in the Place des Pyramides in Paris and by Fearless Girl in New York. We then examine how monuments can also be critically uncivil, through the cases of a statue honoring Desmond Tutu in South Africa and Australia’s settler monuments. We reveal the complexities and nuances of monuments through the use of the disaggregated concept of (in)civility, showing that the question of how to interpret the messages that these monuments send requires more research than has commonly been assumed.