Whether in workplaces, parks, housing estates, or hospitals, for a city’s inhabitants, these ‘sites of contestation’ can materialise rapidly within any of its social spaces. These sites of contestation are congruous with what I would describe as discursive zones, situations related to what Henri Lefebvre calls, “places of simultaneity and encounter.” They emanate from within and mark the horizons of experience of daily life. Furthermore, if the global city signifies an ailing body, than these discursive zones represent social spaces still not frozen in time. The market hall is a discursive zone that can add vitality to an ailing city.

• Introduction
• the medieval market square
• structures
• market hall as public space
• the city in transition
• the global city
• sites of contestation
• the ailing city
• reflection
• market halls in transition