The politics of space is mediated by ideas about the form, function and style of everyday life. Cultural radicalism in the 1960s contributed much to a developing critique of urban lifestyle and the priorities of industrial civilization. The critique would have had less force without the Haight-Ashbury experience. For it was in the Haight that a hippie community was formed, a community which tried, however incoherently, to project an alternative way of life. The community revolved around cultural commodities but also expressed its philosophical tendencies through the use of public spaces, particularly streets and parks, as important social venues. Moreover, in Berkeley spatial politics was highlighted by the hip ‘non-student’ population which was taking an increasingly active role in the life of town and campus. University and state authorities, worried by these ‘non-students’, tried to draw neat dividing lines between the campus and the town, the student and the non-student. Such divisions were meaningless to Berkeley's radical community, a community given strength and shape by the direct relationship between Sproul Plaza and Telegraph Avenue.

Culture, Youth and the Berkeley Underground

The increasing importance of consumerism in the Western world following the Second World War produced dramatic changes in everyday life and in perceptions which helped shape that life. The cultural values of neo-capitalism tended to revolve around consumption, pleasure and leisure, rather than work, restraint and discipline. This transformation was particularly pronounced in America.