In OperatingSystemsDesign, user space is where applications are run, outside the kernel and protected by it from memory and program corruption by other processes. Applicable to OperatingSystems that are MultiTasking.
Is it not the kernel which is protected from corruption by any process? Are you intending a distinction between protection provided by hardware such as different address spaces, and protection provided by software?
I checked this up in my copy of UnderstandingTheLinuxKernel (2001 edition) and there is a discussion of this topic in Chapter 1. -- JohnFletcher