Sense of place as an investigative method for the evaluation of participatory urban redevelopment

Abstract

This study uses ‘sense of place’ as an investigative method to evaluate the process and outcomes of participatory urban redevelopment in a low-income residential area of inner-city Tehran. Property owners participated in the redevelopment of their area by assembling their smaller pieces of land into larger developable parcels. Photo-elicitation methods and in-depth interviews were employed with resident participants. At different stages of this process, and in relation to different outcomes, participants narrated varying and even contradictory senses of place. They were proud to feel re-identified with their redeveloped place, because of their individual and collective involvement in a process that improved the socio-spatial conditions of their living spaces. Participants perceived loss and detachment from their place when they were unable to keep and/or re-establish the cognitive-affective-conative meanings they attached to their place. This was a result of overlooking their ‘experiential perspective’ in the construction of place and rapid transformations.