Place-making Processes Research Articles

Value of the street: an inquiry of children placemaking in Warakas, North Jakarta

People are occupying the street. That’s the everyday practice in Warakas, a neighborhood in North Jakarta, Indonesia. It is not only as a path to connect each part of the neighborhood but also as a place for the people to socialize to interact with each other, including space for children to play. Children see the street as their playground, an accessible space in front of their houses for them to play with their friends. There’s shifting in the way they see that particular space into the place they called playground, and that shifting involves a process called placemaking, a changing the space into the place they value, the place for them. Creating attachment to the particular space, that gives a sense of belonging of the place. This paper will try to observe and interrogate the process of children placemaking in the street of Warakas. We will conduct this research, by doing in site observation to begin the research, and participant observation with children. Mapping, taking visual notes, and pictures of the neighborhood and children activities on the street to understand the way children occupy and add value to the street, the place for them to play.

Creative Placemaking: Creating Change by Building Partnerships

Arts, artists, and creative strategies can be critical vehicles for achieving social, economic, and community goals. Creative placemaking is one type of arts-led planning that incorporates the goals of communities with stakeholder participation. Questions exist, however, around who participates in the creative placemaking process and to what end. This study explores a case where a state-sponsored workshop brought together people from diverse backgrounds to facilitate community development and engagement through creative placemaking. The study highlights how a one-shot intervention can reshape perceptions of creative placemaking that are held by planners, nonplanners, artists, and nonartists. The study shows that while pre-workshop participants focused on identifying resource-based challenges, post-workshop participants focused more on initiating collaborations and being responsive to community needs. The different attitudes before and after the state-sponsored workshop demonstrate the importance of not only building stakeholder understanding but also facilitating stakeholder engagement for successful creative placemaking.

Placeification: The Transformation of Digital News Spaces into “Places” of Meaning

News websites, apps, and immersive environments have increasingly become places that extend one beyond her physical geography. Digital Journalism Studies requires ways to consider how journalism both shapes and is shaped by the places in which it is produced, practiced, and consumed. Current understandings of place in the news set a foundation for such understanding, though this work usually expresses meanings after a geography is demarcated and characterized whereas in digital journalism, newsmakers and users are frequently creating or reinforcing connection to “place” through mediated experience, interactivity, and amid new territories of online news environments. This article, therefore, argues for the concept of placeification that encourages scholarship examining how places evolve in digital news environments. For this article, we define placeification as “the array of processes and practices in which digital news spaces transform into places of meaning and significance. The term employs ification, a suffix that represents a process of becoming and which acknowledges the structure-agency of the place-making process.

Interior Design Dilemmas in a Shared Room of Silence

This text sheds light on the delicate practice of including different religious as well as nonreligious expressions in a shared room. The effects of design decisions in a “room of silence” at a Swedish hospital are studied over a transitional period of renovation of the space. We observe the impact of materiality in the room’s establishment, renovation, and usage, and show how the room’s interior design, its decor and objects, are conditioned by ritual acts as well by practical and spontaneous place-making processes. By following how the negotiations of the interior space relate to presupposed separations of aesthetic and religious ideals, we see how the design of a room of silence can allow several religious groups to comfortably use one common room; but also how design can cause clashes between different interests and how materiality is forced in the end to advice a clear spatial distinction between different types of usage in the room.

Making sense of place-making in Penang island’s affordable housing schemes: voices from key stakeholders

ABSTRACT The housing agenda shifted its paradigm from housing as basic needs to housing as rights. It became widely contested when ‘affordable housing’ entered the discourse. Contextualising it for Penang island within the ‘Right to the City’ principle, the element of place-making emerged which questions a person’s right to construct one’s own habitat, or is it constrained to decisions by powerful elites. This study attempts to make sense of place-making in Penang island’s affordable housing schemes by dissecting voices from key stakeholders. The qualitative techniques used revealed that home owners are voiceless in the place-making process. A clearer affordable housing definition and a needs-based approach are recommended.

Placemaking in Arab Cities. Realities, Challenges, and Prospects

Placemaking is an inclusive approach to the planning, design, and management of public places by which people create and/or recreate places. In the context of the Arab cities, placemaking projects are often envisaged to transform communities’ spaces into lively and attractive places; to enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents. It also aims to (re)create a distinct sense of place or place branding at large. Exploring how contemporary Arab cities have framed placemaking processes within the contemporary urban conditions, and sometimes the threats to the quality of the city, are helping in creating healthier, equitable, and humane public places. Such challenges and opportunities of these processes is a core component of this special edition of The Journal of Public Space, which discusses various aspects of placemaking in Arab Cities, ranges from creating, enhancing, adapting and developing attractive and efficient public places in Arab Cities. In this context, academic papers and viewpoints have manifested a variety of perspectives, theories and practices of placemaking concepts, methods, recent challenges and possible solutions. They portrayed several tools on establishing and revitalizing public places starting from governmental toolkits, reaching unplanned activities fostering community engagement in placemaking.

A place-based perspective on marine and coastal space

Over recent years the sea has experienced re-interpretation as marine space, or more specifically as marine spatial planning (MSP) space. This article uses the concept of place as a contrasting interpretation to space, referring to place-making as a metaphor for the various ways in which meaning is created in the sea. As expressions of an intimate connection between experienced materiality and symbolism, places (unlike space) are never abstract, but always carry emotional dimensions. Place attachment can be the result of everyday profe ssional links, recreational activities, or living by the sea, and arises despite the greater intangibility of locations in the sea. As a result of their greater physical intangibility, places in the sea may require more frequent (re-)making than places on land, pointing to the inherent importance (and value in their own right) of the associated (socio-cultural) processes of place-making. The ability to engage in place-making is thus an important avenue for expressing place-based values, an understanding which could be used to enrich marine spatial planning processes. Focusing more on the intimate connections people have with places in the sea and how quality of place matters to them could turn MSP into an enabler of place-making, becoming more of a rich and continuous dialogue around the multiple ways in which people interact with and value the sea.

Placemaking in Action: Factors That Support or Obstruct the Development of Urban Community Gardens

The paper examines factors that support or obstruct the development of urban community garden projects. It combines a systematic scholarly literature review with empirical research from case studies located in New Zealand and Germany. The findings are discussed against the backdrop of placemaking processes: urban community gardens are valuable platforms to observe space-to-place transformations. Following a social-constructionist approach, literature-informed enablers and barriers for the development of urban community gardens are analysed against perceived notions informed by local interviewees with regard to their biophysical and technical, socio-cultural and economic, and political and administrative dimensions. These dimensions are incorporated into a systematic and comprehensive category system. This approach helps observe how the essential biophysical-material base of the projects is overlaid with socio-cultural factors and shaped by governmental or administrative regulations. Perceptual differences become evident and are discussed through the lens of different actors.

Indigeneity, Contingency, and Cognitive Shifts

When architects and architectural historians stray from contingent forces that are an inherent part of architecture and place-making processes, they miss opportunities to incorporate multivalent imaginaries that allow for change and flexibility in architectural production. This article maintains that centering Indigenous voices in the development of built environments and in the study of architectural histories allow for a (re)imagining of the transformative potential of contemporary architecture. First Nation and Native American epistemologies decenter Western conceptions about architecture’s ordered and universalizing qualities and, instead, emphasize the interconnectedness (physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual) between people and landscapes. The essay further maintains that embracing collaborative partnerships between Native and non-Native architects will result in cognitive shifts toward innovative design solutions to address twenty-first century issues related to climate change and the creation of inclusive communities that lift up societies.

The frictional geography of cultural heritage. Grounding the Faro Convention into urban experience in Forlì, Italy

ABSTRACT Cultural heritage is nurtured by, and nurtures, space and place dynamics that are multidimensional and ambiguous. In this paper I engage with a ‘frictional geography’ of heritage-making to question the principles and practices of the Framework Convention on the Value of Cultural Heritage for Society of the Council of Europe, a charter predicated on the principle of citizens’ inclusion and co-operation. The friction metaphor has emerged in the last decade in social and cultural geographies, bringing together globalisation, mobilities and more-than-human approaches. I will refer to an ethnographic study based in Forlì, Italy, where the local administration has been supporting a Faro process from 2016 to 2018. Reflecting on this case study, I ask: What happens once the principles of local democracy and heritage co-construction are enacted on the ground of everyday urban experiences? What frictions, conflicts and ambiguities arise? The case of Forlì serves as a useful illustration of how diverse acceptances of the same heritage-making process coexist and ‘rub’ against one another. A ‘frictional geography’ approach might also be employed to explore other place-making processes, especially those accompanied by the claim of the right of citizens to participate, on the one hand, and increasing societal conflicts, on the other.

Researching Music- and Place-Making Through Engaged Practice: Becoming a Musicking-Geographer

ABSTRACTHow might geographers better understand the active, lived, on-the-ground experiences of musicians in places, and their role in place-making? As a professional musical practitioner, I bring to geography the perspective of a musicking-geographer, drawing on Christopher Small’s (2011) concept of “musicking,” and Harriet Hawkins’ (2011) work on geographic-artistic “doing.” To examine the co-constitutive processes of music-making and place-making, this paper describes how I have developed a new research framework that brings together two methodological approaches: musicking ethnography, and music mapping. I consider how my approach has developed in response to my aspiration to working with musicians of all age groups, musical backgrounds and interests from across the amateur-professional continuum, and to create egalitarian, engaging, respectful and useful research experiences for the musicians with whom I work. I also discuss how my dual-positionality framed my work, and how these methods might be further developed and adapted by practitioner-geographers.

Place making as a form of place taking

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine perceptions of institutional encroachment and community responses to it. Specifically, it focuses on residents’ perceived effects of hospital and university expansion and the role of place making on gentrification in core city neighborhoods. This study offers insights into the processes driving neighborhood displacement and the prospects for grassroots efforts to curb it. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected through focus groups with residents and other stakeholders in working class, minority neighborhoods which were identified as being in the early stages of gentrification. Nine focus groups were held across three neighborhoods experiencing institutional encroachment. The analysis was guided by standpoint theory, which focuses on amplifying the voices of groups traditionally disenfranchized from urban planning and policy processes. Findings The findings suggest that residents perceived institutional encroachment as relatively unabated and unresponsive to grassroots concerns. This led to heightened concerns about residential displacement and concomitant changes in the neighborhoods’ built and social environments. Experiences with encroachment also increased residents’ calls for greater grassroots control of development. Originality/value This analysis illuminates how gentrification and displacement results from both physical redevelopment activities of anchor institutions and their decisions related to place making. The conclusions highlight the importance of empowering disenfranchized groups in the place-making process to minimize negative externalities at the neighborhood level.

Participative Placemaking in Serbia: The Use of the Limitless GIS Application in Increasing the Sustainability of Universal Urban Design

The 20th century brought about major social challenges related to civil and human rights, triggering changes in urban environments and gradually adjusting the spatial and functional performances of cities to the needs of all users. In this article, the concept of Universal Urban Design (i.e., “Design for All”) is regarded as a sustainable placemaking process which enables the higher accessibility and usability of cities for all people, regardless of their age or (dis)abilities. The pilot project “Creating Accessible Pedestrian Corridors by the Limitless GIS Application” conduced in Serbia from 2017 to 2019 by the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Belgrade and the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Limitless proposes an innovative approach to urban design. Based on information and communication technology (ICT) adaptation, it is focused on the alternative concept-design of buildings, provision of ICT-based infrastructure, socioeconomic integration of all users, and ultimately on overall urban sustainability. The main outcome of the project was the development of a Geographic Information System (GIS) android application and an e-platform for adaptive placemaking. The project also provides a set of accessibility criteria based on Universal Urban Design, criteria that enable the mapping of locations based on the type of use, a set of recommendations for identified problems, as well as a brief analysis of the latest technological solutions for overcoming detected physical barriers. The Limitless GIS android application differs from the existing ones since it primarily identifies two target groups: (1) people with disabilities who could upload necessary data by established criteria; and (2) employees in the public sector (city authorities and municipalities) in charge of planning alternative routes and setting priorities and investment costs based on the identified problems. Pilot results of the project have revealed that in the current Serbian practice, there is still a lack of planned, consistent and continuous movement routes in urban areas. Terrain configuration represents a serious limitation for people with disabilities, while lifting platforms are recognized as a better solution than ramps (both for paraplegics and quadriplegics), due to their higher efficiency and minimized spatial requirements. Therefore, the android application and e-platform presented in this article contribute to the detection of actual problems at the local level as well as to the overall improvement of planning/design practice in Serbian cities.

Emerging Low-Carbon Energy Landscapes and Energy Innovation Dilemmas in the Kenyan Periphery

Interest in electrical grid access is high throughout Kenya and yet parastatals continually use location and proximity concepts to define the periphery as spaces ineligible for electrical grids due to dispersed and low electricity demand. Even the ongoing spatial expansion of electrical infrastructures to achieve universal electricity access (Vision 2020) and nation-wide economic transformation (Vision 2030) agenda favor peripheral locations only where electricity demand is considered adequate and residents live within the required 600-m radius from existing transformers. Uncertainties surrounding future grid extensions, unreliable electricity supply, and strong sociocultural attachments to homelands are the driving forces behind the uptake of decentralized solar photovoltaic (PV) systems in the periphery to gain energy autonomy by means of self-generating electricity in homes. Most households, at least based on the sample, frequently performed very important social practices according to energy services provided by decentralized systems and could perform energy-intensive practices only occasionally. Solar PV system uptake, however, grants users only a partial energy autonomy because it engenders rather precautionary energy practices, thereby obstructing certain social practices, not excluding home-based microbusiness activities. The solar PV transition potentially obstructs the state’s socioeconomic transformation visions, undermines the monopolistic agenda of parastatals, restricts practices in households and expectations placed on energy infrastructure, and fortuitously creates low-carbon energy solutions in specific spaces. The placemaking processes create low-carbon energy landscapes in the periphery but are inextricably bundled with tensions and conundrums in energy systems—henceforth called energy innovation dilemmas—subject to spatial (re-)organization of electrical grids and societal energy visions. In this article, I hypothesize geographical energy futures in Kenya and emphasize academic contributions realized by employing relational perspectives of energy, practices, and space in energy transition studies in settings characterized by structural uncertainties and constantly changing energy systems. Key Words: energy geographies, Kenya, social practices, solar PV systems, space production.

“It’s That Kind of Place Here”: Solidarity, Place-Making and Civil Society Response to the 2015 Refugee Crisis in Wales, UK

This article examines the different ways in which local civil society has responded to refugees and asylum seekers in different parts of Wales in the wake of the recent “refugee crisis”. While the events of summer 2015 have generated a considerable amount of scholarly attention, including empirical accounts that look into local community responses to refugees and asylum seekers, the current research has tended to overlook the significance of place and the varied impact of “refugee crisis” across localities; this article aims to fill this gap in the existing research. It draws on findings from qualitative research carried out between 2017 and 2018 with refugee-supporting organisations based in three different locations in Wales. Taking a comparative look at these organisations, the article sheds light on the intensity and variation of civil society response in each of these localities, showing how this is informed by and closely interweaved with processes of place-making and place-framing, contributing to the reshaping of civil society networks and population profiles in these local areas. In conclusion, the article argues that humanitarian responses to “refugee crisis” can be understood not only as instances of hospitality and solidarity but also as practices of locality production.

Boots on the Ground: Site-Based Regionality and Creative Practice in the Tasmanian Midlands

Regional identity is a constant construction, in which landscape, human activity and cultural imaginary build a narrative of place. For the Tasmanian Midlands, the interactions between history, ecology and agriculture both define place and present problems in how to recognise, communicate and balance these interactions. In this sense, regionality is defined not so much as a relation of margin to centre, but as a specific accretion of environmental and cultural histories. According weight to more-than-human perspectives, a region can be seen as a constellation of plant, animal and human interactions and demands, where creative art and design can make space and give voice to the dynamics of exchange between the landscape and its inhabitants. Consideration of three recent art and design projects based in the Midlands reveal the potential for cross-disciplinary research, embedded in both environment and community, to create distinctive and specific forms of connectivity that articulate a regional identify.

Anatomy of Place-Making in the Context of the Communication Processes: A Story of one Community and one Square in a Post-Socialist City

Abstract The article presents a discussion on the anatomy of place-making within the framework of the communication processes against the background of social order in a post-socialist city. The main aim of the text is to look at the social mechanisms of place-making processes “under the microscope”. The place-making activities are very often associated with planning and urban design. However, behind that planning veil is the social world of urban neighbourhood communities. In the article we propose, the social communication and participation processes are among the key factors responsible for creating urban spaces. We are presenting a place-making case study, using the example of Asnyk Square in Poznań. In this context, we are analysing social attitudes and social communication, which took place in the course of the place-making processes and influenced urban planning activities. The discussed case is complicated and provides no easy solutions.

Rethinking Utopia: Power, Place, Affect

Rethinking Utopia: Power, Place, Affect

When places collide: power, conflict and meaning at Malheur

Place meanings—notions of what a given location is, and what it ought to be—are critical to the social negotiations that produce regulatory and management regimes. These, in turn, contribute to the material social–ecological outcomes that determine both the sustainability of system processes and the ways in which costs and benefits are distributed across society. Ascribed meanings are foundational to the social determination of what constitutes a ‘desirable’ system state, a core concern of resilience-based approaches to managing sustainability transformations. However, place meanings are never simple or unitary—they are diverse, overlapping, and often contested. While such contestations over place meanings may remain latent, at times they erupt into overt social conflict wherein competing narratives of place find visceral, and even violent, expression. Taking a particular case—the armed standoff between ranchers and federal agents at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in the United States in early 2016—we examine the ways in which place meanings and associated place claims first informed and then gave rise to violent conflict, and explore the relevance of these for understanding social–ecological processes in contested places and implications for transformation toward sustainability. Tracing the origins of the conflict at Malheur through the contested histories of place-making in the American West, we argue: (1) place meanings are produced and compete across a highly uneven landscape of power wherein some place claims are privileged while others struggle to gain traction; (2) contested place meanings come to particular dominance when they achieve the status of ‘normal’—when they inform the taken-for-granted lenses through which society views a place. However, dominant claims are never hegemonic, always facing the threat of subaltern claims, and so the process of place-making is never finished; (3) place meanings and conflict over these are often brought to our attention in contemporary time involving local places, but they are typically the product of very pre-contemporary and non-local influences and trajectories, pointing to important cross-scalar relationships; and (4) conflict over place meanings and claims, while problematic and sometimes destructive, may also be generative. Conflict provides moments of opportunity wherein latent contestations are surfaced and made explicit, prompting new social negotiations that may lead to new and surprising outcomes. We also explore the implications of contestation over place meanings with regard to the production of social capital and possible roles that place attachment may play in fostering resilience within contested areas and informing efforts to navigate change toward more sustainable futures.

Everyday Place Making Through Social Capital Among Street Vendors at Manek Chowk, Gujarat, India

This is a novel interpretation of the dynamics of the historic market of Manek Chowk in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India. Applying elements of spatial ethnographic methodology, we capture the processes, routines, and unique features of operation among the myriad actors operating here, and the frictionless multiple transformation of this traditional market within the course of a full day. These findings are viewed through the critical geography concept of place making, which is realized to be supported by the economic sociology concept of social capital. In this process of offering a fresh understanding, we examine the meanings that people here have attached to this locale, given their operation here for several decades and across generations. We realize that this traditional market with its characteristic dynamism is not just a commercial space but an entity intertwined with physical elements, activities, relationships, and constructed meanings. Hence, we offer a fresh interpretation of the character and vibrancy of Manek Chowk by understanding its continuing life and sustenance as a social capital–bolstered place-making process.