tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/sense-of-place-31386/articlesSense of place – The Conversation2022-11-14T21:44:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892762022-11-14T21:44:05Z2022-11-14T21:44:05ZRemembering Yi-Fu Tuan: The most influential scholar you’ve never heard of<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/495191/original/file-20221114-12-sg6hw6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C0%2C729%2C468&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Yi-Fu Tuan at work in his office at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1998.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-mourns-influential-beloved-geography-professor-yi-fu-tuan/">(Jeff Miller)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yi-Fu Tuan, who died in Madison, Wis. on Aug. 10, 2022, was known as the most <a href="https://news.wisc.edu/uw-madison-mourns-influential-beloved-geography-professor-yi-fu-tuan/">influential academic you never knew</a>. Referred to as <a href="https://www.aag.org/memorial/yi-fu-tuan/">the father of humanistic geography</a>, his most influential works dealt with the concepts of space, place and sense of place. </p>
<p>As we enter <a href="https://www.aag.org/geoweek-2022/">Geography Awareness Week</a>, it’s important to recognize Tuan’s lasting impact on the field of geography. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An elderly East Asian man wearing a suit." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=698&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=877&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=877&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492582/original/file-20221031-24-is448u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=877&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Yi-Fu Tuan (1930-2022) was known as the father of humanistic geography.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Public domain/Wikimedia)</span></span>
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<p>Born in the Chinese city of Tianjin in 1930, his academic career took him around the globe, eventually leading him to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1983 where he attained emeritus status in 1998. Tuan received several awards including the prestigious <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2012.682449">Vautrin Lud Prize</a> in 2012. </p>
<p>In his work, Tuan deals with spaces as general, objective areas, whereas places have meaning and memories. A sense of place is a deep emotional attachment to a place. In a world dealing with the challenges of the pandemic, refugee crises, political unrest and the impacts of climate change, his work is just as relevant as ever.</p>
<h2>Landscapes of Fear</h2>
<p>Tuan’s 1979 book, <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/landscapes-of-fear"><em>Landscapes of Fear</em></a>, is intensely pertinent for our current pandemic reality. It’s an exploration into spaces of fear and how these landscapes evolve during our lives and vary over time. Tuan talked of the human response to disease as being a combination of common sense and fear. He speaks about many past responses to disease being reasonable, but also often going beyond the bounds of reason. </p>
<p>COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions may have seemed acceptable but frequently created a terror of their own. Families desperate to see their older loved ones in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08959420.2020.1750543">long-term care facilities</a> were unable to visit in their final days of life. Closed businesses and empty streets became a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2022.2081004">source of anxiety</a> as many wondered if, once opened, these <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.040">spaces would be safe</a> to visit.</p>
<p>There was concern over whether <a href="https://theconversation.com/fear-of-travelling-canadians-need-to-put-travel-risk-into-perspective-171193">travel was safe</a>. Media was replete with a <a href="https://scholarworks.umass.edu/ttracanada_2021_conference/2?utm_source=scholarworks.umass.edu%2Fttracanada_2021_conference%2F2&utm_medium=PDF&utm_campaign=PDFCoverPages">discourse of fear</a> that led many to question whether it was a good idea to travel. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/483067/original/file-20220906-4613-q6nt8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Landscapes of Fear by Yi-Fu Tuan.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(University of Minnesota Press)</span></span>
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<p>But that reduction in visitors to certain spaces created renewed appreciation for the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2020.1762115">places near our own homes</a>. As restrictions eased, these landscapes were no longer feared. Our love of place overtook our desire for protection.</p>
<h2>Transforming cityscapes</h2>
<p>Tuan’s analysis in the chapter <em>Fear in the City</em> is also timely. Recent attacks like those in <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/saskatchewan-stabbing-victims-1.6572821">Saskatchewan</a>, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-june-6-2022-1.6476755/one-year-after-london-truck-attack-some-canadian-muslims-still-fear-for-their-safety-1.6479105">London, Ont.</a> and <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/norway-shaken-by-attack-that-kills-2-during-pride-festival-1.5962682">Norway</a> leave us anxious about streetscapes. </p>
<p>Tuan’s apt analysis showed us how those that govern cities focus more on economic and commercial activities, rather than social needs. And how the city itself can become a disorienting space. A labyrinth of disorder and social strife especially among those of different classes, races and ethnicities.</p>
<p>This disorder and social strife manifested itself visibly in the killings of George Floyd, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/breonna-taylor-police.html">Breonna Taylor</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/ahmaud-arbery-shooting-georgia.html">Ahmaud Arbery</a> fostering greater mistrust in urban public spaces.</p>
<p>To offset these landscapes of fear, a counter-narrative emerged, transforming streets into <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0084672419833448">spaces of sympathy</a> for vigils, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F2056305118807911">protests</a> and marches. </p>
<p>That transformation is also apparent in the ongoing <a href="https://theconversation.com/iran-on-fire-once-again-women-are-on-the-vanguard-of-transformative-change-191297">protests in Iran</a>. The fight for freedom in public spaces has seen Iranian women leading protests against overbearing government control and many supporting these rights in public spaces around the world.</p>
<h2>Place is security</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/conversation-prof-yi-fu-tuan-coronavirus-pandemic-nature-smith/">Tuan’s concept of place</a> became all the more significant during lockdown. The sanctuary of our most important shelter, the home, was challenged by the threat of an invisible virus. </p>
<p>But home as a secure place is a privilege not all have. As COVID-19 spread, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ont-homeless-foi-1.6437578">hundreds fled homeless shelters</a>, for fear of contracting the virus. Our most vulnerable citizens, including those experiencing homelessness, lacked security in place. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1108/HCS-11-2020-0018">Government action</a> was needed, that for the time being, included <a href="https://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/region-approves-first-ever-sanctioned-encampment-site-1.6033445">sanctioned encampment sites</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Yi-Fu Tuan speaking at the University of California Santa Barbara in 2011.</span></figcaption>
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<p><a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2021/12/canada-welcomes-the-most-immigrants-in-a-single-year-in-its-history.html">Recent surges</a> in Canada’s immigration highlight how migrants too need safe spaces to develop a <a href="http://doi.org/10.1353/ces.2016.0001">sense of place</a>.</p>
<p>As a geographer, I have studied how people establish a sense of place through multicultural festivals, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14927713.2017.1366278">‘sensuous geographies’ and shared place identity</a>. These intimate connections of place and belonging contribute to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2020.1853760">a sense of community</a>. But when so many events were cancelled throughout the pandemic it had a drastic impact on communities, affecting our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emospa.2022.100903">sense of place</a>, shared memories and emotional geographies.</p>
<p>Because of their loss of place and space, migrants especially need help to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2018.1552885">connect to places</a>. We could better assist them by understanding Tuan’s idea of <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/topophilia/9780231073950">topophilia</a> — an intense sense of place based on social constructions and cultural identities.</p>
<p>Tuan said that we all have a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/conversation-prof-yi-fu-tuan-coronavirus-pandemic-nature-smith/">deep need to connect</a> through our senses. The pandemic has highlighted our deep need to connect physically rather than virtually. We have yet to <a href="https://doi.org/10.5325/philrhet.53.3.0225">truly understand</a> its impact on our sense of place. With so many other sites closed, streets were re-imagined as places for <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/23748834.2020.1795386">dwelling, playing and connecting</a> rather than merely spaces of transport and mobility. </p>
<h2>Space is freedom</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/space-and-place"><em>Space and Place</em></a> is one of Tuan’s most highly referenced books. It’s a study about how people form emotional connections and attachments to their home, neighbourhood and nations, and how feelings about space and place are affected by time. What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place over time as we get to know it better and assign it value. A sense of place brings us security and safety, and we desire the need for openness and freedom in our space. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/timeline-of-convoy-protest-in-ottawa-1.6351432">The so-called freedom convoy in downtown Ottawa</a> highlighted Tuan’s notion of space being about freedom. While the encampment provided freedom to those who took part, it also <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8639780/freedom-convoy-ottawa-fear-future/">took freedom away</a> from residents whose everyday lives were suddenly restricted. </p>
<p>It took the safety and security away from residents who have a meaningful and deep sense of place there. The convoy raised questions about our democratic rights — whose freedoms were really being protected, whose were being denied and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423922000579">controversy over security and policing</a> in public places. </p>
<p>We could all learn from <a href="https://timcresswell.net/reflections-on-yi-fu-tuan/">Tuan’s thinking</a>. We must become humanistic caregivers of each other and the planet and avoid protectionist measures that perpetuate fear. Tuan was more concerned about what connected us, not what drove wedges between us. The intimate connection between space and place is highly nuanced. <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/space-and-place">“We are attached to one, and long for the other.”</a> </p>
<p>In these challenging times, we should all remember Yi-Fu Tuan and what makes us human first: the need for security in place and freedom in space.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189276/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelley A. McClinchey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Yi-Fu Tuan, who died in August 2022, was considered the father of humanistic geography. His scholarship on our sense of space and place can tell us a great deal about the challenges we face today.Kelley A. McClinchey, Teaching Faculty, Geography and Environmental Studies, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1377892020-05-24T20:02:45Z2020-05-24T20:02:45ZCoronavirus has changed our sense of place, so together we must re-imagine our cities<p>Is it time to re-imagine our fundamental relationship with cities?</p>
<p>People bring cities to life. They interact, work, socialise and travel. Without this, cities are just collections of buildings and infrastructure. </p>
<p>This relationship is now on hiatus all over the world. The COVID-19 pandemic left thousands of cities <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PttvhYlV2Q">empty</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-PPxy3ahMo">eerie</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OInboNuNls">listless</a>.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/public-spaces-bind-cities-together-what-happens-when-coronavirus-forces-us-apart-133763">Public spaces bind cities together. What happens when coronavirus forces us apart?</a>
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<p>We connect to cities by developing a “sense of place”. The concept describes how we <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14649351003759573">perceive and attach to places</a> through use. Our connection with cities changes over time but is always grounded in sense of place.</p>
<p>COVID-19 is fundamentally disrupting sense of place. It is <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200318110654-1rdnc">causing transformative change in cities</a> all over the world. Daily parts of city life, like shared seating, busy trains and eating out, have suddenly become threatening.</p>
<p>Many urban dwellers are redefining their sense of place in response. We may not view our cities the same way after this pandemic. Our perceptions and priorities may change, perhaps permanently.</p>
<p>As we start planning for cities after this pandemic, we should recognise this task is as much philosophical as practical.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reconnecting-after-coronavirus-4-key-ways-cities-can-counter-anxiety-and-loneliness-136606">Reconnecting after coronavirus – 4 key ways cities can counter anxiety and loneliness</a>
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<h2>Transforming the present</h2>
<p>It is useful to consider what exactly the COVID-19 pandemic represents for cities and why it can change people’s sense of place so profoundly.</p>
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<span class="caption">Mary Street, Brisbane, during the lockdown.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mary_Street_during_the_COVID-19_pandemic_in_Brisbane,_Australia.jpg">Kgbo/Wikemedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
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<p>The pandemic impacts are so severe it can be classified as a “<a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241731462_Responding_to_climate_change_as_a_transformative_stressor_through_metro-regional_planning">transformative stressor</a>”. These rare events cause severe and intense social, environmental and economic impacts. They are felt at every level of society and throughout social institutions.</p>
<p>Profound shocks are felt all at once in economic activity, human health and social order. Impacts occur at all scales. Almost everybody endures multiple forms of disruption.</p>
<p>Transformative stressors can be unforgiving in exposing problems and weaknesses in systems. They can be catastrophic in cities because so many systems are integrated, creating multiple points of impact.</p>
<p>COVID-19 also fits the transformative stressor model because it might not be possible to fully manage it. Recovery planning needs to account for the possibility COVID-19 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/wuhan-coronavirus-mild-pandemic-how-it-could-end-2020-2?op=1">might never disappear</a>. It could become an ongoing risk of city life.</p>
<p>What was a distant worry becomes an immediate threat when a transformative stressor hits a city. Things that were once reliable and comfortable no longer are. Our behaviour changes in response, causing us to reconsider our sense of place over time.</p>
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<span class="caption">How does sense of place change when the familiar becomes sinister?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Matthews</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-will-endure-but-urban-design-must-adapt-to-coronavirus-risks-and-fears-135949">Cities will endure, but urban design must adapt to coronavirus risks and fears</a>
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<h2>Co-creating the future</h2>
<p>The transformative impacts of this pandemic are upending established norms. But policy innovation can flourish at times like this. Transformative stressors give policymakers unique opportunities to <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273289803_Storylines_of_institutional_responses_to_climate_change_as_a_transformative_stressor_the_case_of_regional_planning_in_South_East_Queensland_Australia?_sg=ehvEWZolqzdh1huWhWLuoSyARB3rXzoBkSuNve7WFBPjjAD3Y9cjp2UzxZSvO5nGaUQxZIQboEfCgIobfRLgyWX_9-LjPcMURTac2yfZ.rgzJODx4KICeOCY39x4G9jbSzuXcrvk8JDjehhfw1ieqy_5rJnj-oXGBCoczLtEWGfKvY7u8Wu4gip3gjiw08w">work outside their normal methods</a>.</p>
<p>People have stoically endured lockdowns in many countries. <a href="https://theconversation.com/if-more-of-us-work-from-home-after-coronavirus-well-need-to-rethink-city-planning-136261">Working from home</a> with limited mobility will further prompt many to re-evaluate their sense of place. Many people will want a big say in the fundamental decisions to be made on the future of their cities after this.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/if-more-of-us-work-from-home-after-coronavirus-well-need-to-rethink-city-planning-136261">If more of us work from home after coronavirus we'll need to rethink city planning</a>
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<p>As they seek innovative ways to help cities recover, planners can learn important lessons by consulting urban residents. Online <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140530181242-144684-co-creation-methods-approaches/">co-creation processes and workshops</a> are excellent tools for gathering the people’s thoughts and aspirations at this unique time.</p>
<p>Participating in workshops can also help residents redefine their sense of place in cities disrupted by COVID-19. They can describe how the crisis changed their perceptions and use of space. This allows them to redefine their sense of place by considering the future with full acknowledgement of the past.</p>
<p>Residents are engaging more closely with their own neighbourhoods at the moment. This allows them to reconsider their local sense of place. New trends will be revealed through engagement with the public, reflecting changes in their sense of place.</p>
<p>At minimum, there is likely to be more community interest in improving active transport options. Many people have been reminded of the <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/more-sports/coronavirus-lockdowns-make-cities-more-walkable/ar-BB11TDou">pleasures of walking and cycling</a>. Other new priorities may be more green space and <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-reminds-us-how-liveable-neighbourhoods-matter-for-our-well-being-135806">better social infrastructure</a>. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-reminds-us-how-liveable-neighbourhoods-matter-for-our-well-being-135806">Coronavirus reminds us how liveable neighbourhoods matter for our well-being</a>
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<p>On the other hand, enthusiasm for public transport might fall and <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/news/buyers-interest-in-owning-cars-rises-after-coronavirus-survey-finds/ar-BB13uzTW">car ownership rates could rise</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332973/original/file-20200506-49546-wewthq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332973/original/file-20200506-49546-wewthq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332973/original/file-20200506-49546-wewthq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332973/original/file-20200506-49546-wewthq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332973/original/file-20200506-49546-wewthq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332973/original/file-20200506-49546-wewthq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332973/original/file-20200506-49546-wewthq.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Plenty of parking spaces at this suburban train station. Will we be comfortable taking public transport after lockdowns end?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Matthews</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The road ahead</h2>
<p>The transformative impacts of this pandemic prompt fundamental questions. Do people have the same enthusiasm for city living? Is it time for new urban realities? What would new realities look like? How would they be achieved?</p>
<p>These are <a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20200421073605-d7mba">extraordinary times that call for extraordinary responses</a>. It is not a time for planners and policymakers to plan for people; it is a time to plan with people.</p>
<p>Many innovations in urban planning are founded in <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su5502a12.htm">efforts to improve human health</a>. COVID-19 will undoubtedly prompt a new round of thinking about how cities can be re-imagined. It will be a big adjustment for urban planning, which has traditionally relied on the relative predictability of how people use space.</p>
<p>People’s perception and attachment to places is changing, perhaps forever. Decisions on where to go from here will be better made if planners understand how people are redefining their sense of place in this time of profound upheaval. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/reclaiming-the-streets-we-all-can-have-a-say-in-the-new-normal-after-coronavirus-137703">Reclaiming the streets? We all can have a say in the 'new normal' after coronavirus</a>
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</em>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tony Matthews has received funding from the Australian Research Council and the CSIRO. He is affiliated with the Royal Town Planning Institute and the Planning Institute of Australia. He is an Ambassador for Planet Ark and a spokesperson for Greener Spaces, Better Places (fmr 202020 Vision).</span></em></p>Re-imagining cities after COVID-19 is both a practical and philosophical task. People’s perceptions of places are changing. It is a time for planners and policymakers to plan with, not for, people.Tony Matthews, Senior Lecturer in Urban and Environmental Planning, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1353672020-04-24T16:36:20Z2020-04-24T16:36:20ZFive novels with a real sense of place to explore from your living room<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330101/original/file-20200423-47815-1mjd3g2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C21%2C4800%2C3168&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Dudarev Mikhail via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Everybody knows the concept of “desert island books”, the novels you might pack if you were going to be marooned on a desert island. Thanks to the pandemic, many of us are indeed now marooned, except that instead of lazing on palm-fringed beaches, we’re in lockdown – in urban apartment blocks, suburban terraced houses or village homes. </p>
<p>A good book can help us forget about the world around us and also substitute our longing for pastures greener. It can take us from our sofa to the beaches of Thailand (as in Alex Garland’s The Beach) or to the streets of New York (as in Paul Auster’s City of Glass). </p>
<p>So, as someone who researches and teaches literature, I’ve chosen five novels that allow me to be elsewhere in my mind, whether that’s a glorious English countryside setting, the streets of a European metropolis, or the urban sprawl of an unnamed Indian city. </p>
<h2>Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day</h2>
<p>The Remains of the Day tells the story of Stevens, the aged butler of Darlington Hall, and his ill-judged life choices that saw him being involved, albeit only on the fringes, with British fascism in the interwar years.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330095/original/file-20200423-47810-195uv0n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1185&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Beautiful English countryside.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
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<p>This allusion to British fascism in particular is something that makes this novel stand out: it is a subject matter not often discussed or even taught. </p>
<p>But at the moment, I can particularly take solace in Ishiguro’s beautiful descriptions of the countryside that Stevens – unused to the freedom of travel – encounters during his journey across south-west England:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What I saw was principally field upon field rolling off into the far distance. The land rose and fell gently, and the fields were bordered by hedges and trees … It was a fine feeling indeed to be standing up there like that, with the sound of summer all around one and a light breeze on one’s face. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the lockdown drags on, this is a feeling I am longing for. </p>
<h2>W.G. Sebald: The Emigrants</h2>
<p>This collection of four novellas is predominantly set in England and Germany but also offers glimpses of the US, Egypt, Belgium and Switzerland. Focusing on a different protagonist in each novella, Sebald portrays how the long shadows of the second world war have affected individuals – but also how Germany has engaged with its troubled past. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330097/original/file-20200423-47794-1e2cgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330097/original/file-20200423-47794-1e2cgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330097/original/file-20200423-47794-1e2cgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330097/original/file-20200423-47794-1e2cgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330097/original/file-20200423-47794-1e2cgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330097/original/file-20200423-47794-1e2cgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330097/original/file-20200423-47794-1e2cgxz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1157&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A gentler images of pre-war Germany.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>His descriptions of the town of Kissingen’s illuminated spa gardens, with “Chinese lanterns strung across the avenues, shedding colourful magical light” and “the fountains in front of the Regent’s building” jetting “silver and gold alternately” conjure up images of times gone by and a town as yet untroubled by the scourge of antisemitism. </p>
<p>Sebald’s narrative is a collage of fiction, biography, autobiography, travel writing and philosophy. His prose is so full of quiet beauty and eloquence that it always helps me forget my surroundings and enter a quiet and contemplative “Sebaldian” space. </p>
<h2>Patrick Modiano: The Search Warrant</h2>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330098/original/file-20200423-47847-dk5jq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330098/original/file-20200423-47847-dk5jq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330098/original/file-20200423-47847-dk5jq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330098/original/file-20200423-47847-dk5jq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330098/original/file-20200423-47847-dk5jq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330098/original/file-20200423-47847-dk5jq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330098/original/file-20200423-47847-dk5jq2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A journey through Paris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Search Warrant pieces together the real-life story of Dora Bruder, a young Jewish girl who went missing in Paris in December 1941. </p>
<p>Modiano attempts to retrace Dora’s movements across Paris and his book is full of evocative descriptions of quiet squares and bustling streets where she might have spent some time.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In comparison with the Avenue de Saint-Mandé, the Avenue Picpus, on the right, is cold and desolate. Treeless, as I remember. Ah, the loneliness of returning on those Sunday evenings.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From the first page it is clear that the city of Paris assumes the status of a character – and as readers we can follow the narrator’s (and Dora’s) movements on a map. </p>
<p>If we are familiar with Paris, we can picture where they are. By tracing Dora’s possible steps, Modiano evocatively recreates the twilight atmosphere of Paris under occupation.</p>
<h2>Rohinton Mistry, A Fine Balance</h2>
<p>A Fine Balance is a sprawling narrative that takes the reader all the way to the Indian subcontinent. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330099/original/file-20200423-47826-1ydzrac.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">India in all its chaotic glory.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Set initially in 1975 during the emergency government period and then during the chaotic times of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Mistry’s novel focuses on the lives of four central characters whose lives are on a downward spiral, from poverty to outright destitution and, ultimately, death.</p>
<p>Mistry does not whitewash the reality of urban poverty in India. His narrative does not hide away from disease or overcrowded slums with “rough shacks” standing “beyond the railroad fence, alongside a ditch running with raw sewage”. His are not places where we might want to be. But as readers, we become utterly engrossed in his characters’ lives – we hope with them, we fear for them and, at the end, we cry for them. </p>
<h2>Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=941&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/330100/original/file-20200423-47784-17c8vrm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1182&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Oh! To be in Napoli.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amazon</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Elena Ferrante’s novels take me straight to my favourite city of Napoli. Starting with My Brilliant Friend, the four novels chart the intensive relationship between two girls, Elena “Lenù” Greco and Raffaella “Lila” Cerullo, who grow up in a poor neighbourhood in the 1950s. </p>
<p>Reading Ferrante’s sprawling narrative conjures up images of Napoli and makes me feel like I am standing in the Piazza del Plebiscito or having an espresso in the historic Caffè Gambrinus. Together with Lenù, I can see Vesuvio across the Bay of Naples, the:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>delicate pastel-colored shape, at whose base the whitish stones of the city were piled up, with the earth-coloured slice of the Castel dell’Ovo, and the sea.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I can feel, hear and smell Napoli around me. Reading about the city might not be as good as being there in person; but, at the moment, it is a close second. </p>
<p>Of course, books can’t stop a global pandemic. But, for a short while, they can let us forget the world around us and, instead, transport us to different places, allowing us to at least travel in spirit.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/135367/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christine Berberich does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A great novel transports you to a time and a place. Here are five of them.Christine Berberich, Reader in Literature, University of PortsmouthLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/871732017-12-12T19:11:13Z2017-12-12T19:11:13ZSurprise! Digital space isn’t replacing public space, and might even help make it better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196842/original/file-20171129-28917-9uclmv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Telstra and the City of Joondalup have joined forces in a trial of 'smart park' applications at Tom Simpson Park. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>You’re on the train on your daily commute, head bowed, peering at your phone. A cavalcade of news stories, friends’ holiday snaps and random promoted images of trending slippers pops up on your social media feed, which you idly push along in search of something fresh. You look up. Most of the people around you are doing something similar. Connecting intensely with their smartphones, and not with anyone near them.</p>
<p>It’s a scene repeated across Australian cities every weekday morning. More and more of our daily lives – how we work, how we navigate, how we learn and how we entertain ourselves – take place through the interface of glowing rectangular screens. There is <a href="https://theconversation.com/your-brain-on-the-internet-a-response-to-susan-greenfield-8694">concern</a> about what smartphones are <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-technology-making-your-attention-span-shorter-than-a-goldfishs-42072">doing to our attention spans</a>, our <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-your-smartphone-making-you-shy-71605">capacity for random human interactions</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15738692">our self-esteem</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/connections-arent-conversations-while-technology-enables-it-can-also-interfere-51689">Connections aren’t conversations – while technology enables, it can also interfere</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>But what does the age of the smartphone mean for our cities, and for how we design our public spaces?</p>
<p>It’s a question that has intrigued tech futurists for decades. Australian-born architect Bill Mitchell trained a generation of digital urbanists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to imagine and plan for the coming “city of bits”. In his 1995 book <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/city-bits">City of Bits</a>, he likened the impact of the infobahn to that of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130722-revolution-in-paris-street-design">Haussmann’s 19th-century Parisian boulevards</a>, in their capacity to radically reshape the city. </p>
<p>Unlike Haussmann’s network of avenues, parks and water infrastructure, the “invisible city” of the 21st century would, Mitchell argued, be shaped more by the logic of networked data. Places would be “constructed virtually by software instead of physically from stones and timbers”. </p>
<p>Mitchell wasn’t the only one who believed our digital future would dramatically reshape our cities. Media futurist Marshall McLuhan <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=1RwuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT868&lpg=PT868&dq=%22the+city+as+a+form+of+major+dimensions%22&source=bl&ots=8RN3f8s8bW&sig=cbyOZEp-rasEcH5Zbsl_syj-uf4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiktM-k0-LXAhUGabwKHY2hC8MQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=%22the%20city%20as%20a%20form%20of%20major%20dimensions%22&f=false">speculated in 1964</a> that the coming “global village” would mean that “the city as a form of major dimensions must inevitably dissolve like the fading shot in a movie”. Our need for groups of people to be near to each other, he believed, would become redundant as more and more of our connections would occur virtually.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HeDnPP6ntic?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Marshall McLuhan – The World is a Global Village (CBC TV)</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, the future didn’t quite turn out that way. Vibrant, productive physical places still matter. Architects and designers are still building places of “stones and timbers”. </p>
<p>Smartphone-equipped citizens need not be tethered to their desks to surf the infobahn. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-internet-of-things-16542">Internet of Things</a> (IoT) entails more and more urban services and infrastructure being connected via tiny distributed sensors. The virtual space of the internet has become increasingly interconnected with our urban fabric.</p>
<h2>Experimenting with the city of data</h2>
<p>The city of bits has become the city of data. The millions of daily interactions and transactions in cities – volumes of energy used; movements of people, traffic, water and waste; social media interactions; emails; financial and retail transactions; and multi-modal transport flows – are generating huge volumes of “data exhaust”. These data are increasingly being put to work in an attempt to better manage the pressures and challenges our cities face.</p>
<p>Many hope this age of big data will lead to smarter, more responsive cities. Australian cities have begun trialling smart technologies – parking apps, smart lighting trials, public Wi-Fi – to improve basic city services. The Australian government’s A$50 million <a href="https://cities.dpmc.gov.au/smart-cities-program">Smart Cities and Suburbs Program</a> will help scale up these investments to allow for more ambitious trials.</p>
<p>Many smart-city technologies are designed to help local governments better monitor services such as waste collection and roads maintenance. For example, the Western Australian city of <a href="http://www.joondalup.wa.gov.au/welcome/citynews/17-05-23/City_and_Telstra_build_Australia_s_smartest_park.aspx">Joondalup is partnering with Telstra</a> to test IoT technologies to better monitor environmental factors like temperature, humidity, pollution, light and noise levels in real time.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196845/original/file-20171129-28852-4zwzli.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Telstra and the City of Joondalup are trialling real-time environmental monitoring applications at Tom Simpson Park.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The recently released <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-05-25/smarter-planning-saving-perth-council-millions/8559194">Smarter Planning Perth</a> (SPP) map allows government agencies and utilities involved in infrastructure works to better collaborate, share costs and co-ordinate timetables. This is a platform designed to minimise works congestion and cut project time frames, so the city’s road networks run more efficiently.</p>
<p>But what kinds of places will these smart technologies and services actually create? With a focus on data analytics, efficiency and automation, there is no guarantee that the latest data-driven technologies will necessarily help our public places thrive.</p>
<p>As the digital urbanist Rick Robinson wrote in a <a href="https://theurbantechnologist.com/2016/02/01/why-smart-cities-still-arent-working-for-us-after-20-years-and-how-we-can-fix-them/">2016 article</a>, commercial agendas for smart cities are:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>just as likely to reduce our life expectancy and social engagement by making it easier to order high-fat, high-sugar takeaway food on our smartphones to be delivered to our couches by drones whilst we immerse ourselves in multiplayer virtual reality games.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Places of ‘stone and timber’ still matter</h2>
<p>Data-driven technologies may make cities work more efficiently, but that may not always be the only thing we want out of places. One of the great lessons of the past two decades is that, despite our growing dependence on digital platforms of communication, spaces that enable us to connect and mingle in real life still matter. Our enduring connection to places of “stones and timber” surely reflects our all-too-human desire not only for seamless interfaces and swipeable apps, but also for places of disturbance, delight, random noises and chance encounters.</p>
<p>As the US urbanist Jane Jacobs observed many decades ago, good places are nourished by diversity and difference, not uniformity and efficiency.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-might-jane-jacobs-say-about-smart-cities-58278">What might Jane Jacobs say about smart cities?</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>We need, therefore, to ensure the new-found insights generated by all of our cities’ data works in the service of good places. How can this be done?</p>
<p>For a start, putting data to use may lead to a very analogue solution. For example, more fine-grained urban data that alerts us to temperature anomalies in different places should be used not only to monitor, but also to cool. This means more trees, not just more sensors.</p>
<p>Many cities have begun to design <a href="http://www.jcdecaux.com/blog/multi-faceted-bus-shelters-paris">smart bus stops</a> equipped with heat-responsive water misters and blinds, so these become places of respite and shelter for weary travellers. This approach uses digital technologies to artificially “switch on” natural services like water-cooling and shade in places that have, as a result of the use of materials like bitumen and concrete, become urban heat islands, exposing some of our most vulnerable to extremely hot conditions.</p>
<p>Digital technologies can also help us navigate and experience places through the events and characters that have shaped their unique identities. Digital overlays, soundscapes and augmented media can provide us with interactive experiences of the the built environments of today and their past “lives”. </p>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/let-cities-speak-reclaiming-a-place-for-community-with-sounds-76998">Let cities speak: reclaiming a place for community with sounds</a></em></p>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/psychogeography-a-way-to-delve-into-the-soul-of-a-city-78032">Psychogeography: a way to delve into the soul of a city</a></em></p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196843/original/file-20171129-28869-134mtwi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1161&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Digital lighting technology allows residents of a building slated for demolition to express how they feel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jessica Hromas</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These uses of technology allow for different, perhaps more intimate, interactions between people and places. Crucially, <a href="http://www.esemprojects.com/project/last-drinks/">augmented experiences of the history of a place</a> can help us recover what has been lost through decades of urban transformation.</p>
<p>Digital technologies can also be used to disrupt official narratives of place. At Sydney’s Waterloo public housing tower, slated for demolition in a new phase of urban renewal, community artists worked with public housing tenants to create a large-scale digital artwork that expresses the residents’ emotional connections to their homes. </p>
<p>Embedded digital technologies were used to subvert the usual mechanistic processes of community consultation managed by development agencies. The spectacular piece of digital art worked to highlight that residents should not be forgotten in the renewal process. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/196844/original/file-20171129-28899-dofw18.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Feeling blue: Waterloo towers resident Fiona in her apartment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Nic Walker</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em><strong>Further reading:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/we-live-here-how-do-residents-feel-about-public-housing-redevelopment-83422">We Live Here: how do residents feel about public housing redevelopment?</a></em></p>
<hr>
<p>Clearly, the possibilities of digital technologies can be used to confound and enlarge our experiences of and connections to place.</p>
<p>As McLuhan and Mitchell would no doubt have realised by now, with the rise of digital technologies public spaces have become more, not less, important to the experience of cities. As we design the digital interfaces and data-driven services to support our places and spaces, the evolving possibilities of place and digital publics will no doubt continue to surprise.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>The Conversation is co-publishing articles with <a href="http://www.alva.uwa.edu.au/community/futurewest">Future West (Australian Urbanism)</a>, produced by the University of Western Australia’s Faculty of Architecture, Landscape and Visual Arts. These articles look towards the future of urbanism, taking Perth and Western Australia as its reference point, with the latest series focusing on the public domain. You can read other articles <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/future-west-30248">here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/87173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Barns periodically consults to organisations involved in smart city strategies, including Arup Pty Ltd, CSIRO Data 61, and Urban Growth NSW. She is a member of the Smart Cities Council Australian and NZ (SCCANZ) Built Environment Task Force and leads a digital placemaking practice called Esem Projects. Between 2014-17 her postdoctoral research relating to digital strategies in the built environment was supported by the UK Urban Studies Foundation. </span></em></p>Public spaces have become more, not less, important to our experience of cities in the digital era. These technologies can be used to confound and enlarge our experiences of and connections to place.Sarah Barns, Engaged Research Fellow, Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/862142017-11-14T19:11:05Z2017-11-14T19:11:05ZA city that forgets about human connections has lost its way<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194069/original/file-20171109-13317-13z04wq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Connections between people and between people and places help create vibrant neighbourhoods with a sense of human identity and belonging.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Picture by Tommy Wong</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When it comes to planning better cities for the future there’s one simple rule: connect people to places, people to transport and people to people. </p>
<p>The quality and efficiency of our connections have a major impact on how we experience city living. Too often when a city plans for connectivity the needs of people are neglected. We forget the deceptively simple principle that we must ensure that people are at the centre of how we plan, where we live, how we travel and how we get to work. </p>
<p>Despite our obvious need for connectivity, many of us are living in a state of “urban disconnect”. Cities have been <a href="http://www.urban-hub.com/cities/design-for-people-not-cars/">designed for cars rather than people</a>. Urban disconnect and discontent grow on the back of, and are compounded by, increasing pollution, depleting fossil fuels, rising fuel prices, traffic congestion and traffic fatalities. </p>
<p>As we become more disconnected, we suffer the consequences. These include greater inequality, a rise in obesity and social alienation – not to mention lost economic opportunities.</p>
<h2>How to diagnose connectivity</h2>
<p>Bringing the people and place connections to fruition requires an accurate diagnosis of current levels of connectivity. Connected places have three key attributes:</p>
<ul>
<li><p><strong>People connectivity</strong> — this exists where a place promotes social interaction and community engagement; where there is a sense of place, identity, community attachment and social diversity; and where people from all walks of life come into everyday contact with each other. This builds social capital and empathy across the social-cultural spectrum.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Place connectivity</strong> — this involves land use that provides easy access to a mix of neighbourhood activities, enabling short-distance travel. This brings place A and place B closer together.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>Transport connectivity</strong> — this exists where low-impact modes of travel allow for sustainable mobility, which enhances the quality and liveability of places, making the journey between place A and place B safe, efficient and enjoyable.</p></li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=802&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194067/original/file-20171109-13317-3xd8or.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1008&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Connections between people and places are what makes attractive urban places.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Picture by Tommy Wong</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Place and people connectivity encourages place-making and creates vibrant, liveable and attractive urban places. </p>
<p>Place and transport connectivity, on the other hand, is about urban function and describes how accessible urban places are. High place and transport connectivity means that places A and B are brought closer together, or it is faster and easier to travel between them. </p>
<p>To measure the connectivity attributes of places and the success of strategies to meet people’s needs, I <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Connecting-Places-Connecting-People-A-Paradigm-for-Urban-Living-in-the/Tiwari/p/book/9781138213067?utm_source=shared_link&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=171111723">developed an audit tool</a> for continual quantitative and qualitative evaluation. The tool can be used to measure the “before and after” situation of a place to assess whether strategies to improve connectivity have been successful.</p>
<p>The audit tool incorporates five key dimensions:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>city and neighbourhood structure</p></li>
<li><p>diversity</p></li>
<li><p>walkability and cyclability</p></li>
<li><p>place-making</p></li>
<li><p>transport. </p></li>
</ul>
<h2>A case study in connectivity</h2>
<p>As an example of using the audit tool, we assessed how King Street in San Francisco performs against the diversity dimension.</p>
<p>Embarcadero Boulevard in San Francisco (which becomes King Street) replaced the elevated Embarcadero Freeway after the magnitude 6.9 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/San-Francisco-Oakland-earthquake-of-1989">Loma Prieta earthquake</a> in 1989. </p>
<p>King Street provides a direct east-west connection between Embarcadero and the I-280 on and off ramps at Fifth Street. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_4th_and_King_Street_Station">Fourth Street station</a> is a stub-end terminal with six rail platforms. The section I studied runs from the San Francisco Bay Bridge to Fourth Street (highlighted in red in Figure 1).</p>
<p><strong>Figure 1</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193526/original/file-20171107-1011-1rby4u3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geographical setting of King Street and Mission Bay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/King+St,+San+Francisco,+CA,+USA/@37.7780585,-122.3931877,920m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x808f7fd6a6099611:0x78cfc20ff4aa87fd!8m2!3d37.7758156!4d-122.3949376">Image adapted from Google Earth, 2016</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Table 1 illustrates the diversity dimension of the audit tool as applied to King Street.</p>
<p><strong>Table 1</strong></p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/193914/original/file-20171109-11963-fx8gzr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">i) A lot is a land parcel within a block. There could be number of lots under different ownerships within a block.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.google.com.au/maps/place/King+St,+San+Francisco,+CA,+USA/@37.7780585,-122.3931877,920m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x808f7fd6a6099611:0x78cfc20ff4aa87fd!8m2!3d37.7758156!4d-122.3949376">Drawn on maps from Google Earth, 2016. Adapted with permission</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Diversity of block sizes has resulted in a neighbourhood housing information technology companies, media houses, financial institutions, car rental, pharmacy, fire department, retail stores, bowling alley, art stores, design studios, dry cleaners, cafeterias and restaurants. This creates an opportunity for a diverse demographic mix. </p>
<p>Students from the <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/about/locations/mission-bay#the-mission-bay-campus">Mission Bay campus</a> of the University of California, San Francisco, a centre for health research and education, together with the mix of office goers add to the diversity and create demand for a number of demographically specific functions and services. Private investments have been attracted to the neighbourhood. Other benefits include <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17549170902833899?scroll=top&needAccess=true">jobs, residential growth and increased land prices</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194442/original/file-20171114-27622-1r7wo7j.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A quiet corner of the busy Kings Street.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Picture by Reena Tiwari</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/194443/original/file-20171114-27585-blj7ws.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diverse travel modes and a mix of retail, recreation, office and apartments offer a place to work, live and play.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Picture by Reena Tiwari</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The presence of AT&T Park, home of the Giants Major League Baseball team, plazas and parks enhance the recreational character of the place. This diverse mix of functions attracts people to visit, run businesses, work, shop and live. The result is a vibrant neighbourhood character and economy.</p>
<p>Various medium and high-rise residential condominium projects have been built on King Street. There are also multi-family residential buildings. The different types of apartments are a pull factor for all age groups and family sizes. </p>
<p>This has also resulted in an increase in public transit commute trips. Walking-to-work trips, measured in the influence zone of the streetcar-served Embarcadero Boulevard, have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17549170902833899?scroll=top&needAccess=true">increased by 1.6%</a>.</p>
<p>Similarly, I <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Connecting-Places-Connecting-People-A-Paradigm-for-Urban-Living-in-the/Tiwari/p/book/9781138213067?utm_source=shared_link&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=171111723">applied the audit tool</a> to the other four dimensions of connectivity attributes for the boulevard. </p>
<p>A well-connected place scores high on many, but not necessarily all, of the variables. Generally, it is a mixed-use place, of medium to high density with fine urban grain. Importantly, people are able to connect to an efficient and well-integrated transport network with easy access to destinations. </p>
<p>By involving users and residents in place-making, a connected place reinforces the community’s positive identity and sense of ownership. </p>
<hr>
<p><em>Reena Tiwari is the author of Connecting Places, Connecting People: A Paradigm for Living in the 21st Century (Routledge, September 2017, ISBN 9781138213067).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86214/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This article is based on research for Reena Tiwari's newly published book, Connecting Places, Connecting People – A Paradigm for Urban Living in the 21st Century (Routledge, September 2017).</span></em></p>The secret of creating attractive, liveable places sounds deceptively simple: connect people to places, people to transport and people to people.Reena Tiwari, Professor and Fellow of the Curtin Academy, Curtin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/756892017-04-30T20:02:15Z2017-04-30T20:02:15ZWe should create cities for slowing down<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/167164/original/file-20170428-12970-1kui3j7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Brisbane cycle path signage: Slow!</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikecogh/14218979300/in/photolist-8Y9JFp-8Y9J3k-8Y9Kue-8Y9Htz-8Y9Ji8-8Y9Hv8-8YcKBh-8YcL6j-8YcKFd-8Y9Jex-8YcLAo-8Y9Jxr-8Y9H8t-8YcM1b-8Y9Kse-8Y9GGz-8YcLwy-8Y9JAg-98bL5Z-8Y9Hqv-8YcMiN-8YcKYE-8Y9H6x-8Y9K7D-8YcKeL-8Y9JCD-8Y9JYi-8Y9J7g-8YcL4u-8Y9KfB-8YcMvf-8YcKkd-8Y9JVV-8YcKUs-8Y9HRe-8Y9K4X-8Y9HK8-8Y9KaZ-8Y9Jb2-8YcL2S-8tZrXe-8YcKnG-833rwF-8Y9HcZ-8YcLgE-dRz3XW-9EfCS1-8YcLHQ-nEtZaw-9gdTXs">Michael Coghlan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Peter Jackson employed an intricate approach to the stage design of <a href="https://www.compleatseanbean.com/lotr-production5.html">Lord of the Rings</a>. The people who inhabited Middle Earth for hundreds of generations slowly left cultural traces, alterations, artefacts and remnants of their human existence on the environment. </p>
<p>For example, the cinematographic stage set for Rivendell gives the viewer the impression of use and legacy over generations. Stage designers aged artefacts and applied, erased and reapplied cultural marks and insignia to “make” Rivendell the special and legendary place that author J.R.R. Tolkien had intended.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vDZ0u-XH0QM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Designing Middle Earth: behind the scenes of the Lord of the Rings.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Placemaking</h2>
<p>Urban space turns into <a href="https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/place-and-placelessness/book249276">place</a> in a similar way. People are natural placemakers. </p>
<p>When they live in cities, they create “<a href="http://livehoods.org">livehoods</a>”, build, modify, <a href="https://theconversation.com/switched-on-city-how-london-learned-to-love-christmas-lights-70609">decorate</a>, expand and <a href="http://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/320919/how-buildings-learn-by-stewart-brand/9780140139969/">renovate</a>. In doing so, they slowly leave their mark on the city.</p>
<p>In the 1960s, progressive urban planners and designers like <a href="http://www.pps.org/reference/jjacobs-2/">Jane Jacobs</a> and <a href="http://www.pps.org/reference/wwhyte/">William H. Whyte</a> argued that catering for <em>slow</em> pedestrians rather than <em>fast</em> cars results in better city design. </p>
<p>Placemaking can make places “<a href="https://www.planetizen.com/node/69454">sticky</a>,” so people dwell longer, customers spend more in retail shops, and <a href="https://www.foreground.com.au/public-domain/the-sticky-wars-battling-to-keep-students-on-campus/">students stay on campus</a>.</p>
<p>Trying to accommodate sustained high levels of <a href="https://theconversation.com/density-sprawl-growth-how-australian-cities-have-changed-in-the-last-30-years-65870">growth</a>, coupled with the need to contain urban sprawl, has led to the <a href="http://www.londonischanging.org">rapid gentrification</a> of inner-city suburbs. As construction companies are trying to keep up with the mandate to grow Australian cities, they won’t slow down easily.</p>
<p>Placemaking is being used to quickly breathe life into new urban developments. Speedy placemaking is of the essence when generic turnkey residential stock is sold as “vibrant communities”, “liveable neighbourhoods” and “distinctive precincts”.</p>
<h2>Cookie-cutter cities</h2>
<p>Accelerated placemaking poses several risks.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Places come with history and heritage to be conserved and protected. <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/8985/">Digital storytelling</a> has been used as a form of digital placemaking that not only enables the study of a place’s history, but also ways of embedding and commemorating historic evidence and artefacts in place.</p></li>
<li><p>To avoid making places that suit the placemakers and their funders more than the current or future occupants, inclusive practices of placemaking are needed. Marginalised and economically threatened communities should be enabled to engage with their neighbourhood on <a href="http://www.righttobne.org">their own terms</a> and create their own <a href="https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/urban-imaginaries">urban imaginaries</a>. This requires <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Place-making-and-Urban-Development-New-challenges-for-contemporary-planning/Palermo-Ponzini/p/book/9780415709569">transdisciplinary</a>, <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/77903/">participatory</a> and <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/84026/">action research</a> approaches to placemaking.</p></li>
<li><p>Placemaking can fuel further gentrification with its well-known set of associated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/nov/24/who-owns-our-cities-and-why-this-urban-takeover-should-concern-us-all">issues and consequences</a>. Activating places often aims at making nearby retail and residential properties more profitable. Yet genuine and slow placemaking can add further value by unlocking a city’s <a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Intercultural-City-Phil-Wood/9781844074365">diversity advantage</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>Many placemaking techniques such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/urban-hacktivism-getting-creative-about-involving-citizens-in-city-planning-62277">urban hacktivism</a> and <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/66197/">urban acupuncture</a> tend to be small and hyperlocal. They have been <a href="http://post.at.moma.org/content_items/587-is-tactical-urbanism-an-alternative-to-neoliberal-urbanism">criticised</a> for being limited in scale and impact. Can placemaking through <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2015.1029508">DIY urban design</a> scale up from subversive citymaking to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1145/2768545.2768564">systemic change</a>?</p></li>
<li><p>Contemporary placemaking relies more and more on stereotypes. An example is the iconic architectures of kerbside coffee shops. Christian Norberg-Schulz speaks of the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Genius_loci.html?id=FlYkAQAAMAAJ">genius loci</a> as a fundamental element of placemaking: the essence of a place that makes it <a href="https://theconversation.com/sense-of-place-messier-than-it-ever-was-so-how-do-we-manage-this-shifting-world-64591">unique</a>. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>This approach seems currently ignored in favour of a cookie-cutter approach. Copying success stories – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10462930500362403">Venice in Vegas</a>, for example – is a constant in architecture and urban design. But the trends of tactical urbanism, pop-up interventions and gentrification actually risk impoverishing our urban landscape and our urban ecologies.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Q1ZeXnmDZMQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">James Howard Kunstler: The ghastly tragedy of the suburbs. TED 2004.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Slow cities</h2>
<p>In addition to a set of ongoing challenges, there are exciting opportunities on the horizon for slowing down placemaking and for placemaking to slow down cities.</p>
<p>Our fast-paced world of <a href="https://theconversation.com/robot-revolution-rise-of-the-intelligent-automated-workforce-58252">automation</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/from-smart-cities-1-0-to-2-0-its-not-only-about-the-tech-73851">smart cities</a> prioritises speed and efficiency. Yet the health and wellbeing of city residents can be improved by slowing down. </p>
<p>This is about not only a slower pace of <a href="https://theconversation.com/life-in-the-pedestrian-fast-lane-is-no-life-at-all-lets-slow-our-cities-down-instead-50254">pedestrian flow</a>, traffic and life in public spaces. It also relates to appreciating artisan crafts, <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/56591/">food provenance</a>, seasonal changes, local customs, and even <a href="https://tedxsydney.com/talk/the-value-of-boredom/">boredom</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-design-smart-cities-for-getting-lost-56492">getting lost</a>. In Australia, the <a href="http://cittaslowaustralasia.com/">cities</a> of Goolwa (South Australia), Katoomba (New South Wales) and Yea (Victoria) have joined <a href="http://www.cittaslow.org/">Cittaslow</a> – “the international network of cities where living is good.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165502/original/image-20170417-25870-x4mp48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Le Dîner en Blanc, Brisbane, September 1, 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">brisbrad/flickr</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This “slow cities” movement promotes the use of technology. Yet this is different to how technology is portrayed in many smart city visions, which liken cities to corporations that are about growth, efficiency and productivity. However, a city is neither a <a href="https://theconversation.com/early-experiments-show-a-smart-city-plan-should-start-with-people-first-60174">business</a> nor a <a href="https://placesjournal.org/article/a-city-is-not-a-computer/">computer</a>.</p>
<h2>Making cities collaboratively</h2>
<p>Revisiting Henri Lefebvre’s “<a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/78107/">right to the city</a>,” we understand placemaking as a strategy to bring about much-needed social change and urban renewal through <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/1411-rebel-cities">grassroots democratisation</a>. </p>
<p>Cities often invite people as participants in urban planning decision-making. Yet why limit people to just providing feedback to city governments as part of conventional community consultation processes? Genuine placemaking regards them as co-creators in <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/105753/">collaborative citymaking</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"763816961784606720"}"></div></p>
<p>The exposure to <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-we-should-design-smart-cities-for-getting-lost-56492">diverse ideas, places and communities</a> is crucial for <a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-needs-an-innovation-skunkworks-51326">innovation</a> and the functioning of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cities-in-the-future-of-democracy-16688">democracy</a>. We believe placemaking can help develop a better <a href="http://eprints.qut.edu.au/88937/">dialogue</a> between citizens, communities, government, businesses, civic groups and non-profits. </p>
<p>Placemaking is meant to provide a close connection between people and their locale. Placemaking has to be specific and unique to urban space, taking into account its community, environment, culture, food and social practices.</p>
<p>Finally, cities certainly need to face up to the challenges of climate change. Placemaking provides opportunities for more <a href="https://www.epicpeople.org/place-making-sustainability/">sustainable ways of life</a> not only by creating accessible, healthy, democratic and slow cities, but also by imagining the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1162/DESI_a_00398">post-anthropocentric city</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75689/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Foth receives research funding from the Australian Research Council's Linkage Projects funding scheme, and the CRC for Spatial Information. He is a member of the Queensland Greens.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mirko Guaralda receives funding from United States Study Centre - Sydney. </span></em></p>Smart cities are usually optimised like a business for speed and efficiency. Placemaking can slow down cities to improve health and wellbeing and promote more democratic engagement of citizens.Marcus Foth, Professor of Urban Informatics, Queensland University of TechnologyMirko Guaralda, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/645912016-09-29T03:48:39Z2016-09-29T03:48:39ZSense of place: messier than it ever was, so how do we manage this shifting world?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/138004/original/image-20160915-30600-1fmdns0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Place-making: a seasonal beach in Campus Martius Park, Detroit 2014.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Laura Crommelin</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Place is a crucial dimension of human meaning and relationships. It grounds us. </p>
<p>Our attachments with multiple places are a significant part of our individual and group identities. At one level, these attachments reflect our values and aspirations, while at another level they capture broader social, cultural and economic trends.</p>
<p>Place is therefore at once <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Belonging-A-Culture-of-Place/hooks/p/book/9780415968164">very personal</a> and collective. It connotes multiple rather than singular meanings.</p>
<p>In 1976, Canadian geographer Ted Relph confidently divided the two ideas in his seminal book <a href="https://uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/place-and-placelessness/book249276">Place and Placenessness</a>. This work influenced a growing movement for place-based research by geographers, sociologists, psychologists, environmental planners and others. </p>
<p>According to Relph, some places were real and authentic; others were bland and homogeneous.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137896/original/image-20160915-30587-41x3km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The very ‘authentic’ Grand Bazaar of Istanbul.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Freestone</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Place identities, a contested business</h2>
<p>Things have got far messier since then. Places can clearly channel both dimensions depending on the beholder; others have evolved under neoliberalism in very different ways that were unforeseen even late last century. Place-making has emerged as a multi-million-dollar industry aimed at <a href="http://www.jllrealviews.com/trends/blight-city-highlight-urban-renewal-projects/">creating meaningful sites</a>.</p>
<p>Place research has exploded in various and nuanced directions; there is no more black and white. As prominent place academic <a href="http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405106719.html">Tim Cresswell</a> proclaims:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Place is made and remade on a daily basis. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Place is political and contested. Geographer <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Geographies-of-Exclusion-Society-and-Difference-in-the-West/Sibley/p/book/9780415119252">David Sibley</a> argues every act of inclusion is defined by an act of exclusion.</p>
<p>This could be as blatant as physically keeping out the unwanted (such as <a href="http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/438">the Great Wall of China</a>), a shift in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40553528?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">ownership of “public” spaces</a>, or <a href="https://safety.unsw.edu.au/news/unsw-smoke-free-policy">applying policies that prohibit</a> the presence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/graf-all-you-want-but-dont-you-dare-be-poor-64377">“unwelcome” activities</a>, whether in the name of public good or otherwise. </p>
<p>Such protectionist mentalities seem to be running rampant on <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/brexit">current global</a> <a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/positions/pay-for-the-wall">political stages</a>.</p>
<p>Elsewhere, much investment is made into actively changing place identity – with varying degrees of success. Regardless, branded place-making is now big business. It is part of urban renewal initiatives in transforming <a href="http://www.jllrealviews.com/trends/breathing-new-life-utilized-buildings/">disused or “out of date”</a> areas into higher-density, often boutique (and therefore premium) <a href="http://www.domain.com.au/news/a-place-to-call-home-placemaking-is-all-the-rage-in-apartment-developments-20160721-gqalb4/">places</a>.</p>
<p>Professional place-makers supposedly have the expertise to take downtrodden places, wave their magic wands and create new and exciting precincts for us to enjoy. But do these projects always succeed in changing urban fortunes?</p>
<h2>The development of place-making</h2>
<p>The concept of place-making has its origin in the 1960s, when academics and urban activists like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/apr/28/story-cities-32-new-york-jane-jacobs-robert-moses">Jane Jacobs</a> and <a href="http://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/13565.html">William H. Whyte</a> promoted a more human-centred (re)design of cities to counter the anodyne steamroller of international modernism.</p>
<p>Since then, however, governments and private industries alike have dreamt up big ideas – and spent big dollars – in creating “memorable” places in the service of <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-the-triple-bottom-line-22798">triple bottom line</a> sustainability, though often especially the economic dimension. Paradoxically, this global phenomenon can account for an uneasy new form of placelessness as similar solutions are adapted in diverse settings.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/137895/original/image-20160915-30580-dgheb0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The commercialisation of ‘place’ extends beyond urban design and even to clothing chains.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edgar Liu</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Great designs help in creating a distinctive and unique sense of place, but design alone cannot solve all. As a regeneration consultant <a href="http://www.afr.com/lifestyle/good-urban-design-is-all-about-a-true-sharing-economy-20160401-gnwlcb">recently wrote</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Urban design is not destiny. It alone can’t create communities, can’t address racism or affect global politics through pretty place-making.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The people and place disconnect – or what Relph termed placelessness – has changed and evolved since the 1970s and so have our interpretations, perceptions and experiences of it.</p>
<p>The key point is that process is as important as product. Good design must have the people at heart. And to do that one must first listen to the people. </p>
<p>We all play critical roles in how place identities come to be. There is a great diversity of views but also wisdom in crowds.</p>
<p>So the turn is towards consultative and, better still, participatory exercises even in large-scale projects alongside small-scale, community-led projects and on to more <a href="http://www.planetizen.com/node/84500/diy-urbanism-and-top-down-planning">DIY</a> and <a href="http://www.citylab.com/topics/guerilla-urbanism/">guerrilla-style</a> urbanism. </p>
<p>The united aim is to invest nondescript places (by almost any criterion) with new attractiveness and meaning. This frequently involves respecting individual and collective memories of the past.</p>
<h2>Disrupting placelessness</h2>
<p>As this is played out through private development, the catch is that return on investment becomes a critical driver. New places, reinvented places and what French philosopher Marc Augé termed <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/360-non-places">non-places</a> will all tend to blend authenticity and anonymity.</p>
<p>Place is messier than it ever was, and our engagements with it too. That is why we set out to see how Relph’s simple binary had been disrupted in a new collection called <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Place-and-Placelessness-Revisited/Freestone-Liu/p/book/9781138937116">Place and Placelessness Revisited</a>.</p>
<p>This surveys our connections to place in many different settings – civic squares, playgrounds, airports, shopping malls, even public toilets. All serendipitously point to place as a fascinating multiplicity.</p>
<p>We invited Relph to have the last word. He declared without nostalgia that the either/or of his original formulation was “obsolete”. In the new millennium, as discomforting as it may seem, nothing about place “can be taken for granted”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Edgar Liu receives funding from the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute, Cooperative Research Centre for Low Carbon Living, New South Wales' Department of Family and Community Services, PAYCE Communities, SGCH Ltd, South Australia's Department for Communities and Social Inclusion, and Strata Community Australia (NSW chapter).</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Freestone receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>Big ideas and big dollars have been invested in making ‘memorable’ places. Paradoxically, as similar solutions are adapted in diverse settings worldwide, this can lead to an uneasy new placelessness.Edgar Liu, Research Fellow at City Futures Research Centre, UNSW SydneyRobert Freestone, Professor of Planning, Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.