Placemaking

Moore, K

doi:10.5040/9781350445208.ch-3

Placemaking

Lookup NU author(s): Dr Karenza Moore ORCiD

Downloads

Published version [.pdf]

Licence

This is the final published version of a book chapter that has been published in its final definitive form by Bloomsbury Academic, 2025.

For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners work with young people to explore spaces/places and ‘placemaking’. Spaces are understood as being ‘made’ through (built, ‘natural’) environmental, architectural and design features alongside their formal, agreed purpose, such as a study space at college/university. Yet at the same time, spaces have meanings placed upon them. A space may be given multiple meanings by young people which may or may not correspond with dominant understandings of, for example, what that space is ‘for’. Further, young peoples’ practices are situated in space. This means that even something as ‘everyday’ as rearranging furniture or flinging coats over chairs can be explored through the lens of space, place and placemaking. In this example, a college/university study space becomes a place to meet with friends, where little or no learning takes place! Given this, space and place may best be explored together as ‘space/place’ (Agnew, 2011). Placemaking is a multidimensional concept used across a diverse range of disciplines, professions, research studies and/or practice-based projects. It can help to think of placemaking as an orientation rather than a specific methodology (i.e. your overall approach to data production) or method (i.e. your specific data production tools).