Place-Making and Conflict

Placemaking is the deliberate process of creating, shaping, and managing places to make them more attractive, functional, and meaningful. But placemaking is rarely uncontested — it involves choices about whose vision of a place will prevail, which inevitably creates winners and losers. This lesson examines placemaking strategies, community involvement, contested spaces, NIMBYism, and the tension between preservation and development, using case studies including HS2 and other UK examples.

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What is Placemaking?

Key Definition: Placemaking is the collaborative process of shaping public spaces and places to maximise shared value — creating places that promote health, happiness, community interaction, and economic vitality.

The concept originated in the work of urbanists Jane Jacobs (The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1961) and William H. Whyte (The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, 1980), who argued that the best places are created by and for the people who use them, not imposed by planners or developers.

Principles of Good Placemaking