by Wessel Strydom, Karen Puren and Ernst Drewes

Our contribution to the recent special issue of the Journal of Place Management and Development on Participatory Placemaking, is an exploration of the theoretical trends in placemaking literature. Our paper “Exploring theoretical trends in placemaking: Towards new perspectives in spatial planning” follows Prof. Kalandides’ lead article, which proposes a disambiguation of the term ‘participation’. The two papers together constitute the theoretical framework of the special issue.

The paper aims to understand and describe the development of placemaking in spatial planning. Placemaking is a multi-disciplinary concept including Architecture, Spatial Planning, Geography, Ecology, Tourism, Art, Education and Nursing. Exploring the term “placemaking” from a multitude of viewpoints will allow developing an in-depth understanding of the concept in order to conceptualise global trends with regard to the topic. This exploration is informed by conducting an Integrative Literature Review (ILR). ILR aims at providing an exhaustive description of available research contributions. This exhaustive description includes both theoretical and empirical studies. Appropriate contributions are further explored by following a thematic content analysis and thematic synthesis method. From the thematic content analysis and synthesis, themes and sub-themes can be constructed. These themes and sub-themes are utilised to uncover global trends in research literature. By conceptualising trends, the construction of a comprehensive definition regarding the search-term is possible. Continue reading “Exploring theoretical trends in placemaking” →