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Urban spaces are configurations of discursively generated places. This volume of essays in discursively oriented urban research features a broad range of interdisciplinary perspectives. A focus is placed on practices and resources for analyzing urban spaces, as well as on communicative markers of urban identity. The book reveals urban linguistics as an emerging interdisciplinary discipline for the study of place-making processes in urban spaces.

Der Band zeigt interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf das Konzept der deklarativen Stadt auf, die von semiotischer Komplexität und Widersprüchlichkeit gekennzeichnet ist. Die Beiträge aus der Literatur- und Sprachwissenschaft, der Kunst(geschichte), der Diskursanalyse, aber auch aus stadtplanerischer Perspektive beleuchten deklarative und diskursive Praktiken in unterschiedlichen sozialen, kulturellen, ästhetischen sowie historischen Zusammenhängen

Toronto, with half of its population born outside of Canada and speaking more than 140 languages, is well known as one of the most multicultural cities in the world. Its ethno-cultural diversity is often manifested in urban landscapes with long-lasting imprints of ethnic-oriented facilities and institutions. With increasing suburbanization of immigrant populations, ethnic neighbourhoods have speckled the suburban landscapes. The stereotypically homogeneous suburban landscapes have been transformed by ethnic communities who bring new identities and new meanings to the space. What has become imperative for suburban municipalities to understand is how these ethnic neighbourhoods have emerged and evolved, how ethnic communities have played a role in suburban place-making, and more importantly, what municipal planning interventions (e.g., planning policies and processes) are appropriate and effective to enhance the advantages of urban diversity and manage unprecedented social, cultural, economic, physical, and political changes that challenge conventional suburban planning. This documentary explores the increasing diversity in Toronto's suburbs and the place-making challenges and opportunities. The research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. To link to this documentary: https://youtu.be/ODBnO0v_hpk ; Zhuang, Z. C. (Producer & Director) 2018b. Globurbia: Suburban Place-making amidst Diversity. [Documentary]. Toronto. https://youtu.be/ODBnO0v_hpk

AbstractDespite developments within planning theory challenging the ideal of the rational master plan it may be argued that there is still use for the production of knowledge through analysis in planning. However, the cultural complexity of today's planning contexts, and a move towards governance and entrepreneurial policies, makes it difficult to make places, to achieve social welfare and sustainability. Traditionally, the analysis of places has been done by architects and planners focusing on physical form, having an essentialist perspective of place resembling the theory of genius loci. In Norway, the planning authorities refined this methodology in the 1990s. This approach is, however, not in tune with a progressive view of places as multiple and dynamic social constructions, and may be accused of 'symbolic violence'. If one is to take this view seriously and still be able to make plans, planning must also be based on other types of knowledge. In this article I argue for a socio‐cultural approach to reveal social representations and practices that make a place. I use the case of place‐making in Sandvika, a suburban 'minicity' outside Oslo, as an example of how a constructivist understanding differs from and may supplement an essentialist approach.

This paper aims to elaborate the architectural theory on place-making that supported Claremont Court housing scheme (Edinburgh, United Kingdom). Claremont Court (1959-62) is a post-war mixed development housing scheme designed by Basil Spence, which included 'place-making' as one of its founding principles. Although some stylistic readings of the housing scheme have been published, the theory on place-making that allegedly ruled the design has yet to be clarified. Architecture allows us to mark or make a place within space in order to dwell. Under the framework of contemporary philosophical theories of place, this paper aims to explore the relationship between place and dwelling through a cross-disciplinary reading of Claremont Court, with a view to develop an architectural theory on place-making. Since dwelling represents the way we are immersed in our world in an existential manner, this theme is not just relevant for architecture but also for philosophy and social sciences. The research in this work is interpretive-historic in nature. It examines documentary evidence of the original architectural design, together with relevant literature in sociology, history and architecture, through the lens of theories of place. First, the paper explores how the dwelling types originally included in Claremont Court supported ideas of dwelling or meanings of home. Then, it traces shared space and social ties in order to study the symbolic boundaries that allow the creation of a collective identity or sense of belonging. Finally, the relation between the housing scheme and the supporting theory is identified. The findings of this research reveal Scottish architect Basil Spence's exploration of the meaning of home, as he changed his approach to mass housing while acting as President of the Royal Incorporation of British Architects (1958-60). When the British Government was engaged in various ambitious building programmes he sought to drive architecture to a wider socio-political debate as president of the RIBA, hence moving towards a more ambitious and innovative socio-architectural approach. Rather than trying to address the 'genius loci' with an architectural proposition, as has been stated, the research shows that the place-making theory behind the housing scheme was supported by notions of community based on shared space and dispositions. The design of the housing scheme was steered by a desire to foster social relations and collective identities, rather than by the idea of keeping the spirit of place (genius loci). This paper presents Claremont Court as a signifier of Basil Spence's attempt to address the post-war political debate on housing in United Kingdom. They highlight the architect's theoretical agenda and challenge current purely stylistic readings of Claremont Court as they fail to acknowledge its social relevance.

Walking and place have become popular subjects in recent years, in visual arts and literature as well as in the moving image. But despite the attention paid to walking as an art practice and to place as a subject of artistic inquiry, there has been no sustained consideration of the convergence of walking art and place art, though the former clearly requires some reference to the latter. The thesis explores this convergence in a transnational cycle of films and videos over the last two decades. Walking in art has been discussed in terms of flânerie, psychogeography, nomadology, mobility, and as an urban strategy. The question is whether walking art in the moving image is simply an extension of these concerns to the screen or in some way distinctive, and to what end. The works from this cycle share certain features: long-take sequences, uninhabited, crowded or liminal locations, travelling narrators, invisible interlocutors, a certain topography. The influence of art cinema is evident in these features. Walking narratives were, in part, a response to the crisis of narrative form in art film; where the itinerant place-making mode of film and video departs from art cinema is in foregrounding the inhabitation of space and pushing back other aspects of the narrative. The itinerant place-making mode is phenomenological and ethnographic. A reading of the works reveals the tropes of place-making that structure them, types of spatial organisation: e.g. the street, the island, the labyrinth, the archaeological site. In these works, the walker is a narrative device for unspooling a configuration of space and environment. Many of the works demonstrate a post-imperial/post-colonial historical revisionism, uncovering the past lives of overlooked, obscure and marginal places, countering the perception of transit zones and liminal terrains as 'non-places' by means of participant observation and archaeology. Related to 'slow cinema', a contemporaneous development, the art of walking in place sets itself apart from the attention-deficit disorder prevalent in the mass media by virtue of its long-duration attentiveness. In this way it betrays a discontent with contemporary subjectivity, also acquiring political resonance through its overlap with environmental documentary.

Abstract
Since its very inception, the field of social work has acknowledged the importance of place in shaping communal identity, construing shared meanings and generating collective actions. Nevertheless, the analytical framework of place-making, which enjoys growing interest in other disciplines, has little impact on social work and its incorporation into social work community practice is still embryonic. The place-making perspective is particularly relevant to the multiple challenges faced by community practice in the twenty-first century. This qualitative study aims to encourage the inclusion of place-making analytical perspective in community practice research by examining community practitioners' engagement in place-making processes within the complex context of Israeli Jewish–Arab mixed cities. Based on semi-structured interviews with thirty community practitioners in the public services, the findings reveal that participants were highly engaged in four main interrelated aspects of place-making: shaping the ethnocultural meanings of place, managing the meaning of space in power relations, re-constructing the conflicted meaning of space and framing the history of place. The study illustrates the usefulness of the place-making analytical framework in community practice, especially in the context of increasing contested and divided urban realities.

This paper examines the politics of place making in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, pan of an emerging network of production centers in South China. Rapidly developed from a border town to a major city through transnational linkages of capital and kinship, the zone is a desired destination for migrant youth from all over China searching for work and experiences in the city. Temporary workers make up 66 percent of the Shenzhen population, yet many lack the proper skills and cultural •capital• to compete in the transitional economy. Authorities ' attempts to forge a collective sense of place among its diverse immigrant groups have been largely unsuccessful, as Shenzhen is n o t one but many places shaped by differences of class, native place, and household registration status.