P16 Something for everybody: How are placemaking and place branding contributing to inclusive and sustainable communities

Panel chairs

Kathleen Gallagher, Texas Tech University, USA

b.kathleen.gallagher@ttu.edu - Corresponding and review group chair

​​​​Leigh Hersey, University Louisiana Monroe, USA

Alex Turrini, Bocconi University, Italy

popularity and use in the twenty-rst century. Placemaking is a bottom-up, cross-sector undertaking that aims to improve the quality of a place (Markusen & Gadwa, 2010; Wycko, u/d; Zitcer, 2020), whereas place branding utilizes marketing and branding techniques to promote places. Scholars from public administration, economics, urban aairs, and urban planning have contributed to a robust body of literature including the examination of processes, practices, and impacts of placemaking and place branding (Frenette, 2017; Vuignier, 2017). National, regional, and local governments have hired consultants, implemented projects and programs, and funded placemaking and place branding initiatives because of numerous potential benets, including: economic contributions, increased property values, reduced crime rates, greater social cohesion, increased community attachment, and more(Florida, 2004; Markusen, 2014; Markusen & Gadwa, 2010). In addition to the benets, placemaking and place branding have gained attention for potentially contributing to gentrication.

Gentrication occurs when a place that has undergone disinvestment and decline experience reversal, re-investment, and in-migration of middle- and upper-middle-class residents (Hwang & Sampson, 2014; Smith, 1998). Policies that produce gentrication are advanced in eorts to improve the tax-base in under-resourced communities and increase social mixing and social capital (Versey, 2018). Despite these intentions, studies also show gentrication’s association with increases in displacement and loss of social capital among original residents (Fullilove, Peterson, & Bassett, 2016; Lees, Slater, & Wyly, 2008; Newman & Wyly, 2006; Shaw & Hagemans, 2015; Versey, 2018). Richard Florida has been criticized for how his new urbanism spurred negative externalities of gentrication. Wainwright(2017) reported, "Fifteen years on, it hasn’t quite turned out as [Florida] planned. Florida’s formula has proven to benet the already rich, mostly white middle class; fuel rampant property speculation; displace the bohemians he so fetishized [sic]; and see the problems that once plagued the inner cities simply move out to the suburbs." The negative byproducts of gentrication, placemaking, and place branding pose questions about the equity and sustainability of placemaking and place branding policies and projects. Public policies that advance placemaking, place branding, and gentrication, therefore, should be evaluated for their impacts on equity and sustainability of communities.

Jane Jacobs, recognized for her early contributions to the development of placemaking, wrote, “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created for everybody” (Jacobs,1961/1993,p.238). Jacobs’observationcommandsa contemporary evaluation of the use of placemaking and related practices by public managers. How are public sector placemaking and place branding policies and practices contributing to inclusive and sustainable communities?

We anticipate that the proposed panel will contribute to the conference and the eld by advancing knowledge of both public sector placemaking/place branding practice and, more broadly, public management. Placemaking and place branding, as the focal policy areas, are commonly used by governments at the national and sub-national (regional and local) levels globally. Their popularity justies consideration of contributions to community equity and sustainability. Furthermore, as administered by governments and public agencies, bureaus, and councils, the panel topic provides the opportunity to examine how public managers and organizations with varied geographies, structures, sizes, and capacities attend to the equity and sustainability of communities.

Select References

Jacobs, J. (1961/1993). The death and life of great American cities. New York: Modern Library.

Markusen, A., & Gadwa, A. (2010). Creative placemaking. Retrieved from Washington, DC: https://www.arts.gov/sites/default/les/CreativePlacemaking-Paper.pdf Versey, H. S. (2018). A tale of two Harlems: Gentrication, social capital, and implications for aging in place. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 214, 1- 11. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.024

Vuignier, R. (2017). Place branding & place marketing 1976–2016: A multidisciplinary literature review. International Review on Public and Nonprot Marketing, 14(4), 447-473. doi:10.1007/s12208-017-0181-3

Wainwright, O. (2017, 26 Oct. 2017). ‘Everything is gentrication now’: but Richard Florida isn't sorry. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/oct/26/gentrication-richard- orida-interview-creative-class-new-urban-crisis Wycko, M. A. (u/d). Denition of placemaking: Four dierent types. Retrieved from https://www.canr.msu.edu/uploads/375/65824/4typesplacemaking_pzn_ wycko_january2014.pdf (A complete reference list/bibliography available upon request.