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23 - Urban Experimentation and the Role of Senses of Place

An Illustrative Case from Rotterdam, the Netherlands

from Part VII - Design and Planning Strategies for Changing Senses of Place

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 July 2021

By
Timo von Wirth  and
Niki Frantzeskaki
Edited by
Christopher M. Raymond ,
Lynne C. Manzo ,
Daniel R. Williams ,
Andrés Di Masso  and
Timo von Wirth
Christopher M. Raymond
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Finland
Lynne C. Manzo
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle
Daniel R. Williams
Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Colorado
Andrés Di Masso
Affiliation:
Universitat de Barcelona
Timo von Wirth
Affiliation:
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
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Summary

We unpack the role of sense of place in relation to urban experimentation. We conceptualise urban experimentation as a governance approach to foster and activate innovation capacities of communities and places for climate adaptation and institutional trialling of novel approaches. We focus on an urban living laboratory (ULL) as one specific type of urban experiment that has received increasing attention in European cities recently, and use experimentation in ULL as an example to reconsider a dynamic and pluralistic understanding of place. We find that our case study, BlueCity Lab in Rotterdam, NL provides a space where new place-related narratives of change, novel practices and relations emerge, while being embedded within wider, translocal networks of practice. Backed by these insights, we contend that a translocal, pluralised and dynamic concept of place promises to be a valuable lens in order to understand the impacts, manifestations and appropriate responses to global challenges in everyday life.

Keywords

senses of placeurban experimentationtransitionsustainabilitycitiesnarrativespracticesrelationstransformative topophilia
Type
Chapter
Information
Changing Senses of Place
Navigating Global Challenges
 , pp. 301 - 312
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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