What planning needs from theorizing on place in times of global challenges

Abstract

The paper argues for stronger integration of the theoretical notion of place in planning against multiple current challenges. It revisits some established and novel conceptual readings of place and outlines its implications for urban planning, arguing for the theoretically informed use of the place notion as instrumental in planning better cities for people. With its practical focus on shaping physical spaces in cities, urban planning delivers applied results and contributes empiricallydriven insights on the physical setting of cities. Notion of place, on the other hand, allows formalizing diverse social, subjective and intersubjective relations that shape our spatial experience in cities in no less impactful ways than its physical setting. The paper argues that conceptual potential of the term place for urban planning lies in bridging the physical realities of urban spaces with the human dimension of spatial experience at the level of middle range theories connecting empirical application with conceptual premises.