PLACEmaking

 

11 PRINCIPLES OF PLACEMAKING

LOCAL GOVERNANCE

FOREWORD ... Local governance everywhere in all its forms, in every cultural setting, in every geographical environment that is inhabited by humans. Humanity, has by necessity found a way of creating places in accord with the various geographies occupied by a group of humans and its needs. Indeed, in each and every place the making of and the shaping places is governed in ways that meets a community's collective needs and aspirations. Accordingly, there will always be a culturally determined way for the groups in places to work collaboratively and collectively to shape and make their places. It turns out that humans inhabit almost as many geographies as exist. Quite simply, it turns out that place and geographies shape and make cultures. In turn cultures make and shape places they exist within. 

What has changed, and is changing still, is the fact that geographically 'spaces' are now inhabited by multiple and culturally distinct groupings of people. These groupings of people have different and well-defined cultural realities. Therefore, it can no longer be assumed that a place – a town, city, urban space, landscape – is inhabited by people with a single overarching cultural reality with uniform sensitivities and sensibilities. It is just not so! 

 It follows that local governance's purposefulness, its primary purpose, everywhere, and at all times, is all about the shaping of, and the making of, places. Moreover, and increasingly, spaces become multifaceted places that require a system of local governance that acknowledges and celebrates diversity rather than uniformity. ......read more here

A HOUSING COOPERATIVE

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