title: Theorizing Critical Placemaking as a Tool for Reclaiming Public Space.
abstract: As economic inequality and segregation continue to grow in the U.S., psychology has an important role to play in exploring and promoting processes that can disrupt social injustice. This paper identifies the privatization of public space as a social problem that contributes to the entrenchment of social, economic, and racial inequality, and advances "critical placemaking" as a tool for reclaiming public space for public use. Drawing from key concepts in environmental psychology, narrative psychology, and community psychology, the proposed framework seeks to theorize the processes by which placemaking may contribute to transforming community narratives and building more inclusive, participatory, and democratic communities. Policy implications and future directions for empirical work are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of California, Santa Cruz, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Erin E
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2046-5035
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Toolis
mesh_terms: D000069551:Environmental Psychology; D006801:Humans; D011332:Privatization; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011593:Psychology, Social; D012940:Social Problems; D000072699:Social Segregation; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States
keywords: Civic engagement; Economic inequality; Narrative; Place attachment; Place identity; Placemaking; Public space