VIRTUAL Lisbon Livable Cities

Abstract

Place is everywhere, places are all around us. Everywhere is some place. We live our lives in places. Place is a general construct, a concept that gives everywhere some meaning whether cultural, social, environmental or economic. These connote qualities of place – ceremonial, beautiful, tranquil, unloved – and provide a common terminology for something that is generally understood but imprecisely defied. When used to guide interventions, it is necessary to be precise and transparent to enable co-creation with citizens. In 2020, the City of Glasgow established an independent Place Commission under the direction of the City Urbanist with a mission to establish definitions, principles, narrative and action for place in the city for its people. Of Scotland’s four principal cities, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee are surrounded by landscape and sea. Only Glasgow is surrounded by itself. With a population of 650,000, and with a tight territorial boundary, Glasgow is the largest of Scotland’s cities by some margin. The metropolitan area has a population of over 1.8 million. The Commission’s work reviewed the concept and complexities of place, discussed why these matter, and explored the growing body of evidence that place quality can deliver economic, social, environmental and health outcomes. The Commission undertook a stocktaking of place in contemporary Glasgow, looking through the lenses of an international, metropolitan and everyday city, and drew conclusions based on its research and a programme of engagement revealing valuable insights presented in a series of Place Stories. The Commission’s report, PEOPLE make PLACES, was published in 2023. The evidence has been analysed and embraced by the city government that is moving to service delivery organised around a directorate of place operating at the city-region and the community level. The paper examines the research and findings of the Commission and its contribution to place thinking and practice.