ABSTRACT
There is a growing impetus promoting the view that participation and social inclusion should play a pivotal role in the arrangement and content of everyday spatial realms. If we accept this, how do we ensure that the process is truly inclusive? This chapter and the following one by Ian Simkins present two examples of approaches to inclusivity. They summarise longitudinal doctoral studies that are developing tools and techniques for working with two groups in society that are often marginalized or absent from processes of change to places they use: specifically, people with learning disabilities and primary school children. In different ways they show how to facilitate understanding of place as an essential component of individual and social development. They demonstrate in particular how the techniques developed reveal the unique ways in which these groups understand their neighbourhood experiences and place perceptions and what the implications are for planning and design decision making-processes.
