ABSTRACT
Social cohesion is an idea that all societies aspire towards though its definitions and the means to achieve it have been always subjects of contestation. Significant knowledge gaps are evident in the established literature on this specific topic of public space design and social cohesion, despite the growing interest and acknowledgement that public spaces are the contact spaces and the essential tools to achieve social cohesion. To cope with domination of a neoliberalist context, cities have been engineering new types of urban policies and practices to promote social cohesion. As Sola-Moralles argued, social spaces have become important collective spaces since they are neither public nor private but both, and at the same time allow collective use. In doing so, they argue that placemaking is the process whereby collective meaning is incorporated into physical design. The chapter also provides an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
