ABSTRACT
This chapter explores whether places, their meanings, and how people use them are better understood through scientific analysis or subjective, even artist-led, processes. It addresses the gap in how planners and communities come to see and appreciate a positive self-image based on resident experience and understanding of their community. The chapter argues that some of the tools of cultural planning can contribute to better understanding and navigating diversity in communities and to finding ways of making optimal spatial and design choices for more and different people to live together better. The psychological wellbeing of individuals and groups within neighborhoods or areas of a city may be profoundly impacted based on planned or realized changes. Nourishing a sense of place attachment is often an important concern of cultural planners, placemakers, and community development professionals. City planners, who often need to think in concrete terms, may find this process frustrating.
