ABSTRACT
The interest in urban narratives goes hand in hand with an increasing awareness that urban planning could take into account experiential, “subjective” place-based information, shared in the stories people and communities tell of their place in the world. Little systematic analysis has been carried out to examine the different kinds of narrative that are used in the context of urban planning from a particularly narrative perspective, and, to date, there is no comprehensive study of how narrative – and concepts from narrative and literary theory more broadly – can enrich planning and policy. The windowed street-level spaces designed by planners for front stores may be used instead for bicycle parking or for community meetings, creating unintended spatial uses that may give rise to a host of narratives of an area’s semi-public spaces. This chapter also presents an overview on the key concepts discussed in this book.
