Place Management
Place management is the process of making places better. This is practiced through programmes to improve a location or to maintain an already attained desired standard of operation. Place management can be undertaken by private, public or voluntary organisations or a mixture of each. Despite the wide variety of place management initiatives the underlying common factor is usually a desire to maximise the effectiveness of a location for its users, whether they are residents, shoppers, tourists, investors, property developers or business owners.
[edit] Overview
Place management is defined by the Institute of Place Management as "a coordinated, area-based, multi-stakeholder approach to improve locations, harnessing the skills, experiences and resources of those in the private, public and voluntary sectors".[1] However, as a conceptual field it remains relatively underdeveloped because of its infancy.
[edit] Defining ‘Place’
Place as a concept can be defined from a number of perspectives. Geography appears to have the greatest claim on the study of place with the Royal Geographical Society defining geography as the ‘“the study of the earth’s landscapes, peoples, places and environments”[2]. The study of place does not however, belong exclusively to field of geography.
According to Parker the production of place knowledge can also take place within sociology, psychology, general business and management, retailing, architecture, marketing, political science, public administration, construction, anthropology, urban planning, property management and investment, mining, economics, food, tourism & leisure, health, education, and criminology.[3]
Arturo Escobar has defined place as “the experience of a specific location which ...