Session #109

– Paper Presentations –

In this session, we examine the practice of placemaking resituated as acts of care that embrace the complexities and contradictions of specific sites. We acknowledge diverse approaches to placemaking across different scales and regions that require equally diverse methodologies and fieldwork. The panel consists of five scholars at the University of Melbourne who will present ongoing field research related to careful placemaking across different cultural and geographical contexts spanning Australia, Japan, Europe and Africa. Ji’s work in urban and rural Japan employs physical and virtual ethnographic methods to understand how local communities are improving their living environments through D-I-Y renovation projects. She traces the often slow and incremental reuse of individual sites which contributes to the overall transformation of whole areas over time. Frichot’s work in Seychelles, geopolitically considered part of Africa, examines plantations as a spatial typology writ large as the Plantationocene. She tells environmental stories of the aftermath of a complex colonial history that has impacted on urban development and the eco-tourism industry in this island nation-state. Hinkel’s work with Indigenous communities explores how to care for Country by learning with Indigenous stories and artefacts through the application of contemporary digital technologies. Newell’s work with a local repair hub in Moonee Valley, Melbourne, uses the framework of Degrowth to examine the potential for transformative adaption of locally built environments through care, repair, re-use, and maintenance that doesn’t depend on the normative power structures of growth and tech-modernism. Roberts’ work with traditional craftspeople in Australia, United Kingdom and France explores themes of restoration, responsibility, and resilience in heritage conservation. Drawing on insider perspective as a conservation stonemason, she gently choreographs a collaborative wayfinding method of examining conservation craft process as intangible cultural heritage.  

We invite additional colleagues to share their experiences on fieldwork and place making practices to join us in this panel.