Marketplaces as Urban Development Strategies
Marketplaces are often romanticised as traditional spaces of 'pure' encounters between producers and consumers in an increasingly privatised world. Farmer’s Markets are well-known example of this and several city governments seem to have embraced the urban marketplace as a tool for ‘placemaking.’ Yet this enthusiasm needs to be supported by a critical analysis of how exactly, marketplaces act as inclusive public spaces that support residents, rather than merely real estate developers.
For this reason, Freek Janssens (UvA) and Ceren Sezer (TU Delft) published a Special Issue for the journal “Built Environment” (Peter Hall, David Banister, Stephen Marshall, editors) on “Marketplaces as Urban Development Strategies” (2013). The issue focuses on the ways in which marketplaces in the city can be strategically deployed to improve neighbourhoods, by facilitating interaction among different people and groups in the public space of the city, and hereby support inclusive city life.
( http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/alex/benv/2013/00000039/00000002 )
The next step in line will be focused round table session during the AESOP Annual Congress 2014. We therefore invite speakers from different fields of expertise on marketplaces to address the following question: How can marketplaces function as urban development strategies that facilitate the interaction among different people and groups in the public space of the city, and hereby support inclusive city life? The session aims to stimulate useful and collaborative conversations among academics as well as planners and designers on the role of marketplaces in today’s cities.
The confirmed list of the discussants of the session are:
http://www.aesop2014.eu
