Introduction

Acts of creative citizenship require places, where challenges and tensions generate energy, inviting resolution through creative collaboration. In this chapter we aim to shed light on processes of place-making, whether they occur in physical, digital or hybrid spaces. We adopt a broad definition of place to explore what place and making mean within three urban settings of our action research. In all three of these locations, we encounter groups that share an interest in the relationship between artistic imagination and its political expression in projects of urban renewal. We pay particular attention to the ways in which communicative infrastructures may contribute to the construction of social relationships and civic agency, leading to dividends in the form of enhanced networks of affinity, trust and resilience.

Place and media making in a digital world

The emergence of web-based community news sites has provoked much discussion about the citizen voice in localities (Radcliffe, 2012; Goggin et al, 2015). Hyperlocal news services are usually discussed in relation to their value as a potential solution to the problem of news plurality in localities. However, hyperlocal news can also play a crucial role in place-making. Kirsty Hess (2012) has argued that the emergence of the term hyperlocal is evidence of ‘a reinvigorated interest in geography, as media industry and entrepreneurs experiment with new business models in the changing technological landscape’ (Hess, 2012: 53). Borrowing from Manuel Castells, she argues that small local newspapers act as nodes, holding ‘a degree of symbolic power in constructing the idea of community and the local’ (Hess, 2012: 56). In a digitally networked world, geography is ‘local and global at the same time’ (Castells, 2012: 222).

The perspective of place is also fundamental within the broader landscape of participatory media/arts and community media. Goldfarb (2002) shows how participatory creative networks generate communities of interest, fostering civic engagement through their media making. As Couldry et al (2014: 1) write: ‘digital media and digital infrastructures provide the means to recognise people in new ways as active narrators of their individual lives and the issues they share with others’. These affordances are said to be particularly important for young people, who through creative media acts acquire agency in civic debates (Günnel, 2006), offering a ‘voice to the voiceless’ (Lewis P., 2006).