Building social capital through creative placemaking

Placemaking brings out the best of knowledge and skills while supporting a participatory process that challenges and empowers local communities to take ownership of the space planning process. Placemaking is the interplay of the needs and the aspirations of the community enacted in the design of the built environment. Moreover, the focus on planning and development rather than the opportunities arising from designing the spaces in the local community leads to the need for intervention by civic organisations to let the community take control of their own welfare. The motivation for this study arises from the need to decentralise power for the creation and circulation of local assets within the community. By using qualitative methods of research, the study aims to uncover the community-based challenges and their components and to discuss locally-driven solutions for the long-term viability and vitality of communities through the arts and culture. Arts and culture can play a powerful role in the design of this process by building social capital through community engagement. Social capital is the network of relationships among people within a society and the bridging of diverse people to function effectively (Claridge, 2004). Findings reveal that a community is enriched in four respects: community-led design, identity, social capital, productivity. For the realisation of such assets an engagement strategy is necessary and the research demonstrates that creative placemaking is a key catalyst of such a strategy. The research proposes a CURIOSITY framework, a participatory process leading local people to shape their community whilst also realising social capital. This paper has been organised to achieve the aim of this research through five objectives on the basis of four aspects that influence a community, addressing creative placemaking as a common element through all aspects.