Your place or mine? Overcoming neoliberal placemaking as commodification of built environments in the inclusive city

This paper critiques the evolving role of placemaking within the neoliberal city, examining its implications for urban development and social equity. While placemaking ostensibly fosters community engagement and sustainable urban environments, it can beco-opted to commodify the built environment, exacerbating issues such as gentrification, displacement, and the erosion of local identity. Drawing on insights from an Urban Leisure and Tourism (ULT) Living Lab in Rotterdam, this research highlights how top-down regeneration efforts have marginalised vulnerable communities in the city under the guise of inclusive development. As concerns grow over the temporality of placemaking initiatives, this study calls for a critical reflection on placemaking as a social practice. The research explores how bottom-up, community-centred placemaking strategies can counter these trends by fostering resilience and socio-ecological equity. Focusing on economically disadvantaged neighbourhoods that are acutely affected by spatial change, the study investigates how communities can safeguard themselves from the extractive impacts of tourism and development while amplifying the voices of historically excluded stakeholders. Sharing insights and citizen perspectives from urban activation projects at the living lab, we advocate for systemic, participatory approaches to urban transformation that prioritize local ownership, inclusivity, and sustainable resource management. It challenges current practices that favour short-term economic gain over long-term societal well-being and seeks out transparent, community-driven models of urban planning that, that are taken seriously and acted upon by developers and policymakers rather than merely providing tokenistic acknowledgement. Such approaches are essential for creating more inclusive cities that genuinely reflect and serve the needs of all their residents.