Placemaking through Local Retail Activities


Yang Li, University of Toronto

The theories and concepts of placemaking have been widely accepted and adopted as the central philosophical cornerstone guiding urban regeneration in the developed world. Placemaking has been heavily focused on the cultural and residential aspects of the city. However, the involvement of the commercial sector, namely that of the local retail businesses, has been mostly left out of the discussion. This analysis seeks to connect these two independently analyzed topics through a case study of grass-root oriented retail entrepreneurship by African American community in Chicago. This analysis seeks to adopt the analytical lens of placemaking to gain a deeper understanding of the local entrepreneurial initiative in Chicago. Namely, I seek to identify what values and meanings are assigned to entrepreneurship in traditionally underserved communities in this case study; as well as to examine what the rise of such business initiatives signifies for inner cities or historically struggling retail areas at the community level. This project also seeks to comprehend the process by which this phenomenon unfolds, exploring the factors that shape it, the challenges and uncertainties involved, the lessons that can be gleaned by others, and the strategies that can be employed to promote this form of entrepreneurship. The concept of placemaking first came into prominence in the 1970s through the connection between space and place (Tuan, 1977). Placemaking concept was further refined in the coming decades with connection with the politicization of urban spaces and urban citizenship. The current trend in placemaking discussion is focused on the topic of urban formality: whereas the meanings and values assigned to the space is done through a formally planned process where a higher economic or political power asserts its influence on the use and meanings assigned to the space (Akbar et al., 2020; Akbar et al., 2021). On the other hand, the blurring of the public-private dichotomy of space (Madden, 2010), along with the rise of grassroot movements in urban spaces lead to the increasing recognition of informal spaces. Informal spaces are traditionally not a part of the officially planned use of urban spaces and its existence has often been seen as a phenomenon in the global south (Lombard, 2015). However, recent scholarship and policy trends in the global north demonstrate that grassroot oriented informal placemaking has been active in global north cities, though it is still heavily associated with disadvantaged communities (Varley, 2013). A major gap in the study of placemaking is its overwhelming focus in the residential and cultural spheres. Observations and analysis of small-scale economic activities, especially that of the retail sector have been absent in the current placemaking literature (Sutton, 2010). On the other hand, the growth of small businesses and grassroot entrepreneurial activities have been well studied in urban economic development literature. However, little effort has been made in the current urban economic development literature to explore the small business aspect of urban spaces through a placemaking perspective (Blair and Carroll, 2015). This means that there are two parallel scholarly traditions on the subject and this analysis seeks to join them through a case study taking place in Chicago. A new movement is currently taking place in the African American community in Chicago. A social enterprise known as the TREND Corporation in Chicago has been seeking to stimulate urban retail developments in the area. This project seeks to bring community revitalization by encouraging members of the disadvantaged inner-city communities to participate in business activities with both economically and socially valuable. The goal of this project is to empower more than 340 African American residents and small impact investors to own five neighborhood shopping centers in the city. Methodogically, this project seeks to conduct structured interviews with the stakeholders of this project, namely, the funders and managements of the TREND Corporation in Chicago, the community investors, banking and CDFI personnels who have been involved in financing this project, residents of the neighborhoods where the businesses are located, property management teams, and philanthropists. The final goal of the analysis is to understand how small business initiatives are creating spaces in disadvantaged neighborhoods, and also to identify the patterns of placemaking through grassroot economic growths in these neighborhoods.

Non-presenting author: Qingfang Wan, University of California, Riverside

This paper will be presented at the following session: