Trauma-Informed Placemaking Expression of Interest
Long-time research colleague and dear friend, Dr Anita McKeown and I have a new research-as-publication project on the go and we are issuing an EOI for as wide as range as possible of academics and practitioners that have an interest/practice/theory/wild idea on the subject of ‘trauma-informed placemaking.’
If you are interested in being part of this, get in touch. If you know others that might be, please do share.
Trauma-Informed Placemaking Expression of Interest
The editors and co-authors of Trauma-Informed Placemaking: understanding pain and healing in place (WT), Dr Cara Courage and Dr Anita McKeown, are seeking Expressions of Interest for the publication.
Place has been seen as ranging from contested to convivial in normative discourse, but wherever placed on that spectrum, the inherent trauma of place is not widely acknowledged. This book, as research-as-publication, seeks to bring together place academics and practitioners, with those from psychology, the arts, behavioural and social sciences for instance, in a transdisciplinary investigation of ‘trauma-informed placemaking,’ and calls for this approach as foundational for any understanding of, or working in, place.
The syndemic events of 2020 surfaced a gap in understanding of place as one of historic, contemporary and future trauma and of the need to introduce a healing methodology to place-based discourse and practice. 2020 can however be seen as just one event in a timeline of trauma-in-place: from colonialism, war, migration, protest, state and police brutality and climate emergency, the experience of place for many has been one of physical and psychological injury, sustained at an endemic level through political, legislative, financial and cultural structures, and enacted through processes of place and placemaking. 2020 marked a turning point of global scale and, from what we know now, the function and importance of place has been changed forever.
Thus, how we comprehend and practice in place has to change accordingly. This book explores this question by bringing together scholars and practitioners from all disciplines to present a reflection on how placemaking has created trauma and how we might move towards a practice of placemaking that heals and honours, and is intentionally ground in a trauma-informed approach.
Drs Courage and McKeown are keen to extend this placemaking concern beyond usual place-concerned disciplines and following receipt of EOI’s will convene a world café style online event to foster inter- and transdisciplinary conversation to develop thinking and foster potential collaborations. The book will include sections on intersectional social, political and climate place-based trauma, and is concerned with the human and non-human actors in place.
If you have an existing trauma-based research enquiry, come from a trauma-concerned discipline and/or have an interest to offer this research-as-publication endeavour, please submit your EOI by email to both cara@caracourage.net and asuintl@gmail.com by 30 July, 5 pm BST. The EOI needs to detail name, professional/academic credit, as well as provide either a 250-word abstract or research/project synopsis as a standalone chapter, or an explanation of your discipline or practice area in relation to the topic if interested in a collaborative chapter (if known, please also indicate disciplines you would be keen to collaborate with.)
After the 30 July EOI deadline, Drs Courage and McKeown will convene the world cafe event in September. The book would be published by Routledge Autumn/Winter 2022.