At the beginning of the course, we would like to make sure that you have an understanding of the key terms we use and how they are used in the relation of the course. Please find below placemaking- and physical activity-related terms. 

Placemaking: the process of building communities around a place; working with communities to build urban space into home-like places. The term was coined by Project for Public Spaces (PPS) in New York City during the 1980s. Read more about placemaking here.

Power of Ten: in any urban square or area, there should always exist at least 10 reasons for a user to be there or to participate in different activities. Urban spaces and the places we create do not exist in a homogenous state, but rather many parts that come together, where all users can find at least a small piece where they feel at home and want to be. Read more about the Power of Ten here.

Eyes on the street: an idea put forward by Jane Jacobs sees that humans want to go where other people are to observe each other and to feel a sense of safety from the collective surveillance on the street. By having many users observing and participating in the public realm, behaviours that go outside social norms and rules will likely not be tolerated. Check out The Death and Life of the Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.

Triangulation: Bringing together multiple types of activities in one space. By doing this thoughtfully, more users can interact and connect on new ways to evolve the place and generate added value for one another – in other words, a place becomes more than the sum of its parts when they exist together. Further, this strategy adds ‘eyes on the street’ for safety and motivates increased use.

Orgware: how the functions are organised, including the daily management of the place, the maintenance of the area, and how decisions are made and communicated.

Software: how the place functions for its users, what types of behaviours occur, how do the people socialise and practise their cultures. 

Hardware: how the place exists in a physical sense. Does it have appropriate pedestrian infrastructure, colourful features, nice quality materials such as street furniture to relax or clean trash cans; is the physical design nice to stay in and enjoy? Read more about orgware, software and hardware – and how to combine to make great places — here (pp 10).

Stakeholders: anyone that can be impacted by or assert power on the project at hand – this ranges across all levels, from those who are low-to-high in either category. Often you start with the groups who are high level, but then you must grow to include those who have been overlooked or not yet considered. For example, you may initially think of the land property owner, but you should also consider the land maintenance worker or the local trash collector.

Place-led: using the inherent identity and intangible qualities of a place to guide your project through the next steps. This can also be called the ‘DNA’ of the place. Naturally, this is a necessity in placemaking. To best understand the qualities of and get to know your place, implement the Place Game analysis. Within grassroot sport organisations, this perhaps uses the community norms for the types of sport(s) practised as a starting point.

Sustainable placemaking model: (Rather than a business model!) A framework building on the placemaking process to include future oriented organisation, governance, and funding to ensure the placemaking intervention will move beyond the temporary in order to provide long-term impact – social value, among environmental and economic. Thus, creating a sustainable mechanism is a means to achieve this goal; to create a feedback of social, environmental, and economic value – such as connection to place, sense of belonging, and social cohesion- to ultimately bolster a lasting higher quality of life for the local context. Importantly, the nature of a Sustainable placemaking model does not seek profit as a priority, rather, integrates profit/funding into the framework in order to foremost support and maintain ‘people’ and ‘planet’.

Top-down: decisions are made by someone high up in the overall system (“controlled, directed, or instituted from the top level”). This is often found in rigid bureaucratic systems.

Bottom-up: when citizens can take their own actions to start a movement and intervention, where all those involved have the chance to get involved and make a statement, this is supported by a flexible and accessible public policy.

Co-create: within a participatory process, users and stakeholders are able to work together with the project team to bring about solutions. 

Light – quicker – cheaper: Getting to action right away to make change happen in an easy manageable way until the long-term solution is found and able to be implemented. This is a great way to test out ideas to see if they work for the community and to build trust that they are being listened to and long-term change is in the process. This is often found with bottom-up processes.

Participatory process: when the users are genuinely welcomed to be involved and make an impact in the decisions throughout the whole public space process. This is from when you begin to get to know the place through handing over the place management, or long-term care, to the community, not a one moment consultation.

Plinth: the ground-level facade of a building or structure. We are particularly interested in plinths that are next to public space. We recommend a series of characteristics for good quality and human-scale plinths in The City at Eye Level. Brick wall with no other use? Can you turn it into a temporary squash court for the day? As community organisers and citymakers, we can creatively work with the plinths around us to transition it towards the human experience, and even engage with building/business owners to see how they can make their facades more inviting and porous to the public sphere.

Physical Activity: is any movement exerted by skeletal muscles that results in energy expenditure above basal metabolic rate. Physical activity is-understood to mean practically any kind movement activity, such as walking, cycling, dancing, sports games, etc. Regular physical activity is one of the most important factors influencing the quality of life and makes a significant contribution to the maintenance of health and well-being. Targeted physical activity promotion at school helps to counteract the development of disease and discomfort at any age, to promote the motor development of students and to improve their learning capacities in all subjects.

Active recreation: is leisure time physical activity undertaken outside of structured, competition sport. It is a set of activities within the wider range of physical activity options that also include active living, active transport and sport

Exercise/Fitness: physical activity requiring physical effort, carried out to sustain or improve health and fitness.

Sport: is a human activity involving elements of competition and participation where rules, tactics, and strategy govern the behaviour of the activity. 

Recreation: is an activity undertaken by humans for enjoyment when one is not working.

Fundamental Movement Skills: Fundamental movement skills are a specific set of skills that involve different body parts such as feet, legs, trunk, head, arms and hands. Fundamental movement skills categories include: 

• Balance skills – Movements where the body remains in place but moves around its horizontal and vertical axes. 
• Locomotor skills – such as running, jumping, hopping, and galloping. Object control skills – such as catching, throwing, kicking, underarm roll and striking.

Motor Development: means the physical growth and strengthening of bones, muscles and ability to move and in one’s surroundings. It is a concept usually reserved for clinical settings and diagnosis. It falls into two categories: fine motor and gross motor. Fine motor skills refer to small movements in the hands, wrists, fingers, feet, toes, lips and tongue. Gross motor skills involve motor development of muscles that enable babies to hold up their heads, sit and crawl, and eventually walk, run, jump and skip.

Physical Education: is the planned, progressive, and inclusive learning experience that forms part of the curriculum in early years, primary and secondary education, throughout all years and levels of compulsory education. In this respect, physical education acts as a foundation for a lifelong engagement in physical activity and sport. The learning experience offered to children and young people through physical education lessons should be developmentally appropriate and is encompassed by five fundamental pillars: a) Curriculum Flexibility; b) Teacher Education and Professional Conditions; c) Community Partnership; d) Facilities, Equipment and Resources; and e) Pedagogy.

Physical Learning: is characterised by utilising the body and movement to understand the physiological responses and adaptations that are possible. 

Affective/Emotional Learning: involve developing the ability to understand and manage our emotions, establish positive relationships, develop empathy for others, set and achieve goals and feel good about ourselves. 

Social Learning: posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modelling. 

Education: is the process of receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university.

Literacy: is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society. 

Physical Literacy for Life: Physical literacy is the skills and attributes individuals demonstrate through physical activity and movement across their life course. It can be understood as a process and as an outcome that individuals pursue through an interaction of their physical, emotional, social and cognitive learning. There are the 4 interrelated domains that support the holistic development of physical literacy to help all generations to lead active, healthy and fulfilling lifestyles. 

Learning: the acquisition of knowledge, behaviour or skills through study, experience, or being taught. 

Cognitive Learning: is a type of learning that is active, constructive, and long-lasting. It engages individuals in the learning processes, teaching them to use their brains more effectively to make connections when learning new things.