Social Life Project

Did you know our shared public spaces can foster joy, happiness, pleasure and social connection? In 2025, together with the Social Life Project, I’m excited to delve deeper into the historic roots of creating places that cultivate joy, understand our cultural abandonment of them, and rediscover the indispensable power of placemaking for happiness, fun and social life, ensuring that our communities not only survive but thrive.

Should Auld Social Life Be Forgot? 🎶 Team Social Life Project Reflects on Our Favorite Articles of the Year: https://lnkd.in/e6jxsgXm Reflections and article recommendations by Fred Kent, Tayana Panova, PhD, Giselle Sebag, MPH, LEED AP ND, Guillermo Bernal, Katherine A. Peinhardt, Steve Davies, Ethan Kent, Meg Bradley, Josh Kent and #KathyMadden. PlacemakingX #Placemaking #PublicSpace

Support #publicspace and #placemaking globally by supporting the work of PlacemakingX and Social Life Project: https://lnkd.in/deid4S_Z Our work is entirely funded by donations and being hired to give talks, trainings and strategic planning.

La Rambla: Barcelona's Promenade-to-the-Sea. 'It’s impossible to feel out of place or self-conscious, a venue more to see than to be seen: a place to be invisible, the ultimate freedom' By George Semler, Fred Kent, Kathy Madden @SocialLifeProj https://bit.ly/4gx0TuX

Participate in Project for Public Spaces' survey of #PublicSpace and #Placemaking professionals! The organization from which we founded the global placemaking movement is inviting public space professionals, including planners, designers, place managers, artists, researchers, activists, and others to participate in this survey. Your insights will help us better understand the current state of public spaces, including the challenges we face and the exciting opportunities ahead! We are excited to have PPS Co-Executive director Nathan Storring discuss the results of the survey at the #GlobalPlacemakingSummit, taking place in his native Toronto. As a “thank you” for participating in the survey, you will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for a chance to win a copy of one of PPS's popular books, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces or How to Turn a Place Around (valued at $35). All responses will remain anonymous unless contacted directly for permission. Respond here by December 31st: https://lnkd.in/esKiAbvt #PlaceManagement #PublicSpaces #PlaceGovernance

May your holiday and places be joyful!

Joy to our public spaces! The best public spaces enable people to experience and express joy. Whether we see the joy of others, or are outwardly sharing our own, when we find joy in public it can grow a virtuous cycle of joy for all. Creating public spaces for joy is not just a luxury or privilege, or even necessarily something to achieve after other basic needs are achieved. Joy can be a force for equality, crucial social connections, and healing. Many lower income communities have public spaces that support great amounts of joy, often at minimal costs, while many upscale communities rarely have pleasure in the public realm in spite of expensive design and ample resources. Joy also can be a form of authentic cultural and political power, even protest. When marginalized or minority groups participate in joyous activities in public they often feel and project acceptance. Human joy is contagious, when shared in public spaces it brings us together, melts barriers, and lifts us all up. Happy holidays from the Social Life Project and PlacemakingX.

This study measures changes in walking speed, lingering behavior, group sizes, and group formation. It finds that the average walking speed has increased by 15%, while the time spent lingering in urban public spaces has halved across all locations. Although the percentage of pedestrians walking alone remained relatively stable, the frequency of group encounters declined, indicating fewer interactions in public spaces. This shift suggests that urban residents increasingly view streets as thoroughfares rather than as social spaces, which has important implications for the role of public spaces in fostering social engagement. Is it safe to assume these changes are mostly due to the rise of mobile phones? Or to changes in lifestyle and careers matter more? Any thoughts? I often wonder if we can use anonymized phone data to analyze social interactions. Has anyone tried that? This suggests we must create more compelling public spaces and opportunities for social interaction in the face of changing technology. Thanks for Sam Pressler for sending this to me. Happy holidays to one and all. Placemaking Education PlacemakingX Ethan Kent Fred Kent #isolation #placemaking #cities #loneliness #phones https://lnkd.in/gKB7j4Cu

No matter who you are, where you come from, or how old you are, everyone wants to feel joyful. Wanting to have fun and be happy are fundamental human desires and we are all drawn to places that can fulfill them. We shouldn't restrict joy to playgrounds and places for kids. Any place designed with joy in mind becomes a better place, and it benefits us all to keep that in mind as we shape our world. Placemaking for Joy Supports People-Powered Places https://lnkd.in/eMZwr9PE Sending joy for the holidays, and for our public spaces, from the Social Life Project team: Fred Kent, Kathy Madden, Steve Davies, Tayana Panova, PhD, Katherine A. Peinhardt, Meg Bradley, Josh Kent and Ethan Kent

🎄 Happy Holidays! We may all have the legendary holiday movie Home Alone on our watchlist. I have a movie recommendation for you: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗻 (2024) Take 19 minutes to watch this insightful documentary about the history of the Placemaking Movement through the life of Fred Kent, who has devoted his life to creating public spaces for people. Produced and directed by Guillermo Bernal 📺 Available on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/gA3-k3W8 🌍 Available in 25 subtitles 💡 Perfect for anyone passionate about creating vibrant places for people. 🗣 Ideal for those who think #Placemaking is just a buzzword.