The book titled Sustainable place-shaping: what, why and how edited by L. G. Horlings is a scientific report from SUSPLACE – a Project within Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Innovative Training Network funded by the European Commission. The main goal of the SUSPLACE project was to train Early Stage Researchers in innovative, interdisciplinary approaches to study sustainable place-shaping practices.
One of the main ideas of the project was to find and analyse 15 different research projects related to sustainability. They were divided into groups called inclusive places, resilient places, connected places, greening economies, and pathways to sustainability. Analysing those examples, the authors focused on answering the following questions: a) What are place-based resources? b) What are the practices of shaping a place that can support sustainable transformation? c) How can the full potential of places and people’s abilities be used to stimulate the process of creating places? And d) How can researchers support such processes? The project was implemented between 2015 and 2019 and brought together 6 academic partners (Wageningen University, University of Aveiro, University of Latvia, Cardiff University, KU Leuven, Natural Resources Institute Finland) and 7 non-academic ones (from the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, the United Kingdom, Portugal, and Finland).
The book is structured well. It is divided into 7 parts including an introduction, a summary and an annex. It is a collection of chapters thematically organised as follows: 1) Introduction, 2) What is place and why does it matter? 3) What is sustainable place-shaping? 4) How to shape sustainable places? 5) Mastering complexity: SUSPLACE as a joint learning journey, and 6) Lessons learnt and implications.
The authors of the book emphasised the role of conducting research in places. Researchers can engage in those investigated communities and assume different roles and functions, e.g., agent of change, reflective researcher, etc. That is a key point for understanding the context of a place, especially when one tries to transform a place through sustainable development.
All research projects are described in the book in special sections called ‘Textbooks.’ They are intertwined with the text of the various chapters. The descriptions of the analysed examples were prepared by different persons involved in each notion of interest. In my opinion the most interesting example is ‘Common lands in Galicia.’ The researcher Marta Nieto Romero who investigated the Spanish example tried to answer the questions What are the commonlands? and How can commoning help to revitalise rural communities? In this textbook there is also a link to a 15-minute video clip which makes it easier to understand the discussed issue.
The part called ‘Annex’ reveals what were the other intellectual outputs of the SUSPLACE project. It contains, for example, a description and links to a toolkit called ‘Arts-Based Methods for Transformative Engagement.’ The tools support new ways of thinking about the implementation of the sustainability initiative. There are some descriptions with links to publications, leaflets, or on-line platforms.
The report may be interesting reading for researchers with different backgrounds for further analyses and studies within the field of sustainability. Written in an intelligible way, the book shows many good examples of different aspects of sustainable place-shaping practices in Europe.
