Placemaking in a global perspective

In the last decades, the ones who care most for public space, looked with curiosity at Placemaking, the mo-vement founded by Fred Kent in 1975. Placemakers have their own saints, like Jane Jacobs, William “Holly” White, Allan Jacobs, (Gehl & Svarre 2013; Giddens 2007). They believe in inclusive and participative design, but they also mistrust of po-liticians, architects, planners, and planning itself. Placemakers publish a lot of fancy books, with many photos in which many people drinks many cappucci-nos. But has this movement really produced the expected outputs, or it is just an enterprise with an excellent communication staff? Their guidelines and activities could work in developing countries, or even just in contexts different for the north-American wealthy communities? The paper explores experiences and critiques of the movement in a global perspective