Digital placemaking and its discontents: Exploring practices, power relations, and socio-spatial dynamics in Salzburg’s ‘Andräviertel’

Abstract

Recent research on digital placemaking shows that digital media, especially those that have a direct or indirect spatial reference, can alter belonging and attachment to space and place and can thus create a spatial identity. Emerging digital practices evolve the practice of placemaking and refer to space as a nexus of experiences, online and physical components. This is created by people perceiving urban space differently through digital media and appropriating it according to media affordances and their needs and preferences. At the same time, digital placemaking is not necessarily community-driven, nor does it always lead to an increased quality of life for all people equally, but rather encompasses changing power relations and can even reinforce existing inequalities. Using the example of the ‘Andräviertel’ neighbourhood in Salzburg, Austria, we explore which practices of digital placemaking can be identified, and how and by whom these practices are used purposefully and consciously to shape the neighbourhood and its identity. Employing a multi-method approach that includes semi-structured interviews, a hashtag analysis and the examination of digital platforms, three levels of practices were identified (reflecting upon one’s own practices, representations of the practices, judgements about the practices of others). The results show that there is a conscious and deliberate demarcation of the Andräviertel from other neighbourhoods in the city. Furthermore, we found resistance to excessive digital practices with a clear preference for face-to-face networks.