Paper short abstract:

Our proposal is based on Michel de Certeau's conceptions about “place” on one side, and the other, on a theoretical development proposed by us about mind mapping, social practices, and the ability memories of space have to master space and thus find security in it. In this subject, emotions play an important role. Then, we apply this theoretical basis on a case study of urban planning, namely the rehabilitation of a square in a small city in Northern Portugal.

Paper long abstract:

The space, as a "practiced place" (Certeau), offers us an opportunity to read the practice of the city. Practices are interpreted by the social actor and subscribe a performative text, of evidence and concealment, of normativity and marginality. For that to happen, he values or despises present evidence, always known, or new features, always questioned. The frequent and repeated practice of these spaces is an inherited memory, and always updated. While a memory practice is lived by the actor as an emotional - action, it is also agency in as much as it involves the selection and organization of the experience of that space. The questions are: why are you looking for a particular space and whys the latter expected to make happen a specific experience?

The case study is a square in the city of Esposende, Northern Portugal. In the past the square was a space more lived by the locals; this ceased to be so due to urban interventions in the final of the twentieth century. Currently the square is undergoing a new intervention.