Situated against the United States’ context of rising social inequalities between the wealthy and the poor, the main hypothesis presented in this book is that “… place matters for low-income communities of colour because it is simultaneously a source of inequality and oppression and a context of transformation and possibility” (page 4). Aiming to identify general insights for the advancement of environmental and social justice, the book has a regional focus on the Puget Sound region of Washington State. (This relates to its emergence out of the local activist hub CEEDS (Centre for Environmental Education and Design Studies, University of Washington).) The editors hold that this region exemplifies the challenges that many places are likely to experience: expanding populations, increasing cultural diversity, diminishing natural resources, and that “racism goes underground”, i.e. a denial of persisting racism in an outwardly progressive environment.

Part I, “Place, Race and Power”, posits race as an overarching source of inequality and offers “… evidence of the intersecting social constructions of race, place and power that stifle opportunity and maintain social inequality” (page 260). While individual chapters discuss issues such as social housing, urban waterways, redevelopment and community development, the editors identify several overarching themes, including: the racialization of both people and places; the use of the built environment to impose hegemonic norms (see Chapter 2 by Susan Sutton on the evolution of the hegemony of homeownership); the way in which built environment professions normally exclude impoverished populations; the practices of disempowerment, for instance through displacement (see Chapter 4 by Lynne Manzano on how relocation can undermine organizational capacity and collective agency); and the transmission of inequity from one generation to the next, for instance through sport (see Chapter 3 by Anne Taufen Wessels).

More positively, Part II, “Place-making as Living Democracy”, examines “… how grassroots and policy level place-making strategies can help create sustainable communities while advancing the ideals of participatory democracy.” While acknowledging that place-making does not necessarily bring about structural change, the overarching sentiment is that it can affect normative beliefs and practices, thus leading to more equitable policies. Relevance is assigned particularly to youth leadership (e.g. Chapter 7 by Susan Kemp) and sustainable partnerships between communities and institutions such as universities (e.g. Chapters 8 and 9 by Roberta Feldman and Steve Badanes, respectively). Adding to the action planning strategies presented in Part II, Part III, “New Tools, New Professional Roles”, addresses the novel opportunities presented by new technologies for place-making professionals. Several chapters discuss the advantages and dangers of participatory technological tools, and the political attention they receive appears as a recurrent theme throughout. In Chapter 13, David Smolker and Caroline Lanza show how novel, web-based design methodologies can increase designers’ potential impact. Noting how socially conscious design has existed in the margins since the 1960s, the authors show how the web has given social design its opportunity, discussing in particular the efforts of Architecture for Humanity in making design accessible to impoverished populations and social design attractive to design professionals.