Katia Balassiano’s research while affiliated with Iowa State University and other places

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Publications (8)


Placemaking in rural new gateway communities
  • Article

October 2015

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71 Reads

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18 Citations

Community Development Journal

Katia Balassiano

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Placemaking, or the process of becoming intimate with ones′ surroundings, can serve as an indicator of immigrant integration. This article contributes to the scholarship of geographically sensitive immigrant integration with empirical research that documents the quality of localized placemaking. The dichotomy of ‘lived’ and ‘facilitated placemaking’ is introduced to differentiate between how newcomers begin embracing a new place and what governments do to engage people in governance. In a community undergoing rapid demographic change, i.e. a new gateway, the two kinds of placemaking impact newcomer empowerment. After examining the relationship between place and empowerment in the context of immigrant integration, we present an approach for testing placemaking and its findings from research conducted in central Iowa. Data collected from a series of community-based mapping workshops reveals that Latino participants engage in more, and different, placemaking than their non-Latino counterparts.


Empowering Newcomers with Low-Tech Workshops and High-Tech Analyses

June 2014

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1 Read

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4 Citations

The Journal of Community Informatics

Newcomer participation in governance is a common goal, but many traditional venues and mechanisms designed to facilitate inclusive decision-making remain inaccessible. We present a case study that uses low-tech participatory mapping workshops to help newcomers learn where people go to discuss local affairs and access information. We then analyze the workshop data with a dynamic, high-tech, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) spatial modeling process. The maps generated can be used to identify more inclusive venues for public meetings. This article describes the replicable workshop methodology, analytic tools, and benefits that result from using the two in concert.


The Mechanics of Sustaining Spaces for the Public

October 2013

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12 Reads

Planning Practice and Research

While municipalities in the USA generally recognize the environmental, economic and sociocultural benefits of spaces for the public, the degree to which property deeds, planning documents and local laws specify allowable uses or future sale differs widely. This article documents how three municipalities manage parcels used by the public. Unlike other governmental assets that are carefully itemized and tracked, land is generally not subject to rigorous accounting; and yet, it may be the most valuable resource owned. Geographic information systems, allowing for the mapping of parcels, has led to more widespread documentation of spatial information and tax records, but this is often the extent of data capture. This article argues that land resources should be documented, subject to community-based deliberative dialogues and managed in accordance with legal documents that specify uses and management practices resulting from such dialogues.


Seeking the Studio Experience Outside of the Studio Course

December 2012

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48 Reads

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17 Citations

Journal of Planning Education and Research

Planning students seeking interdisciplinary, skill building experiences with real-life projects may not always be satisfied with university-based studio courses. Studios generally offer limited exposure to project selection, initiation, and task scoping. A student organization at Cornell University is challenging the standard studio format and forcing faculty to reflect on the needs of students who seek experiential learning outside of the studio course and general curriculum. This article examines the activities of an organization called DesignConnect and what growing interest in this club implies. We recommend a methodical evaluation to determine whether such organizations can extend existing curriculum-based learning opportunities.


Extension Projects in Community Planning Classrooms
  • Article
  • Full-text available

August 2012

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67 Reads

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4 Citations

Journal of Extension

Using client-based Extension projects in university community planning studio courses is an expedient solution that matches needs with resources. However, the decision to partner should be based primarily on students achieving expected learning outcomes. Cautious Extension agents will rarely introduce students to wicked problems or expose students to the mechanics of project initiation, and yet this is exactly what community planning studios should be doing. This article offers recommendations to help determine the selection and structuring of Extension projects for use in the classroom.

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Tackling “Wicked Problems” in Planning Studio Courses

December 2011

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104 Reads

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60 Citations

Journal of Planning Education and Research

Planning practitioners encounter both “tame” and “wicked” problems in the workplace. Conventional planning studios generally prepare students for the less complex or tame problems, but politically contentious studios fraught with uncertainty will simulate a more realistic, if not more challenging, studio experience. In this study, I use content analysis of university syllabi to determine the degree to which planning studios are preparing students to tackle “wicked problems” upon graduation. Then, based on the lessons learned from a workshop pertaining to natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, I offer guidance to instructors of studio-type courses who wish to introduce their students to complex problem solving.


Civic Space Production and Local Government Capacity: Lessons from Muang Klang, Thailand

April 2011

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31 Reads

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5 Citations

Sojourn Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia

:Thailand's ongoing efforts to decentralize authority continue to reveal municipal strengths and weaknesses. This article describes how the Thailand Environment Institute, a non-governmental organization, has been building capacity in the municipality of Muang Klang by means of civic space production. The production of a new recreation complex involved processes that began institutionalizing participatory planning, is nurturing civil society, and may, over time, bolster broad and more balanced municipal governance. This case illustrates the significant role of the non-governmental organization in decentralization and how the explicit consideration of civic spaces can improve participatory planning in the public sphere.

Citations (6)


... 2 A central concept of placemaking is that over time, places and their embodied entities are generated into being around human activities (McCullough, 2005). This notion of activity as the primary unit of design for urban contexts and placemaking generally aligns with other community-centred approaches to SC in CI (Baibarac, 2014;Balassiano & Seeger, 2014). ...

Reference:

The participatory futures method: An approach to co-projecting smart urban neighbourhood places in resource-scarce communities
Empowering Newcomers with Low-Tech Workshops and High-Tech Analyses
  • Citing Article
  • June 2014

The Journal of Community Informatics

... She pointed out that the decision to partner should be based primarily on students achieving expected learning outcomes, for client-based Extension projects. In this work, theauthor offers recommendations to help determine the selection and structuring of Extension projects for use in the classroom [4]. ...

Extension Projects in Community Planning Classrooms

Journal of Extension

... One strand links placemaking to deliberative urban design practices that push for the democratization of spatial planning to create desirable places within the urban fabric (Healey, 1998;Strydom et al., 2018;Schneekloth & Shibley 2000;Shibley, 1998;Kalandides, 2018). The other strand of placemaking literature is concerned with the organic social process of making meaning of place which generate a sense of place, or a sense of belonging to a place (Friedmann, 2010;Lombard, 2014;Topaloğlu, 2020;Balassiano & Maldonado, 2015). These two strands will be explored further below, followed by the way in which placemaking is conceptualized in this thesis. ...

Placemaking in rural new gateway communities
  • Citing Article
  • October 2015

Community Development Journal

... Interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning help students think critically and holistically, adapt to a multidisciplinary workplace, and solve complex problems (Klein & Newell, 1997;Repko et al., 2019). Projectbased courses are powerful in improving students' problem solving and critical thinking skills (Balassiano & West, 2012). Service-learning brings mutual benefits to students and communities. ...

Seeking the Studio Experience Outside of the Studio Course
  • Citing Article
  • December 2012

Journal of Planning Education and Research

... The second category is the subject area or the theoretical background of the data. Although there is no subject limitation for conducting qualitative content analysis (Myring, 2014), in urban planning research and urban studies, this method is most often used in connection with urban policy documents content (see, for example, Antonson & Levin, 2020;Edwards & Haines, 2007;Oulahen et al., 2018), environmental sustainability issues (Angelo et al., 2022;Galloway & Huelster, 1971;Zhou et al., 2015), and planning courses (see, for example, Balassiano, 2011;Németh & Long, 2012;Peña, 2019). ...

Tackling “Wicked Problems” in Planning Studio Courses
  • Citing Article
  • December 2011

Journal of Planning Education and Research

... Ultimately, the interaction between the state, capital and society improved the knowledge of locals on the benefits of NFPs. Previous research demonstrates that institutions selected by the state continually modify and even routinely overlook the rights of society (Roth, 2008), for instance the aesthetic, healthy, ecological and economic value of the forest (Balassiano, 2011;Roth, 2008;Ye et al., 2014). The spatial conflict often emerges between the objective for the conservation of ecological sites and the subjective space of local society (Hansen, 2013). ...

Civic Space Production and Local Government Capacity: Lessons from Muang Klang, Thailand
  • Citing Article
  • April 2011

Sojourn Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia