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The purpose of this paper is to conceptualise how place management practices in UK housing associations (HAs) involve processes of ecological place management.

Ethnographic fieldwork focusing on how communal spaces are organised on a housing estate in a UK city revealed the importance of negotiation with other actors, including an HA which is responsible for managing the estate. The authors draw on extensive participant observation with residents, as well as interviews with both residents and employees of the HA, to show the wider forces and complexities involved in these ecological place management practices.

This paper identifies hybrid socio-ecological, socio-political and political-economic dynamics unfolding as places are managed and organised. These widen the scope of place management research and practice to account for multiple ways places are organised.

This paper offers a critical perspective on place management, developing an ecological approach that is applicable both to the relatively new context of housing and to more established sites in town and city centres.

This paper’s findings point to ways that housing and place management practitioners, both in the UK and elsewhere, can use an ecological approach to re-frame their strategic and practical actions with regards to “place”.

This paper contributes to unveiling the complexity involved in place management and organisation, thereby encouraging place managers to embrace ecological thinking capable of addressing future challenges.

The purpose of this Editorial is to introduce the subject of place management and, more specifically, the Journal of Place Management and Development.

The approach is reflective, reflexive and indulgent. The Editorial examines the background to place management and summarises current practical and theoretical interpretations on the subject, that have been written by the JPMD Editorial Board.

The Editorial establishes the breadth of the topic of place management as well as making some tentative predictions about where research in the subject could or should go in the future.

The Editorial calls for more joint research between academics and practitioners, to ensure that research is academically grounded but practically relevant.

The Editorial is a good introduction to the subject of place management and should be read by academics or practitioners with an interest in the subject.

This is an exploratory and qualitative study to consider approaches to capture, analyse and monitor perceptions from big data, to inform and contribute to place management research and practice of botanic gardens (BGs). This paper aims to address the ongoing significant threat to BGs due to funding being cut and the need to inform and develop sustainable revenue streams for their survival.

Guiding research questions for this study were: ‘What are the perceived strengths and areas for development for 2 BGs via a Leximancer Automatic Content Analysis (ACA) of TripAdvisor online reviews; and do they match BGs purpose of scientific research, conservation, display and education?’ A content analysis of 582 online reviews from 2007 to 2017 follows qualitative methodology techniques using a combination of manual and automatic text analysis (Leximancer text mining software). These approaches enabled a comparison of online TripAdvisor reviews with Likert-type or rating scale items of 1 to 5 stars.

Insights revealed the use of Leximancer and TripAdvisor (or similar innovations) as tools for potential place management, place marketing communications and monitoring purposes. Predominant perceptions extracted from reviews are not concerned with documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific discovery, conservation, display and education. Reviews clearly focus more upon aesthetics, facilities and services, which support previous studies. Overall, reviews highlighted positive sentiments towards the BGs.

Limitations link to limited data across two BGs, synthesis and meaning of complex perceptions, matters of subjectivity and time needed to interpret information. Implications enable insights into BG “place” gleaned from big data in the form of user-generated content and electronic Word-Of-Mouth using Leximancer; viewed as a measure alongside management action plans. Future studies could strengthen debate and action regarding the use of Leximancer, and also public perception of BGs’ core functions, importance and value. The research supports potential to monitor and transform perceptions, values and beliefs. Outcomes could eventually inform policy and generate a much-needed shift in funds and resources for BGs by highlighting their relevance and value to society.

An empirical and methodological contribution via peer reviewed studies of visitor perceptions via online reviews of Britain’s BGs “place” and “space” analysed with Leximancer have never been published. This study critically explores potential visitor and place management needs of BGs. Managers can make better use of big data from social media platforms/digital channels, using a novel type of data analytical software like Leximancer for strategic planning; with more informed approaches to place management, innovation and development. A key contribution of this study is this ACA methodological approach for place management.

Until now, scholars have devoted insufficient attention to theories of place reputation – at the city, region and country levels. Furthermore, the literature does suggest a theoretical link between country reputation and country-of-origin (COO). To foster an alignment between country reputation and place management, this paper aims to trace the advance of country branding and nation branding, as deriving place management recommendations from studies on country reputation. Therefore, this work is grounded on the consistent principle in the current literature – that a place must first improve itself via development and management before it can create a positive reputation via communications; it is fundamental, geographically, to work on the development initiatives towards the improvement of a place.

This is a conceptual paper based on literature search on country reputation published in the past decade (2005-2015).

The analysis indicates that nine papers have been published on country reputation since 2005, but none of them deal with principles of place management. This paper also consolidates the field’s decades-long theoretical evolution into a visual diagram. To close, it concludes by highlighting the need for theoretical and managerial advancements involving principles from place reputation and place management, which could help countries achieve sustainable prosperity.

As limitations, this conceptual paper lacks review of each country in the evolutionary timeline regarding country branding and nation branding. As another limitation, this paper focused specifically on theoretical contributions and did not address the administrative challenges implied by the sub-themes. Indeed, there is much complexity involved with aligning government policies with internal and external stakeholders.

Inspire academia, government and citizens to be engaged with the sustainable prosperity of their country through initiatives of place management and development.

The present study provides additional evidence with respect to the evolution of COO to country reputation, considering studies on nation branding and country branding, towards place management. To date, this is the first publication that offers an extensive examination of country reputation. Thus, the principal theoretical implication of this study is that place management and place reputation can be aligned to develop and improve places (cities, regions and countries) for sustainable prosperity.

This paper aims to deal with place management, not as an additional function to traditional silo organisations, but as a core part of a government that has been restructured to achieve complex outcomes, such as place management. The work is based on the author's experience over the last couple of decades, both as a departmental head and a change management consultant.

Instead of government consisting essentially of functional departments, each one consisting of a different group of professionals pursuing specialist inputs and outputs, an outcomes focused government is structured around the three core aspects of governance – effectiveness (outcomes), efficiency (services) and transparency (standards). The three parts have different ways of operating and different types of performance measure.

Place management along with systems management are the essential responsibilities of the outcomes organisation.

Rather than advocate traditional inputs and outputs, outcome managers are free to pursue a wide range of solutions from a number of different providers. Being highly visible to the community place managers especially provide a clear point of contact for all those with an interest in the place, whilst buck passing opportunities are limited. Budgeting can be shifted to the funding of outcomes rather than inputs or outputs, with increased power for elected officials to review a wider range of expenditure. Outcomes management provides opportunities for bottom‐up solutions, rather than reliance on top‐down coordinating committees of silo organisations.

The paper should provide those struggling with the limitations of place management in traditional structures with a model for the more effective governance of places.