New research will help put emotions at the heart of regeneration
Published: 17 December 2025
UofG researchers have pioneered new techniques to identify, measure and record memories and emotions about place that will help deliver more effective regeneration.
A Glasgow based team of researchers have pioneered new techniques to identify, measure and record memories and emotions about place that will help deliver more effective regeneration. Simple emojis are proving to be a powerful part of the process.
Understanding how a community and its people think and feel about their heritage is a vital part of regeneration work, and emojis could be key to unlocking vital insights.
The Felt Experience Resource Kit was created by the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Place Programme, based at the University of Glasgow, to support heritage projects to work more closely with their communities.
The project was supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic Environment Scotland.
The research team was led by Professor Rebecca Madgin, of the University of Glasgow’s Urban Studies team. She said: “We are delighted to introduce the Felt Experiences Resource Kit. This work is based on a substantive amount of academic research that suggests there is an evidenced relationship between
felt experiences of place and positive socio-economic outcomes including wellbeing and economic growth.
“We have distilled academic theories and evidence into a tried and tested set of emoji-based methods that can both surface how people feel in and about place and use this information to improve place-based decision making.
“Working with partners across Scotland has demonstrated how felt experiences can shape more inclusive place-based decision making in ways that lead to improved outcomes for people in place.”
The Felt Experience Resource Kit is now being launched as a free resource to make it available as widely as possible. It features practical, adaptable methods that demonstrate how emotional and sensory responses, the felt experiences of heritage, can be collected, interpreted and used to inform successful, community-led projects.
It draws on The Place Programme’s research across heritage studies, psychology and design, and its six-year project to create people-centred placemaking strategies.
Caroline Clark, The National Lottery Heritage Fund Director for Scotland said: “Understanding the feelings people have about the places they live, work and cherish is absolutely vital to making good decisions about Place and change, yet very difficult to assess and measure.
“With the Felt Experience Resource Kit this project has delivered range of very effective tools and methods to help people express those feelings about place, and for them to be measured and recorded. The Felt Experience Resource Kit provides a valuable bridge between the history of a place, as measured in buildings and official records, and what makes its heritage meaningful to the people who live and visit, including all those intangible elements that contribute to how we feel about somewhere special to us.”
Dr Susan O’Connor, Head of Grants at HES, said: “This project challenges us to think about heritage and places not just as bricks and mortar, but through living memories and emotions. By looking through the lens of felt experience, communities can tell us about their needs more meaningfully and help project delivery teams deliver impactful projects that honours both people and place. Recognising the emotions that shape identity and people’s feelings about their places allows us to deliver regeneration that more inclusive, sustainable and truly meaningful.”
First published: 17 December 2025