Understanding how people feel about places is key to successful innovation.
Published: 29 April 2026
A new study argues that understanding how people experience and feel about the places they live is critical to designing more effective approaches to innovation and growth.
A new study from the University of Glasgow and the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Place Programme argues that understanding how people experience and feel about the places they live is critical to designing more effective approaches to innovation and growth.
'The role of felt experience in place-based innovation' is one of ten peer-reviewed contributions to Innovation Ecosystems, the first i-PLACE Compendium, published by the Key Cities Innovation Network (KCIN). The collection brings together leading thinkers and practitioners from across the UK, offering practical ideas that could be adopted by cities and regions across the UK.
The Glasgow contribution by Professor Rebecca Madgin and Dr Lucrezia Gigante argues that traditional policy approaches - focused on economic metrics, geography and administrative boundaries - have failed to address persistent spatial inequalities. Instead, the research proposes a people-centred approach that places “felt experiences of place” at the heart of decision-making, recognising the importance of attachment, identity and everyday experience in shaping social and economic outcomes.
By incorporating these emotional and relational dimensions into policy and practice, the paper suggests that more inclusive and sustainable forms of innovation can be achieved.
The Compendium sits within i-PLACE, an open platform developed by KCIN to connect research, policy and practice in place-based innovation. Through annual publications, conferences and ongoing collaboration, i-PLACE provides a space for cities, universities, industry and communities to share ideas, test approaches and scale impact. As the platform’s founding paper explains, its aim is to bring together “research, practice and policy to advance new thinking about place-based innovation” and to ensure that insights from local places inform national debates.
KCIN itself brings together universities working with the UK’s Key Cities - a network of 22 urban areas - to develop scalable solutions to shared challenges, from inclusive growth to climate transition and skills development. The Compendium continues a growing body of work demonstrating how civic partnerships can generate practical, transferable innovation across different places.
Professor Rebecca Madgin, Professor of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow and Director of the AHRC’s Place-Based Research Programme, said: "Too often, policy treats places as abstract spaces defined by boundaries and data. Our research shows that if we want to address inequality and deliver meaningful change, we need to understand how people actually experience the places they live - their sense of belonging, identity and connection. By taking these ‘felt experiences’ seriously, we can design policies and innovations that are more inclusive, more effective and more rooted in everyday life."
Professor Christopher Smith, Executive Chair of UKRI Arts & Humanities Research Council, commented: "Innovation, with its profound potential to address societal challenges and foster prosperity, grows from specific local contexts and practice. Innovation Ecosystems outlines the many different ways in which this process can occur, and offers a range of valuable lessons for how we can catalyse place-based innovation across the UK."
First published: 29 April 2026