Human Geography: Changing Places

Place

is somewhere with meaning to you

Placelessness

is somewhere that could be anywhere. E.G. airport terminals and some high streets

Tourist Gaze

is organised by businesses and governments and consumed by the public

Location

Places are located. They have fixed coordinates on the Earth's surface. Places can be found on a map.

Locale

the material setting for social relations. It is the physical and human characteristics of a particular location. They are settings where everyday life takes place.

sense of place

the subjective and emotional attachment people have to a place

place attachment

influenced by the depth of our knowledge and our understanding of a place. The quality of the experience also influences it.

identity and place

Our sense of a place, the meaning we give to a location, can be so strong that it features in a central part of our identity.

Localism

An affection for or emotional ownership of a particular place.

This is not normally seen in a political sense. But it can be seen through 'nimbyism' (not in my back yard).

Regionalism

Consciousness of, and loyalty to, a nation or distinct region with a population that shares similarities

Nationalism

Loyalty and devotion to a nation which creates a sense of national consciousness. Patriotism could be considered as an example of a sense of place.

Belonging

In the context of place, to belong means to be part of the community. It is increasingly seen as one of the key factors that makes a place sustainable and successful.

topophilia

to describe the love that people feel for particular places

Shared Spaces

A street or place designed to improve pedestrian movement and comfort by reducing the dominance of motor vehicles and enabling all users to share the space rather than follow the clearly defined rules implied by more conventional designs

Topography

means the height and shape of the land/the arrangement of the natural and artificial physical features of an area.

Endogenous Characteristics

This character may be linked strongly to the natural environment but it is more often a combination of natural and cultural features in the landscape and generally includes the people who occupy the place. Originate internally.

Exogenous Factors

factors that affect the character of places are defined as the relationship with other places. These are factors that originate externally and include links to or influences from other places.

Dialect

A particular form of a language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group. Can be a qualitative source that tells us about a place.

Experienced places

are those places that a person has spent time in. It is experience that turns undifferentiated 'space' into 'place'; from somewhere that we have a vague idea about based on representations, to one that we know first hand and to which we attach meaning.

topophobia

fear of a place

Media places

are those places that a person has only read about or seen in film.

Chi-Squared Test

used to examine one or multiple data sets, used to examine differences between what you actually find and what you expect

Geospatial

data presented on a map eg GIS, maps

Third place

anchor of community life fostering greater interaction and sense of belonging as a result

placemaking

the deliberate shaping of an environment to improve a community's quality of life and facilitate social interaction

near places

Those which are close to us. They are subjective

far places

Those that are distant. Both near and far places may have a more emotional meaning. Some people may get 'homesick' if they are staying away for the first time in their lives even if they are only ten minutes drive away. They may feel 'far' away emotionally, even if they are physically close

Genius loci

is the spirit of a place

insiders

are those people who feel at home in a place

outsiders

are the opposite to insiders and may not be born in a place. Lots of factors can contribute to make someone feel like an insider or outsider in a place, and this feeling of belonging or not belonging can change over time.

Place meaning

refers to the sense of place and character that different people give to a place. It is how a place is represented by tourist organisations, governments, corporate bodies and community groups. These groups drive changes to places and are known as forces of change

Perception

A person's view of a place or issue based on feelings, experience and outside forces such as the media.

Rebranding

Creating a new look or reputation for an area

Reimaging

This has more to do with the cultural reinvention of a place. It concerns the range of ways that places are culturally constructed through art, photography, film, writing, performance, sound and other forms of representation. Can be about contesting other images of place (including those of policymakers and regeneration organisations or tourist agencies to demonstrate alternative meanings of places.

Remaking

An umbrella term that brings together physical, economic, social and cultural changes that a place might experience. It therefore includes attempts to regenerate or redevelop a place, as well as the ways in which images of places are changed. It incorporates changes to places that are not necessarily explicitly led by political policies or investment activities, but that might be the consequence of wider economic and social changes.

Regeneration and redevelopment

This includes formal state and private sector attempts to change the fabric of a place. Often led by local or national policy, it involves either attracting new economic activity and investment to an area or trying to stimulate local enterprise (or both). It also includes elements of social transformations, such as the provision of new educational facilities or recreational spaces. It typically involves a significant element of physical change to places

Gentrification

where the character of a poor urban area is changed by wealthier people moving in, displacing current inhabitants