AQA Changing Places

Location vs. Locale

Location is the objective GPS coordinate on a map; Locale is the physical setting where everyday social interactions take place (e.g., a park or an office).

Sense of Place

The subjective, emotional, and psychological attachment people have to a space, giving it meaning.

Phenomenological Approach

A theoretical approach focusing on the highly personal human experience of a place. Associated with Yi-Fu Tuan's concept of "Topophilia" (a deep emotional bond with a place).

Social Constructionist Approach

The theory that a place is purely a product of the social processes occurring within it (e.g., Trafalgar Square as a constructed place of protest).

Positionality

How a person's age, gender, race, socio-economic status, and religion shape their unique perception and experience of a place.

Spatial Exclusion

When the built environment actively makes certain groups feel like outsiders (e.g., anti-homeless spikes, gated communities).

Experienced vs. Media Places

Experienced places are physically visited, creating multi-sensory realities; Media places are only experienced through films/books, creating highly curated and often romanticized or demonized perceptions.

Homogenisation & Clone Towns

The process where different places begin to look identical due to global capitalism, creating high streets dominated by the exact same global chain stores.

Placelessness

Geographer Edward Relph's concept of environments lacking unique identity or meaningful human connection (e.g., airport terminals, generic malls).

Endogenous Factors

Internal characteristics that shape a place (e.g., local topography, rock type, land use, demographic of the residents).

Exogenous Factors

External forces shaping a place (e.g., inward migration flows, Foreign Direct Investment, and global architectural trends).

Re-imaging vs. Re-branding

Re-imaging is discarding negative historical perceptions to create a new psychological image; Re-branding is giving a place a completely new economic identity to attract investment.

Counter-Mapping

A qualitative, bottom-up process where locals draw their own maps highlighting community hubs and safe spaces, challenging official government maps.

Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)

A quantitative dataset ranking every UK neighborhood based on 7 domains (income, employment, health, education, crime, barriers to housing, living environment).