Changing Places Glossary Flashcards

Flashcards covering key vocabulary from the Changing Places glossary.

Accessibility

How easily available a place is to reach, depends on transport links such as roads, and public transport services including trains, and buses.

Agents of change

People who impact on a place whether through living, working or trying to improve that place. E.g. residents, community groups, corporate bodies, MNCs, local and central government and the media.

Architecture

The built environment is a key part of the lived experience of places. Places that lack a "sense of place" are sometimes referred to as "placeless" or "inauthentic”.

Artistic Representation

The description or portrayal of places given by a creative; for example, a painting or a poem.

Audio-visual Media

Forms of communication that are both watched and listened to; for example, film or television.

Big data

Large data sets e.g. population census data which can be held indefinitely

Bio mapping

The mapping of emotions shown by people to a certain place.

Brownfield Site

Area of land previously used for industrial or commercial use, which is considered for redevelopment.

Built environment

The man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity, ranging in scale from buildings to parks.

Cartography

The practice of creating and producing maps

Census Data

Statistics and figures relating to the population of a place, collected every 10 years by the government.

Clone town

A term used to describe urban retail areas dominated by national, and in some cases international chain stores.

Coding

Is carried out when analysing answers to interviews. The coder (person who analyses the data) looks through all of the answers to a question, develops a broad classification system based on the responses and then uses a code to categorise responses.

Corporate Bodies

An organisation or group of individuals that often work together in unity, with the same goal or aim.

Counter-mapping

A bottom up process by which people produce their own maps, informed by their own local knowledge and understanding of places.

Cultural Characteristics

The traditions and customs of a place that shape its identity, for example prominent religions or traditional practices.

Cultural diversity

The existence of a variety of cultural or ethnic groups within a society.

Demographic Change

A transition in the composition of the human population in a place.

Demographic Characteristics

Features of the population, for example the ages and gender of the people.

Dereliction

The state of buildings having been abandoned and become dilapidated.

Descriptive approach

The world is a set of places and each place can be studied through a description of its physical and human characteristics.

Digital or augmented place

Smartphones are GPS-enabled and can provide information and reviews about a place in seconds.

Economic Change

A transition in the financial situation of a place.

Economic Characteristics

Aspects of a place's financial systems that contribute to the place identity, for example average income, level of investment.

Economic Inequalities

Differences in wealth or income between people within a place.

Endogenous Factors

Internal forces that contribute to the character of a place, e.g. location, land use, built infrastructure.

Exogenous Factors

External forces that contribute to the character of a place e.g. the links or ties a place may have to other places.

Experienced Place

A place as it has been interpreted by a visitor or resident.

Externality

A factor that cannot be changed by an individual but has a bearing on their quality of life. E.g. access to open space, presence of good schools.

Function

A settlement's functions are the activities that take place there. Settlements normally have a number of functions but one may be more important than the others.

Gentrification

The process of renovation of deteriorated urban neighbourhoods by means of the influx of more affluent residents.

Geo-located Data

Facts and statistics relevant to a specific place.

Geospatial Data

Facts and statistics with a geographical component.

Global Institutions

A business, corporation or organisation with global influence and physical presence in a number of countries.

Glocalisation

A term used to describe products or services that are distributed globally but which are fashioned to appeal to the consumers in a local market.

Government Policies

Action taken by the government in order to improve a place.

Greenfield Site

Area of land that has previously not been built on, which is considered for development.

Homogenisation

The process of making things uniform or similar leading to places becoming indistinct from one another.

Identity

People create a sense of belonging to a place.

Infrastructure

Services considered essential to enable or enhance living conditions.

Insider Perspective

The attitude of people that live or work within that place to their environment.

International Institutions

A business, corporation or organisation with presence in one or more countries.

Land use

The human activity that occur in the area, e.g. farming, industry, residential, leisure.

Liveability

Liveability is the characteristics of urban areas which make life more comfortable and endurable for city dwellers.

Lived Experience

The first-hand account that an individual has having encountered a place for themselves.

Locale

This is the place where something happens or is set, or that has particular events associated with it.

Location

‘where’ a place is, for example the co-ordinates on a map.

Meaning

Individual or collective perceptions of place.

Media Place

The particular representation of a town or city as portrayed by communication outlets such as TV, radio or the internet, for example.

Multinational Corporations (MNC)

An organisation that operates in one or more countries, with a centralised management system.

Near and far places

Could refer to the geographical distance between places; Equally they could describe the emotional connection with a particular place and how comfortable a person feels within that place.

Non-governmental Organisation (NGO)

Not-for-profit voluntary establishment run at local, national or international scales.

Objective

Not influenced by personal feelings or opinions in considering and presenting facts.

Oral Source

A point of information about a place that is spoken; for example, a person or an audiotape

Outsider Perspective

The attitude of people that do not know a place very well to their environment.

Perception of place

The way in which a space is viewed or regarded by people. This can be influenced by media representation or personal experience.

Phenomenological approach

Interested in how an individual person experiences a place. Understanding personal attachments is critical to understanding the place

Place

Defined as location with meaning.

Place marketing

PR companies may be employed by national and local government to improve or create positive perceptions of place.

Place meaning

Relates to individual or collective perceptions of place.

Place prejudice

Negative views of places created and reinforced by the media.

Placelessness

Defined by the Geographer Edward Relph as the loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like the next.

Placemaking

The deliberate shaping of an environment to facilitate social interaction and improve a community’s quality of life.

Place-memory

The ability of place to make the past come to life in the present.

Primary Employment

Jobs such as farming or mining which involve extracting or producing a raw material from the earth.

Qualitative data

Non- numerical data that are used in a relatively unstructured and open-ended way.

Quantitative data

Numerical data such as metric level measurements that is associated with the scientific and experimental approach

Rebranding

Is used to discard negative perceptions of place. Giving a place a new identity.

Re-imaging

Linked to rebranding it seeks to change views; to discard negative perceptions and generate new, positive set of ideas, feelings and attitudes of people to place.

Representation

How a place is portrayed or seen in society. This may change over time.

Rural

Often associated with wholesome living and simplicity, and ‘getting back to nature’.

Secondary Employment

Jobs that involve manufacturing products that are then sold to consumers

Sense of place

The subjective and emotional attachment people have to place.

Shifting flows

Demographic change is caused by migrants

Social Characteristics

Qualities of the people of a place that contribute to the place identity, for example political attitudes, ethnicity, social class

Social constructionist approach

A place is a particular set of social processes occurring at a particular time.

Social Inequalities

Unequal or unfair opportunities, resources or access to services

Subjective

Based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinions.

Tertiary Employment

Jobs that involve providing a service, for example teachers, doctors, lawyers.

Topography

The surface features of a landscape

Topophilia

Love of a place.

Topophobia

Fear of a place.

Tourist gaze

What a visitor sees or experiences of a place of interest (e.g. historic site).

Transnational Corporation (TNC)

An organisation that operates in one or more countries, with no centralised management system.

Urban

Often typified as hectic and stressful but more culturally sophisticated.