CHANGING PLACES CONTENT

Place

• a location that has different meanings to various people

• Has an emotional meaning and relationship

Sense of place

• subjective emotional attachment to a place which gives it meaning

Placelessness

• suggests a place is not unique eg clone towns with dominance of chain shops

Attachment

• Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan suggests attatchment to a place grows stronger over time

• More experiences of a place create stronger sense of attachment

• If you spend long enough in a place with many positive and intense experiences, it becomes home - “home is where the heart is” refers to emotional attatchment

Types of places

• near places; close to us, subjective

• Far places; distant to us

• Experienced places; places we have visited

• Media places: may have learned about through media representations eg movies. May change your sense of place subconsciously

Genius loci

• spirit of a place

• Suggests that every place has a unique spirit or atmosphere

Place character

• refers to specific qualities, attributes or features of a location that make it unique

• Affected by both endogenous and exogenous factors

Endogenous factors

• originate from within the place including:

• Land use (rural/urban)

• Topography (relief)

• Physical geography and geology

• Infrastructure (roads,railways,water supply, education + healthcare systems)

• Demographic characteristics (age,gender,ethnicity,religion)

• Built environment (architecture of the area)

• Location (eg distance from the coast, big cities)

• Economic characteristics (growth market, economic sectors)

Exogenous factors

• originate from outside a place, include:

• People (tourists, migrants, refugees, workers and changing quantities of peolpe in an area over time)

• Money and investment (trade deals, tax, major events eg sports competitions, movement of business into the area)

• Resources (raw materials, products, food, water and enegry)

• Ideas(entrepreneurs may bring new business ideas)

Insiders

• people who feel at home within and may have:

• Born within the place

• Hold citizenship in the place

• Fluent in the local language and conform to idioms

• Conform with social norms and behavioural traits common in the place

Outsiders

• opposite of insiders

• May not be accustomed to cultural, societal norms or local language of the community

• Architecture may be unfamiliar

• Feelings of unfamiliarity may change in the long term

Gentrification

• process of renovation and improvement of housing to suit a middle class audience, usually leading to higher house prices

• Can cause insiders to feel like outsiders over time

Place meaning

• refers to the sense of place nd character that different people give to a place

• Shaped by past and present connections of place on a variety of scales

Rebranding

• process by which forces of change aim to adapt he place meaning of a location

• Could be to encourage tourism by promoting endogenous/exogenous characteristics of a place, to overcome negative connotations