Changing Places

Location

Where a place is physically located

Locale

The effect that people and their cultures have had on place

Sense of place

The meaning attributed to a place through our interaction with it. Developed by real life experiences

Place

A location with meaning

Placemaking

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

Descriptive, social constructionist, and phenomenological

The 3 theoretical approaches to place

Descriptive approach to place

The idea that the world is a set of places and each place is distinct and can be studied

Social contructionist approach to place

The idea that place is a product of a particular set of social processes

Phenomenological approach to place

The idea that place is defined by how an individual person experiences place, recognising a highly personal relationship between place and person

Topophilia

Term developed by Yi-Fu Tuan to describe the affective bond between people and place

Dynamic areas

Places are not simply geographical locations but should be understood as
Where people, ideas, and information come together

Examples of the importance of place in human life and experience

People define themselves through a sense of place, promotion of place is crucial in the travel industry, food items are increasingly marketed in terms of the place that they came from

Identity, belonging, and wellbeing

People’s lived experience of place can be explored by looking at the impact of place on

Localism

An affection for or emotional ownership of a particular place, can be expressed through NIMBYism

Regionalism

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

Nationalism

Loyalty and devotion to a nation which creates a sense of national consciousness e.g. patriotism

Localism, regionalism, and nationalism

Scales at which place can construct identity

Dynamic, have multiple identities and no boundaries

Doreen Massey questioned the idea that places are static through suggesting that they are

Local cultures and produced identical/homogenised places

Some argue that globalisation has made place less important as the forces of global capitalism have eroded

Community-less cities covering huge areas of countryside (with identical shopping malls, carparks, and roads)

James Kunstler has talked of a geography of nowhere, where processes such as urban sprawl have led to

Every place is like no place in particular

James Kunstler argues that ‘community-less cities’ have meant that

Glocalisation

Some local places and cultures are resisting globalisation and its clone town impacts meaning that TNCs are commonly taking up the strategy of

Localisation (promotion of local G/S e.g. the Bristol Pound in 2012)

Place has become a political symbol for people fighting against global capitalism leading to the growth of

Belonging

In the context of places, means to be a part of the community. Increasingly seen as one of the key factors that makes a place sustainable and successful

Social environment

Regeneration schemes now focus on the built environment as much as the

Character of a place (place character)

The physical and human features that help to distinguish a place from other places

Physical geography, demographic and economic characteristics, location, built environment (infrastructure), politics, culture, land use

Endogenous factors typically include

Diaspora

A group of people with similar heritage or place of origin who have settled elsewhere in the world

Migration, economic factors, globalisation

Exogenous factors (relationships with other places) typically include

People, resources, investment/money, and ideas

Places generally change over time by shifting flows of

Other ways that place can change over time (apart from shifting flows of people, resources etc.)

Natural disasters, migration and conflict (Syria), industrial accidents (Chernobyl), climate change (Maldives), government policies (regeneration schemes), TNCs, IGOs/NGOs (Haiti development projects)

Agents of change

The people who impact on a place whether through living, working, or trying to improve that place (e.g. residents, community groups, media, government etc.)

Perception of place

The meaning attributed to a place that is developed through what we have heard, seen, or read about. The way in which place is viewed or regarded by people. Can be influenced by media representation or personal experience

Re-imaging

Disassociates a place from bad pre-existing images (poor housing, social deprivation, high crime rates, environmental pollution, industrial dereliction)

Rebranding

The way or ways in which a place is redeveloped and marketed so that it gains a new identity. It can then attract new investment, retailing, tourists and residents. It may involve both re-imaging and regeneration

Regeneration

A long term process involving redevelopment and the use of social, economic, and environmental action to reverse urban decline and create sustainable communities

Geospatial data

Data that is related to geographical locations and can be represented in spatial formats, often used in mapping and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Gentrification

The process of the character of a poor place changing due to wealthier people moving in causing increased cost of living through improved housing, attracting new business and displacing old residents by pricing them out of the area