Changing Places Glossary Flashcards

Accessibility

  • How easily available a place is to reach, depending on transport links like roads and public transport (trains, buses).

Agents of Change

  • People impacting a place through living, working, or trying to improve it.

  • Examples: residents, community groups, corporate bodies, MNCs, local/central government, media.

Architecture

  • The built environment shapes the lived experience of places.

  • "Placeless" or "inauthentic" places lack a sense of place.

  • Examples: roadside strip malls, gas stations, new housing estates.

Evidence of Regeneration

  • Changes to the built environment, e.g., exterior of flats, interior design, modern furnishings, landscaping.

Art

  • Paintings can depict romantic, idyllic, imagined places, often perpetuated by tourism.

  • Examples: John Piper (Henley artist), Tracy Emin (Fournier Street).

Artistic Representation

  • Description or portrayal of places by creatives (e.g., paintings, poems).

Audio-Visual Media

  • Communication forms combining visuals and audio (e.g., film, television).

Big Data

  • Large datasets (e.g., census data) that can be stored indefinitely.

Bio Mapping

  • Mapping emotions people show towards a specific place.

Blogs

  • Internet texts that can express a sense of place.

  • Example: Aplin finds Henley dull; the Gentle Author writes about Spitalfields culture.

Brownfield Site

  • Land previously used for industrial/commercial purposes, considered for redevelopment.

Built Environment

  • Man-made surroundings providing the setting for human activity (buildings, parks).

Cartography

  • The practice of creating and producing maps.

Census Data

  • Population statistics collected every 10 years by the government.

Change

  • Transitions, developments, or alterations to a place (real or perceived).

Clone Town

  • Urban retail areas dominated by national/international chain stores.

Coding

  • Analyzing interview answers by developing a classification system and categorizing responses.

Continuity

  • The consistent character of a place (real or perceived).

Corporate Bodies

  • Organizations working together with a common goal.

Counter-Mapping

  • Bottom-up process of people creating their own maps based on local knowledge.

Cultural Change

  • Transition in customs, social behavior, or creative ideas of a place.

Cultural Characteristics

  • Traditions and customs shaping a place's identity (e.g., religion, practices).

Cultural Diversity

  • Variety of cultural/ethnic groups within a society.

Demographic Change

  • Transition in the composition of a place's population.

Demographic Characteristics

  • Features of the population (e.g., age, gender).

Dereliction

  • The state of abandoned and dilapidated buildings.

Descriptive Approach

  • Studying places by describing their physical and human characteristics.

Digital or Augmented Place

  • Smartphones providing information about a place; mapping habits, crime, voters.

Economic Change

  • Transition in the financial situation of a place.

Economic Characteristics

  • Aspects of a place's financial systems contributing to its identity (e.g., income, investment).

Economic Inequalities

  • Differences in wealth/income within a place.

Endogenous Factors

  • Internal forces contributing to a place's character (e.g., location, land use).

Exogenous Factors

  • External forces contributing to a place's character (e.g., links to other places).

Experienced Place

  • A place as interpreted by a visitor or resident.

External Agencies

  • Governments, corporate bodies impacting a place's identity.

Externality

  • A factor affecting quality of life that individuals can't change (e.g., access to open space).

Far

  • Knowing less about distant places; time-space convergence suggests places are getting closer.

Function

  • Activities taking place in a settlement.

  • Examples: Market Town, Port, Industrial Town, Resort, Dormitory town.

Gentrification

  • Renovation of deteriorated urban areas by affluent residents (e.g., Fournier Street).

Geo-Located Data

  • Facts and statistics relevant to a specific place.

Geospatial Data

  • Facts and statistics with a geographical component.

GIS Applications

  • Programs for analyzing geospatial data.

Global Institutions

  • Businesses with global influence and presence in multiple countries.

Glocalisation

  • Products/services distributed globally but tailored to local markets.

Government Policies

  • Actions taken by the government to improve a place.

Graffiti

  • Illicit writing/drawing on walls, often associated with youth culture.

  • Banksy argues it gives a voice to the marginalized; street art in Brick Lane/Spitalfields.

  • Example: Stik's burka clad figure.

  • Henley Trend: Putting tiny doors on trees.

Greenfield Site

  • Land previously not built on, considered for development.

Homogenisation

  • Making things uniform, leading to places becoming indistinct.

Identity

  • Sense of belonging to a place (locals, regional, national).

  • Insiders: Individuals sharing positive sense of a village.

Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD)

  • UK government study measuring deprivation across England.

Infrastructure

  • Essential services enabling or enhancing living conditions.

  • Examples: transport, communications, water supply, education, healthcare, law enforcement.

Insider Perspective

  • Attitude of residents/workers towards their environment.

International Institutions

  • Businesses with presence in one or more countries.

Interviews

  • Generating insights about sense or perception of place; disadvantages include interviewer bias.

Land Use

  • Human activity in an area (farming, industry, residential).

  • Rural: Farming/forestry dominate.

  • Urban: Commercial dominates.

  • Land use affects the built environment and changes over time.

Liveability

  • Characteristics of urban areas making life comfortable.

  • Includes amenities, job opportunities, political stability, safety; linked to social welfare.

  • Measured by Global Liveability Ranking.

Lived Experience

  • First-hand account of encountering a place.

Locale

  • Place where something happens or is set.

Location

  • 'Where' a place is (coordinates on a map).

Meaning

  • Individual/collective perceptions of place; varies between people.

  • Example: Brick Lane – different groups attach different values.

Media Place

  • Representation of a place by communication outlets (TV, radio, internet).

Multinational Corporations (MNC)

  • Organization operating in multiple countries with centralized management.

Music

  • Songs evoking a feeling for a place (e.g., Newport state of mind).

Near and Far Places

  • Geographical distance vs. emotional connection; 'near' doesn't automatically foster belonging.

Newspapers

  • Tend to sensationalize characteristics of places (e.g., negative portrayal of inner cities).

  • Example: Henley characterized as expensive.

Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)

  • Not-for-profit voluntary establishment.

Novels

  • Stories evoking a sense of place (e.g., Monica Ali’s Brick Lane, Ian McEwan’s on Chesil Beach).

Objective

  • Not influenced by personal feelings.

Oral Source

  • Spoken information about a place.

Outsider Perspective

  • Attitude of those unfamiliar with a place; may feel marginalized.

Perception

  • How a place is interpreted/understood.

Perception of Place

  • How a space is viewed, influenced by media or experience.

Phenomenological Approach

  • Focus on how individuals experience a place; understanding attachments is critical.

Photographs

  • Reality may vary; photo editing, weather, viewpoint can change images.

Place

  • Location with meaning; can be personal or shared.

Place Marketing

  • Using PR to improve perceptions of a place (e.g., tourist campaigns).

Place Meaning

  • Individual/collective perceptions of place.

Place Prejudice

  • Negative views reinforced by media (e.g., inner cities).

Placelessness

  • Loss of uniqueness, places looking similar.

Placemaking

  • Shaping the environment to facilitate social interaction.

Place-Memory

  • Ability of a place to evoke the past; material artifacts and preservation of buildings.

Poetry

  • Illustrating places subjectively; evoking feelings.

Primary Employment

  • Jobs extracting raw materials (farming, mining).

Qualitative Data

  • Non-numerical data (interviews, photos).

Quantitative Data

  • Numerical data; criticized for lacking in-depth description.

Rebranding

  • Discarding negative perceptions, giving a place a new identity.

Re-imaging

  • Changing views, generating positive feelings about a place.

Relationships and Connections

  • Influence of flows of people, resources, money, ideas.

Reliability

  • Secondary sources are subjective; use multiple sources.

Representation

  • How a place is portrayed/seen; varies between people.

Rural

  • Wholesome living, simplicity.

  • Gemeinschaft: Small, inward-looking society.

Secondary Employment

  • Manufacturing products.

Sense of Place

  • Subjective and emotional attachment; developed through experience.

Shifting Flows

  • Demographic change caused by migrants.

Social Characteristics

  • Qualities of people in a place (attitudes, ethnicity, class).

Social Cleansing

  • Removal of 'undesirable' social classes.

Social Constructionist Approach

  • Place as a set of social processes.

Social Inequalities

  • Unequal opportunities based on statistics.

Statistics

  • Quantifiable data; can be selectively used and lacks human experience.

Subjective

  • Based on personal feelings/opinions.

Television and Film

  • Places forming backdrops; can generate positive/negative perceptions.

Tertiary Employment

  • Jobs providing a service (teachers, doctors).

Text

  • Newspapers, novels showing different views of places.

Topography

  • Surface features of a landscape.

Topophilia

  • Love of a place.

Topophobia

  • Fear of a place.

Tourist Agency Material

  • Leaflets encouraging visitors.

Tourist Gaze

  • What tourists see, organized by tourist industry professionals.

Transnational Corporation (TNC)

  • Organization operating in multiple countries without centralized management.

Urban

  • Hectic, culturally sophisticated.

  • Gesellschaft: Ever-changing life of a cosmopolitan city.