2B - Changing Places Flashcards
What is a place?
A place is a location that has different meanings to various people.
What 3 factors make up a place?
Location - the physical point (coordinates)
Locale - Locations in a place that are associated with everyday activities (school, theatre, hospital, etc.). A locale structures social interactions and people are likely to show behavioral traits specific in a locale.
Sense of place - the subjective emotional attachment to a place that gives it meaning.
How important is ‘place’ in human life and experience?
Places are extremely important to human life and experience as they can be interacted with every day and/or hold incredibly meaningful memories to people.
Why might different people have different perceptions of and attachment to the same place?
3
The sense of place is the different meaning of the place to different people.
For example, for one person, they may have lost a member of family in that place whereas, for another, they may have been proposed to in the same place.
This will leave the latter with an incredibly joyous perception of that place whereas the other person will attach it to a sense of grief. These two people will have a contrasting sense of place.
What is placelessness?
6
Placelessness suggests that a place is not unique.
For example, most UK high streets have Costa Coffee, Greggs, Ladbrokes, and a Tesco (or similar chain shops).
If these are the locales that structure interactions and help develop a sense of place and they are the same or similar in different locations, then what makes these locations different?
They are clone towns due to the dominance of chain shops.
It could also be argued that as the place is about people and different people will interact in the different locales, then these places are in fact unique.
The individual memories which people create within their locales are what makes the area unique to them.
4 types of place
Near, Far, Experienced, Media
What are near places?
4
Those which are close to us.
Near places are subjective. A woman living in the Australian outback may consider a place that is 100km away to be near, due to the ability to directly drive between settlements across the outback.
In the UK a place that is 100km away may take several hours to travel to and may be considered as a far place.
It may take longer to drive from London to Scotland than to get the Eurostar to Paris
What are far places?
4
Those that are distant.
Both near and far places may have a more emotional meaning.
Some people may get ‘homesick’ if they are staying away for the first time in their lives even if they are only a ten-minute drive away.
They may feel ‘far’ away emotionally, even if they are physically close.
What are experienced places?
3
Places that we have actually visited.
Some people would argue that you have to visit a place to create an emotional attachment to it.
Others would suggest that a desire to visit a place or dislike towards it because of what you have seen through the media, is enough to create an emotional attachment
What are media places
3
Places we have not visited but may have learned about through media representations.
Most geographers would argue you have a more intense experience by visiting a place, which leads to a stronger attachment to it, due to the stimulation of all your senses.
Media sources can change our sense of place subconsciously.
What is Genius Loci?
2
Genius loci is the spirit of a place.
It suggests that every place has a unique spirit or atmosphere, based on everything for the location is made up of, now and in the past.
What is place character?
2
Place character relates to the specific qualities, attributes, or features of a location that make it unique.
Place character is affected by endogenous and exogenous factors.
What is an Endogenous factor?
Those which originate from within the place and are local
8 endogenous factors
Land use - urban or rural?
Topography - the relief and lie of the land
Physical Geography - are there natural features such as waterfalls or estuaries?
Infrastructure
Demographic Characteristics - age, gender, ethnicity, etc.
Built Environment - The architecture of the area (contemporary, historical, etc.)
Location - Elevation, distance to the coast, etc.
Economic characteristics - In debt, growth market, economic sectors, etc.
What is an exogenous factor?
Those which originate from outside a place and provide linkages and relationships with and to other places.
4 exogenous factors
Flow of People - Impact of tourists, workers, migrants, refugees, visitors, and changing quantities of people on an area over time
Flow of Money and Investment - Trade deals, tax, major events (e.g. sports competition), new businesses, or movement of business from an area
Flow of Resources - Availability of raw materials, products, food, water, and energy
Flow of Ideas - Entrepreneurs may move to an area bringing new businesses with them. Ideas could be information about an area from another country.
What is an ‘insider perspective’ of a place?
2
Insiders are those people who feel at home within the place and may have the following characteristics:
- Born in the place
- Hold citizenship
- Fluent in local language and conform with idioms (language relating to a specific location or culture).
- Conforms with social norms and behavioral traits common in the place
What is an ‘outsider perspective’ of a place?
9
Opposite to insiders.
Lots of factors can contribute to making someone feel like an insider or outsider in a place. This feeling of belonging can change over time.
Initially, they may not be accustomed to the culture, social norms, and dialect of the majority of the community.
The shops and restaurants along the high street may not be familiar to them.
They may find it hard to find particular foods which they had in their country of origin.
The architecture of the buildings and the vehicles on the street may look different from what they are used to. (These feelings could be similar to how you feel when you go on holiday and your surroundings are different from usual).
The children of an immigrant family will have a different experience of place to their parents, leading to a unique sense of place for the area where they live.
This feeling of being an outsider can also occur after large-scale regeneration projects, which lead to changes in place character.
The demolition and reconstruction of buildings, investments into new facilities, and subsequent better quality of life can alter the demographic of an area. This can potentially cause the original population to feel like outsiders.
What is ethnic ‘clustering’?
2
All over the world, including the UK, there is a pattern whereby ethnic groups cluster in certain areas, potentially because people feel more at home surrounded by other people sharing the same ethnicity.
The clustering means that the area will adapt to that culture over time, which may attract more people from that ethnicity to move there.
What is Gentrification?
4
The process of renovating and improving a house or district so that it conforms to middle-class taste.
Middle-class people will move to a more affordable area with a ‘buzz’ or ‘character’ and this will cause new shops to move in to fit with the new target demographic.
Gentrification is a complex process involving new flows of investment and people into previously neglected and declining places.
Gentrification has people-led (or ‘bottom-up’) and institutional (or ‘top-down’) causes. It usually results in the (re)creation of wealthier neighborhoods but is also associated with rising inequality, both between and within places.
Gentrification - 4 main areas affected
Property and land values
Environmental quality
Social Issues
Community cohesion
What are the 10 various ways places are given ‘place-specific meanings’?
Capital-intensive regeneration
Through advertising and representation in the media
State intervention and private sector inward investment
Land-use change: introduction of new schools and universities
Activities of artists, photographers, writers, musicians, and film directors
Prime employment sector e.g. Liverpool - docks, Manchester - warehouses + factories, Old street - silicon roundabout
The historical element of the place e.g. York is known for its historical buildings
Events such as making them culture capital through the help of the EU
Making them excel at one specific factor e.g. science or sustainability
New city slogan
Different stakeholders that create place-specific meanings
3
International, national, and local government
Corporate bodies and tourist agencies
Community/local groups and individuals
How do international, national, and local governments help to create place-specific meaning?
4
Campaigning for prestigious titles etc. which can bring in tourism and massively boost the economy as shown in Hull (EU Culture Capital)
Local government can give the area new slogans to make it seem nicer
Pour money into the redevelopment of the area e.g. Liverpool Waters £5.5bn investment which will attract tourists, businesses, and further investments
Local government can introduce museums highlighting the place-specific history
How do corporate bodies and tourist agencies help to create place-specific meaning?
7
Can highlight the heritage of an area in order to attract tourists.
Investments into the community can help boost economy
The introduction of big brands into an area can draw people to it
Large corporations can turn a place into a ‘technology hub’ – old street
British businesses such as Marks and Spencer Tesco and Sainsbury’s (often acting as anchor stores)
Transnational corporations (whose presence is an important ingredient for the success of new ‘retailscapes’)
National and global investors in property and infrastructure (including the sovereign wealth funds who are the owners of the UK’s various Westfield Centres, including Stratford, London, where an estimated 10,000 people are employed).
How do community/local groups/individuals help to create place-specific meaning?
5
Musicians, artists, authors can all contribute to the way a place is viewed:
e.g.
Oasis made Manchester a big scene for Britpop
J.K. Rowling changed the meaning of Kings Cross Station for many people
Middle Earth in NZ changed due to the Lord of the Rings
The year of events in Hull when it was UK City of Culture depended on the participation of large numbers of local musicians, writers, and artists
Communities can come together to push the government towards changing the area e.g. eco-districts
Social networks are beginning to play a bigger community-building role, helping to catalyse neighbourhood co-operation and social action.
In 2011, following disturbances in parts of London, a post-riot clean-up Twitter campaign showed how social media can be used to inspire people to participate in improving their home place’s image. In Clapham and Hackney, hundreds of people turned up with brooms to sweep the streets
CSCB (coin street community builders) helped to clean up the area and regenerate it
‘Community groups are the most important players in the place-making process.’ To what extent do you agree with this statement? (20)
Agree:
CSCB (Coin Street Community Builders) massively helped the development of the Southbank
Community groups often veto new developments
Strategies rooted in heritage, art, and culture depend on the involvement of local artists
Social networks are beginning to play a bigger community-building role, helping to catalyse neighbourhood co-operation and social action.
In 2011, following disturbances in parts of London, a post-riot clean-up Twitter campaign showed how social media can be used to inspire people to participate in improving their home place’s image. In Clapham and Hackney, hundreds of people turned up with brooms to sweep the streets
Disagree:
Government can designate titles to a place e.g. capital of culture (although this is often short-lived)
The Media has a huge impact on place-making e.g. crap-towns
Companies can choose to set up in areas and make them ‘hubs’
Community groups don’t have as large of an impact as large companies some extensive redevelopment projects are carried out in spite of opposition from local community groups.
No single player can regenerate or reimage a place by working in isolation.
The importance of different players must also look at the way stakeholders interact with one another
Qualitative Data
Information that is non-numerical and used in a relatively uninstructed and open-ended way. It’s often deemed to be subjective.
Quantitative Data
Data that is numerical and amenable to statistical manipulation. It’s often deemed to be objective.
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Maps - advantages
3
Can be helpful to see the built environment of places
Able to work out distances between some places in specific maps
Help us to understand the history of places such as the colonialism
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Maps - disadvantages
4
For world maps, Europe is at the top and in the centre, which can give Europeans an overinflated sense of importance.
A lot of the wealthier countries in the northern hemisphere appear to be much larger as well with continents like Africa being a lot smaller - further heightens the sense of importance
New Zealand has been left off many maps
Someone is able to decide what is important enough to go on maps
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Photos - advantages
2
Do actually show the place
Just because they are subjective, that doesn’t make them not useful
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Photos - disadvantages
4
You can control what is in a photograph, so they aren’t always accurate
Filters can be added - photoshopped which makes them more attractive
In a way, they are more misleading because they seem much more real
What are people taking photos of and why?
What are the photos used for?
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Novels - advantages
1
Can help to rebrand the areas - Wordsworth and other romantic poets advertised the countryside
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Novels - disadvantages
2
Can be exaggerated
Subjective point of view which is controlled by the author
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Newspapers - advantages
1
Can give the truth
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Newspapers - disadvantages
2
Trick people into believing what they say
They have a large influence on how people see places
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Poetry and music - advantages
5
Offer us insight into the opinion and lived experience of the writer
Advertise places
Song lyrics give people ideas of places - can help to shape how people view the place
Opinions of the place from people who have experienced it - subjective
If famous, it will have a large impact
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Poetry and music - disadvantages
1
Can have a large impact on people’s opinion of a place
QUALITATIVE DATA:
TV and Film - advantages
3
Widespread reach
Attract tourists to the place e.g. CMBYN and The Hobbit
Shows how people from outside the place view it
QUALITATIVE DATA:
TV and Film - disadvantages
1
Can have negative impacts on a place e.g. Eastenders and The Office (UK)
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Art - advantages
6
For an artist to spend such a long amount of time painting, it shows that they felt it was important.
Can give us insight into the past
Choice of colour and formal features contributes to meaning
Subjective
Creates a sense of character
Advertisement
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Art - disadvantages
3
If old, they might not look the same
One artist’s view - not representative of the population of the place
Still choose what to include and what not to.
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Graffiti - advantages
1
Can attract people to places to see famous artworks (e.g. Banksy)
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Graffiti - disadvantages
2
Can turn people away from a place as they might feel uncomfortable
Some people see it as a type of vandalism
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Tourism Adverts - advantages
1
Highlights the good things about a place
QUALITATIVE DATA:
Tourism Adverts - disadvantages
1
Only shows the best things in order to attract people to the place
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
Census Data - advantages
3
Very accurate and reliable
Very detailed
Can see general data so you can make good assumptions
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
Census Data - disadvantages
2
Takes place every 10 years
Can’t really see people’s lived experience
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
Index of Multiple Deprivation - advantages
2
Takes a lot of aspects into account
Can get the good overall picture of the place
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
Index of Multiple Deprivation - disadvantages
1
Can’t get the individual lived experience (but can assume)
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
House Prices - advantages
3
Good to see the affluence of an area
Can use it to make assumptions
Could show gentrification
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
House Prices - disadvantages
2
Doesn’t tell you individual house prices
Doesn’t really tell you the lived experience
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
Crime Data - advantages
1
Can give insight into lived experience
QUANTITATIVE DATA:
Crime Data - disadvantages
2
You would still need to interview people etc.
People might not report the crime – due to dislike of police, dangerous people etc.
Place Shared identity scales
Local
Regional
National
How are government policies driving change in places?
3
Affect the demographic characteristics - China and the one child policy
Affect the cultural characteristics - controlling immigration + restrictions on religion
Fund regeneration schemes
How are decisions of TNCs driving change in places?
3
TNCs can provide a huge amount of jobs in an area
Car TNCs all moved to Detroit in the mid 20th Century - huge amount of migration there as there were so many jobs available
After many of them closed or relocated, there was massive population decline, unemployment, and social deprivation.
