Changing Place Flashcards
What is place?
Place is made up of all the things that come together to make a place what it is.
Name five things which may make up a place.
Location
Physical characteristics
Human characteristics
All things that flow in and out of that place
The sense of place.
What is sense of place?
The emotional meaning a place has either to individuals or groups of people.
E.g. thinking of somewhere as ‘home’.
Does everyone have different senses of place?
Yes
Is place constantly changing? Give examples.
Yes, apart from location.
- Physical characteristics such as rivers shift over long time scales.
- Human characteristics change over whole lifetimes such as people or shorter time scales such as people migrating.
- Flows can change such as money change for example if a TNC invests in a new factory or close an old one.
- Sense of place individuals feel might change for example growing older,
Why is the idea of place important?
Many people create their identity based on the places they feel connected to.
E.g. someone may find where they come from a part of who they are.
Why is place important for shared identities?
Individuals share characteristics that they may feel bind them together as a group. This can be on a variety of scales-
- Local- e.g. positive sense of the village
- Regional- e.g. accent
- National- e.g. language, religion or love for a place
People can be percieved as belonging to a place.
What are insiders?
An insider is a person who is familiar with a place and who feels welcome in that place, i.e. they feel that they belong.
What are outsiders?
An outsider is someone who feels unwelcome or excluded from a place, i.e. they feel like they do not belong.
Why might someone feel like an insider?
They are a resident of a country who all share the same cultural values.
Why may someone feel like an outsider?
They may be an international immigrant who doesn’t share the same cultural values as the residents of the country.
What are experienced places?
Places that people have spent time in.
Lived experience will shape people’s sense of place.
What are media places?
Places that people have not been to, but have created a sense of place for through their depiction in media.
Why is a sense of media place different to a lived place?
Media may try and portray a place a certain way.
E.g. tourist websites may present holiday destinations such as the Carribean as a place of relaxation, when in reality the people who live there are experiencing poverty and hardship.
What are near places?
Geographically near places.
What are far places?
Geographically far places.
Are people more likely to feel like an insider in a near place?
Yes but not always for example age and sexuality.
Are people more likely to feel like outsiders in far places?
Yes but globalisation may change this.
How has globalisation affected people’s experience of geographical distance?
- Improvements in travel makes it easier to reach places and so can be experienced more easily and frequently.
- Improvements in ICT mean that people can be familiar of media places.
- People can remain connected with people and places via the internet.
- TNCs mean that far places can feel familiar.
What is ‘placelessness’?
A term geographers use to describe how globalisation is making distant places look and feel the same.
What are endogenous factors?
The internal factors which shape a place’s character. These could be physical or they could be human.
Name 8 endogenous factors.
Location
Topography
Physical geography
Land use
Built environment
Infrastructure
Demographic
Economic characteristics
What are exogenous factors?
The external factors which shape a place’s character, including the relationship to other places and the flows in and out of a place.
Name four exogenous factors.
Flow of people, resources, money and ideas.
Location as an endogenous factor.
- Location refers to where a place is.
- Places can be characterised by the features that are present because of their location.
Topography as an endogenous factor.
- Topography refers to the shape of the landscape.
- Places can be directly characterised by their topography.
- Topography also affects other factors that give places their character such as land use (farming).
Physical geography as an endogenous factor.
- Physical geography refers to the environmental features of a place.
- Places can be characterised directly by their physical geography (Granite city- Aberdeen)
- Physical geography also affects other factors that give places their character (coal and Durham in past).
Land use as an endogenous factor.
- Land use refers to human activities that occur on the land.
- Land use is one of the most important human factors in directly refining the character of place.
- Land use also affects other factors that give places their character (e.g. built environment)
- Land use changes over time due to processes such as deindustrialisation.
Built environment and infrastructure as an endogenous factor.
- Built environment refers to aspects of places that are built by humans.
- Infrastructure specifically refers to the structures built for transport, communications and services.
Places can be directly characterised by their built environment and infrastructure- - Towns and cities have more facilities and higher density buildings.
- Villages have less infrastructure and fewer, smaller buildings.
Demographic and economic characteristics and endogenous factors.
- Demographic characteristics are about who lives in a place and what they’re like.
- Demographic factors can directly contribute to the character of places- old people living by coasts
- Economic characteristics are factors to do with work and money.
- Economic factors can directly contribute to the character of place- Kensington is characterised by a low unemployment rate and above average income.
Exogenous factors and the character of place.
- The character of place can be influenced by their relative location to other places (towns could be commuter settlements- Ingleby Barwick).
- Tourism influences that character of many places (land use and economic characteristics of Las Vegas create opportunities for locals).
- Flows of investment affect the character of place (Nissan has a factory in Sunderland which has influenced jobs available and land use around factory).
- Migration can influence the character of place (27% of the population of Birmingham are of Asian descent).
What is a locale?
A place where something happens or is set, or has particular events associated with it.
What is a homogenised place?
A place where everything looks similar to other places with a loss of local cultures and uniqueness.
What is genius loci?
The ‘spirit of place’ or distinct atmosphere.
Yi-Fu Tuan (1977)
‘Place is security’
‘Space is freedom’
This suggests that humans can become emotionally attached to a place.
Agnew (1987)
‘A space with meaning; as a location that is not shaped solely by local factors, but connected in economic, cultural and political ways to other places’.
What is the descriptive response to place?
The idea that the world is a set of places and each place can be studied as is distinct.
What is the social constructionist approach to place?
The idea that society shapes the spatial natural of our world.
What is the phenomological approach to place?
How an individual perceives place.
How does the American Planning Association define great places as?
‘With a true sense of place, noteworthy character, community involvement, resilience and a vision for the future’.
How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected the Lake District?
Increase in visitors
When did the Lake District become a national park?
1951
What is the Lake District?
A glaciated upland area in Cumbria, north-west England.
Can lived experience impact perception of place?
Yes
What is a ‘third culture kid’?
A person who has spent a significant part of their childhood outside the parent’s culture.
What can fortress landscapes lead to?
Polarisation
Name an example of a fortress landscape.
London Docklands
London Docklands
East London- Eastenders
Canary Wharf- finance
London city airports and DLR- transport links
Gentrification
What is the tripartite model of place attachment?
Shows how place attachment is multi-dimensional.
What are the three aspects of the tripartite model of place attachment?
Person
Psychological process
Place dimensions
What is topophilia?
Love of a place
Name a poem which discusses insider and outsider perspective.
California Hills in August- Dana Gioia
Name a place which was ‘put on the map’ due to political circumstances.
Tiananmen Square, Beijing (1989)
Student and worker demonstration for political openness.
Name two websites which involve the perception of place.
Place Pulse- ‘hot or not’ to understand people’s perceptions
Streetscore- spatial visualisation based off perceptions of place.
Name a location which has been impacted by change in demographic.
Boston, Lincolnshire
Site of Boston.
East coast of England
On the River Witham
Located on the Fens- low lying coastal plain