Changing places Flashcards
- What is ‘place’?
Places are spaces with meaning attached to them.
2a. Insider perspective examples
- An inhabitant or resident of a place
- Perspectives about a place are intimate.
- Living in a place and experiencing its daily rhythms builds a sense of place in the community. Time and repetition create a sense of belonging.
- The feeling of ‘place’ emerges from a deep and broad pool of familiarity.
2b. Outsider perspective example
- Understanding is acquired through direct investigation.
- A sense of place may be developed through media representations such as TV programmes, literature, or art. This may lead to misrepresentations of a place.
-Perspectives about a place are neutral
-Living in a place but not feeling as though you belong, for example, a recent immigrant who doesn’t understand the culture leading to them feeling excluded.
3aCategories of place
When we visit places they then become experienced places. Other places are only experienced through TV, film, literature and are referred to as media places. They may be real places or fictional ones.
When visiting a place numerous times, it can transition from being a far place to it feeling nearer.
3bTopophilia
love of a place
3c. Topophobia
hate/fear of a place
3d.Time-Space Convergence:
the impression that distances between 2 locations have decreased due to improvements in transport and communication technologies.
3e. Time-Space Convergence:
the impression that distances between 2 locations have decreased due to improvements in transport and communication technologies.
3f. Near places
Places that feel like home where people would live in a similar way to which we live.
Form our national identity as a country.
We feel secure in these places and they form part of our identity
3g. Far places
Places that we see as foreign, alien, exotic and different.
Recognise a division between ‘them’ and ‘us’. We are from here and they are from there.
Racist ideologies can develop.
In the past these racist ideologies have been used to justify atrocities committed in wars and by colonial powers.
‘Whinging Poms’ – a mildly mocking term used by Australians to describe the English.
Fairtrade works to reduce the inequalities between them and us.
Although the UK is neighbours with France, we still perceive each other as distant and different from each other.
Media Places
‘Information Age’ – we are bombarded with images and other forms of representation about the world.
As technology has developed, the world becomes smaller and smaller.
Media representations will contrast with other forms of representation such as OS maps.
We have a wealth of information but we still need to make sense of it all.
Makes the world seem smaller – we can gain more of an understanding of the world.
But can we fully understand a place if we never develop a sense of place there?
Places that we have formed a perception of based on what we have seen in the media.
Experienced places
- ‘Genius loci’ – the spirit of a place. -When we develop a sense of place we learn more about the spirit of it.
-Different people will notice different things about the same place. - ‘Topophilia’- the human love of place … concrete as personal experience.
- A single place may create topophila (a strong attachment) for one person but topophobia (a dread or adverse reaction) for another person.
- Experiencing a place means we acquire a deeper understanding of place and understand its true nature.
-Develop a deeper emotional attachment to a place.
-Generally can prove your previous perceptions incorrect.
-Places that we have been to and have developed our own sense of place about.
- What does character mean?
Character includes all the things that make a place what it is – it’s characteristics. These are the things that help to distinguish it from other places.
Endogenous Characteristics
These are the internal factors that help shape the character of a place and include its physical and human geography.
Endogenous Factors affecting a place’s character
- Topography, (Hills or mountains)
- Physical Geography, (Floodplain or river valley, geology)
- Infrastructure, (motorways or single-track lanes, rail connections, distance to an airport)
- Demographic characteristics
(aging or youthful population, ethnic make- up) - Built environment, (Georgian, Edwardian, Victorian, Modernist or high tech)
- Location, (height above sea level, coastal location)
Economic characteristics, (primary, secondary, tertiary or quaternary industries)
Land use, (agricultural, urban, industrial)
