Changing Places Flashcards
How may we consider this concept of ‘place’
Place is where someone was brought up, lives and may eventually die, and contains features that are unique to each individual. A place is more than just a location.
Define location
A point in space with specific links to other points in space
Tell me about the definition of place
The definition of place, like any concept, is contested. At its heart, though, lies the notion of a meaningful segment of geographical space.
We tend to think of places as settlements, for example, Doncaster or Dudley. We also consider areas of cities or neighbourhoods - Harrow (London) - to be places. Closer in, well known public spaces are referred to as places, such as Covent Garden. We may refer to a restaurant or cafe as a favourite place. We also use expressions such as ‘‘ knowing ones place’’ or being put in our place to suggest a more abstract and less locatable interaction of the the social and the geographical.
We have ‘places’ set at the dinner table. We may have a favourite chair as our place. We often have our favourite places at school.
The more abstract and less locatable notions of place suggest what
We can begin to connect with the importance of place in our lives and experiences. At this point can ‘place’ take on a larger scale? Is place important to us regionally - some people are proud Cornishman, or Lancastrians - or nationally - the Welsh and Scots? What of our “place” in Europe? How many of us regard ourselves as European rather than British? Beyond the scale of the nation, environmentalist activist groups work to make us think of the earth as a place - as a home for humanity - rather than a space to be exploited.
Place, then, is not scale specific. It can be as small as a setting at a stable and as large as the earth. The common assumption that place is a settlement is but one definition of place.
What leads us to refer to a ‘sense of place’
We must also consider the subjective aspects of a place, and not just the objective. This leads us to refer to a sense of place.
What is sense of place
This refers to the feeling revoked by a place for both the insiders (people who live there) and outsiders (people who visit the area).
Do we, for example, all have the same feelings when we visit an art gallery? Some feelings will be shared - the wonder of the paintings on display; some will be individual - as to how each painting affects us.
Define sense of place
The subjective feelings associated with living in a place.
What combination are places
Places are particular combinations of material things that occupy a particular segment of space and have sets of meanings attached to them.
What’s an insider
People who live in the place
What’s an outsider
People who visit the area etc.
How do insiders develop a sense of place
Through everyday experiences in familiar settings - daily rhythms (eg the school run) and shared experiences (eg socialising at the village pub) are critical and they underpin the subjectivity that is the basis For the community’s sense of place.
How do outsiders develop a sense of place
For outsiders, the sense of place is more vague and abstract. The outsiders view is often about discovery, a personal view of entering a location or landscape and learning about that place.
The outsider is a traveller, an observer from beyond the place.
What is the insiders view usually about
It’s usually about experience, a narrative of close involvement with the landscape and locale, expressing what time and repetition teach the person about that place. The insider is an inhabitant, a dweller.
What are the categories of place
Various cultural geographers have tried to categorise places. Some categories include: Far places Near places Experienced places Media places
Place is far more ____ for some than others
Place is far more permeable for some (the wealthy incomers and out goers) than it is for others.
There are gender differences in the shaping of activities within the place.
Even the more rooted, less travelled, lower income people here are increasingly touched by wider events. Farm workers, for example, are subject to agricultural policy decisions made in London or Brussels, and the cleaners and caterers who work for multinational firms in the area might well feels the force of global economics if those companies were to cut back on jobs (all experienced place)
Tell me about media places
In today’s electronic society people have no sense of place; rather they occupy media places. Electronic media are undermining the traditional relationship between a physical setting and a social setting.
The worlds media bring to our location events that are taking place in another location, and hence in some ways we are transported to that location even though we actually remain in our own location. At a much smaller scale is the situation in which two people are having a telephone convo in two different locations. Indeed, the telephone or computer brings them close together with other people in their respective locations.
What are the two types of factors contributing to the character of place
Endogenous and exogenous factors
Tell me about endogenous factors
These are the starting points, or underpinning elements, of a place study based on accessible knowledge of the area, such as its location, topography and other aspects of the physical site, as well as the built environment (land use) and infrastructure. These factors also include social and economic characteristics, which determine the character of, and present a sense of identity, or meanings to, the place. They can involve processes both in the past as well as the present.
Define endogenous factors
Factors that are caused or originate from within, i.e internally
Tell me about exogenous factors
All places are affected by, and have relationships with, other places, or external factors. Exogenous factors are often associated with globalisation, and have affected a place because of their tendency to accelerate cultural homogenisation. For example, there may have been significant moves into the place of resources, capital, investment and ideas, and of course people from other places, some of which are international. These flows often affect the demographic, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of the receiving place.
Define exogenous factors
Factors that are caused or have an origin from without, i.e externally.
Tell me about tourist places shaping the character of a place
Tourist places are an obvious example of where flows or people and investment may have shaped the character of a place in a dynamic world. They illustrate how the demographic, socioeconomic and cultural characteristics of places are shaped by the shifting flows of people, resources, money, investment and ideas.
Tell me about tourism producing a distinctive set of interconnections between places
Tourism produces a distinctive set of interconnections between places because of its different relationships between producers and consumers. Whereas most consumers of goods rarely see or even know the producers of those goods (do you know who produces the wheat for your bread, for instance?), in tourist places, tourist consumers and the producers of tourist experiences often meet face to face.
Tell me about tourist sites products
The product that is sold at tourist sites is very often intangible. The tourist product is an experience that cannot physically be taken home. Tourism involves the visual consumption of a place, through a ‘tourist gaze’ that is unique to the individual tourist. Incomes are generated through flows of images, information and experiences. In turn, the experiential nature of production and consumption actually shapes the material and socioeconomic characteristics of the tourist place itself.
Resources, money and investment all flow into the place, which further determine the nature of its characteristics, beyond the original endogenous factors created it in the first time place.
As an extreme example, perhaps, it could be argued that Ibiza and Verona are both attractive to the tourist interested in music. But that is perhaps the only comparison between the two places.
We must also consider the external forces, and agents of change, creating the changes in the place being studied - what are these
At a general level these are the individuals, community groups, institutions, multinational corporate bodies and various levels of government that have shaped the place over time.
The media and other forms of communication can also shape the way in which the place is perceived both from within and beyond the place, nationally as well as globally.
Define agents of change
Individuals, groups, multinational corporations, institutions (national or international), media and governments that have driven change either intentionally or unintentionally.
What agents of change have shaped tourism places generally
Tourism has been shaped by agents ranging from large travel companies, who decide which countries and locations to ‘open up’ for mass tourism, to individuals waiters and guides, who mould the experience of visiting consumers.
Tell me about the agents of change involved in the production of infrastructure in tourist places
Agents are involved in the production of the infrastructure of the area, in transport, accommodation and the management of the environments being visited.
Tourism also involved imaginative marketing and advertising. Eg Paris as romantic.
Tell me about agents of change with the development of a tourism place
Travel advertisements, guidebooks, photographs and films all construct space in ways that structure its subsequent development as a tourist place. It can also be suggested that as tourism consumption changes, with more demand for niche-marketed destinations as well as mass destinations, agents will play a greater role. Consider for example the increase in adventure travel practices (eg bungee jumping) in places such as New Zealand.
Tell me about the role of national governments as an agent of change in tourism places
They designate and protect particular areas in which the visual and active consumption of nature is undertaken. An interesting example is the role the French government played in regulating the development of Disneyland Paris. They influenced its built landscape, its management of waste and also the rights of its workers. They even overruled Disney in allowing its workers to wear lipstick, contrary to the rules in the USA.
