Changing Places: Meaning And Representation Flashcards
What is the representation of a place?
How individuals, or organisations such as businesses or councils, portray places they know about to others.
What are some examples of how people or organisations can represent places in different ways depending on what their perspective is
- individuals who are proud to come to a place may present it in a positive way, whilst those who have had bad experiences there may present it negatively to others.
- organisations, e.g. tourist companies or local councils, may present a place positively as they stand to gain from how those places are perceived. Yet newspapers may focus on negative aspects, as it may help them sell more copies.
Why are meanings and representations of a place so important?
They can change how people behave towards those places, e.g. positive feelings about a place may make a person decide to go on holiday there, or invest in a business there - negative feelings may make them avoid that place.
What are some examples of groups that try to influence peoples sense of place, or even create new meanings for the place to change peoples behaviour towards the place
- Governments - both nationally and locally, might do this to attract people or investment to particular places
- Corporate bodies (e.g. businesses) - might do this to generate profit, or set up for a specific purpose (e.g. VisitBritain is an agency to promote tourism in the UK)
- community or local groups - local people and businesses throwing festivals every year for example - attracting visitors to the area.
What are the 3 main strategies used to alter perceptions of place?
- Place marketing
- Reimaging
- Rebranding
How does place marketing alter perspectives of a place?
- how places are ‘sold’ - like products to consumers. Selling it to the people who will potentially visit, move to the area or invest money there. Marketing companies may be employed to produce websites, logos, advertising campaigns and social media pages - to promote a place.
- e.g. the Lake District is being promoted as the ‘Adventure Capital’ of the UK through websites and social media pages - attracting people to visit
How is reimaging used to alter place perspectives?
Changing existing negative perceptions of places
- e.g. Manchester being very industrial, polluted and deprived, and has now been reimaged as modern, young and affluent
How is Rebranding used to alter perceptions of places?
It’s about giving a place a new identity that is appealing to people and investors. It is achieved through reimaging, place marketing and regeneration schemes. Many places create logos and slogans that are designed to be instantly recognisable and create positive associations with the place they are representing. (E.g. Ancoats)
How can statistics be used to help represent a place?
E.g. census data, can give you loads of quantitive info about places are like (population, average income, crime data) can be raw data or represented in charts and graphs.
Objective, but can be used subjectively - yet don’t usually tell you anything about the sense of a place.
How can maps represent a place?
Maps can show any sort of data that has a location (e.g. they can show where physical features are). Can show both quantitive (demographic and economic data by location) or qualitative (index levels of happiness, etc.)
Can be reliable, but also potentially misleading (e.g. historical maps can be inaccurate)
How can films, photography and art be representative of a place?
Visual representations show what a place looks like, and can give you a character of a place. However only shows what the artist, etc, wants to show you. Photographs are only in a given moment and can be potentially altered. Films and TV can evoke a sense of place depending on the story (e.g. a crime/thriller in an area may give it a negative feel, yet a lighthearted romance may give it a positive sense of place). Paintings may not be completely reliable as it is the artists interpretation of the place.
How can stories, articles, music and poetry be representative of a place?
Can be used to describe a place and also a sense of how it feels to be there, only offers the authors perspectives though - doesn’t show the complete picture. Lots of details but could be biased. Yet can give emotional impressions on a place.
