Changing places (Not including Eastleigh and Torquay) Flashcards
What is perception of place?
The way in which place is viewed or regarded by people - can be influenced by media representation or personal experience
What is sense of place?
The subjective and emotional attachment people have to a place
Why do perceptions of place matter?
- Places matter - they are political and contested
- Conflict caused by different views
- Views hard to change
- Meaning is social
- Rural places have different meanings for different people
- Investors may see space as a business opportunity due to lower costs
- Urban representations can affect real life decision making
- Photographers produce utopian images
- Science fiction writing may be dystopian
- May affect how people see cities
What is placelessness?
- Suggests a place isn’t unique
- Chain shops
- Loses individuality - harder to create individual memories
What is a near place?
- Close to us
- Subjective
What is a far place?
- Distant
- Emotional meaning
- People may feel far away emotionally even if physically close
What are experienced places?
- We have actually visited
- Creates emotional attachment
What is genius loci?
- Spirit of a place
- Every place has a unique spirit or atmosphere
What are media places?
- Haven’t visited
- Learned about through media representations
- Media sources change sense of place subconsciously
What is an insider?
Perspective of someone who knows a place well and is familiar with its topography and its daily rhythms and events
* Hold citizenship
* Fluent in local language
* Born here
What is an outsider?
Perspective of someone who doesn’t know a place well
* Migrants
* Not accustomed to culture, social norms and dialect
* Feelings of unfamiliarity likely to change in the long term
How will an outsider’s perspective on an area change?
- Influenced by media representations or books/news reports
- Comparisons with other places
- Objective facts as no invested interest in the place
What will an insider’s perspective on a place be based on?
- Sense of place due to everyday experiences
- Stake in community
- Subjective feelings
What is a palimpsest?
Something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form
What are material traces?
Physical tangible additions to the environment and include things such as buildings, signs and statues
What are non-material traces?
Events, performances, or emotions which occur in that place
What are layered connections?
- Place stories have several chapters due to the way place networks and flows have changed over time
- Each historical period has own connections with near/far places
- Over time, “layers” of connections built up - “accumulated history” visible in a place’s cultural landscape
How and why do urban areas change?
- Loss of city centre retail to out of town retail and business parks - businesses relocate to cheaper rural areas, affects local economy
- Decline in heavy industry due to global shift, offshoring or outsourcing - globalisation alters purpose of cities
What is the place character?
Relates to specific qualities, attributes or features of a location that make it unique
What are endogenous factors?
Originate from within the place and are local e.g. land use, topography, physical geography, demography, infrastructure
What are exogenous factors?
Originate from outside a place and provide linkages and relationships to and with other places: Referred to as flows of:
* People (tourists, migrants, refugees, visitors)
* Money and investment (trade, tax, major events)
* Resources
* Ideas
Over time, endogenous factors shaped by changing flows of exogeneous factors
What is gentrification?
Renovation and improvement of housing to suit a middle class audience, leading to higher house prices
Why can gentrification cause feelings of being an “outsider”
- Insiders may be priced out
- Districts can change and adapt to suit a different audience, insiders no longer fit with culture or class
What is a shrinking world?
Thanks to technology, distant places start to feel closer and take less time to reach
What is time-space convergence?
The lived experience of distant places feeling nearer due to the ‘annihilation’ of distance by new transport and communications technologies
How is the character of places being eroded by globalisation, and how much is this to do with the global economy?
Proof - clone towns, placeless places, McDonaldisation
Eroded local cultures, producing identical places (increasing presence of global chains in high streets)
James Kunstler American Novelist talks about “geography of nowhere”, urban sprawl led to community-less cities that are identical - “every place is like no place in particular”
How is Heathrow a “non-place”?
Busiest international airport in Europe
70 shops and 30 restaurants
All chain stores
Lack of identity
All history removed
What does utilitarian mean?
Designed to be useful or practical rather than attractive