Concept of a place Flashcards
What is a place?
A place is a location with meaning
* Meaningful in ways that are personal/subjective
* Meaningful at a social/cultural level + may be shared by different groups of people
* Consists of location, locale and sense of place
Location
refers to an absolute point in space within a specific set of coordinates and measureable distances from other locations
* Physical point of ‘where’ a place is e.g coordinates on a map
Locale
refers to the way a place looks and what activities take place there
* place where something happens or is set, or that has particular events associated with it e.g library
* Dictate our social interactions + help forge attitudes, values and behaviours
Sense of place
the subjective, personal and emotional attachment to a place
* Developed through experience and knowledge of a particular area
3 theoretical approaches to definfing ‘place’:
- Descriptive approach
- Social constructionist approach
- Phenomological approach
Descriptive approach
Location
* the idea that the world is a set of places + each place can be studied + is distinct
Social constructionist approach
Locale
* Sees place as a product of a set of social processes occuring at a particular time (Jon Anderson)
Phenomological approach
Sense of place
* Not interested in the unique characteristics of a place but insterested in how an individual person experiences place, recognising a highly personal between place and experience (Yi Fu Tuan)
Perceptions of a place
- Depend on a person’s attachment to place
- Affected by experience and knowledge of a place
Topophilia
- Yi Fu Tuan
attachment to a place is influenced by the quality of intensity of the experience we have (positive) - love for a place and having a strong attachement to it
Topophobia
Yi-Fu Tuan
* Dread or adverse reaction to place
* Strong dislike towards a place
