CP - Meanings and representation of place

Question 1

What is sense of place?

Answer 1

How a person feels about a place

Question 2

What can influence peoples sense of place + impact?

Answer 2

1 - Their experience of that place e.g pos or neg
2 - Representation of place - how individuals or org. portray places they know about to others

• pos -> TNC’s invest, go on holiday
• neg –> avoid
• Representation also important as many people generate their identity based on places they feel connected to

Question 3

How people/org can represent place depending on what their perspective is?

Answer 3

Individuals:

• proud of place –> represent in pos light
• bad experience (outsider) –> represent in neg light

Org:

• tourist companies/ councils –> pos light as will gain from visitors (bias)
• Newspaper –> neg light will gain as sell more copies

Question 4

Ways in which certain groups try to influence people’s sense of place / create new meanings + effect?

Answer 4

Gov:
- present in pos light (regeneration schemes) to attract investment / tourism / wealthier demographic

Corporate org:

• present in pos light – attract companies
• hired to increase tourism e.g Visitbritain agency set up to promote tourism

Community:
- Ludlow comm – food festival each year – this associates Ludlow with good food – attracting visitors — boosting economy

Question 5

Main strategies used to alter people’s perceptions of place/ sense of place ?

Answer 5

Place marketing: (places sold like prod to tourists / investors by marketing companies)
- lake district promoted as ‘Adventure capital’ through website and social media

Reimaging: (changing existing neg perceptions of place)

• 1980s Birimigham seen as derelict and poor due to de-indutsrilisation creating high unemploymnet + abandoned factories
• old insutrial sites developed e.g Brindley Place reprupsoed into town centre with shops, thate, gallery, bars

Rebranding: ( giving a place a new identifty that is appealing to people and investors)

• reimaging
• place marketing
• regneration schemes
• creating logos/ slogans that immeditley craete positive assocuations with that place e.g ‘People make Glasgow’ to highlight that the people make Glasgow a great place

Question 6

Different ways places can be represented?

Answer 6

Important to use variety diff sources to build up complete picture of place:

Quantiative:
Statistics -
+ - objective, unbais
- - manipualted, used subjectively (select certain data to try and show something). don’t show sense of place

Maps - show physical features, demographic (income diff areas) qualitative levels of happiniess - give sense of place
+ - reliable
- - misleading (historical maps inaccurate) , inaccessible

Qualitative:
Films, photos, art:
+ visual therefore show character place, evoke sense of place (however dependent on story being told)
- artist only shows what they want you to see – misleading, only snapshot (places can look diff at diff times, photos can be altered , painitngs are artits interpetation, bias

Stories/articles, music/poetry:

+ can create vivid mental images if descrptive, emotional (however subjective)
- bias - not complete picture, newspapers biased (sell more copies rather than truthful depiction)