Meanings and representations of place Flashcards
What is the representation of a place?
The representation of place is how individuals and organisations such as businesses or councils, portray places they know about others.
How do people perceive places differently?
> Different people or groups of people, can attach different meanings to the same places e.g. different people may see the same place as beautiful or unattractive.
> How people perceive a place is often based on their experience of that place e.g. people may feel like insiders or outsiders.
> Individuals with a bad experience will give more of a negative representation whereas others with positive experiences may present it better.
> Meanings and representations of places are important as many people generate their identity (their sense of who they are) based on the places they feel connected to.
How do groups influence our perception of a place?
Some groups try to influence people’s sense of place, or even create new meanings for particular places so that they can change people’s behaviour towards those places:
> Governments might do this to attract people or investment into particular places.
Community or local groups might try to change the perception of a place to improve the economy or lives of local people.
What are the three main strategies used to alter perceptions of place?
Place Marketing:
> How places are ‘sold’ like products to consumers- the people who will potentially visit, move to the areas or invest money there.
> Marketing companies may be employed to produce websites, design logos, and run advertising campaigns and social media pages- in order to promote a certain place.
Reimaging:
> Changing the existing negative perceptions of places e.g. In 1980-1990 some people imagined Birmingham as a place with high unemployment, abandoned factories and poor architecture.
> Many places in Birmingham have now been reimaged, resulting in more positive perceptions of the place.
Rebranding:
> Giving a place a new identity that is appealing to people and investors. It is achieved through reimaging, place marketing and regeneration schemes.
> As part of rebranding many places create logos and slogans as a way to be instantly recognised and create positive associations with the area.
How can a place be represented through statistics?
Statistics:
> Statistics such as census data, can give you lots of quantitative information about what places are like e.g. population, average salary and crime rate.
> Statistics themselves are objective but they can be used subjectively e.g. people can select which data they use to show.
How can a place be represented through Maps?
Maps:
> Maps can be used to show any sort of data that has a location, e.g. they can show where physical features are. They can also show quantitative demographic and economic data.
> Some maps can also show qualitative information, such as maps showing happiness- these may be more helpful than quantitative data.
> Maps can show reliable data, but they can also be misleading e.g. historical maps may be inaccurate.
How can a place be represented through films, photography and art?
Films, photography and art:
> The artist only represents what they want to show you, therefore this can be misleading.
> Photographs only show what a place looked like at a given time- photographs taken at different times of the day can make a place look/feel different.
How can a place be represented through stories, articles, music and poetry?
Stories, articles, music and poetry:
> Newspaper articles can give lots of detail about a place, however, they can be very biased e.g. newspapers may focus on the copies that are more likely to stand out.
> Stories, music and poetry can give an emotional impression of the place, but only from the writer’s perspective.
