Place Flashcards
What is place
A meaningful site combining location (in abstract space), locale (tangible aspects), and sense of place (feelings evoked, Yi Fu Tuan’s topophilia and topophobia)
What 3 things all occur and link in a place
Material structure (form a place is recognised by, can be a symbol e.g. Eiffel Tower), meaning (location becomes place as it becomes meaningful but meaning can change e.g. Twin Towers), practice (continually enacts place meaning)
How do place and space link
Yi Fu Tuan defines place as in binary opposition to space (humanist perspective), where place is bounded and secure and space is infinite and free. Space becomes place once it is lived in
Plato
An achieved place (topos) is finite
Aristotle
Place is at the start of becoming as anything to exist must be somewhere
Albertus Magnus
Suggested things work best where they belong
Varanius
Argued for ‘general geography’ focusing on the whole world not specific places
Heidegger
Suggested meaning is assigned to place by ‘dwelling’ - Nazi. Makes little sense in modern, hyperconnected life
1960s and 70s humanistic geography development characteristics
People not rational objects, unlike spatial science. 1977 Yi Fu Tuan Space and Place. Began looking at experience transforming place for individuals to be meaningful. Began looking at regional geography for specific places.
Vidal de la Blache in humanistic geography development
Examined the regional lifeworlds of French regions with different cultures
Shortcoming of humanistic geography development
Said little about power in place construction and contestation
Updated views on power’s effect on place: Marxist
Material structure can assign exclusionary shared meanings
Updated views on power’s effect on place: Harvey
Place is used in regressive and reactionary ways e.g. gated communities
Updated views on power’s effect on place: feminist
Home disputed as a symbol of universal attachment as patriarchal, can be exclusionary, place of order where children are symptoms of disorder
Updated views on power’s effect on place: general
Places cause exclusion by creating commonsense normative places that are ideological tools. However, places are constantly contested by the excluded so place meaning is unfixed
Relph
Argued places are becoming placeless as inauthentic so can’t be insiders, especially as people move about too much
Auge
Nonplace is a place of transit constantly referring to others and is a condition of life due to supermodernity
What causes supermodernity (Auge)
Faster info flows, increased individualism from overexposure, planet shrinking from time-space compression
What are the limits to Auge’s theory
The characteristics of nonplace and supermodernity have been remarked on before due to other advancements so may not have an effect
Historical theorist views about place and mobility (Tuan, Relph, Plato, Aristotle)
Tuan and Relph argued too much mobility limits sense of place. Plato and Aristotle argued processes make place
Merleau-Ponty
People have bodily ‘intentionality’ towards the world as they are conscious of it so form a place meaning as they move through it
Pred
Place is a process where people’s activities produce and are produced by social structures in power. Paths (movements in space and time) triggered by institutions form human and object biographies that coalesce to places. Institutions can also limit and direct paths, causing exclusion
Seamon
Body ballets are habitual movements coalescing to a place ballet that defines a place through constant reiteration
Why is there exclusion if the world is seen as made of fixed, divided places
People with mobile lives are seen as threats as people connect to areas with certain identities and protect them from others
Doreen Massey views on mobility
Mobility constitutes place as they’re formed by connections: a progressive sense of place. No longer clearly bounded as place represents processes
Doreen Massey ‘A global sense of place’
1991, argued that globalisation is reworking not eroding places
Doreen Massey ‘Space, place and gender’
1994, feminist perspective on ‘geometries of power’
3 main approaches to studying place
Descriptive/physical/Newtonian - as distinct areas with coordinates. Social constructionist - as a product of social processes. Phenomenological - as areas experienced differently by different individuals
How does culture affect place
Can be seen as a product e.g. ecotourism
How does culture affect place: Sharp
Made ‘soundscapes’ for certain places
How does culture affect place: Williams
Creates lifestyle and boundaries
How does culture affect place: MacFarlane
Place-specific words e.g. ‘zawm’ waves in Cornwall
How does culture affect place: Anderson
‘Imagined communities’ around stories
How does culture affect place: Said
‘Othering’ marginalises people as us and them
Endogenous
From within a system
Exogenous
From outside a system
Mebyon Kernow
Want Cornwall to self-govern as it has its own identity, language, and history. Demonstrates scale of place attachment varying and influence of institutions of power
Insider
Perspective of someone familiar with a place
Outsider
Perspective of someone unfamiliar with or excluded from a place
Effect of distance on insider/outsider
Mostly has a frictional effect but eroding with time-space compression. May feel like an insider further away due to a shared aspect
Clone town
Coined by NEF, where major shopping centres become indistinct by having the same chain stores
British Home Stored
2016 collapse, was in 164 towns and cities, massively affected confidence. Online retailers a major reason for the failure e.g. Amazon 20% all UK sales
Totnes
Successful 2012 campaign against Costa when already 41 other coffee sellers, notocosta.co.uk, established currency for 70 independent shops in 2006
Placemaking
(Re)invention of a place using a local community’s assets
Todmorden
West Yorkshire town with 15,000 population and a traditional industry of cloth. Incredible edible scheme: set up walks around producers and smallholders, spread globally, focuses on education, business and community. Age UK Salford’s Critchley House has an edible garden
Place meaning
Significance, value or issues making a place important to people
Place representation
Diverse ways in which places are portrayed
Contested place
Where tension/conflict arose due to disagreement over management/representation/use
Who creates place marketing
Governments, PR companies, corporate bodies, communities e.g. Love Weston Winter Wonderland
Rebranding
Changing inside perception e.g. 2013 People made Glasgow. However, hard to satisfy stakeholders and can drive out locals
Reimaging
Changing physical perception, often architectural e.g. Merseyside Development Corporation in Liverpool ‘There’s life in the old docks yet’
Types of construction needed in place remaking
Physical and psychological as both reimaging and rebranding are important
What is physical construction
Capital intensive regeneration, flagship developments e.g. 2004 Cardiff £106m Millennium Centre
What is psychological construction
Change perception e.g. Amsterdam: from failed Olympic bid and liberal to 2004 I Amsterdam exhibition with 8000 photos daily and city card
Involvement of cultural heritage in place remaking: Liverpool
Psychological as a cultural heartland (Beatles) and physical with Liverpool Culture Company, UNESCO skyline, 2008 European Capital of Culture
Involvement of cultural heritage in place remaking: Manchester
Hacienda building apartments for rave subculture fans
Involvement of cultural heritage in place remaking: Guisely
Yorkshire building using heritage cloth industry for Hugo Boss and Prada
How to remake contemporary places
Must be retrofitted for sustainability and technology e.g. Silicon roundabout, Bloomsberg’s new HQ: world’s most sustainable office building, £1b, 75% water consumption drop, 35% energy consumption drop, natural ventilation, glass box landscape backlash
Maps
Symbolic depictions emphasising relationships between elements of a space, reflecting biases of cartographers
Mercator projection
1569 navigation tool, distorted for straight line distances, Eurocentric
Gall-Peters projection
Correct areas, stretched centrally and squashed at poles
Ordnance Survey maps
GB’s national mapping agency
Biomappinng
Emotional cartography measuring galvanic skin response of high and low feelings
