nature and importance of place

• How do geographers define place?

  Place is defined as space plus meaning
• How do people form attachments to places?

  Through lived experience
• What are the two types of attachments people can have to places?

  Topophobia and topophilia
• What determines whether an attachment to a place is negative or positive?

  The strength of the experience
• Who proposed that attachment to places increases with age?

  Yi-Fu Tuan
• How can people form attachments to places without visiting them?

  Through perception gained from media
• What is localism?

  A preference for the place closest to you
• What develops when there is an attachment between a person and a place?

  A sense of place
• What can sense of place refer to?

  The unique character of a place
• What is placelessness?

  No sense of place or identity
• How has globalization affected places?

  It has created clone towns and placelessness
• What are the key concepts related to place and identity?

  • Place = space + meaning
  • Localism: Preference for nearby places
  • Regionalism: Identification with a distinct region
  • Nationalism: Often equated with patriotism
  • Globalism: Identification as a global citizen
• What are the three ways to define place and their significance?

  1. Location: A place on a map
  2. Locale: Social processes giving meaning
  3. Sense of place: Attachment and unique character
• What factors contribute to a place's identity?

  • Meaning
  • Activities
  • Distinctive physical setting
  • Experiences and attachments
• What is the impact of immigrant communities on place identity?

  • Places can have multiple identities
  • Coexistence of diverse cultures
  • Example: Birmingham's cultural diversity
• What does it mean that place is a social construct?

  Some feel 'in place', others 'out of place'
• How do dominant groups affect social norms?

  They create norms that exclude deviants
• What are the characteristics of insider perspectives?

  • Fluent in local language
  • Born in the place
  • Knowledge of customs and norms
  • Feel safe in the place
  • Have friends/family connections
• Why do people with insider perspectives feel safe?

  They have connections and knowledge of norms
• What factors contribute to outsider perspectives?

  • Not from the area
  • Do not fit the social norm
  • Different sexualities or genders
  • Immigrants or ethnic minorities
• How can an outsider perspective lead to social exclusion?

  Through negative experiences in the community
• what is a near place?

  those that we consider close to us
• what are far places?

  those that we consider distant - this is subjective as in some countries a five hour drive could constitute a near place whilst that in the UK would be a far place
• people tend to know near places better than far places, though this is changing:

  • improvements in technology mean people can reach far paces more quickly
  • technological advances including the internet mean it is easier to communicate with far places and to experience them
• real or constructed places:

  • real places are those we have been to or those that exist as a place to visit
  • constructed places could be imagined places such as hogwarts or narnia
• experienced places:

  • a place where people have spent time and have direct experience of
  • one view is that places can only have meaning if directly experienced
  • experiencing a place creates emotional attachment and may change previous perceptions
• Endogenous factors:

  factors that are internal to a place can affect its character

  • physical: geology, location and climate
  • human: infrastructure, land use or architectural style
• Exogenous factors:

  factors that are external to a place and affects its character

  • flows of people (migration), resources, money and ideas (Americanisation)