8.1 nature and importance of places

• locale - the place where something happens or is set, or that has particular events associated with it
• location - where a place is
• meaning - relates to individual or collective perceptions of place
• media - means of communication including television, film photography, art, newspapers, books, songs etc. These reach and influence people widely
• place - defined as a location with meaning. places can be meaningful to individuals in ways that are personal or subjective. Places can also be meaningful at a social or cultural level and these meanings may be shared by different groups of people
• placemaking - the deliberate shaping of an environment to facilitate social interactions and improve a community's quality of life
• sense of place - refers to the subjective and emotional attachment people have to a place
• subjective - based on or influenced by personal feelings, tastes or opinions
• lived experience - a place and how that will differ hugely from person to person based on many different factors
• a space is a place without meaning
• insider - someone who has an inside/experienced perspective on a place
• outsider - someone who has not experienced a lace/event and their perspective is based on other information
• norms - informal understandings that govern the behaviour of members of a society. regarded as a collective representations of acceptable group conduct as well as individual perceptions of particular group conduct
• peoples lived experience of a place can be explored by looking at the impact of a place:

  • identity
  • belonging
  • well-being
• Identity:

  • localism
  • regionalism
  • nationalism e.g language, flag
  • religion
  • protests
• homogenisation - the process of making things uniform or similar, leading to places become indistinct from one another
• clone town - urban retail areas dominated by national, and in some cases international chain stores
• placeless - the loss of uniqueness of place in the cultural landscape so that one place looks like another
• glocalisation - the adaptation of a global product for a local market place. The world come from the amalgamation of the worlds globalisation and localisation.
• localisation - the act of operating locally in terms of employees, products, supply of raw material etc
• example of localisation:

  H town pound

  • a currency that you can use in Hitchin
  • a new shopping voucher to help boost local economy
  • this mean that it keeps money in the circulation of Hitchin, spent on independent businesses so the economy of Hitchin can rise and not fall
  • encourages you to explore new businesses and sense of community spirit
• experienced place - a person has actually spent time within. The longer we spend in places the stronger our sense of place.
• media places - places that a person has only read about or seen within various forms of media
• endogenous factors - internal factors which help shape the character of a place, these can be physical features as well as human
• exogenous factors - external factors that help shape the character of a place, these are generally relations that a place has with other place that affect its characteristics.
• endogenous examples:

  • soil and rock type
  • demographic factor e.g age and gender
  • location e.g proximity main roads, rivers
  • socio-economic factors e.g employment opps, income, health
  • land use
  • age of housing
  • heritage, language, religion and pollution
• exogenous examples:

  • trade links
  • investment into the area
  • resource use
  • government policy
  • impact of international migration
• Near place - the area or region near or about a place, surrounding district or neighbourhood. However, it could also be a place near to your heart
• Far place - place that are far geographically or distant connection to someone emotionally
• studentification - specific neighbourhoods become dominated by student occupation
• benefits of studentification:

  • maintains a young and educated population
  • enhances overall spending power and boosts local economy
  • supports hotel/hospitality industry via parent visits
  • sustains the provision of sporting facilities
  • extends cultural diversity
  • adds freshness
• environmental challenges of studentification:

  • frequent noise nuisance
  • non-collection of refuse bags
  • flytipping
  • lack of car spaces and increased congestion
• service challenges of studentification:

  • closure of schools
  • growth of student orientated retail and leisure provision
  • closure of long standing local businesses
• housing challenges of studentification:

  • reductio of total affordable housing
  • rising rental costs due to high demand
  • transformation of urban landscape via loft conversions and extensions
• social challenges of studentification:

  • higher levels of population transience and turnover
  • increasing anxiety of unfamiliar and possible anti-social behaviour
  • lower levels of social capital and participation in local community events
  • lower levels of electoral voting
• Endogenous factors:

  Land use - urban or rural

  Topography

  Landforms - waterfalls

  Infrastructure

  demographic characteristics - age, gender

  built environment

  location
• Exogenous factors:

  people - impact of tourist, migration, visitors

  money & investment - trade, major events

  resources - raw material

  ideas