Content

• Location

  Where something is on a map
• Locale

  How a place is shaped by people, cultures and customs
• Sense of place

  the personal, subjective attachment to a place
• Three theoretical approaches

  Descriptive approach

  Social constructionist approach

  Phenomenological approach
• Descriptive approach


  locations and features of a place. each place can be studied and is distinct e.g. hills, rivers, streets
• Social constructionist

  Place is a product of social processes and choices. can become outdated/no longer serves original purpose e.g. coups, slum removal, Trafalgar square
• Phenomenological approach

  the world is always viewed subjectively. Recognises how someone experiences a place, establishing relationship between person and place e.g. pride, perception, social cohesion
• Three aspects to human experience:

  Identity, belonging and well-being
• place-making

  the deliberate shaping of an environment to facilitate social interaction and improve a communities quality of life
• Identity: relevant of a local, regional and national scale. Localism is how you feel/respond to things in your local area, Regionalism is your conciousness and loyalty to your region and nationalism is your loyalty and devotion to your nation (e.g. patriotism)
• Nationally, identity is typically associated with common language and a flag (Cornwall), national anthem, cultural and sporting events.
• Identity can also come from religion, such as communities congregating near their collective place of worship, and riots.
• A global sense of place was argued and put forward by Doreen Massey (economic and social geographer). Argued places are dynamic with multiple identities and no boundaries. Argued the character of a place can only be understood by linking to the beyond.
• "What we need, it seems to me, is a global sense of the local, a global sense of place" -Doreen Massey
• "Think globally, act locally" -Bowker, 2024
• Globalisation id the result of global capitalisation eroding local cultures and have produced identical and homogenised places. This has lead to 'clone towns' and 'placelessness'
• Some places are attempting anti-globalisation, where they defend their local identity from globalisation. This has included boycotting chain stores and introducing a regional currency.
• Glocalization is where multi-national corporations are trying to adopt their own uniqueness/sense of place. This can be seen in some McDonald's where they add McCafe's, play centres etc
• Belonging means to be part of a community. It is a key feature to ensuring a place is sustainable and successful. Regeneration schemes put as much emphasis of the social environment as much as the built one due to the positive impact of belonging
• Transition Town Movement 2007 focuses on how regeneration can help those around us; it aims to create a clearer sense of belonging and community involvement.
• There are many factors that influence belonging, these include: age, gender, sexuality, race, religion, socio-economic status, level of education and ethnicity.
• Societies are becoming increasingly multi-cultural, London is one of the most multi-cultural cities in the world, demonstrated through its many festivals
• Benefits of multi-cultural societies

  Culture (Food etc)

  Architecture

  Business (ASDA, Zuber and Mohsin Issa)

  Football, cricket teams
• Weakness' of multi-cultural societies:

  Riots

  Forced Marriage (hide spoons in underwear, helped 400 children)

  Control Killings ( young Asians killed for disobeying father, running away or refusing arranged marriage)
• Well-being includes the factors that make a place a great place to live, work, and visit. This includes: sociability, uses and activities, comfort and image, access and linkage
• When determining the well-being of a place, different factors will be important to different groups of people. This is due to different lived experiences, quality of life and perceptions of place (influenced by age, gender, socio-economic etc)
• Belonging may also be effected by whether someone is an insider or an outsider which will, in turn, effect their sense of place. (E.g. negative connotations of 'migrant' and 'immigrant' may make an insider feel like an outsider)
• Insiders may have stronger views about their local area, such as the campaign NIMBY. They may also feel more strongly about 'protecting' their area from outsiders. This may lead to tensions rising
• Categories of place:

  Near and far places

  Experience and media places

  Media portrayal
• Near and Far places could refer to a physical geographical distance or a persons emotional connection and comfortability in a place. Near places are not automatically comfortable and far places are not necessarily uncomfortable.
• Experience and media places refer to whether you have physically spent time in a place or just seen it through the media (e.g. TV shows, books etc). An actual reality of a place may differ from its media portrayal, and the media can even distort the reality of a place (e.g. Eastenders vs The Apprentice)
• Two types of factors that contribute to a places character:

  Endogenous factors (internal)

  Exogenous factors (external)
• The character of a place refers to the physical and human features that help distinguish a place form another
• Exogenous factors have an external cause or origin. These can include new government policies, globalisation and migration, which all cause a place to change
• Endogenous factors originate internally but effect the character of a place. This usually refers to the built environment, location/physical geography and social and economic characteristics (e.g. employment rates)
• Economic and social factors can change the way in which a place is perceived (such as terrorism and industrial accidents). Change can also be brought about through external forces which can lead to conflicts between different stakeholders (Regeneration schemes). These can also be known as flows.
• Meaning

  individual or collective perception of place
• Representation

  how a place is percieved or 'seen' in society
• The notion of places change due to the constant flows of people, ideas, wealth and information
• Meanings of place is the thoughts and feelings we attach to them through our interaction with it (emotional attachment to a place)