This article presents an interactionist-based theory of place attachment, the emotional bond formed by an individual to a physical site due to the meaning given to the site through interactional processes, and suggests that such attachment is comprised of two interwoven components: (1) interactional past, or the memories of interactions associated with a site, and (2) interactional potential, or the future experiences perceived as likely or possible to occur in a site. To discuss these components, I use the case of an organization that moved to a new location, thereby disrupting its employees' place attachment to the original site. Data collection involved questionnaires, participant observation, and interviews. the scenery and stage props" (1 959, p. 22), each of which may influence or be used in sup-
I examine how displacement affects identity continuity by studying the disruption experienced by a group of employees when their organization moved to a new site. Data on the organization (a university campus restaurant known as the "Coffee House") included participant observation and interviews. I argue for the importance of examining identity continuity and discontinuity in relation to specific interactional experiences in and attachment to the built environment. I expand on the analysis of nostalgia as a means of creating identity continuity in the face of discontinuity by adding an explicit focus on identity discontinuity in relation to the experience of displacement, and on the generation-delineating abilities of nostalgia, specifically in relation to shared spatial experience.
In this paper, I broaden and extend the idea of organizational death by arguing that certain organizational site moves, those in which employees hold a strong place attachment to the site to be left, are a form of organizational death. I argue for the utility of (1) viewing organizational change as involving loss and (2) including space in studies of everyday organizational experience. Using ethnographic research (participantobservation and in-depth interviews with employees) of one such organization (the "Coffee House") and a negotiated-order perspective, I discuss employee beliefs as to how the site move should have been managed as a means to document their understanding of the move as a loss experience and as a form of organizational death. These employee desires include (1) recognition of employee feelings of loss and legitimization of employee nostalgia for the old site, (2) better managerial communication with employees prior to and after the move, (3) the holding of parting ceremonies at the time of the move, (4) memorializing and preserving artifacts from the old site, and (5) reinforcing and/or re-establishing organizational patterns and rules disrupted due to the move. Additionally, I discuss possible situational variations regarding site moves as deaths, including assessment of (1) the level and type of attachment to a site, (2) the impact of the appeal of the new site, (3) the attachments of groups other than employees, and (4) spatial losses other than site moves.It was such a stark change. It was really, really distinct. I mean the move from the old Coffee House to the new Coffee House. It was like one had died and the other one had been born. It really was. I mean you say "new" and "old" Coffee House, but they were almost so different, it wasn't really the same thing. (Christine, Worker) The goal of this article is to broaden and extend the idea of organizational death by arguing that certain organizational site moves, those in
Using data from ethnographic fieldwork in New Orleans, Louisiana, I examine the “buildings as history” ideology of the contemporary historic preservation movement to contribute to the sociological understanding of the logics of the movement, the relation of collective memory to historic preservation, and, more broadly, the processes of meaning construction in relation to the built environment. I conclude that the preservationist emphasis on the inherent value of the historic built environment irrespective of that environment's association with historically significant events and figures provides a means both to defuse critiques over preserving buildings with “difficult histories” and to justify preserving as much of the historic built environment as possible, which then allows for the continued expansion of the movement's purview and ensures its ongoing existence.
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