Rethinking Sense of Place Interpretations in Declining Neighborhoods: The Case of Ami-dong Tombstone Cultural Village, Busan, South Korea

Abstract

In recent years, urban regeneration strategic plans have been implemented across South Korea to curb the negative impacts of depopulation, physical deterioration and economic decline. By adopting a people-centered regeneration process, context-sensitive plans are formulated by integrating local people’s perceptions and expectations. This paper examines urban regeneration plans implemented in Ami-dong Tombstone Cultural Village, a declining hillside village in Busan, using “people–place–process framework of place attachment” to analyze the process of articulating “sense of place” through community-driven approaches. Based on archival research, site investigations, secondary data and semi-structured interviews, the paper explores the revival of social capital, integration of place-sensitivity and improvement of everyday landscapes through affective, behavioral and cognitive responses of urban professionals and community members involved in the project. Findings of the study show that place attachment, sense of community and community participation in regeneration can help in re-creating meaningful places. Lessons from Ami-dong offer insights on ways to strengthen people–people and people–place relationships through design and planning processes in a declining context with an aging population.

People–Place Narratives as Knowledge Typologies for Social Sustainability: Cases from Urban Contexts in the Global South

“…People-place narratives include subjective, personal accounts capturing emotional dimensions of a location or a setting. They intertwine everyday stories and contribute to our understanding of personalization and the development of a sense of identity where memory and attachment play a key role [57]. Beyond individual experiences, community stories shape collective identity and belonging, and transformative events influence a location's narrative and may enable the shaping of a collective memory.…”

The Influence of Place Attachment on Heritage Discourse in Contemporary Places: A Case Study of Jordanian Byzantine Mosaics

“…It is a feature that makes a place unique [6,[66][67][68]. It is beyond a place's physical and sensory properties and may be inferred from the traits of the location and its inhabitants, their movements, everyday connections, and sentiments associated with the place [69] Place attachment and sense of place, according to Williams and Vaske [70], can be practically equivalent in some fields. On the other hand, Trentelman [71] stated that place attachment refers only to a positive sense of place that occurs when a place is valued [8].…”

Refugee and Migrant Integration in Urban Spatial Structures and City Development: Case Study of Busan, South Korea

“…However, the Korean settlements remained unchanged and further deteriorated with increasing population and were restricted to the hillsides and outskirts of Japanese settlement areas [50]. Historical accounts of the settlement area alongside the Japanese cemetery and crematorium in Ami-dong explain the miserable living conditions of Korean settlements during this period [54][55][56].…”