Sense of Place in Hamilton, Ontario: Empirical Results of a Neighborhood-Based Survey

Williams, Allison; Kitchen, Peter; DeMiglio, Lily; Eyles, John; Newbold, K. Bruce; Streiner, David L.

doi:10.2747/0272-3638.31.7.905

Cited by 35 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…Central in the Golden Horseshoe is Hamilton, Ontario. Historically, Hamilton has been known for its role in the steel manufacturing industry [16,17]. This has given the western end of the Golden Horseshoe a reputation of poor air and water quality, both locally and nationally [18,19].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making the links: do we connect climate change with health? A qualitative case study from Canada

Cardwell

Elliott

2013

BMC Public Health

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BackgroundClimate change has been described as the biggest global health threat of the 21st century. Typically framed as an environmental issue, some suggest this view has contributed to public ambivalence and hence a lack of public engagement. The lack of understanding of climate change as a significant environmental health risk on the part of the lay public represents a significant barrier to behaviour change. We therefore need to think about reframing the impact of climate change from an environmental to a health issue. This paper builds on calls for increased understanding of the public’s views of human health risks associated with climate change, focusing on facilitators and barriers to behaviour change.MethodsSemi-structured in-depth interviews (n = 22) with residents of the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario were conducted between August 2010 and January 2011. Topics included individual and community health, climate change, and facilitators and barriers to behaviour change.ResultsFew participants recognized the role of the environment in the context of either individual and community health. When asked about health concerns specific to their community, however, environmental issues were mentioned frequently. Health effects as possible impacts of global environmental change were mentioned by 77% of participants when prompted, but this link was not described in great detail or within the context of impacting their communities or themselves. Participants were willing to act in environmentally friendly ways, and possible incentives to undertake behaviour change such as decreasing cost were described. Health co-benefits were not identified as incentives to engaging in mitigative or adaptive behaviours.ConclusionsThe results support recent calls for reframing the impact of climate change from an environmental to a public health issue in order to increase public engagement in adaptive and mitigative behaviour change. While previous research has touched on public awareness of the human health risks of climate change, we have further explored the attitude-action link through the examination of facilitators and barriers to behaviour change.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making the links: do we connect climate change with health? A qualitative case study from Canada

Cardwell

Elliott

2013

BMC Public Health

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“…Participants were asked to complete a 16-item SoP scale, developed by Williams et al (2010) (Appendix A). The survey evaluates individual perceptions of four SoP factors: neighbourhood rootedness; neighbourhood sentiment; neighbours; and, environment and health using a 5-point likert scale.…”

Section: Quantitativementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The survey evaluates individual perceptions of four SoP factors: neighbourhood rootedness; neighbourhood sentiment; neighbours; and, environment and health using a 5-point likert scale. The SoP scale was developed from a larger survey of 46 items shown to influence neighbourhood SoP; Williams et al, (2010) selected the 16 most influential items, which were then separated into four factors using a principal components analysis (a more thorough description of this analysis is provided by Williams et al, 2010). An established SoP formula (Williams et al, 2010) was employed to calculate individual evaluations of SoP (Equation 1).…”

Section: Quantitativementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The SoP scale was developed from a larger survey of 46 items shown to influence neighbourhood SoP; Williams et al, (2010) selected the 16 most influential items, which were then separated into four factors using a principal components analysis (a more thorough description of this analysis is provided by Williams et al, 2010). An established SoP formula (Williams et al, 2010) was employed to calculate individual evaluations of SoP (Equation 1). Due to the nature of the SoP formula, any records with a missing response to one of the sixteen SoP questions were eliminated from the analysis; a total of 631 responses were used in the analysis.…”

Section: Quantitativementioning

confidence: 99%

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Perceptions of Air Quality and Sense of Place among Women in Northeast Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Gallina

Williams²

2014

International Journal of Social Science Studies

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Research on environmental health risks suggests that public perceptions of risk may be greater than quantitative health risk assessments, especially amongst vulnerable groups such as women and immigrants. This study uses the environmental stress and coping framework to examine individual perceptions of air quality amongst Canadian-born and immigrant women in Northeast Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Furthermore, the study aims to determine the influence of sense of place on local environmental perceptions. Quantitative survey results suggest that Canadian-born residents have a higher absolute value of sense of place than immigrants. Qualitative focus group discussions suggest that, compared to immigrant women, Canadian-born women may be more aware, knowledgeable and concerned about larger-scale air quality issues; however, the tension between economic and environmental needs hinders their sense of control. Bringing the quantitative and qualitative data together suggests that sense of place may inform environmental perceptions.

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“…They used place identity, place attachment and place dependence to assess the differences between new and longtime residents as well as absentee and local residents' sense of place', or as they preferred, 'place bonding'. Williams et al (2010) contend that such conceptual frameworks are less place-based because of a focus on the psychological components. In their study, a more authentic geographic concept of a 'sense of place' is claimed by subscribing to a definition provided by The Dictionary of Human Geography (2009) which states that sense of place refers to "the attitudes and feeling that individuals and groups hold vis-a-vis the geographical areas in which they live.…”

Section: From Theory To Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

The place of food : constructing a sense of place among new urban-oriented farmers in rural farming communities in southern Ontario

Ngo¹

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Sense of Place in Hamilton, Ontario: Empirical Results of a Neighborhood-Based Survey

Cited by 35 publications

References 42 publications

Making the links: do we connect climate change with health? A qualitative case study from Canada

Making the links: do we connect climate change with health? A qualitative case study from Canada

Perceptions of Air Quality and Sense of Place among Women in Northeast Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

The place of food : constructing a sense of place among new urban-oriented farmers in rural farming communities in southern Ontario

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