The Dimensions of Place Meanings

Abstract

This article aims to give an overview of how place meanings are created and how they influence people's sense of belonging. It should be noted that the current literature has various shortcomings which mostly result from the lack of interdisciplinary research. The studies in place attachment usually focus on personal sense of belonging leaving aside those extending over various scales -such as, for instance, national identity. Also, place meanings and identity are primarily discussed as the very personal phenomena. On the contrary, place making and shaping is usually seen through more structural viewpoint by claiming that places mainly change in result of political or economic processes. Nowadays, there are even claims that due to the influx of globalization place no more matters and similar processes will happen everywhere. This notion does not take into account the special character of every place and the fact that outside forces come together in different ways in every place. Authors suggest that these different perspectives need to be united in order to fully grasp the character of place making and place meanings. In current articles, authors have adopted the multi-disciplinary approach and understood the place as uniting different processes starting from deeply personal meaning creation and ending with changes happening in global scale.

Residents’ sense of place and landscape perceptions at the rural–urban interface

“…The Marxist theories of landscape emphasize the representational approaches to landscape, reading the landscape as a "text" within systems of cultural, political and economic power, where the individual or collective experience of landscape is seen as a result of this power (Rose, 2002;Wylie, 2007). Phenomenologically oriented approaches, in turn, consider landscape as an object of analysis (an area, district, scene) emphasizing the physical character of the landscape as a mixture of natural and cultural elements, and have reserved 'place' as a term for the context of experience (Relph, 1985;Saar & Palang, 2009;Soini, 2007;Wylie, 2007). Here, 'landscape' is considered as a dwelling place, which is not something external to human being and thought, but simultaneously both the object and the subject of dwelling (Ingold, 1993(Ingold, , 2000.…”

“…Here, 'landscape' is considered as a dwelling place, which is not something external to human being and thought, but simultaneously both the object and the subject of dwelling (Ingold, 1993(Ingold, , 2000. From this perspective, 'landscape' and 'place' cannot be seen as opposite, but rather as inseparable, as Karjalainen (1986, p. 141) has put it: every place is a part of some landscape and, conversely, every landscape is part of some place (see also Cresswell, 2003;Saar & Palang, 2009).…”

“…Sense of place has particularly been favoured as a concept when examining issues such as place preference, access to and control over the landscape and natural resources, or meanings and culture in terms of resource use or the participation of various groups in local decision making (Cheng, Kruger, & Daniels, 2003;Kruger & Jakes, 2003;Patterson & Williams, 2005). The concept provides opportunities to examine the social and cultural processes affecting environmental and landscape valuation, including a broader range of voices and values, especially those of residents, in landscape planning and policy (Cheng et al, 2003;Relph, 1985;Saar & Palang, 2009;Soini, 2007). As sense of place is expected to translate into harmony between people and nature, as well as care for the place, thereby contributing to the aesthetic quality of the landscape (Birkeland, 2008;Cross, Keske, Lacy, Hoag, & Bastian, 2011;Davenport & Anderson, 2008;Kaltenborn, 1998;Relph, 1985;Soini, 2007;Stefanovic, 1998;Tuan, 1977;Walker & Ryan, 2008), it provides an informative concept in an environment with heterogeneous expectations for landscape management (Eisenhauer, Krannich, & Blahna, 2000;Soini, 2007).…”

Tourism activity as an expression of place attachment–place perceptions among tourism actors in the Jukkasjärvi area of northern Sweden

“…Kaltenborn, 1997), evaluating for example weaker or stronger place attachments, the present study takes a qualitative stance, arguing that qualitative studies are crucial to grasping subjective and collective place meanings (Saar & Palang, 2009). Accordingly, the present study aimed for a rather small, strategic sample that allows more indepth exploration of place attachments with the participants, yet does not enable statistical generalization or make any claims of representativeness (as suggested by Trost, 2005).…”

Agrarian Landscape Between Transition and Sustainability - Gracanica Area Case Study

“…Palang et al observe landscape is an instrument, "because even today people have more of an emotional attachment to it than they have to a formal region or to nature as such" (Palang et al 2006: 354). The sense of self, created by adopting ready-made identities through historical association and tradition (Saar and Palang, 2009), is impacted with altered narratives of the place. When the bond between the individual and the place in transformed cultural circumstances is weakened, it potentially impacts identity-feeling and attachment to the place, and puts into question social sustainability of the area, especially when taking into account the fact that Gračanica's spatial changes, for the most part, occur without the involvement of local population.…”