The Nature of "Sense of Place"

"Sense of Place"

Specific qualities of landscape infused a site with a sense of place for people. Past experience heavily influenced relationship between people and place, as places were sensed as a combination of setting, landscape, ritual, and routine and in the context of other places. Each meaning structure of people, space, and environment contributes a particular set of qualities to genius loci.

The wholistic perspective of "topophilia" described by Y. Tuan states that "topophilia" is the relations, perceptions, attitudes, values, and world view that affectively bond people and place. Analyzing the content of people's remembrances for significant and recurring themes about space and place yields insights into fundamental life themes of sense of place, environmental mastery, privacy and autonomy.

loss of place--humiliation--losing one's past, present, and future sense of place
placelessness--distress--attaining a sense of place
rootlessness--alienation--continuity and change in the sense of place

An understanding of sense of place for which places are not merely objects, but objects for subjects, is needed. The sense of place can most usefully be conceptualized in terms of the structure of feeling.

Collective identity and sense of place is one of the primary social functions of residential differentiation for most people in modern societies.

Sense of place helps to protect the region's cultural heritage and promote cultural awareness and strong kinship ties.

The ancient Platonic approach to memory is focused on recollective experience. Recollection promotes access to transpersonal memorial and involves a turning inward, a withdrawal of attachments to the external world, and a gathering-in or coming to presence of the self. These recollective experiences may underlie the sense of place, boundaries, personal identity, and human autonomy.