A Sense Of Place

At The Upper New, it seems like it should be pretty obvious that we’ve long been interested in the concept of place, since we’re fostering place-based creativity across the watersheds and bioregions of our beautiful planet.  One of things that seems to have a huge influence on place-based creativity is a concept called “sense of place”.

If you think about it, a sense of place seems like a pretty straightforward thing.  But, like pretty much anything, you can think more deeply about what a sense of place really is, and things start to get really complicated, complex, and interesting.  This is what we love about understanding a sense of place.  There’s always plenty to think about, which means there’s always more inspiration for creativity.

So, what is a sense of place?  Let’s start with a simpler question.

What is “place”?

When one does a google search for “definition of place” the Oxford Languages dictionary entries appear at the top (as this seems to be the preferred partner dictionary for the Alphabeteers).  Oxford provides three definitions:

• a particular position or point in space
• a portion of space available or designated for or being used by someone
• a position in a sequence or series, typically one ordered on the basis of merit

The first two are more relevant to most of the perspectives we’ve found for “sense of place” elsewhere, so let’s stick with those.  While elements of ranking and value are certainly relevant to how we may form a sense of place, let’s hold off on exploring those aspects for now.

We also really like several of the definitions of place (the noun, not the verb) provided by Merriam-Webster.  Well, if several is eighteen variations, that is how many of them we like:

1a: physical environment : SPACE

1c: physical surroundings : ATMOSPHERE

2a: an indefinite region or expanse

2b: a building or locality used for a special purpose

2c: archaic : the three-dimensional compass of a material object

3a: a particular region, center of population, or location

3b: a building, part of a building, or area occupied as a home

4: a particular part of a surface or body : SPOT

5: : relative position in a scale or series: such as

5a: position in a social scale

5b: a step in a sequence

6a: a proper or designated niche or setting

6b: an appropriate moment or point

6c: a distinct condition, position, or state of mind

7a: an available seat or accommodation

7b: an empty or vacated position

9a: remunerative employment : JOB

9b: prestige accorded to one of high rank : STATUS

Place, noun.  Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (link)

When you start to think about what “place” (as a noun) means to you, which of these variations stick out as most relevant to you?  Why do they seem more relevant?

Is this what it means to start forming a sense of place?

What is “sense of place”?

We tasked ourselves with deciding upon as simple a definition of “sense of place” as we could (for the time being, anyway), and here’s what we came up with.  We think finding a sense of place involves the process of figuring out the reality of where you are, and how you perceive that reality, and what your perception of that reality means to you.

Let’s revisit some of the Merriam-Webster definitions of “place” to begin forging a pathway toward understanding a “sense of place”.

1a: physical environment : SPACE

1c: physical surroundings : ATMOSPHERE

What’s the difference between environment (space) and surroundings (atmosphere)?  How do you make sense of these?

2a: an indefinite region or expanse

4a: a particular part of a surface or body : SPOT

Indefinite vs. particular.  We like the way anyone could play these two off of each other.  How would you go about placing particular spots within an indefinite region?  Can you think of any examples of indefinite regions?  Do these regions bring to mind a sense of place for you?

6a: a proper or designated niche or setting

What makes a place “proper”?  And what would you say is the difference between a niche and a setting?

6b: an appropriate moment or point

Appropriate moments.  This is bringing in the element of time to help understand place (space).  We like this.

6c: a distinct condition, position, or state of mind

Now we think we are getting cerebral.  Perception and understanding.  How would you interpret or explain a state of mind as a place?  And what does this form of place (state of mind) have to do with a sense of place?  Are you put in a particular state of mind (place) when you visit a particular place in reality?

Or, do thoughts of a place (in your memory) also take you to a particular state of mind?  How does this relate to our sense of place?  What does this mean to you?

How have others defined “sense of place”?

There are, to be sure, a plethora of perspectives and definitions across the internet concerning a sense of place.  Here are a few that resonate with us at The Upper New.

National Geographic has provided a concept of place that includes a sense of place.  They suggest that there are three key components of place: location, locale, and sense of place.  We’d recommend perusing the whole piece from National Geographic, it’s relatively short.

Location and locale: What do these concepts mean to you?  How do you think they compare to (or inform) the concept of sense of place?

The tried and true resource that is Wikipedia allows us to pursue the related concepts of location, place identity, and place attachment as a sort of pathway to understanding a sense of place.

Location (vs. place)

We like this description from the Wikipedia entry for location, which differentiates it from the concept of place:

“The term location generally implies a higher degree of certainty than place, the latter often indicating an entity with an ambiguous boundary, relying more on human or social attributes of place identity and sense of place than on geometry.”

Wikipedia: Location (link)

Certainty (location) vs. ambiguity (place).  Does this imply that place is a human approximation based on several locations?  What do you think?

Place Identity

Likewise, this section from the Wikipedia entry for place identity helps us understand what makes a place a place:

“Place identity concerns the meaning and significance of places for their inhabitants and users, and how these meanings contribute to individuals’ conceptualizations of self. Place identity also relates to the context of modernity, history and the politics of representation.”

Wikipedia: Place identity (link)

So, place meaning contributes to an understanding of self.  In other words, our understanding of the significance of WHERE we are helps us clarify how we understand WHO and WHAT we are.

How does this make sense to you?  What does your where have to do with your what and your who?

Place Attachment

As opposed to place identity, place attachment seems to be more associated with humans’ perception of (and thoughts and feelings about) one or more places:

“Place attachment is the emotional bond between person and place, and one way of describing the relationship between people and spatial settings”

Wikipedia: Place attachment (link)

Things are getting interesting again:  Sense of place (attachment) is based on an emotional bond, associated with relationships between people and places.

What are the places you have relationships with?  Your home(s)?  The town(s) you were born and raised in?  The places where you went away to school or summer camp?  What about those annual vacation spots? 

What kinds of emotional bonds do you have with these places?

Is there relevance to emotions across the spectrum of positivity and negativity to establish meaningful senses of places?  We think this is worth exploring.  What do you think?

What are the effects of the emotional bonds you have forged with “your” places up the relationships you have with those places?

The same Wikipedia entry connects place attachment to the larger concept of sense of place:

“Place attachment is one aspect of a more complex and multidimensional “sense of place”  and cannot be explained simply through a cause and effect relationship.  Instead, it depends on a reciprocal relationship between behavior and experiences.  Due to numerous varying opinions on the definition and components of place attachment, organizational models have been scarce until recent years.  A noteworthy conceptual framework is the Tripartite Model, developed by Scannell and Gifford (2010), which defines the variables of place attachment as the three P’s: Person, Process, and Place.”

Wikipedia: Place attachment (link)

Now we’re getting somewhere.  Sense of place cannot be explained simply as cause and effect, is reciprocal between behavior and experiences, and is associated with person, process, and place.  We agree: nothing is ever this simple, especially when it comes to our growth as ecologically literate beings.  This is why we’re so interested in systems thinking and systems wisdom.

Concerning the reciprocal relationship between behavior and experiences, for us this brings to mind our interest in reciprocal reasoning (negotiating internal and external perspectives of reality).  So: what are some ways these reciprocal relationships might manifest in any given place to help us make sense of that place?

Thinking more about the tripartite model of place attachment, we’re definitely going to spend more time researching this model and the scholars who conceptualized it through their findings.  For now, though: we think it is important to consider the process portion of the model.  How does process play into our sense of place, and how does process play into the way we form this sense of place over time?

One last noteworthy element of place attachment seems to conflate it with “sense of place”, which can be a little confusing:

“Sense of place attachment arises as the result of cultivation of meaning and artifacts associated with created places.”

Wikipedia: Place attachment (link)

This is what piqued our interest: the cultivation of meaning and artifacts associated with created places.  In what ways does each of us cultivate meaning, individually, and with each other?  What kinds of places have you created?  How were these places created?

Sense of Place

We’re still on the fence as to whether the Wikipedia entry for sense of place muddies the waters or clarifies them, since this concept of sense of place seems to be a bit of a moving target that changes size depending on where (and when) you are (looking from):

“The term sense of place has been used in many different ways. It is a multidimensional, complex construct used to characterize the relationship between people and spatial settings.  It is a characteristic that some geographic places have and some do not, while to others it is a feeling or perception held by people (not by the place itself).  It is often used in relation to those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as to those that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging.”

Wikipedia: Sense of Place (link)

There’s quite a bit to unpack from the three sentences we just quoted.  Here’s what sticks out to us most:

• Multidimensional
• Some places have and some do not
• Held by people
• Special or unique
• Authentic belonging

How many dimensions are involved with your concept or understanding of sense of place?  What are those dimensions?

What are the characteristics that make your place what it is?  Why don’t other places have these particular characteristics?

We think this sentiment is really important: Sense of place is held by people, not the place itself.  Sense of place is a concept we’ve made up for ourselves.  What does this mean to you?  How does this perspective change the way you might continue to create your own sense of place?

What about the concepts of special versus unique?  What is the difference between these two terms?  How many “places” have you formed a sense of place about?  What makes these places special or unique?

In what ways do you sense authentic human attachment to any given place?  What makes these attachments authentic?  How does this relate to a sense of belonging to “your” places?

Think about the opposite perspective: can you have authentic attachment and belonging without feeling a sense of place?  Why, or why not?  What makes these kinds of attachment and belonging different?

The Nature of Cities

In 2016, Jennifer Adams, David Greenwood, Mitchell Thomashow,  and Alex Russ published an article in The Nature of Cities series, titled Sense of Place.  Focused on more urban elements of placeness, it’s an excellent read, well worth the time.  Here are two sections we think most relevant to quote for our current purposes.

“Sense of place—the way we perceive places such as streets, communities, cities or ecoregions—influences our well-being, how we describe and interact with a place, what we value in a place, our respect for ecosystems and other species, how we perceive the affordances of a place, our desire to build more sustainable and just urban communities, and how we choose to improve cities. Our sense of place also reflects our historical and experiential knowledge of a place, and helps us imagine its more sustainable future.”

The Nature of Cities: Sense of Place (link)

We like how the authors tie the concept of sense of place to well-being, value, and especially the connection with ecosystems and other species (even in urban environments).  The authors continue, elaborating a bit about what some of the dimensions of a holistic understanding of sense of place might be (likely more obvious in highly populated urban environments):

“People may attribute various meanings to the same place in relation to its ecological, social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, historical, or other aspects. Sense of place evolves through personal experiences, and defines how people view, interpret and interact with their world. In cities, sense of place echoes the intersections of culture, environment, history, politics, and economics, and is impacted by global mobility, migration, and blurred boundaries between the natural and built environment.”

The Nature of Cities: Sense of Place (link)

What are your thoughts about how ecological, social, economic, cultural, aesthetic, and historical aspects of placeness fit into a general concept of sense of place?  How do these aspects or dimensions fit into your own formation of a sense of place?

Placeness

The authors cited above drew our attention to another website, Placeness, run by Edward Relph, a Canadian geographer, emeritus professor, and author of Place and Placelessness (1976), a seminal work in the field of geography.  Relph describes the concept of placeness:

“My view is that the suffix ‘ness’ means ‘a state or condition,’ so for me placeness is a conveniently broad term that allows me to consider everything to do with the diverse qualities, interpretations, uses and experiences of place, from place cells in the hippocampus to a global sense of place.”

Edward Relph, Placeness (link)

Comparing place cells in the brain with a global sense of place, Relph is hinting at the reciprocal reasoning approach we’ve mentioned before.

What are your thoughts on how interpretations, uses, and experience intertwine to help us understand placeness, which is, essentially, the fabric of a sense of place?

We’d highly recommend exploring the entire Placeness website as you have time.

A Virtual Sense of Place

Our friends at Terrain.org have dedicated a section of their website to the exploration of what it means to have a virtual sense of place.  It’s called “Virtual Sense of Place: Terrain.org and the Online Nexus of Literature and Environment”, an Ecological Media Position by Simmons B. Buntin.  Buntin is the founder of Terrain.org.

He begins by quoting the definition of sense of place provided by the Geography Dictionary: “Either the intrinsic character of a place, or the meaning people give to it, but, more often, a mixture of both.”

Later in the article, Buntin leaves us with this sentiment concerning how we should consider forming (and using) a sense of place:

“If we truly seek a sense of place, not just an acknowledgement of a locale’s unique identity, but an understanding and appreciation of the place and its elements — and I wager that we must — then all of the parts are required. It’s not only a matter of who was here first — the standard argument — but also how we are to evolve as a human species. How, instead of living through subtraction, we can exist by addition. Not the multiplication of our own species, but the survival of all species.”

Virtual Sense of Place: Terrain.org and the Online Nexus of Literature and Environment (link)

We recommend reading the entire article about Virtual Sense of Place, continuing with the section Sense of Place As Indicator.

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