Place attachment: How far have we come in the last 40 years?

This paper reviews research in place attachment and organizes the material into three sections: research, method, and theory. A review of several hundred empirical and theoretical papers and chapters reveals that despite mobility and globalization processes, place continues to be an object of strong attachments. The main message of the paper is that of the three components of the tripartite model of place attachment (Scannell & Gifford, 2010a), the Person component has attracted disproportionately more attention than the Place and Process components, and that this emphasis on individual differences probably has inhibited the development of a theory of place attachment. Suggestions are offered for theoretical sources that might help to fill the gaps, including theories of social capital, environmental aesthetics, phenomenological laws of order, attachment, and meaning-making processes that stem from movements and time-space routines.     

The influence of place attachment, and moral and normative concerns on the conservation of native vegetation: A test of two behavioural models

This study examines the influence of place attachment, values, beliefs and personal norms about environmental action on the conservation of native vegetation in two primary production settings in South Australia. We use regression and multiple mediation analyses to test a base model of pro-environmental behaviour which includes variables from value-belief-norm (VBN) theory and then compare it to an expanded model which includes the same variables and five dimensions of place attachment. The expanded model including place attachment explained up to twice the amount of variance in native vegetation planting than the base model when controlling for all variables preceding behaviour, but the overall explanatory power was low (<22%). Place attachment had a stronger influence on the antecedents of behaviour compared with the behaviour itself, particularly nature bonding which was a significant moderate predictor of both personal norms and awareness of consequences in the two study regions. We assert that place attachment has statistically significant direct and indirect effects on variables included in VBN theory. Future studies may reveal stronger effects in settings where there are fewer resource and monetary costs associated with pro-environmental behaviour.     

流动性视角下乡村旅游地游客地方感差异分析

基于流动性理论,以400份北京居民的调查问卷为样本,分析了乡村旅游者流动中的地方感差异,从游客地方感角度为流动市场中的乡村发展寻找途径。结果表明:不同游客群体间存在明显的地方感差异,且地方感知(自然维度、人文维度、服务感知)对地方情感(地方依恋、地方忠诚)存在显著影响,地方情感对重构乡村地方、延续乡村性具有重要意义。基于研究结论,建立乡村旅游者地方感研究模型。     

The Influence of Place Attachment and Experience Use History on Perceived Depreciative Visitor Behavior and Crowding in an Urban National Park

Research on recreational place attachment suggests that place identity, or the emotional/symbolic ties people have to places, and place dependence, which describes a functional attachment to a specific place, influence the perception of social and environmental site conditions. Recent research, however, has found that place attachment is not always a predictor of such perceptions. This study investigated the influence of place attachment and experience use history on the perception of depreciative visitor behavior, recreation impacts and crowding in an urban national park. In 2006, 605 on-site visitors to the heavily-used Viennese part of the Danube Floodplains National Park were asked about past experience, place attachment, perceptions of depreciative visitor behavior, crowding, changes in visitor numbers during the past ten years, and recreation impacts on wildlife. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two dimensions of place attachment. Linear regression analyses found that place identity and place dependence were related to some perceived depreciative visitor behaviors and visitor number changes but not to crowding, while experience use history additionally related to perceived crowding. Visitors with higher place attachment and past experience were more sensitive to social and environmental site conditions. Management implications of the findings are discussed.     

PRIVACY REGULATION AND PLACE ATTACHMENT: PREDICTING ATTACHMENTS TO A STUDENT FAMILY HOUSING FACILITY

Although similar processes and functions have been proposed for privacy regulation and place attachment, little theoretical or empirical work encompasses both constructs. In the present study, a theoretical model relates privacy regulation to place attachment in the home. According to this model, the home setting may either facilitate or inhibit privacy regulation with family. When regulation is facilitated, family functioning and feelings of control should be enhanced, promoting attachments to the home.Questionnaire data from student family apartment residents supported this model. Residents who reported greater ease in regulating privacy with family also reported greater apartment attachment. Analyses suggested that this relationship was mediated by family functioning and feelings of control. Similar relationships were found for three different types of attachment.By bridging across concepts often treated separately, the model supported in this study suggests new directions for theoretical and empirical study, and new applications for housing policy and design.     

Personal Wilderness Relationships: Building on a Transactional Approach

Wilderness managers are charged with the challenging goal of balancing resource protection and experience quality across a broad, value-laden landscape. While research has provided insight into visitors’ motivations and their meanings for wilderness, a struggle exists to implement experiential concepts within current management frameworks. This research posits the human experience of wilderness to be an evolving, enduring relationship, and that research needs can be addressed by conceptualizing and investigating an individuals’ personal wilderness relationship. The purpose of this study was to explore wilderness relationships of visitors to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. A predictive model was proposed to investigate the internal dimensions of a visitor’s wilderness relationship. A mail-back questionnaire was distributed during the summer of 2007, resulting in a sample of 564 respondents. Data were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results from testing several relationship models provided support for a multidimensional structure consisting of five factors with a single overarching relationship factor. The preferred relationship model indicated the importance of identities and attachment in place relationships. Trust and commitment toward management were also important considerations. This research provided the preliminary evidence for a multidimensional wilderness relationship model and complements a perspective of wilderness experiences as wilderness. Findings may help to reframe decision-making and public-input processes that guide management actions to increased wilderness character protection and facilitate quality wilderness experiences.     

旅游网站中旅游经历分享行为的影响因素研究--基于感知互动性

以S-O-R理论为框架,结合感知互动性理论与价值理论,构建旅游网站中旅游经历分享行为的研究模型。结果表明:①用户在使用旅游网站过程中的感知互动性正向影响其对该网站信息价值的感知程度、自我呈现的满足程度和社会认同的满足程度。②用户对旅游网站的感知互动性会通过社会认同的满足促进用户的分享行为。③用户对旅游网站的感知互动性会通过信息价值感知和社会认同满足促进用户的分享意愿,而用户的分享意愿正向影响其分享行为。     

Investigating urban migrants' sense of place through a multi-scalar perspective

This paper investigates the interconnections between sense-of-place dimensions across different geographical scales. While existing knowledge on sense of place has demonstrated that place meanings rest at various scales, little attention has been devoted to exploring how sense-of-place dimensions at different geographical scales can be interconnected in forming a multi-scalar construction of place meanings. In this paper, we approach this under-theorization of multi-scalarity of sense of place by looking at urban migrants’ sense of place at two geographical scales - a community culture center and the city of Guangzhou, China. In so doing, we also contribute to the scholarship on Chinese urban migrant, particularly in terms of how urban migrants reestablish their psychological connections with place of destination through specific place experiences. Our research methodology combines both quantitative (structural equation modeling analysis with 104 questionnaires) and qualitative (12 in-depth interviews) approaches. Quantitative study reaches a structural model that has not been observed by existing research, while qualitative data provide strong empirical evidence in support of the statistical relations in the structural model. Major findings in this research include: 1. at the scale of culture center, place dependence contributes strongly to both place identity and place attachment, while the latter two dimensions can be seen as parallel constructs; 2. at the scale of Guangzhou, place dependence is a dimension independent of both place identity and place attachment, and on the other hand, it is place identity that has a strong impact on place attachment; 3. migrants’ place dependence on the culture center significantly influences their place identity to Guangzhou, which further contributes to the migrants’ place attachment to the city. Although the scope of this research is limited in its sampling and research location, the empirical evidence in this paper provides a basis to argue that the construction of sense of place involves the working of sense-of-place constructs at various geographical scales. Particularly, we also argue that connecting different places across geographical scales requires a delicate network that involves various sense-of-place constructs that work both within and across scales.     

The relations between natural and civic place attachment and pro-environmental behavior

The relation between place attachment and pro-environmental behavior is unclear. Studies have reported that place attachment is associated both with more and less pro-environmental behavior. To help clarify this, we distinguished two dimensions of place attachment: civic and natural, and explored their respective influences on pro-environmental behavior. A community sample of residents (N = 104) from two proximate towns with different environmental reputations reported the strength of their civic and natural place attachment, their performance of various pro-environmental behaviors, and a number of sociodemographic characteristics. Regression analyses revealed that natural, but not civic place attachment predicted pro-environmental behavior when controlling for the town, length of residence, gender, education and age. This demonstrates that research and theory on place attachment should consider its civic and natural dimensions independently.     

Disruption to place attachment and the protection of restorative environments: A wind energy case study

Deepening understanding of public responses to large-scale renewable energy projects is of academic and practical importance, given policies to lessen fossil fuel use in many countries. Although the NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) concept is commonly used to explain public opposition, the concept has been extensively critiqued. This study applies an alternative approach based upon the notion of disruption to place attachment, and the theory of social representations, with a focus upon the symbolic meanings associated with a proposed project and the places affected by it. Empirical data is provided from a case study of a proposed 750 MW offshore wind farm in North Wales, using group discussions and questionnaires distributed to local residents in two coastal towns (n = 488). Results indicate significant differences between each town's residents in their responses to the project, and how opposition arises from nature/industry symbolic contradictions: between a place represented in terms of scenic beauty that provides a restorative environment for residents and visitors, and a wind farm that will industrialise the area and ‘fence’ in the bay. In one of the towns, the data suggests that contradiction between project and place was experienced as a threat to identity for those with strong place attachment, leading to negative attitudes and oppositional behaviour. Levels of trust in key actors moderated the relation between place attachment and negative attitudes to the wind farm. The results provide further evidence of the role of place attachment in shaping so-called ‘NIMBY’ responses to development proposals, and challenge the assumption that offshore wind farms will prove less controversial than those onshore.     

Place attachment,identification and environment perception: An empirical study

The relationship between people and places is characterized by affective and cognitive dimensions, defined, respectively, as place attachment and identification. This paper aims at clarifying differences between place attachment and identification by (1) identifying their predictors in a structural equation model and (2) exploring their association with the environmental perception. To this purpose, we conducted a research on a sample of 328 residents of a city in the north of Italy. Results show that the affective and the cognitive dimensions (1) are directly predicted by different demographical and psychosocial variables and (2) are strictly associated to the perception of the place and its inhabitants. Place attachment and identification are two distinct but correlated components. Semantic contents related to the environmental perception are described in respect to different levels of attachment and identification.     

The measurement of place attachment: Personal,community, and environmental connections

Place attachment has been researched extensively in the social and behavioural sciences over the past two decades. However, it is challenging for researchers to assimilate the mixed messages presented in the place attachment literature and to understand the multiple place attachment terms. In this study, a four-dimensional model of rural landholder attachments to their natural resource management region was conceptually and empirically developed with the aim of developing an integrated approach to the measurement of place attachment that clearly distinguishes between different elements of place scholarship. A 29-item place attachment scale with the dimensions of place identity, place dependence, nature bonding, and social bonding was tested on a random sample of rural landholders in the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia (N = 320). The majority of respondents were male (69.3%) and the average age was 59 years. The scale was reduced to 20-items and then administered simultaneously and in the same response format to rural landholders in two other areas of South Australia: the Northern and Yorke region (N = 664) and South Australian Murray-Darling Basin region (N = 659). In both studies, the majority of respondents were male (85%) and the average age was 55 years. Exploratory factor and reliability analyses of Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges and Northern and Yorke datasets produced a five-dimensional model of place attachment with high reliabilities. Social bonding divided into the constructs of family bonding and friend bonding. The refined five-dimensional model was then examined for convergent validity, with moderate but significant correlations found between individual attachment constructs and dependent variables expected to be related to the construct, such as place identity and length of residence, and nature bonding and time currently spent in nature. We used confirmatory factor analysis to test the goodness-of-fit of the South Australian Murray-Darling Basin (SAMDB) dataset to the proposed five-dimensional model and then compared its fit to the traditional two-dimensional model of place identity and place dependence. The five-dimensional model provided moderate fit for the SAMDB data. We conclude with a discussion of the validity and reliability of the five-dimensional model and its future role in place attachment research.     

Ways to make people active: The role of place attachment, cultural capital, and neighborhood ties

This paper tries to reconcile two sets of apparently contradictory results. One is the positive link, postulated in literature, between place attachment and civic activity, the other is the sociological claim that there is a negative relationship between place attachment and a person's social and cultural status (cultural capital), which in turn is known to be the strongest positive predictor of civic involvement.In order to resolve this inconsistency, I postulated two alternative paths leading to civic activity: the social–emotional path, in which the relationship between place attachment and civic activity is mediated by local social capital (neighborhoods ties), and cultural path, consisting of cultural capital and interest in own roots. I also postulated a negative link between place attachment and cultural capital.A representative sample of 1328 subjects, coming from three regions of Poland, differing in historical heritage and objective rootedness of inhabitants, was used for analysis. In a series of structural equations, the two-path model was confirmed both in the whole sample and in each of the three regions separately. Similar results were obtained from a separate analysis run on data clustered into 114 communes.     

Learning for Sustainability Among Faith-Based Organizations in Kenya

The complex and unpredictable contexts in which environmental and development work take place require an adaptable, learning approach. Faith-based organizations (FBOs) play a significant role in sustainability work around the world, and provide a unique setting in which to study learning. This paper explores individual learning for sustainability within two FBOs engaged in sustainability work in Kenya. Learning outcomes covered a broad range of areas, including the sustainability framework, environment/conservation, skills, community work, interpersonal engagement, and personal and faith development. These outcomes were acquired through embodied experience and activity, facilitation by the workplace, interpersonal interaction, personal reflection, and Bible study and worship. Grounded categories were compared to learning domains and processes described by Mezirow’s transformative learning theory. The findings indicate that for learning in the sustainability field, instrumental learning and embodied learning processes are particularly important, and consequently they require greater attention in the theory when applied in this field.     

Harnessing place attachment for local climate mitigation? Hypothesising connections between broadening representations of place and readiness for change

Public engagement in local environmental planning and decision-making is often advocated on various grounds, both instrumental and normative. Yet in developed countries in the context of renewable energy infrastructure deployment, place attachment, place identity and place-protective action continue to be implicated in public objection. We set out an interdisciplinary change readiness hypothesis of specifically how local participatory scenario or visioning processes that include climate mitigation measures may support the mobilisation of place attachment for climate mitigation, including renewable energy deployment. We hypothesise that local visioning may support movement towards change readiness by helping to anchor unfamiliar social representations of low carbon energy infrastructure and new patterns of urban form in existing, more positive representations of localities and associated attachments. To this end, seeking ways to modify threat perceptions relating to climate change and renewable energy infrastructure is advocated as a key direction for study.     

Place attachment and public acceptance of renewable energy: A tidal energy case study

Efforts by many governments to mitigate climate change by increasing deployment of renewable energy technologies have raised the importance of issues of public acceptance. The ‘NIMBY’ (Not In My Backyard) concept, although popular, has been critiqued as an appropriate and valid way to explain local opposition. This study applies an alternative approach, empirically investigating the role of place attachment and place-related symbolic meanings in explaining public responses to a tidal energy converter in Northern Ireland, said to be the first grid-connected device of its kind in the world. 271 residents in two nearby villages completed questionnaire surveys, three months post-installation, following up preliminary qualitative research using focus groups. Although results indicated predominantly positive and supportive responses to the project, manifest by emotional responses and levels of acceptance, significant differences between residents in each village were also observed. Contrasting patterns of association between place attachment and emotional responses suggest that the project enhanced rather than disrupted place attachments only in one of the two villages. In regression analyses, place attachment emerged as a significant, positive predictor of project acceptance in both places, affirming its value in explaining public response. Place-related symbolic meanings also emerged as significant, with contrasting sets of meanings proving significant in each context. Implications of the findings for research on place attachment and responses to land-use changes, as well as for developers seeking to engage with residents affected by energy projects are discussed.     

Place attachment and place identity: First-year undergraduates making the transition from home to university

This paper examines the issues emanating from the transition into a new social and cultural environment distant from the home, the context of which is provided by the transition from home to university. The study analyses the transitional process over a period of 5 months, using data obtained from in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation of ten first-year undergraduates who moved to study at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham. It explores the mediating variables that impact place attachment and place identity during the transition from home to university. Within this context consideration is given to how participants made sense of changes in their socio-spatial environment, the ensuing problems and challenges of doing so, and how these meanings affected self-perceptions and self-evaluations. The analysis demonstrates how participant's stories of the transition evince an abiding concern with the loss of place, manifest in terms of an erosion of a sense of belonging, attachment and continuity and an undermining of home's capacity to symbolise the self. The implications of such accounts for our understanding of place attachment and identity are then explored. The paper concludes by advocating a holistic approach to our conceptualisation of place, given that place meanings are constantly being evaluated and redefined in light of changing social and physical relationships with place and between people and place.     

Pro-environmental behaviours and park visitors: The effect of place attachment

The purpose of this study was to explore the ability of place attachment to predict place-specific and general pro-environment behavioural intentions. The study sample (n = 355) consisted of visitors to a Canadian national park, Point Pelee National Park. The place attachment scale utilized in this study was designed to measure three subdimensions: place identity, place dependence, and place affect. Exploratory factor analysis of data measured by these scales revealed two place attachment subdimensions. Place affect, an individual’s emotions and feelings for a place, acted as a more generalized or pervasive phenomenon. Place affect items loaded on both the place identity (an individual’s cognitive assessment of a place) and place dependence (an individual’s functional assessment of a place). Structural equation modeling confirmed the strength of place attachment’s ability to predict place-related pro-environment intentions. It also identified place attachment’s prediction of pro-environment behavioural intensions related to everyday life. Place identity mediated the effects of place dependence in predicting pro-environment intentions. Further research which utilizes in-depth and longitudinal case studies is suggested to explore the role of place-specific emotion and feelings, as well as place identity in fostering environmentally-responsible action as these factors are theorized to play an important role in promoting pro-environmental behaviour. Studies of place attachment to everyday settings rather than iconic national parks are also called for.     

Place attachment and place identity in natives and non-natives

Place attachment is an affective bond that people establish with specific areas where they prefer to remain and where they feel comfortable and safe. Place identity, however, has been defined as a component of personal identity, a process by which, through interaction with places, people describe themselves in terms of belonging to a specific place. Most research has observed positive correlations between these variables in populations that have maintained ongoing interactions over long periods of time. This work presents two studies in which we compare place attachment to place identity in samples differentiated according to birthplace and length of residence, and the magnitude of these bonds to different places. The results of the first study revealed differences between intensity of attachment and identity depending on place of origin and place assessed. The second study found that identity and attachment tend to coincide in natives, while individuals from other places give higher scores for attachment than for identity. Results from the two studies have enabled us to consider that place attachment develops before place identity, at least in the case of the non-natives. Both studies reveal that bonds are stronger with the city than with the neighbourhood, but that attachment and identity with the island are stronger than either of them.     

The role of place identity and place attachment in breaking environmental protection laws

Place identity and place attachment have been related to several environmental variables such as appropriation, residential satisfaction, physical care taken of the neighbourhood, restorativeness, environmental attitudes and, especially, pro-environmental behaviour. However, the role of place identity and place attachment has not been analyzed in relation to anti-ecological behaviours such as transgressions of environmental protection laws. The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship of place identity, place attachment and environmental attitudes to the personal and social norms that explain the likelihood of illegal behaviours against the environment. The sample was composed of men and women, aged from 19 to 70 years, who were resident in rural, urban or tourist areas of a territory under high environmental protection. The strongest predictor of environmental transgression is personal norms, whereas place identity and place attachment have no direct relation with future transgression or personal norms. Place identity influences environmental attitudes and social norms, which are both antecedents of personal norms. The results led us to reconsider the efficacy of interventions aimed at encouraging compliance with environmental laws by only emphasizing individuals' bonds with the environment, and the need to extend the study of the role of personal and social norms in environmental protection.