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.     

Resource abundance and financial development: Evidence from China

In this paper, we extend the debate on the resource curse by focusing on a new mechanism. Theoretically, resource abundance may have a negative influence on financial development by impacting trade openness, the demand for financial reforms, social capital accumulation and productive investments. Using provincial panel data of China, the empirical analysis confirms such a negative link between mineral resource abundance and financial development. The resource-rich regions tend to have a slower pace of financial development than resource-poor ones. Since the positive relationship between financial development and long-run growth is also confirmed by the analysis, our findings suggest that financial development constitutes an important mechanism through which resource abundance can impact economic performance.     

Place Attachment,Climate Friendly Behavior,and Support for Climate Friendly Management Action among State Park Visitors

This study examined the role of place attachment in determining visitors’ willingness to engage in climate friendly behavior in parks and support for management actions to minimize climate-change impacts. The sample consisted of visitors to Missouri State Parks (n = 1775). Place attachment was measured using 12 items of place identity, place dependence, and social bonding. Exploratory factor analysis of climate friendly behavior items revealed two dimensions: Visit based (i.e., short-term, immediate actions individuals could take during their visit) and Big Picture (i.e., advocacy actions that suggest a long-term engagement with parks). A path analysis demonstrated that the dimensions of place attachment predict climate friendly behavior and support for climate friendly management action in different ways. Specifically, place identity increased climate friendly behavior (big picture) and place dependence increased both climate friendly behavior (visit based) and support for climate friendly management action. Findings from this study provided evidence for the importance of place attachment as a means for engaging visitors in climate-related actions both in and beyond the park setting.     

Taking Environmental Action: The Role of Local Composition, Context, and Collective

This article explores individual and community action taken in response to perceived environmental risks by investigating the determinants of environmental action across a range of action types. A conceptual framework is first presented, which provides a foundation for investigating the role of local compositional (i.e., individual characteristics), contextual (i.e., neighborhood environment), and collective (i.e., social networks) factors in environmental action. To test the utility of the conceptual framework, a quantitative survey was administered to a random sample of households (n = 512) in Hamilton, Canada. The results suggest that the predictors of environmental action vary by action type (i.e., personal change, individual civic action, and cooperative civic action), and that factors related to perceived environmental exposure and social capital generally play a stronger, more consistent role in civic environmental action than sociodemographic or neighborhood factors. The results underscore the role of social connection in responses to perceived environmental risks.     

From NIMBY to enlightened resistance: a framework proposal to decrypt land-use disputes based on a landfill opposition case in France

Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) supporters are presented as citizens in opposition to local developments due to their spatial proximity. However, these conflicts have proven much more complex than the NIMBY concept can explain. The objective of this paper is to provide a framework to facilitate the understanding of opposition movements and how they can affect society at large, triggering social change. The conceptual framework is applied to a case of local opposition to a landfill project in Essonne, France. Through the analysis of the structure of the opposition movement and its changes over time, the author shows how it can evolve into a social movement that enriches democracy through the constitution of four types of capital: social, scientific, patrimonial and political. The author argues that scientific and patrimonial capitals allow social capital to evolve into political capital. The shift from being a self-interest to a civic interest movement is called enlightened resistance, which reveals local public interest, called territorial interests. When studying environmental controversies, the author emphasises the importance of recognizing the evolution through time of (1) social landscape, (2) different types of legitimate knowledge, (3) the role of place attachment, and (4) the political dimension of identities.     

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 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.     

Is there a place for social capital in the psychology of health and place?

The field of environmental psychology is primely placed to further understanding of the way in which social capital influences or is influenced by the context and characteristics of neighbourhood environments, but has been one of the quieter voices in the cacophony of social capital discourse over the last decade. While there is increasing research interest in area and neighbourhood variations in social capital, the mechanisms and causal pathways through which physical environments, social capital and health may be related are not yet clear. More refined unpacking of the relationship between social capital and neighbourhood design, features and settings is required to identify practical intervention points for preserving, fostering and harnessing social capital within communities. Through a review of literature, this paper explores whether there is a place for social capital in the psychology of place and considers the contribution that environmental psychology and related disciplines could make to future social capital research and applications.     

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.     

What makes neighborhood different from home and city? Effects of place scale on place attachment

Several years ago Hidalgo and Hernandez reported a curvilinear, U-shaped, relationship between scale of place (apartment, neighborhood, city) and strength of attachment to the place. In this paper four studies are presented, carried out in four Central-European cities, that (1) confirmed the reported curvilinear relationship using five places (apartment, building, neighborhood, city district, city) in three out of four cities and for five items of the Place Attachment Scale, (2) revealed a consistent curvilinear, inverse U-shaped relationship between scale of place and percentage of variance of place attachment predicted by three groups of factors: physical (type of housing, size of building, upkeep and personalization of house precincts, etc.), social (neighborhood ties and sense of security in the residence place), and socio-demographic (age, education, gender, length of residence, family size), and (3) identified strength of direct and indirect effects of the three groups of predictors on attachment to the five types of places. The curvilinear relationship between place scale and place attachment was particularly strong in highly attractive cities and in those scale items that described people's emotional reactions to places whereas a linear relationship was obtained in the least attractive city and in the items that referred to sense of security, amount of control and knowledge of place. In all four cities the best predicted variable was attachment to middle ranges of the place scale (building and neighborhood). The overall best direct predictor of place attachment was neighborhood ties, followed by direct and indirect effects of length of residence, building size, and type of housing. In conclusion it is argued that the usual choice of predictors of place attachment is biased by researchers' interest in the middle scales of place (neighborhood) at the expense of other place scales. In the paper a claim is made that attachments to smaller (apartments, homes) and larger (city) scales of place along with their unique predictors deserve more attention from environmental psychologists.     

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.     

Crowding and Experience-Use History: A Study of the Moderating Effect of Place Attachment Among Water-Based Recreationists

Effective recreation resource management relies on understanding visitor perceptions and behaviors. Given current and increasing pressures on water resources, understanding crowding evaluations seems important. Beyond crowding, however, variables that possibly relate to or influence crowding are of interest and in particular, place attachment and experience-use history (EUH). As EUH is related to place attachment and likely affects crowding, this study explored the moderating effect of place attachment dimensions on the relationships between EUH and visitor crowding evaluations. Water based recreationists at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers site were contacted onsite and asked questions related to experience-use history, crowding evaluations, place attachment, and activity participation. Anglers and campers at the site identified similar crowding perceptions and place attachments. Only one of eight models tested revealed a moderating effect. Specifically, place identity moderated the relationship between the total times visited in the past twelve months and expected crowding among anglers. As such, the quest continues to understand the relationship among these important variables.     

Effects of Place Identity,Place Dependence,and Experience-Use History on Perceptions of Recreation Impacts in a Natural Setting

It is generally accepted that recreation use in natural environments results in some degree of negative social and environmental impact. Environmental managers are tasked with mitigating the impact while providing beneficial recreation opportunities. Research on the factors that influence visitors' perceptions of environmental and social conditions is necessary to inform sound environmental management of protected natural areas. This study examines the effect of prior experience with the setting and two dimensions of place attachment (i.e., place identity and place dependence) on visitors' perceptions of three types of recreation impacts (i.e., depreciative behavior, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict). Principal components analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to test the study hypotheses using data collected from 351 visitors through on-site questionnaires (response rate of 93 percent). The results show that prior experience exhibited a moderate and significant direct positive effect on place identity, place dependence, and visitors' perceptions of recreation impacts. Contrary to study hypotheses and prior research, neither place dependence nor place identity exhibited a significant effect on the dependent variables. The results show that prior experience causes visitors to be more sensitive to depreciative behaviors, environmental impacts, and recreation conflict. These findings raise concerns over potential visitor displacement and deterioration of site conditions. Implications for resource managers are discussed, which include education, modifying visitor use patterns, and site design strategies.     

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.     

Opponents,waverers or supporters: the influence of place-attachment dimensions on local residents' acceptance of a planned biosphere reserve in Austria

A supportive attitude of residents towards protected areas is crucial for successful implementation and management, particularly in densely populated regions such as Central Europe. While previous studies have revealed that emotional and cultural drivers, as well as information level and group membership, can influence attitudes towards protected areas, the effect of place-attachment dimensions remains unclear. A postal survey among local residents (N = 460) explored factors influencing attitudes towards the Lungau (-Nockberge) Biosphere Reserve in Austria before its official recognition. Results indicated societal support throughout all socio-demographic strata. A logistic regression showed that, besides socio-demographics and information level, place attachment had a significant influence on the acceptance of the biosphere reserve. Supporters and opponents showed both high place identity and dependence, while waverers scored low on these dimensions. Results indicate that place attachment is relevant for the design of participatory processes as well as for developing management policies for biosphere reserves.     

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.     

The Role of Civic Environmentalism in the Pursuit of Sustainable Communities

This paper addresses public participation in sustainability initiatives and in the development of sustainable communities. In particular, it examines two models of public participation in environmental policy, referred to as 'information deficit models', and 'deliberative and inclusionary processes and procedures' (DIPS). The difference between the two models will be examined through the framework of the US discourse of 'civic environmentalism'. Using both examples and an analysis of recent literature, a distinction between 'narrow focus' and 'broad focus' civic environmentalism will be presented. It is argued that 'information deficit models' of public participation usually associated with 'narrow focus' civic environmentalism can successfully contribute to the 'environmental' aspects of sustainable communities. The paper concludes that DIPS and the greater sharing of control by citizens, non-governmental organizations and local governments offered by 'broad focus' civic environmentalism, are far more likely to result in a greater social capital, and a holistic appreciation of the inextricable links between environmental, social and economic characteristics of sustainable communities.     

Linking place preferences with place meaning: An examination of the relationship between place motivation and place attachment

Using data collected from residents surrounding a large urban park setting, we examined the relationship between their motivation to visit the park and their attachment to the setting. Based on the literature suggesting that natural environments provide humans with a variety of desired psychological, social, and physiological outcomes, we hypothesized that these outcomes would motivate respondents to interact with the park environment and facilitate the development of their attachment to the setting. Our data were analysed using covariance structure analysis. The results of this analysis offered partial support for our hypothesized model. Using multidimensional conceptualizations of motivation and place attachment, we observed that not all dimensions of motivation had a significant effect on the dimensions of place attachment. The valence of the significant predictors, however, was consistent with our hypotheses and prior literature.     

The relationship between mining and socio-economic well being in Australia’s regions

This paper examines the relationship between quality of life indicators and the gross value of minerals production from Australian regions. We used quality of life indicators, aggregated for 71 local government areas containing mining activities, of household income, housing affordability, access to communication services, educational attainment, life expectancy, and unemployment. We find no evidence of systematic negative associations between quality of life and the gross value of minerals production. Instead, mining activity has a positive impact on incomes, housing affordability, communication access, education and employment across regional and remote Australia. Whilst we do not establish causality between mining activity and quality of life, our analysis prompts a rethink of the resource curse as it applies within a single country. We did not find evidence of a resource curse, at the local government level, in Australia’s mining regions. Nevertheless, we note observations by many other researchers of negative social impacts on specific demographic sectors, localities, families of fly-in fly-out mining operations, and individuals. This contrast may be a scale issue, with the regional benefits of mineral wealth masking highly localised inequalities and disadvantage. We suggest that there is a need to better understand these impacts and, more importantly, the types of policy mechanisms government and industry can adopt to mitigate or avoid them.     

MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERCEPTION OF RESIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT QUALITY AND NEIGHBOURHOOD ATTACHMENT IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT

This study tests a path model in which residential satisfaction, operationalized in terms of multidimensional perceived residential environment quality (PREQ), predicts neighbourhood attachment considered as the final criterion. Socio-demographic (age, sex, socio-economic level) and residential (length of residence both in the neighbourhood and in Rome, number of persons living together) variables are also included in the theoretical model as predictors of both PREQ and neighbourhood attachment. Using a multidimensional questionnaire for the measurement of PREQ and a unidimensional scale for the measurement of neighbourhood attachment, the study focuses on a sample of 497 inhabitants from 20 different neighbourhoods in the city of Rome. The multidimensional PREQ questionnaire comprises 20 different scales covering four main areas: architectural and town-planning features (six scales); social relations features (three scales); punctual and in-network services (six scales); context features (five scales). First, the path model is tested separately in each area using structural equation analysis. Then, the best predictors emerging from each area, together with all socio-demographic and residential variables, are included in a final model. This model shows both the relevance of predictors from all four areas in predicting attachment, and also a hierarchy between the areas in the power of the prediction (context area giving the most powerful predictors, services giving the weakest ones, architectural and town-planning, and social relations having intermediate importance). Length of residence in the neighbourhood and socio-economic level are the most relevant of the residential and socio-demographic variables. Results are discussed with reference to the multicomponential nature of the process of neighbourhood attachment.