Place Attachment and Place Identity - Essay Example

Many experts, especially in social and human scientists including psychologists and philosophers, believe that a place may not be as objective as people think it is. They believe that a place is more subjective being that it is controlled by the individuals perception and conception. These and many more aspects within and without the individual affect his/her reality in that the person will lack direct access to it. Despite all the factors surrounding the individual and the place, social scientists still believe that there exists an attachment between the person and a place. The experts believe that the person creates two bonds with the place including place attachment and place identity. Therefore, place attachment is an emotional tie one develops with a particular place. Raymond et al. (2010) identify and integrated model towards addressing place attachment. These include the natural, personal and community connections.

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It is a multi-disciplinary field that involves social, physical, and psychological aspects. It is therefore as Casakin, Hernandez, & Ruiz (2015) explain it a psychosocial in nature that has its foundation on positive attitudes and emotional or affective ties towards a given local environment. The process is further characterized by social interactions, which are intense and dynamic. It has a close relation with neighborhood attachment which most studies reveal to be a feeling of satisfaction and belonging for ones residential area whose development is through frequent interactions with neighbors. Lewicka (2008) brings out the place to be an essential component of the environmental branch of psychology. The author believes that there can never be a precise meaning and definition of the place and its differentiation from space. Despite the lack of a measurement tool for the bonds individuals have towards a place, she believes that there exist these relationships including, place identity, attachment, dependence and much more. Place attachment is, therefore, the bond a person creates with places. There are three components of place attachment including behavioral, cognitive, and affective. However, much emphasis is often on the emotional aspect of the place attachment (Lewicka, 2008). There are numerous studies on place attachment about ages or sex but limited evidence on studies related to gender. Therefore, the paper will mainly focus on gender and its relation to place attachment.

The importance of place attachment

Place attachment dictates an essential part of the individuals well-being. As Joffe & Smith (2016) indicate, prosperity will depend on various factors including physical and social aspects, which will determine their place attachment. Through a study they conducted in two major cities in Britain Joffe & Smith (2016)identified that these elements are dominant in the views of those who dwell in the towns and what their feelings are of an appropriate city of the future. The responses of participants were also indications of the reasons why people develop attachments to particular places. On the physical aspects, the researchers identified issues such as the appeal of facilities including the municipal, social, retail, and cultural. There was also the aspect of nature where they viewed green and blue to signify health and open spaces and parks to signify places to escape. Transport, well designed and beautiful cities and big vs. small cities were also some of the aspects that came out during the study. On the social side, there was safety and a sense of community (Joffe & Smith, 2016).

Alarasi et al. (2016) develop a paper in which they aim at the incorporation of children in the development of cities. Various factors within the towns will determine the attachment a child creates with the place, and thus the researchers work on revealing the importance of capturing the perception of children in urban development. The needs of children have often been ignoring despite the fact that they have the ability to recognize various issues within a place and give suggestions for solutions. The researchers move further to identify that the qualities of any childs environment are often four. They are the physical or social and the positive or negative. Their paper identified various positive social conditions to be secure tenure, cohesive community identity, freedom from social threats and a habit of community self-help. There were positive physical qualities, which included freedom of movement, from physical danger, places for, peer gathering, green area, availability of essential services and a variety of settings for activities.

They further identified adverse physical qualities to be litter, heavy traffic, and geographical isolation, lack of basic services, limited gathering places, and limited activity settings. The participants in the study further identified various negative social qualities, which included boredom, fear of crime and harassment, social stigma and exclusion, political powerlessness and racial tensions. Place attachment will also depend on a variety of personal qualities including race, gender, culture, ethnicity, class, liberty, power and much more. The study, therefore, aims at not only analyzing the definition of place attachment critically but also identifying its importance,

Emotional ties in place attachment

As mentioned earlier, the attachment has a solid foundation on an individuals emotionality. The bonds develop because of the affect one expresses towards various aspects of his/her environment. Raymond et al. (2010) develop an explanation of what place attachment comprises of. They believe that the concept is in two components, which include place identity and place dependence. Place identity as the researchers explain it is a composition of the various dimensions within the self. They include a mixture of feelings and emotions towards different aspects that are physical. They include different symbolic connections that give a precise definition of the person an individual is (Raymond, Brown, & Weber, 2010). Emotions are often because of physical stimuli that people experience. An active stimulus will produce emotions like joy or love. Various neurotransmitters experience alterations within the brain leading to a psychological reaction in one's mind a specifically through the expression of a particular emotion. The negative stimulus will also result in unpleasant emotions including anger, sadness and much more.

It is, therefore, evident that emotional ties have an influence on place attachment. Initial and frequent interaction with a place affects the worldview the individual creates towards the environment. Aspects like security and social acceptance will change the type of attachment one creates and in which case the attachment becomes positive. Negative stimuli during the interaction of one with the place like social isolation will lead to the development of negative emotions. In most instances, the type of emotionality one attaches to something will affect the individuals overall view. Therefore, place attachment in a human process that is by emotional ties to a given level. The study will therefore also focus on the influence of emotional ties on place attachment.

Place attachment and place identity

Evidence indicates that the relationship between place attachment and place identity remains to be fuzzy. Many researchers will even use the two terms interchangeably. However many of these researchers recognize the importance of place identity as much as they do place attachment. Place identity often stems from the very essence of the place and has an intimate relationship with place attachment. One could say that as an individual develops place attachment, the creation of place identity is inevitable. As Casakin, Hernandez, & Ruiz (2015) explain place identity is a significant part of ones identity of the self and is evident through individual values, ideas, preferences, and objectives that are always relevant to the place. Place identity also manifests through how the person comprehends and understands the place. Hernandez, Carmen Hidalgo, Salazar-Laplace, & Hess, (2017) find an intrinsic motivation to place attachment and place identity. They explain that place identity forms an essential part of ones identity and thus affects the type of attachment on develops with a place. Place identity, therefore, becomes the procedure through which an individual describes him/herself as being part of a particular place through a continue interaction with that place. The researchers, however, identify the issue lack of clarity to the relationship that exists between place attachment and place identity.

The concepts may appear similar, and in some instances, people use them as synonyms. In other cases, the attachment is operationalized regarding identity. Some individuals may view one component as including the other for example place attachment may be recognized as an element of place identity. However, in a broader sense place attachment is regarded as a multidimensional construct that includes dependence on place, place attachment and many social bonds. The study therefore, will, work on defining conceptually and critically the relationship that is present between the two constructs.

The formation of relationships with the environment

Lewicka (2017) recognizes the presence of various aspects within the place an individual is attached to. They include neighborhoods, region, country, continent, open vs. closed, open vs. gated, the type of social place and capital, preferences that are individually differentiated and much more. All these concepts are part of ones environment, and they often work as determinants of the type of relationship the individual creates with his/her environment. About this, Joffe & Smith (2016) talk about personal preferences of future cities, and this stems down to the environment. Personal well-being is dependent on the environment, and negative environmental factors like carbon emissions affect the quality of ones well-being. Therefore, it is safe to say that people will create relationships with the environment; it is the whole essence of place attachment. However, the type and quality of the relationship that develops highly lean on various aspects within and without the environment.

About the environment, Lewicka (2010) recognizes various factors that surround the formation of bonds with one's environment. These include the scale of the place, the neighborhood, the home, or dwelling and the city or district. They are pillars of an individuals environment and the relationship created is dependent on various factors within these pillars including social ties, family and socio-economic status and much more. Spencer & Woolley (2000) take a different look at the issue of relationship formation with the environment. Their focus is on children and the environment not only the physical but the emotional too. They believe that those children from urban areas suffer neglect especially when identifying factors to consider for city construction and development. Their emphasis is more on understanding various behavior settings for children than just a general look at their personal characteristics.

It is essential to get a precise picture of the environmental preferences of children to enable them to develop healthy relationships with particular environments they interact with. It calls for the inclusion of what they prefer especially in urban area environments throughout the construction and development process. It will ensure that they do not feel like outsiders but can easily ident...