Sense of Place

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Sense of Place

• Mary Claire McGovern, Ashley Allen,
• Ashton Fink

High Mountain Institute, Leadville, CO
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Take Home Messages

• What is Sense of Place?
• Why is it important to develop?
• How can we communicate it?
• Sense of Place Maps

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What Does Sense of Place Mean to You?
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What is Sense of Place?

• Affective cognitive bonds with a place
• Person-place relationships
• Sense of belonging
• Refining place memories
• Ecological roots

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Why is it important to develop sense of place?

• To be present
• To better understand our perspective of the
  world/our identity
• To discover our roots
• To establish an environmental ethic

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A difficult topic to express
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Sense of Place Maps

• Cognitive maps are forms of storytelling that
  provide a way to place our various journeys in
  perspective.
• Mitchell Thomashow

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Make your map!Personal Ecological Roots
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Follow-Up

• How did this activity enhance your awareness of
  your own sense of place?
• Was mapping an effective way of communicating
  your sense of place?
• What would you change when doing this activity
  with your students?

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We abuse land because we regard it as a
commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a
community to which we belong, we may begin to use
it with love and respect. Aldo Leopold
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Sources
DeBlieu, Jan. Spring 1994. Mapping the Sacred
Places. Orion 13 (2) 18-23. Hutson, G. and L.
Bailey. December 2008. Awakening Place
Awareness during a 2\30-Day Wilderness Leadership
Program. International Journal of Wilderness 14
(3) 23-28. Kyle, G.T., A. J. Mowen, and M.
Tarrant. 2004. Linking place preferences with
place meaning An examination of the relationship
between place motivation and place attachment.
Journal of Environmental Psychology 24 439-54.
MacLean, R. 2002. Being here now
Environmental Education Notebook, ed. J. Gookin
and D. Wells (17-19). Lander, Wy The National
Outdoor Leadership School. Shostak, E. May 2008.
A Field Guide to Sensing Places. Nols
Newsletter. Thomashow, M. Spring 1994. The
Place Where I Live. Orion 13 (2) 2-3.
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A place is like a fractal the more we explore
it, the more we realize how the place expands
beyond our limited perceptual sphere.Mitchell
Thomashow