People

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People PlacePo-Hsin Lai
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What does place mean?
po-hsin Subjectively, space is meaningless and
place is meaningful. Our relationship with places
can be interpreted in many different ways. It can
be positive or negative, emotional or rational,
concrete or abstractThere is also a dynamic
relationship between people and places. People
change and the environment changes too.

• Space vs. place
• Relationships between people place
• Positive
• Place identity
• Place attachment
• Sense of place
• Negative
• Place aversion
• Extreme territoriality?

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po-hsin Lynchs theory and the ones by Appleton
(1975), Gibson (1979), and Kaplan Kaplan (1989)
primarily see humans as passive reactors to
environmental stimuli and our preference for
certain types of landscape were developed from
evolution. Humans got to learn what environments
were safe and beneficial, and what environments
were dangerous through evolution. It became an
instinct for us to respond preferably to safe and
beneficial environments. Some scholars refer to
this as biophilia.

• Landmarks, corridors, nodes

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• Prospect
• Refuge

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Why do people develop attachment to places?

• Gibson (1979)
• Landscapes afford benefits
• Kaplan Kaplan (1989)
• Comprehensible landscapes
• Potential for exploration

Nature Conservancy, 2006
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po-hsin Ittelsons transactional theory views
humans as actively pursing, controlling or
manipulating environments to meet their needs.
This is primarily a utilitarian view of
environmental meanings and ignores that there are
also other environmental values (e.g., altruism
and biospherism). This approach also ignores
meanings of environment are also culturally
constructed. Different cultures may interpret the
same landscape differently.
Why do people develop attachment to places?

• Ittelsons (1973) transactional theory
• Symbolic and motivational messages
• Opportunities for human actions, control and
  manipulation

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Why do people develop attachment to places?

• Socio-culturally based interpretation
• Environmental meanings are embedded in the
  socio-cultural context

Traditional practice
Significant landmark
Historical connection
NPS, 2006
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Why do people develop attachment to places?

• Socio-culturally based interpretation
• Group differences
• The dynamic nature of place meaning

Native Americans vs. Recreationists
Subsistence vs. Tourist Attraction
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Why do people develop attachment to places?

• Ecological-based interpretation

Fairy Pitta
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How do we study peoples place attachment

• Survey Please indicate how much you agree or
  disagree with the following statements. (1
  strongly disagree, 5 strongly agree)
• Functional attachment (Place dependence)
• I enjoy Research Park more than any other
  places
• I get more satisfaction out of visiting this
  place than from visiting any other places
• I would not substitute any other places for the
  type of recreation I do here
• Emotional attachment (Place identity)
• This place means a lot to me
• I am very attached to this place
• I identify strongly with this place

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How do we study peoples place attachment?

• Group discussion, interviews with individuals
• Identify different groups or key personnel
• Participatory observation
• Photography
• Diary
• Mapping
• Other sources of information
• Newspaper, documents of public hearings/meetings,
  etc.

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Montrose Restoration Project (Gobster, 2001)
po-hsin Gobsters article provides an example of
how place research can help facilitate
conservation/preservation, public involvement,
and solving conflicts by integrating different
stakeholders perspectives into resource
management.

• Lincoln Park gt 1,200 acres receives 20 million
  visits/year
• Problem landscape degradation and use conflicts

Lake Michigan
Gobster, P. H. (2001). Visions of nature
Conflict and compatibility in urban park
restoration. Landscape and Urban Planning, 56,
35-51.
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Montrose Restoration Project

• Background
• Created from landfill starting in 1929
• Designed in the Prairie Style in 1938
• Taken by the US army between the late 1930s and
  1970s

Montrose Point
Lake Michigan
The prairie style landscape design of Montrose
Meadow
N
N
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Montrose Restoration Project

• Background
• The Chicago birding groups helped maintain the
  area as a bird habitat since the 1980s
• Montrose Point Restoration Project (1997)- to
  restore the natural and cultural landscape

Honeysuckle hedgerow
Unmown meadow
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Montrose Restoration Project

• Study approach
• Focus group discussion
• Workshop
• Public meetings
• Documents from different stakeholder groups
• Newspaper articles, planning and research reports
• Different stakeholder groups
• Birders other environmentalists
• Historic preservationists landscape architects
• Passive users
• Volleyball players
• Anglers
• Yacht club members

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Montrose Restoration Project

• Different views of place meanings
• Designed landscape
• Critical habitat
• Recreation
• Pre-European settlement

Designed landscape
Bird habitat
Montrose Harbor
Pre-European landscape
Volleyball beach
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Montrose Restoration Project

• Commonality Natural status
• Major difference Iconic places

Historic preservationists landscape architects
Birders Environmentalists
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Montrose Restoration Project

• Historic preservationists/landscape architects
  vs.birders/environmentalists
• Solution
• Low growing grasses and forbs planted in the
  meadow
• Lower growing native shrubs to replace the
  honeysuckle hedgerow

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An integrated approach of recreation opportunity
spectrum (ROS)
po-hsin The idea is that different meanings can
be mapped. When the locations of important
meanings and conflicting meanings are identified,
different management strategies can be applied to
maintain important meanings and solve conflicts.
Clark Stankey, 1979
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Two-waves of change in place meanings (Relph,
1997)
po-hsin Relph (1997) provides very good insights
into how and why place meanings were constructed
in different ways during the movement of
modernism and post-modernism. And I think its
very relevant for any resource or place planning
and design. You can download the article from the
RPTS 666 folder in the T drive.

• Modernism
• Democratic ideology
• No space for tradition, convention, decoration,
  or local culture
• Mass-production, standardization, place-less
  designs
• Post-modernism the revival of sense of place
• Yi-Fu Tuans Topophilia- place and diversity,
  self and the environment
• Past, difference, decoration, and
  unpredictability
• Gentrification
• Replication

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Challenges

• Selling or conservation?
• Globalization
• Loss of authenticity
• Global environmental issues
• Socio-demographic change
• Growing number of visitors
• Increasingly diverse visitor groups
• Local development