Abstract
When immigrants move to a new city, they tend to develop distinct relationships with the urban landscape, which in turn becomes the new setting of their routine-based activities that evolve over time. Previous works in environmental psychology have quantitatively examined non-native residents' development of sense of place towards their new environment. In this paper, we introduce the spatial perspective into studying the sense of place experienced by non-natives in an urban context. We study the person-place bonds, relationships, and feelings cultivated by non-native residents living in the city of Lisbon (Portugal) through an online map-based survey. Then, we carried out spatial analysis aimed at distinguishing and visualizing the different facets of sense of place developed by two participant groups: short-term residents and long-term residents. Results showed that while short-term residents reported bonds with places, long-term residents' senses of place were more intense and broader throughout the city. The correlations, associations, and relationships between participant groups and the dimensions of sense of place allowed us to observe features and patterns that were previously described in the literature, although adding the spatial lenses can potentially provide better insights for urban planning, community development, and inclusive policies.
Highlights
We have studied the construct of sense of place using dimensions operationalized mostly within environmental psychology, while supporting our conceptual background and interpretations in light of GIScience and human geography
A section consisted of two parts: initially, we incited the participants to think about specific places according to the respective dimension, we asked them to draw the areas in the city that would answer a set of specific questions; secondly, we presented one statement that reinforced the relationship between the participants and the areas they had just drawn
For those who shared their residence area, most of the postal codes lay within central areas of the municipality, except for four participants whose residence locations were placed outside the city, yet still in Lisbon’s metropolitan region
Summary
The absolute, objective, coordinate-based geographic space is conceptually more difficult to grasp when compared to the relative, multi-dimensional, subjective, and perceptual perspective that people have of their surroundings Embracing this viewpoint, we approach the concept of place contextualized as it is in the field of human geography, which carries the nuances of feelings, symbols, perceptions, and meanings that individuals develop towards the geographic world through cognitive, affective, and behavioral mechanisms [54]. Extending the concept of place and grounding on studies in environmental psychology, we conceptualize sense of place as the construct that embeds the bonds, attachments, or relationships that individuals or groups of people foster towards meaningful locations [58]. Studies on sense of place from different disciplines have been exploring and unfolding the several facets the construct can hold [8, 9, 14, 44, 45]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
