Abstract
AbstractSense of place holds promise to understand how people perceive and respond to social and ecological change; however, using this concept to explore vulnerability and adaptation first depends on identifying the multiple ways people define their relationship with a place.We introduce the meaning‐dependence framework to account for the broad array of person–place connections within social–ecological landscapes.We applied this framework to private landowners in the Southern Great Plains of the United States, a working landscape experiencing ecological transformation from grasslands to degraded woodlands.Using a mail survey, we explored the structure of sense of place based on the relationship between place meanings and place attachment. We employed complementary analytical methods: correlation analysis, ordinary least squares regression, and machine learning through a regression tree and random forest.Place meanings explained a large amount of variation in place attachment and were characterized by intercorrelations and interactions. Across analyses, experiential meanings reflecting personal psychological connections to one's land were the predominant drivers of landowners' place attachment.Way of lifeemerged as a central meaning for understanding sense of place on private lands.The meaning‐dependence framework builds on existing research to account for the multiple ways meanings inform human connections to a place. This framework is broadly applicable to any setting and can capture diverse configurations of person–place relationships and increase the utility of sense of place in social–ecological research.A freePlain Language Summarycan be found within the Supporting Information of this article.
Highlights
Introduction1. Sense of place holds promise to understand how people perceive and respond to social and ecological change; using this concept to explore vulnerability and adaptation first depends on identifying the multiple ways people define their relationship with a place
Integrating concepts from the sense of place literature with private landowner and working lands research, we propose an alternative conceptualization of and measurement approach to sense of place that addresses the need to enhance its applicability to social–ecological research
Woody plant expansion varies greatly across the three ecoregions, with conversion most extensive in the Edwards Plateau, intermediate in the Central Great Plains, and minimal within the Flint Hills (Wilcox et al, 2018). This ecological transformation is intimately tied to the management decisions of landowners because the study area is over 90% privately owned and sense of place may guide how landowners adapt to such change (Assal et al, 2015; Masterson, Stedman, et al, 2017)
Summary
1. Sense of place holds promise to understand how people perceive and respond to social and ecological change; using this concept to explore vulnerability and adaptation first depends on identifying the multiple ways people define their relationship with a place. 2. We introduce the meaning-dependence framework to account for the broad array of person–place connections within social–ecological landscapes. We applied this framework to private landowners in the Southern Great Plains of the United States, a working landscape experiencing ecological transformation from grasslands to degraded woodlands. 4. Using a mail survey, we explored the structure of sense of place based on the relationship between place meanings and place attachment. Experiential meanings reflecting personal psychological connections to one's land were the predominant drivers of landowners' place attachment. Way of life emerged as a central meaning for understanding sense of place on private lands
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