Abstract
Research on people-place relations, incorporating place attachment and place identity, has often adopted a structural approach, overlooking the dynamic nature of these relations over time. More process-oriented research has tended to investigate the impacts of single moments or events, neglecting a broader focus upon people's life course. To address this gap, this study investigated patterns of residential place attachments ('life-place trajectories') and used these to better understand current place relations and responses to change, including disruption to pre-existing place bonds. Narrative interviews (n = 25) were conducted in 2013 with residents living in Nailsea, a UK town affected by proposals to construct a high voltage power line. Three notable findings emerged. First, the study indicated five novel lifeplace trajectories characterised by diverse configurations of residential mobility and continuity of settlement type. Second, the study extends our understanding of varieties of relationship with the current residence place, including identifying a novel variety of 'traditional-active attachment'. Third, the study indicates the relevance of the trajectories for understanding responses to place change proposals, including acceptance and opposition. The findings show the value of the narrative interview method for revealing place relations across the life course, informing understanding of people-place relations and infrastructure siting.
Highlights
Research on place attachment and related concepts such as place identity and place meanings has burgeoned in recent years across a number of cognate disciplines (Lewicka, 2011)
The structural approach has relatively little to say about the dynamics of people-place relations as processes that might change over time, including how patterns of past residential mobility might influence ways of relating to the current residence place, and how these patterns might in turn be associated with responses to future changes to a place
As far as we are aware, no study to date has investigated the ways in which people talk about and represent their past residential histories – what we describe as their ‘life-place trajectories’ – and examined how these might inform understanding of the type of relationship they have with their current residence place, and the implications these may have for responses to proposals to change the residence place
Summary
Research on place attachment and related concepts such as place identity and place meanings has burgeoned in recent years across a number of cognate disciplines (Lewicka, 2011). Within the psychology literature, the ‘structural’ approach has predominated, using both qualitative and quantitative-based methods to capture the intensity and variety of people-place relations at a specific point in time (Devine-Wright, 2014). The structural approach has relatively little to say about the dynamics of people-place relations as processes that might change over time, including how patterns of past residential mobility might influence ways of relating to the current residence place, and how these patterns might in turn be associated with responses to future changes to a place. Attempts have been made to understand community objections to large-scale energy infrastructure projects, often dubbed ‘NIMBYism’ (Not In My Back Yard; Dear, 1992), as a form of place-protective action arising from strong bonds with the affected place (Devine-Wright, 2009)
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