New Sense Of Place Research Articles

Palenque and Afro-Latino in Los Angeles: Social and Environmental Justice through Mixed Methods

Afro-Latinos, African descendants with Latino ethnicity, have been documented since the 1700s. No geographic studies, however, address the spatial relationships between socioeconomic conditions and environmental risk of Afro-Latinos in Los Angeles, where assumptions of underserved conditions drawn from other minority groups are applied. Palenques, settlements of runaway enslaved Africans in Colombia, became outcast and marginalized through history. In this research we introduce the historical concept of Palenques and propose it as a new sense of place for Afro-Latinos. The methods include descriptive analysis, regression models, spatial autocorrelation models, and factor analysis. They produced a cumulative impact model to estimate life quality. The results show that Los Angeles Palenques have a lower financial status, a higher isolation rate, and higher levels of environmental pollution than the average neighborhoods. The regression models suggest that Latinos of any race have the strongest positive correlation to disadvantaged life quality, whereas the Black population has an extremely weak correlation to vulnerability. Furthermore, the spatial autocorrelation models reveal a strong spatial clustering of highly disadvantaged communities near downtown Los Angeles, where most Latinos of any race live. The main finding of this project challenges previous assumptions about social inequality and environmental injustice toward the multiracial Afro-Latino population.

Green placemaking on the peripheral prairie following a natural disaster

Peripheral areas have utilized placemaking and tourism to address their economic and demographic challenges. When a 2007 tornado destroyed 95% of peripheral Greensburg, Kansas, the city used the subsequent window of opportunity to implement tangible, strategic combined green placemaking and place-making that involved green/advanced technologies and tourism based on the green buildings. However, the technocratic green solutions and placemaking did not fully acknowledge the structural issues related to Greensburg’s peripheral location such as increased transportation and housing construction costs that have hampered the city’s recovery. For peripheral areas following a natural disaster, national and state government support for affordable housing and for linking these areas’ unique assets and entrepreneurs to markets is required to compliment placemaking. Greensburg’s green pedigree also needs to be translated in an ongoing, understandable way to sustainability tourists. For such post-disaster peripheral places, placemaking should not be viewed as a panacea and solely through an economic lens, but rather as part of a long-term strategy for revitalization and for contributing to increased resiliency, community pride, and a new sense of place.

BUILDING SOCIAL CAPITAL: LESSONS FROM A SWISS ACTION-RESEARCH INTERVENTION

Social capital interventions to promote healthy aging seem promising, but recent evidence has questioned how social capital is constructed. In order to understand how social capital is built among older adults, this study draws from the diagnostic phase of one ‘Neighbourhoods in Solidarity’ (NS) intervention, which uses action research to promote wellbeing for older adults (55+) in Swiss communities. These findings arose from ethnographic fieldwork with 77 hours of observation during group gatherings and informal interviews with participants who identified and debated issues in their community. It became evident that the geographic space and the sense of identity that citizens attached to it (herein referred to as ‘place’) played a role in how the NS intervention developed. The community was divided into two groups with distinct identities: one in the north and one in the south. The sense of place for both groups was simultaneously disrupted when outsiders moved to both areas, exacerbating tensions. The NS brought the two groups together and helped develop social capital between them. This was highlighted by the changing willingness of citizens to navigate unfamiliar spaces, to create social ties, and to trust others. The NS helped create a new sense of place for citizens, which ultimately facilitated the creation of social capital in the community. The findings suggest that identities are dynamic and play a role in constructing social capital, as well as who benefits from social capital and who may be excluded. Lessons from this research may inform future social capital interventions.

Giving voice to heritage: a virtual case study

This essay focuses on changing discourses of heritage with reference to concepts of place broadly defined. Our virtual case study is Wim Wenders' series of documentaries entitled Cathedrals of Culture. In this series of 3D films, Wenders invited five other directors to give voice to their favourite buildings. The directors chose classic examples of Western heritage located primarily in European cities. Our contribution explores the human constructions assigned to these buildings and the implications of the anthropomorphisation of buildings for the concept of heritage. With reference to categories of tangible and intangible heritage, we ask whether giving voice to material artefacts challenges the material dominance of architecture for heritage, deepening our sense of place and constituting a step forward for a more dialogical approach to heritage generally. We query the extent to which this filmic anthology reinforces a hegemonic authorised heritage discourse or delivers a postmodern version of ‘spirit of place’. We ask whether this filmic adventure in 3D could effectively generate a new and (re)newed sense of place in other heritage contexts. Our hypothesis is set in the framework of various ICOMOS and UNESCO international charters.

Re-sensing Las Vegas: aesthetic entrepreneurship and local urban culture

Cities are dense, sensory environments that provide various stimuli that require interpretation and representation. The embodied sensuous lived experience of urban life, however, is much more dynamic and fluid than any one representation can encompass. A conflict often emerges between the dominant image of a city and what actually happens in it. As such, this creates a tension about a city’s ‘sense of place.’ I employ the notion of ‘aesthetic entrepreneurship’ to designate the practices of certain individuals who seek to create new senses of place in the face of opposition or in times of social crisis. I explore the ways aesthetic entrepreneurs have used sensory knowledge to create alternative narratives and images of Las Vegas after the economic crash of 2008. Each of the aesthetic entrepreneurs discussed here has actively sought to develop a new sense of place for a city popularly defined by its dominant neon imagery.

Cartophilia: maps and the search for identity in the French-German borderland

The period between the French Revolution and World War II was a time of tremendous growth in both mapmaking and map reading throughout Europe. There is no better place to witness this rise of popular cartography than in Alsace-Lorraine, a disputed borderland that the French and Germans both claimed as their national territory. Desired for its prime geographical position and abundant natural resources, Alsace-Lorraine endured devastating wars from 1870 to 1945 that altered its borders four times, transforming its physical landscape and the political allegiances of its citizens. For the border population whose lives were turned upside down by the French-German conflict, maps became essential tools for finding a new sense of place and a new sense of identity in their changing national and regional communities. Turning to a previously undiscovered archive of popular maps, Cartophilia reveals Alsace-Lorraine's lively world of citizen mapmakers that included linguists, ethnographers, schoolteachers, hikers, and priests. Together, this fresh group of mapmakers invented new genres of maps that framed French and German territory in original ways through experimental surveying techniques, orientations, scales, colors, and iconography. In focusing on the power of bottom-up maps to transform modern European identities, Cartophilia argues that the history of cartography must expand beyond the study of elite maps and shift its emphasis to the democratization of cartography in the modern world.

Remembering with Respect: History, Social Memory and the Cross-Border Journeys of a Charismatic Lue Monk

For over three decades, people's mobility in the borderlands of the upper Mekong region has been reactivated, but simultaneously regulated, by changing state policy. Since the 1990s greater regional cooperation between China and mainland southeast Asian countries in trade and development has resulted in massive and accelerated flows of culture, commodities, capital and information across the borders. This article traces the cross-border movements of one charismatic Buddhist monk, Phra Khru Weruwanpithak (1929–2005), which took place over two decades from the early 1980s to the beginning of the twenty-first century. I argue that this monk's journeys played a significant role in Theravada revivalism in the localities he visited, both in his hometown in northern Thailand, and in other Lue communities in the eastern Shan state of Burma and in Sipsong Panna in southwest China. The practical, religious and architectural activities undertaken by this border-crossing monk not only restored Theravada Buddhist sites in the region, but also created a new sense of place and belonging among the Lue, who have long lived across national borders in the upper Mekong region.

Incredible Edible – social and environmental entrepreneurship in the era of the “Big Society”

PurposeThe purpose of this case study is to allow the exploration of social entrepreneurship, environmental improvement and volunteering in the context of the UK's declared Big Society. Recently, there has been increased interest in “environmental” as well as social entrepreneurship. Volunteering is also an area of growing concern in policy circles, particularly with the advent of the “Big Society”, the UK Government's vision of citizen involvement.Design/methodology/approachThe case was written with both secondary and primary data and with the co‐operation of Incredible Edible. Primary data include street questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews with relevant stakeholders.FindingsIncredible Edible is an environmental initiative started in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. Basically community members – largely volunteers – have looked for opportunities where they could plant and grow fruits and vegetables that others could just help themselves to. Any spare land and space has been seen as suitable. From this the themes of local food growing and self sufficiency have taken over. Over a (short) period of years the initiative has grown and received considerable support from local stakeholders as well as extensive publicity. The initiative has attracted attention elsewhere and not just in the UK. But its real impact has been on the community and its sense of place.Practical implicationsThe data have been used (so far) to write a case that traces the journey of the people behind the initiative, their motives and their impact. It explores a number of themes, namely: social entrepreneurship in action; improving the local environment aesthetically; the Big Society and volunteering; the local economic and social impacts – a new sense of place; improved diets and healthy eating – but also the impact on other local businesses which sell rival food products; how local successes can be replicated elsewhere; and the sustainability of initiatives such as this.Originality/valueThe case demonstrates five important themes that could be seen as a litmus test for the effectiveness of projects and initiatives in the Big Society – namely the presence and commitment of a visionary who provides the purpose and direction, volunteers, velocity – and emergence, visibility, and value.

Generating a new sense of place in the age of the metaview

Photography has always played an important role in forming our sense of place. Individual photographs have been crucial in establishing the significance of special places in Australian culture. Now, however, the digital revolution and the online revolution have opened up new possibilities for creating expanded photographic views of Australian places from archival photographs and uploaded personal photographs. These go beyond the conventional single frame into what we call a “metaview”, a coherent view made up of multiple online images. How is this emerging form, hosted by libraries, museums and major websites, affecting the formation of a sense of place in Australia?

‘Quake brain’: Coping with the series of earthquakes in Christchurch

‘Quake brain’: Coping with the series of earthquakes in Christchurch

Altered Places: The Impact of the 1996 Manchester Bomb

In June 1996 the city centre of Manchester was destroyed by an IRA bomb. Eight years later the landscape has been transformed and a newly regenerated area - the Millennium Quarter - has been created. There is undoubtedly a new sense of place attached to the creation of the Millennium Quarter. This paper will draw on qualitative interview data from users of the area before, during and after the bomb. Important questions are how was a new sense of place created? and How has this impacted on the image of the city? Using the work of Lynch (1960) it will be argued that the image of the city has been transformed, due to the inclusion of new landmarks and monuments in the setting. The work of Tuan (1977) will also be used as an analytical tool to examine how place is defined. It is envisaged that by using data drawn from a sample of various everyday past and present users of the site, that an authentic picture of people's lived experience will be communicated.

Investigating New Wireless Technologies and Their Potential Impact on Children's Spatiality: A Role for GIS

AbstractThis paper outlines exploratory research undertaken by the “A New Sense of Place?” Project in Bristol, UK, into the potential new, location sensitive, computing technologies may have for enhancing urban children's socio‐spatial practices. The paper describes a series of workshops held with children in which mapping activities and use of the technologies are supported by the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS). The paper suggests that sound‐enabled GIS could play a major role in the management of such technologies.

Analysing the intangible benefits of work space

Social work space is emerging as a major avenue for sharing knowledge and the creation of social capital. Social space and physical space needs to be in balance. Virtual space must also be included in this mix. The physical work environment can support the new sense of place and space in the knowledge work. This paper discusses how to use tangible assets to make intangible social space perform better. In this paper the problem is approached by analysing the balance between physical, social and virtual space. The method used is based on “type” analysis, which uses the structure of a four‐quadrant model based on twin axis for the knowledge production circle. The focus is on the space needed in different phases of creating knowledge. The results of the pilot test show that work environments tend to support explicit knowledge sharing but fail to support tacit knowledge exchange.

'A New Sense of Place?' Mobile 'Wearable' Information and Communications Technology Devices and the Geographies of Urban Childhood

In this paper we describe a new research initiative, 'A New Sense of Place?', which involves the collaboration of private- and public-sector partners. Its purpose is to explore and develop the interface between children and new mobile 'wearable' computing and communication devices. The research team is particularly interested in how these new technologies might be applied to help children (re-)engage with urban spaces. In the paper we give a description of wearable computing devices; briefly set out some contexts of children's geographies into which they are emerging; and describe the rationale and objectives of the project. We then give an account of a two-day workshop in which 10 children were introduced to and enabled to experience, work with and respond to these new technologies. The research shows that children are capable of handling and exploiting these technologies and are able to conceptualise their incorporation into their everyday lives. Also, it reveals that the creation of 'virtual' digital landscapes, which these technologies allow, has the potential to represent adult-ordered spaces in more 'child-friendly' forms. Lastly, the programme opens up new questions of power, surveillance and childhood-technology relations.

The New Sense of Place in 19th-Century News

In this article the early historical development of the concept of place in news is analyzed. Most news studies concentrate either on the content of news (or on the `event') or, if they pay attention to the geography of news, as in the news flow tradition, they concentrate on the states the news originates from. However, it is places, not states where most news comes from. This article examines how sense of place was constructed in electronic foreign news in the mid-19th century. Theoretically, it draws upon the works of phenomenological geographers. In contrast to Meyrowitz's argument of `no sense of place', it is argued that news also increases sense of place by organizing space, and its readers are able to distinguish between `there' (where news comes from) and `here' (where home is). Instead of losing their sense of place, readers are able to become more aware of their sense of place and acquire a new sense of place.

Protean places: teams across time and space

Proteanism is about the simultaneous disruption of place and the seeking of a new sense of place. These metaphorical concepts of the fluid yet grounded, the shape shifting and consolidation, and the evolving creation of a sense of place are applied to a discussion of changing organizational forms and communicative processes. These new formings within ever-changing forms are referred to as Protean Places. The protean concepts of sequentiality, simultaneity, and sociality are examined within the context of what we know about changing organizational forms, major communicative processes, and the history of a virtual customer service team organized across time and space. Finally, the metaphor of Protean Places and the case study are utilized to provide direction for future research, theory building, and practical application in organizational communication.

All talk: the talkshow in media culture

Acknowledgments Introduction: The Sense of the Talkshow 1. Turning to Talk: The Talkshow's Development 2. Constellations of Voices: How Talkshows Work 3. Making Sense and Nonsense: Talk about the Talkshow Postscript: A New Sense of Place Notes Index

Residential cluster based on climate and energy considerations

Responsive architecture in general and solar design in particular have been directed in recent years mainly towards the development of individual buildings. This article presents a project for the design of a cluster of 100 residential units in the cold highlands of the Israeli desert — the Negev. The project shows the transformation of environmental conditions to built form at different scales: the entire cluster, the individual building and the architectural components of the building. The trajectory of the sun in winter and summer, the direction of strong disturbing winds, and the daily and annual temperature readings are form determinants that establish the structure of the project. It is suggested that an expansion of this design approach can create a “solar urbanism” that will enhance the adaptation of settlements to their environments and thus form a “new sense of place” that so often does not exist in contemporary town planning and architecture. This project is the winning entry of a national competition for the design of “an urban cluster based on climate and energy considerations” organized by the Ministries of Housing & Construction, and Energy & Infrastructure, together with the Israeli Association of Engineers and Architects.

American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States by James Hennesey, S.J.

noo:K REVIEWS 157' American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States. By James Hennesey, S.J. New York: Oxford University Pxess, 1982. Pp. 397. $19.95. The preparation of a comprehensive history indicates a new self-consciousness on the part of the community it is written within and about and suggests that one era of that community's history is at an end and another beginning. John Gilmary Shea's History of the Catholic Church in the United States (1886-92) came at the time when it seemed that the great dream of a church that could be both Catholic and American was nearing fulfillment. John Tracy Ellis's .American Catholicism (1956) and Thomas McAvoy's A Histo1·y of the Catholic in the United States came when it seemed that the failure of American Catholics to be both Catholic and American might be ending. Father Hennesey's study suggests a whole new consciousness among American Catholics, a new maturity, a new sense of place in American culture and history. American Catholics is quite different from its predecessors in its historical methods and assumptions. Earlier historians emphasized the unity of the American church : American Catholics presented a solid front to the challenge of American Protestant anti-Catholicism; they were united by shared devotions and a common loyalty to the pope; and they participated in the shared task of creating and sustaining a church in the complicated world of the United States. The first noteworthy assumption of this new history is that the American church has always been a complex community in which diversity has frequently erupted into bitter conflict. Diversity has been rich indeed: American Catholics includes helpful sketches of the history of Afro-American Catholicism, of the values and practices of the Hispanic church of the west and southwest, and of the deep piety of Native American Catholics. But the tensions have been sharp as well. The many ethnic groups which contributed rich and ancient traditions to the shaping of American Catholicism usually resented and mistrusted each other; in some cases, long and debilitating rivalries developed. Clergy and laity have often competed for authority and power and have diverged in their understandings of what is best for a particular community. The trustee controversies of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are the best known examples of this tension, but there have been many others. Hispanic Catholics of the southwest suspected that the missionaries sent to them by the American hierarchy were there to impose a foreign culture on them. Catholics found themselves on both sides of the Civil War, when regional loyalties eclipsed their shared faith. White Catholics, as Hennesey unflinchingly shows, have not welcomed Black Catholics into their 158 BOOK REVIEWS churches. Nor has the intellectual life of American Catholics been homogeneous : Hennesey's complex picture of American Catholicism inc:udes the avant garde clergy who constituted a modernist school in New York City in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This complexity reveals the confidence of Hennesey's history : twenty years ago, these conflicts would not have been mentioned, let alone treated so seriously and calmly. This church took shape in an equally complicated society. Competition, hostility, and, much more rarely, cooperation characterized the relations between Catholics and Protestants in a nation which had established a Protestant social consensus in place of an established church. The United States is anti-Catholic in its deepest roots and American Catholic historians before Hennesey tended to construct their histories around this reality. Marked as foreign by the styles of its devotion and the national origins of its congTegations, American Catholicism struggled along as a minority faith in a Protestant land. Hennesey's second major historiographical assumption is his departure from this perspective. Hennesey's Catholics have a claim on the United States. American Catholics is not a statement from the ghetto, but a reflection of the central economic and social place that Catholics now occupy in the United States. This centrality is taken for granted. The consciousness that Hennesey describes as nascent in the church of the 1920s has come to fruition today: "The American Catholic community throughout its many layered being...