People Place Relationships Research Articles

Advocating a place-space duality for an accounting research agenda

PurposeThe paper proposes a place-space duality, rather than a dualism, for accounting research.Design/methodology/approachThe discussion is informed by the literature in human geography, which, while developing the concept of space, has made an important distinction between abstract space and place as a site of experiential learning and memory.FindingsThe lack of a concept of place is a serious omission in the accounting literature and perpetuates an abstract sense of space, which can restrict the scope of accounting research.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper calls for further research to study accounting in place and to explore both the collective and individual senses of place, as well as conscious and unconscious place associations. We recognise that there is limited prior accounting research on this topic and that there are challenges in conducting such interdisciplinary research, especially as there is a lack of common ground between research in human geography and accounting and little integration of the two literatures.Practical implicationsThe paper proposes an accounting research agenda based on a place-space duality, which reflects the strength of people-place relationships, including place identities, place attachment and place dependence.Originality/valueThe paper provides a critique of the conceptualisation of space in accounting research, identifies place-space as a duality (rather than a dualism) and suggests a novel distinction between studying accounting in context and in place.

Negotiating sustainability and place: migration to an ecovillage and local community

ABSTRACT Lifestyle- and amenity migration have frequently resulted in socio-ecological changes to places through increased population and development. Where sustainability is often an after-thought to over-development this paper introduces ‘sustainability-led migration’, looking at migration to a newer ecovillage. I first ask how ecovillages fit within a migration framework. Secondly, using a case study of a ‘new’ ecovillage in Norway, I investigate how sustainability-led (voluntary) migration to a rural ecovillage impacts people-place relationships. Analysing in-depth interviews with ecovillagers, municipal authorities and other local residents through the lens of ‘throwntogetherness’, reveals ongoing negotiations of sustainability and place in the process of ‘making’ attractive communities. For some, sustainability-led migration becomes heroic where migration of resourceful people with new ideas helped create a more open-minded society. For others, ‘sustainability’ became the villain of the piece, regarded as a negative or meaningless pejorative, unrepresentative of the place they know. Sustainability-led migration directly and indirectly facilitated changes to place identity, enabling both connection and disconnection to place narratives, implying ‘caution’ when using sustainability as a place-marketing strategy.

Community assets in the context of COVID-19: Changes in valuation and contributions to place attachment and subjective wellbeing

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted patterns of daily life and use of community spaces. This study was completed in a municipality in the Greater Niagara Region, Ontario, to explore people-place relationships after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. A greater proportion of individuals perceived the way in which they value community assets had changed since the onset of the pandemic. This was supported by pre- and post-pandemic data, which found that indoor community assets were valued less in 2021 than they were in 2019, whereas outdoor community assets were valued comparably. Two categories of community assets were found to contribute most to both place attachment and wellbeing during the COVID-19 pandemic: Waterfront/beaches and recreational trails/pathways. These findings emphasize the integral role of outdoor community assets in community member’s place attachment and subjective wellbeing, which could guide future investment and community development in the municipality.

Proactive insights into place management: spatiotemporal effects of street food activities in public spaces

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the utilisation of street food to redefine place management in public spaces in Egypt. The study examines the spatiotemporal effects of this approach, considering the preferences of both vendors and consumers alongside contextual design factors.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, conducted in Cairo, Egypt, a spatial ethnographic approach was used to delve into the process of place management in areas hosting street food activities. Focus group interviews were conducted with a random sample of street food vendors and consumers.FindingsThe results of this case study confirm the significant impact of street food on its surroundings, emphasising the importance of the people–place relationship. Insights from group interviews shed light on essential questions regarding the timing, location and drivers of spatiotemporal effects around food activity areas, as well as the entities controlling these effects and their mechanisms. The findings underscore the necessity of harmoniously balancing the needs of vendors and consumers without detrimentally affecting the context.Practical implicationsThe proactive insights gleaned from this study hold potential for replication in other cities, offering valuable insights into the roles and specialisations of actors involved in managing street food places. However, achieving a more comprehensive understanding of stereotypes and underlying themes is imperative.Originality/valueThis study contributes to filling a research gap by exploring strategies to integrate vendors’ and consumers’ preferences and designs into specific contexts. It provides proactive and preventive solutions to mitigate adverse spatiotemporal effects of street food activities within the studied context.

People-Place relationship: a dynamic process not a static state

People-Place relationship: a dynamic process not a static state

Post-Conflict Urban Landscape Storytelling: Two Approaches to Contemporary Virtual Visualisation of Oral Narratives

Armed conflicts and resulting displacement disrupt people’s sense of place, leading to an imbalance in the people–place relationship, exaggerated by rehabilitation efforts that overlook the sense of place among conflict- and displacement-impacted communities. A continuous landscape narrative that extends from pre- to post-conflict times contributes to recreating the essence of lost landscapes and therefore reconnecting their sense of place. Focusing on a Syrian city that hosted internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the aftermath of the Syrian conflict, this study aims to structure a virtual landscape and narrative depiction of conflict-impacted landscapes. This study proposes a storytelling approach for narrative construction and an AI-powered visualisation approach to revive the image of the elusive landscapes. This study utilised qualitative research methods through in-depth, semi-structured interviews for data collection and an online survey for exploring the perception of virtual landscape images generated with AI text-to-image models (DALL.E 2 and Bing Image Creator). This study indicates that narratives, supported by AI visualisation, are reliable for comprehending landscape transformation and changes in the sense of place. The two approaches can serve as rehabilitation initiatives in post-crisis settings to recall images of elusive landscapes to save them from being lost forever.

Developing a conceptual framework for studying people-place relationship

Developing a conceptual framework for studying people-place relationship

Are They Satisfied With the Relocations? Lessons From HOPE VI in the United States

Background:The HOPE VI program was initiated to transform public housing and improve the lives of low-income households. Its effectiveness in achieving these goals remains a subject of debate, necessitating a comprehensive review of its impact.Objective:This study aims to evaluate the influence of the HOPE VI program on various social outcomes for low-income households, particularly focusing on the effects of relocation to potentially more favorable residential areas.Methods:The study employs a literature review methodology, analyzing a range of scholarly works, including peer-reviewed articles and relevant project reports. It assesses the impact of the HOPE VI program on the quality of life of relocates and examines the relationship between residential environmental changes and the effectiveness of relocation interventions.Findings:The review reveals a complex picture of the HOPE VI program’s impact. While some low-income families benefit from improved living conditions and neighborhood environments, others face challenges adapting to new communities. The study highlights the importance of subjective people–place relationships, revealing that emotional attachments to neighborhoods play a crucial role in the success of relocation efforts.Conclusions:The findings underscore the need for policymakers to consider the emotional connections residents have with their neighborhoods. A deeper understanding of these relationships can inform better-designed interventions that support low-income households in adjusting to new residential areas, ultimately leading to more effective and humane housing policies.

Alley greening: a tool for enhancing community resilience?

ABSTRACT In many cities across the world alleys are transitioning from residual spaces to hybrid places providing the foundation for new functions, uses, and identities to take root and coincide through a process of “alley greening”. Such manifestations are transforming the relationship between people (local residents) and place (alleyway – local area), most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic when a new urgency for the provision, or repurposing, of safe, social spaces emerged. Yet, the potential of alley greening to affect people-place relationships and engender community resilience has been relatively unexplored. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, including questionnaires, interviews, and case study analyses, this paper critically investigates the experience and perspectives of green alleys from various place-based actors in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The findings reveal that, even in the absence of institutional and policy support, green alley projects have the potential to stimulate positive people-place relationships in various ways and enhance wider community resilience to shocks and stresses. However, barriers prevail, curtailing the reach and purpose of such projects both in Belfast and elsewhere. The paper considers how governance arrangements might best overcome such hurdles and strengthen pro-environmental and pro-social behaviours that are fundamental to community resilience. Key policy highlights Despite their integral form and function in the city, alleyways, nor their potential, are rarely recognised in the policy. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a policy-implementation gap in the provision of locally accessible greenspace. Policy inertia exacerbated this gap preventing the fulfilment of changing community needs. Alley greening emerged as a tactical urban response. A lack of place-based approaches within policy has polarised institutions from communities. People-place relationships, essential to resilience-building and green alley longevity, are subsequently inadequately engaged with and fostered. An opportunity exists for alley greening to be a place-based policy instrument to stimulate pro-social and pro-environmental behaviours for building community resilience.

Assessing the Impact of Social and Ecological Change during COVID-19 in Natural Areas Through the Subjective Well-Being and Place Attachment of Natural Area Users

The devastating impact of COVID-19 on the mental health and well-being of individuals has led researchers to increasingly consider the importance of people-place interactions as drivers of positive mental health. This study explores people-place relationships with natural areas through the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on subjective well-being and place attachment. The study was conducted in a system of natural areas in the Niagara Region, Ontario. Through completion of self-report questionnaires, natural area users identified changes they observed in the natural areas over the COVID-19 pandemic and reported their self-perceived impact of these changes. Findings emphasize the importance of managing social and ecological changes in natural areas to preserve ecological health and user benefits.

The Impacts of Covid-19 on Players of Pokémon GO

Since its creation, the Location-Based Game (LBG), Pokémon GO , has been embraced by a community of fans across the world. Due to its recency, the impact of COVID-19 on the community of Pokémon GO players is underexplored. We address how COVID-19 has impacted the players of Pokémon GO by building upon existing work focusing on player gratifications and impacts in Pokémon GO . Through semi-structured interviews, we provide a snapshot of the state of LBG play during unprecedented times. These player interviews demonstrate (1) the importance of in-person socialization to LBG, (2) additional ways players use the game as a coping mechanism, and (3) how intentionality mediates player perceptions of people-place relationships. Furthermore, we explore how Niantic influenced these behaviors through changes to how players interact with points of interest and engage with elder game mechanics such as raiding.

The impact mechanism and boundary conditions of tourists' restoration perception on destination attachment: A resource conservation perspective

Fast-paced lifestyle and complications caused by the current COVID-19 pandemic have enlightened the needs of people to seek restorative experiences. This study draws on the conservation of resources (COR) theory and establishes a moderated mediation model to examine how and when tourists' restoration perception affects destination attachment. Data were collected from 456 visitors to Hainan Island in China. The results show that tourists' restoration perception positively affects subjective well-being and self-congruity. Subjective well-being and self-congruity completely mediate the indirect relationship between tourists' restoration perception and destination attachment. Travel memory positively moderates the effects of subjective well-being and self-congruity on destination attachment. Our findings enrich the extant knowledge on the restorative effect of tourist destinations and people-place relationships and provide insights into emotional marketing strategies for tourism destination management.

“Moving or not?”: Factors affecting community responses to environmental disruption

Disputes between government authorities and high-risk communities about community relocation following disasters are not new. Nevertheless, there remains a limited understanding of factors affecting people's decisions about whether to relocate from a hazard zone, particularly in the Indonesian context. Through the experience of the Pelemsari community, a culturally distinct community near Mt. Merapi that once was located less than five km from the volcano crater, this article attempts to explain why the Pelemsari community differed from neighboring communities by abandoning its previous resistance to relocation after an unprecedented eruption in 2010. To explain this behavior change, the study used hermeneutic phenomenology, a methodology rooted in the people-place relationship and specifically used to unfold the meaning structures of a lived experience. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, field observations, and document reviews. The results showed that people's strong place attachment affected residents' decision to uphold unity with their neighbors, select a relocation site that is outside the hazard zone but close to the former location, and engage in collective action that pressured the government to issue legal certificates of their former homes. These results show how a deep understanding of people's place attachment can make it possible to achieve a successful community relocation.

Housing reconstruction after traumatic events: a Poe study of Bam housing after the 2003 earthquake, Iran

Purpose Earthquake stressful events cause many consequences and need for survivors. Housing reconstruction is one of the most urgent needs; due to traumatic experiences, dialectical changes in people–place relationships occur. Design/methodology/approach The present study uses the Poe method and Q methodology to identify the hidden dimensions of trauma-informed housing reconstruction. A questionnaire with 74 items on the Likert scale was developed based on indicative Poe. It was completed by the purposive sampling method by Bam households. The influential factors in housing reconstruction with a psychological recovery approach were extracted by q-factor analysis in communities with different traumatic experiences. Findings According to the findings, first, people who had experienced complete home destruction; severe physical injuries; loss of family members and relatives; and were trapped under the earthquake rubble have different place-based needs in housing reconstruction for coping with fears and environmental concerns, protective behaviors, safety perception and as result safety reassurance. Second, regardless of the traumatic experience and losses, reconstruction acceleration and economic-social dignity have a positive effect on the communities’ psychological recovery. Originality/value It is noteworthy that housing reconstruction with a psychological recovery approach has two basic aspects. Although some independent factors of traumatic experiences will be efficient in this approach, it was found that the type of earthquake traumatic experiences will also be effective in the survivors’ place-based needs and biases.

Using Senses of Place to Help Communities Navigate Place Disruption and Uncertainty

Uncertainty and change are the hallmarks of contemporary life. Global climate change, ecological regime shifts, and urban transformations catalyze new levels of socio-spatial precarity. Exacerbated by political and economic conditions, accelerating change and uncertainty have disrupted people-place relationships and created anxiety around real and perceived place loss and threat. In this article, we outline the potential of senses of place—both pluralized and politicized—to generate new possibilities for thinking, acting, and designing in response to disruption. Three different case studies demonstrate how senses of place can guide us through disruption. For each case, we examine the nature of the disruption/place change, describe how senses of place are involved in the disruption, and consider the role of landscape architecture in helping communities respond. Together, these cases demonstrate that a deeper understanding of senses of place offers a way to respond to disruptions that enables new beginnings to unfold, facilitates the coproduction of knowledge, and supports socio-spatial justice.

Coping with Territorial Stigma and Devalued Identities: How Do Social Representations of an Environmentally Degraded Place Affect Identity and Agency?

This article examines people-place relationships in a carbon-intensive area—i.e., heavily dependent on the steel industry and marked by severe environmental degradation—involved in the EU Just Transition Mechanism (Taranto, Italy). Drawing upon a psychosocial perspective grounded on social representations theory, this article focuses on intertwining the sense of place, identity processes, and agency to understand the dynamics of place stigma and identity devaluation. In-depth semi-structured interviews with active residents were thematically and discursively analyzed. The results suggest both theoretical and applied insights. Overall, they highlight a widely shared negative representation of the place related to territorial stigmatization, ambivalent place attachments, and devaluation of place-based and social identities. To cope with such processes and dynamics, identity processes seem to act as self-protective mechanisms both at a personal and social level. The article concludes by inviting a more comprehensive conceptualization of just transition, harm restoration, and related territorial planning to include the psychosocial processes underlying the community’s well-being and identity.

Rethinking Sense of Place Interpretations in Declining Neighborhoods: The Case of Ami-dong Tombstone Cultural Village, Busan, South Korea

In recent years, urban regeneration strategic plans have been implemented across South Korea to curb the negative impacts of depopulation, physical deterioration and economic decline. By adopting a people-centered regeneration process, context-sensitive plans are formulated by integrating local people’s perceptions and expectations. This paper examines urban regeneration plans implemented in Ami-dong Tombstone Cultural Village, a declining hillside village in Busan, using “people–place–process framework of place attachment” to analyze the process of articulating “sense of place” through community-driven approaches. Based on archival research, site investigations, secondary data and semi-structured interviews, the paper explores the revival of social capital, integration of place-sensitivity and improvement of everyday landscapes through affective, behavioral and cognitive responses of urban professionals and community members involved in the project. Findings of the study show that place attachment, sense of community and community participation in regeneration can help in re-creating meaningful places. Lessons from Ami-dong offer insights on ways to strengthen people–people and people–place relationships through design and planning processes in a declining context with an aging population.

Whose Sense of Place? Catering for Residents and Tourists from an Open-Access Protected Area in South Africa

In addition to providing benefits to people, protected areas are valued in ways that go beyond the tangible. A sense of place, and the collection of values, feelings, and meanings associated with a place, can illuminate people-place relationships. Understanding how people relate to a place is essential in acquiring support for protected areas. This research investigates tourists’ and residents’ sense of place in Knysna, an open-access section of the Garden Route National Park, South Africa. Data was collected through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The sense of place was characterised using five variables: physical, cultural, social, dependent, and ideological. Although ‘physical’ was the dominant variable for both tourists and residents, the ‘ideological’ for residents and the ‘cultural’ for tourists came second, highlighting the importance of safe places and recreational activities, respectively. The physical environment influences sense of place, and the importance of protected areas to stakeholders offers an opportunity for management to engage with the public.

On the assessment of social value of heritage places in Hong Kong

ABSTRACT Hong Kong adopted the practice of assessing social value of heritage sites in the late 1990s or early 2000s, which by then had been widely incorporated by other places around the world, in line with the Burra Charter of 1979. However, social value appraisals in Hong Kong continue to be inadequate, due in part to a lack of understanding of this complex notion and how it works. Similar challenges have also been observed in other places, as attested in existing literature. This article reviews the rich literature on place and place-related concepts, and how these are operationalized by various authors to achieve their research objectives. Adopting a phenomenological perspective of heritage, with a particular stress on people-place relationship and interaction, the study unpacks and operationalizes the rich concept of social value. The resulting framework is applied to a specific place in Hong Kong to illustrate its capacity to raise the standards of assessments. The methods used in the study emphasize the importance of engaging the local community to better understand their relationship with place. Some policy implications are discussed.

Politics of Place making and Positions of the Musahars at Jamdaha-Golbazar

Many landscapes and people-place relationships are socially and politically constructed. A certain unity of place and people have been long assumed in the anthropological concept of culture. The association between a particular geographical territory and a cultural group has been studied by classical anthropologists. The taken-for-granted logic was that the Madhesi live in Madhes, 'the Nuer live in Nuerland', 'the Andamanese' are the indigenous peoples of the 'Andaman Islands, and the Musahar live in Musahari. The places are named behind the name of the first settler. The clearest illustrations of these kinds of thinking are the classic 'ethnographic map' that purported to display the spatial distribution of peoples, tribes, and cultures. Place itself becomes a neutral grid on which cultural differences, political identity, historical memories, and societal organizations are inscribed. This assumed isomorphism of place and culture results in some significant problems. The place is not natural, rather it is cultural construction of peoples and it has no singular narratives. This article represents a modest attempt to deal with the issues of interrelation between people and place, displacement and crisis of place-based identity at Golbazar-Jamdaha in Siraha. The Musahar, the first settler of the Jamdaha, are not only marginalized from socioeconomic positions but also displaced from the placemaking process. The history of the Musahar and their places have been refigured in favor of the dominant community. The fundamental question is on the anthropological practices of captivating the association of a culturally singular group and its territorial location as natural. For me, places with cartography are always imagined in the context of political-economic privileges that have a logic of their own.