The subject of place: Staying with the trouble (original) (raw)
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Rethinking the notion of place
Concepts such as non-place and placelessness can provide planners and designers with new insights to better capture the essence of place. This essay first reviews the literature of place and its byproducts, namely non-place and placelessness. Against such a backdrop, the paper then explores how the contemporary transformation of the three components of place, namely locale, location and sense of place, has contributed to a narrative of loss. Characterized by loss of meaning and loss of proper connection between locations, the geographies of 'otherness' and 'nowhereness' and the crisis of identity are among the major implications of this narrative.
Place and Non-place: A Phenomenological Perspective
Place, Space and Hermeneutics, 2017
The distinction between place and non-place has occupied a critical role in both the philosophy of place and human geography for the last 20 years. In a distinction that stems from Marc Augé but is traceable to Edward Relph, " place " is thought as being relationally constructed, laden with meaning, and shaped by a broader history; home being emblematic of place. " Non-place, " on the other hand, is taken to mean places divested of meaning, homogenous, and largely interchangeable ; airports, supermarkets, and prefabricated office complexes being examples. Whilst this distinction has tended to be pervasive and influential in phenomenologi-cal accounts of place, critical analysis on the relation between place and non-place has been sparse. This paper aims to (1) develop an analysis of the distinction, ambiguities , and tensions between place and non-place. (2). To question and interrogate what kind of difference is involved in this distinction. (3). To address the role inter-subjectivity and affectivity plays in the " sense of place. "
Redefining Place by Focusing on the Process of Creation and Explanation of Place Centrality
Bagh-e Nazar, 2021
Problem statement: 'Place' has been one of the most critical subjects of architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and environmental design. However, most of the studies have been influenced by objective-subjective duality. Scholars have studied the place as a fixed issue separated from social structure and the place concept has been limited to the personal perceptual areas. These issues have led to a downward approach to place studies. In this regard, the place even has been reduced to a nostalgic space. Research method: Recently and following the paradigm shift of social studies and philosophy, the reason for the creation and transformation of the place has been discussed. This qualitative research attempts to focus on the nature of place change through reproductive strategy. This article, using a retrospective approach, and with a descriptive-analytical method and qualitative content analysis, tries to categorize previous studies on the place in a qualitative study to address why the place is evolving. And by taking a critical approach, examine the main (problematic) issues of these studies and then redefine the place. Research objective: Available studies on the place have usually addressed the quiddity of place, its perception, and the physical aspects, or the mental aspects of individual perception of the place. The current study examines the reasons "Why" place has been created and the manifestation of the social structures in place and studied the role of the social practice in creating place and explained the components of social practices. Conclusion: The place simultaneously has objective manifestation, physical dimension, and socialeconomic process. In addition to the three mentioned aspects that usually are considered for the place by positivists (Form, function, meaning), the place also has three other aspects that could reveal social structure: difference, convergence, frequency. Through these components, the place would reflect social practices. Through difference, the place results in social interactions and contributes to vitality and improvement of the collective identity. By convergence, the place receives its value, and various groups get together regarding one specific event and goal rather than isolation and being away from the center, and create the place centrality. Through frequency, time could emerge in places.
Reflections on the Emergence, Aspects and Essence of Place
A review of the surge of interest in place, especially since about 1990, with a summary of the diverse aspects of place (such as sense of place, roots, home, placelessness and non-place, placemaking and place fabrication) and a discussion of what I consider to be the essence of place and its inextricable connections with our very existence.
This is the first part (slightly revised in September 2018 to correct typos) of an unpublished two part essay on the changes that have happened to place since the publication of my book Place and Placelessness in 1976. It considers how experiences of places have changed since then as a consequence of heritage protection, postmodernism, place branding, and placemaking. The second part examines changes because of increases in mobility, multi-centred living and electronic communications, and offers some theoretical speculations about heterotopia and the openness of place. While both essays draw on ideas I have published elsewhere or posted on my Placeness website, this comprehensive synthesis is new and unlikely to be published. The central theme is that there changes since 1975 have had profound implications for how places are made and experienced.
A Summary Version of Place and Placelessness
This is a summarized version of my book Place and Placelessness, which was first published in 1976, and which is the foundation for all my subsequent writing about place. I have made this summary partly for the benefit of those who have not have read it, but also because I will soon post on Academia original essays about how I think places, experiences of places, and conceptualizations of place have changed in since 1976
Place, Place Identity, and Phenomenology (2012)
NOTE: The ideas and examples in this article are now much more fully developed in David Seamon, LIFE TAKES PLACE: PHENOMENOLOGY, LIFEWORLDS, AND PLACEMAKING (London: Routledge, 2018). The most important shift is the author's realizing that genius loci is part of a broader phenomenon that he identifies as "common presence"--"the material and lived 'togetherness' of a place impelled by both its physical and experiential qualities" (Seamon 2018, p. 87). I would ask readers of thIs article to complement their understanding by studying LIFE TAKES PLACE. ABSTRACT OF ORIGINAL ARTICLE: As recent phenomenological studies have demonstrated (Casey 1997, 2009; Malpas 1999, 2006; Mugerauer 2008; Stefanovic 2000), the phenomenon of place is a multivalent structure sophisticated and complex in its existential constitution. In this chapter, I offer one phenomenological vantage point from which to examine this lived complexity. I contend that, as an integral structure of human life, place can be understood in terms of three dimensions: first, the geographical ensemble—i.e., the material environment, including both its natural and human-made dimensions; second, people-in-place, including individual and group actions, intentions, and meanings; and, third, spirit of place, or genius loci. Drawing on the conceptual approach of “systematics” developed by the British philosopher J. G. Bennett, I argue that these three dimensions can engage in six different ways, each of which relates to one particular lived mode whereby place contributes to human life. These six modes are: (1) place interaction; (2) place identity; (3) place creation; (4) place intensification; (5) place realization; and (6) place release. I argue that place identity is important for understanding the nature of place but is complemented by other modes of relationship that together help clarify the complexity and richness of place and place experience.
Radically constructing 'place'
2018
Place-what it means to be somewhere, or to be from somewhere-is a common thread running through the many systemic crises of our time. Place is a value under threat from globalisation, gentrification, networked technologies, human conflict and environmental disasters. At the same time, it is an underlying cause of some of the political and social tensions that are intertwined with these issues. Within architectural theory, place is strongly associated with phenomenology, the foundations of which are entangled with the sort of nativist politics that is currently resurgent around the world. In this working paper, I outline an alternative approach to place as a way to address its double-edged quality, building on Ernst von Glasersfeld's radically constructivist interpretation of Jean Piaget. In doing so, I establish points of connection between architectural discourse on place and the cybernetic foundations of systemic design.
Places: People, Events, Loci – the Relation of Semantic Frames in the Construction of Place
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), 2008
The central point of this paper concerns the way the particular contexts of people, events and loci constitute places through the pragmatics of being and acting in physical space and how this can give designers traction over place design. Although we focus here on meaning associated with the concept of "place", unlike some thinkers, we also believe that spaces have meaning. Our point is not to engage in a competition between phenomenologies, but to develop a rich description of the contribution to place of the semantic tangle of people, events, and loci as an aide in locating design alternatives. The semantic tangle consists of situated, mutually constituting resources. Patterns of moves and contexts that define and utilize those resources constitute different forms of place construction; in this paper, we focus on three: the linguistic participation of place, ritual, and ephemeral places. Approaches to CSCW may profit (1) from designing technology for multifaceted appropriation, (2) from designing specific places for specific people engaged in specific events in specific locations, or (3) by commutation, that is, a method of meaning making similar to detecting "just noticeable differences" by iteratively and self-consciously substituting related meaningful moves and contexts into the system of meaning.