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    5. Roberson, G and R Wilkie (2010) “Sense of Place” in Encyclopedia of Geography, B Warf, ed. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, p2532-4.

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    5. Roberson, G and R Wilkie (2010) “Sense of Place” in Encyclopedia of Geography, B Warf, ed. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, p2532-4.

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    1K views2 pages

    Sense of Place - Wilkie and Roberson

    Uploaded by

    georob2302
    5. Roberson, G and R Wilkie (2010) “Sense of Place” in Encyclopedia of Geography, B Warf, ed. London and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, p2532-4.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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    2532 Ez SENSE OF PLACE Semple came to dubious conclusions, from assum- ing that people living in mountain passes were more likely to be bandits to associating world cli- mate types with distinctive human characteristics. The latter led to racist conclusions linking climate and “race temperament,” with Northern Europe- ans being “energetic” and “thoughtful,” Southern Europeans being “easygoing” and “emotional,” and positive characteristics giving way to “grave racial faults” among black Africans. While she was not alone in holding these beliefs, Semple’s work on and ideas about environmental determin- ism had a major impact on the shaping of Ameri- can geography in the 1910s and 1920s. Jonathan Leib See also Environmental Determinism; Human Geography, History of; Ratzel, Friedrich; Social Darwinism Further Readings Colby, C. (1932), Ellen Churchill Semple. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 23, 229-240. Peet, R. (1985). The social origins of environmental determinism. Annals ofthe Association of American Geographers, 75, 309-333. Semple, E. C. (1911). Influences of geographic ‘environment on the basis of Ratzel’s system of anthropo-geography. New York: Henry Holt. @ Sense OF PLace Sense of place refers to subjective human reac- tions to places. With roots in early forms of humanistic geography, the concept appears in various forms in a considerable body of works expanding on human experience, memory, imagi- nation, emotion, and meaning; accordingly, it is a core value in a broad and varied range of endeav- ors from theory (ie., placing humans in Earth’s time-space continuum) to practice (e.g., building. “green” or selling places as commodities). In sum, the sense of place contributes depth and under- standing to what it means to be human. Among myriad approaches to sense of place, a key strand begins with the individual. Each per- son brings his or her own personality, back- ground, and previous experiences into the process of forming a sense of place. People draw on their ‘own use of the human senses, their own sense of aesthetics, and their own intellectual and emo- tional responses that they have developed with regard to places; these are based on their expe ences and perceptions and the development of cognitive understandings of places. One’s reac- tions and responses are not static, however, and the way one looks at places continues to evolve as one’s life cycle develops and as the landscapes and places around one are transformed. Through those processes, it can be argued that people develop (at varying levels of sophistication) their own landscapes of memory and previous experi- ences. In some cases, this leads to bonding with places—love of place—while in others, itcan lead to ambivalence, disinterest, and/or rejection, that is, the placelessness of interchangeable superficial identities that can be found anywhere. Further- ‘more, in invoking sense of place, many humanis- tic geographers and others from the humanities are attempting to understand the nonreductionist uniqueness of individual responses, as well as the distinctiveness that different places possess, and to open the minds of people to the richness of the world through place-based approaches and, spe-

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