Cultural Geography

A.I. Cuza University, Iai, Romania

Spring, 2017, Professor Leo Zonn

*Placelessness*

A. Placelessness is the process by which the constituent elements of place are

removed or duplicated so as to reduce the value of meaning and identity. In some
ways this is more of a force than a thing.

B. Examples

1. Restaurants, Hotels. Hotel rooms, Airports

2. Offices, even buildings
3. Homes, cities, suburbs. Celebration, etc.
4. Tourism

C. How does placelessness happen?

1. McDonaldization; Disneyfication; Museumization

2. Lowest common $$ denominator
3. An undiscriminating audiencewhat do they want?
4. Globalization, improved communications, etc.
5. So, what aspects of place do you save and what do you not save? Does
uniqueness remain anywhere?

D. Synthetic Places

1. Synthetic: not real or genuine; artificial; feigned. This is a relative term. In

some ways most places are synthetic, because we are borrowing from some other
place to create a place. Everybody is imitating and so to some extent very little is
totally authentic. But this is going to the extreme.

2. Some U.S. examples of Synthetic Places

Theme Parks, Las Vegas, Baseball Parks, Planned Communities

a. Levittown, New Jersey; Sun City, Arizona; Celebration, Florida; Habitats
Global Village http://www.habitat.org/gvdc/attractions.aspx
E. Museumization as a kind of synthetic place: artificial preservation and
reconstruction. Examples lie in heritage preservation and tourism. Here we find
issues of authenticity, which is very relative.

1. Some American examples of Museumization

Colonial Williamsburg
Tombstone, Arizona
San Antonio Riverwalk
Cannery Row
Cavendish, PEI. Ann of Green Gables.
http://www.gov.pe.ca/greengables/
Many, many more