http://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maria_Vittoria_Giuliani

ABSTRACT The theme of this chapter has its general reference frame in that sector of human experience represented by affect – feelings, moods, emotions, etc. – which people experience in various ways, forms, degrees, with varying awareness, with reference to the places in which they are born, live and act. Also, in relation to the other persons who live and operate in the same places.

We have all experienced some form of affective bond, either positive or negative, pleasant or unpleasant, with some place or other – a place that can be related to our current or past experience (childhood places), sometimes to the future (the place we dream of living in, where we would like to go/return to), and more or less restricted in scale: the house in which we live or have lived, a certain room in the home, the area around the home, the neighbourhood, the city, the country… Each of us is familiar with peculiar aspects, nuances, of this affective world. It not only permeates our daily life but very often appears also in the representations, idealisations and expressions of life and affect represented by art products – in the first instance literature, but also other genres.

Indeed, not only do we acknowledge the existence of an affective bond with places, but also the importance that this can have in qualifying our existence, whether positively or negatively. And not just our individual, private, existence, but also the existence of entire human groups. There is perhaps no feeling of mutual affinity, community, fraternity among persons, whether formal or informal, institutionalised or not – nor feeling of diversity, aversion, hostility − that is not in some way related to matters of place, territory and attachment to places.

For better or worse, this has far-reaching implications. The feeling we experience towards certain places and to the communities that the places help to define and that are themselves defined by the places − home (family, relations, friends), workplace (colleagues), church (fellow worshippers), neighbourhood (neighbours), city, country, continent – certainly has a strong positive effect in defining our identity, filling our life with meaning, in enriching it with values, goals and significance. See the Chapter: Giuliani, M. V. (2003). “Theory of attachment and place attachment.” In M. Bonnes, T. Lee, and M. Bonaiuto (Eds.), Psychological Theories For Environmental Issues (pp. 137-170). Aldershot: Ashgate.

However, place attachment can also have negative, and sometimes even disastrous, consequences. For example, the ethnic conflicts that have exploded for some time now in the former Yugoslavia, or the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

These conflicts stem from an equal attachment to the same place, which puts them in competition. In these cases it may be objected that, rather than attachment to a place, it is political, economic and religious issues that are at stake. But these issues themselves lead back more or less directly, more or less in good faith, to questions of attachment to the territory.

Suffice it to consider the importance in Jewish culture of the idea, or rather the feeling, of a “Promised Land”, of the greeting “next year in Jerusalem” that kept a people, physically scattered to the four corners of the Earth, spiritually united for centuries.

As a result of experience and common sense and general knowledge, affect related to places therefore exists, and is of a nature that, albeit not fully explicit and defined, nevertheless seems to distinguish it from other affective “systems” (towards objects, persons, ideas, etc.); furthermore it is perceived as one of those important factors that sometimes help and sometimes hinder our equilibrium, our material and spiritual well-being. While this amply justifies the adoption of the topic as an object of scientific investigation, the transition from intuitive awareness of the existence of affective bonds with places to a scientific knowledge of the phenomenon is still far from satisfactory. The interest in systematic investigation and the formulation of theories concerning affective bonds that individuals develop with their physical environment took a long time to emerge in environmental psychology.

This does not imply a lack of awareness, but only that the phenomenon was long considered to be of secondary importance vis-à-vis the primary objective of studying the cognitive and behavioural aspects of such relationships. The very varie ty of terms used to refer to affective bonds with places − rootedness, sense of place, belongingness, insideness, embeddedness, attachment, affiliation, appropriation, commitment, investment, dependence, identity, etc. – seem to indicate not so much a diversity of concepts and reference models as a vagueness in the identification of the phenomenon.

Only recently has there been any convergence concerning the “technical”, as opposed to the generic, common language use, of the term attachment, and interest in the topic is beginning to spread outside the strict people & environment research field (cf. Fullilove, 1996).

The issue of “Sense of Place” is one that has been completely discounted by MVP in my discussions and negotiations with them.

Their attitude in this regard only increases the horror I feel in the knowledge that they fully intend to completely decimate my land, my life and everything that keeps me attached to it, and to do so with complete indifference to the lives they are affecting and have already affected with their lies and bullying!

Kathryn Robertson

People develop a “sense of place” through experience and knowledge of a particular area. A sense of place emerges through knowledge of the history, geography and geology of an area, its flora and fauna, the legends of a place, and a growing sense of the land and its history after living there for a time.

The feel of the sun on your face or the rain on your back, the rough and smooth textures of the land, the color of the sky at morning and sunset, the fragrance of the plants blooming in season, the songs and antics of birds and the cautious ramblings of mammals are environmental influences that help to define a place.

Memories of personal and cultural experiences over time make a place special, favorite objects that shape to your hand or body with use, songs or dances that emerge from the people of a place, special skills you develop to enjoy your area–these too help to define a place and anchor you in it.

Through time, shared experiences and stories (history) help to connect place and people and to transmit feelings of place from generation to generation.