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Geographical Approaches

Space, Place, Identity

Table of contents
Summary (p.m.) II II III IV IV VI VI VII VIII X

Space & Place - introduction - space - place Humanistic Geography & Yi-Fu Tuan - Humanistic Geography - Yi-Fu Tuan Identity introduction national identity othering / otherness landscape as an icon for identity placelessness (p.m.)

Conclusion Literature

XI

IGeographical Approaches

Space, Place, Identity

Space & Place
Introduction “Geography has meant different things to different people at different times and in different places” (D. Livingstone 1992, p. 7) In popular discourse, space and place are often regarded as synonymous with terms including region, area and landscape. For geographers, however, these twin terms have provided the buildingblocks of an intellectual and disciplinary enterprise that stretches back many centuries. Yet, as Livingstone intimates, the theoretical specification of space and place has remained a matter of some dispute, being transformed as new ways of ‘thinking geographically’ have developed. Many physical geographers remain fairly uninterested in problematizing the idea that space is straightforwardlyempirical, objective and ‘mappable’. Likewise, until the 1970s, most human geographers considered space to be a neutral container, a blank canvas that is filled in by human activity. In the 1970s the humanistic geographers challenged these ideas. People like Yi-Fu Tuan were of great value in reminding geographers that people do not live in a framework of geometric relationships but a world of meaning. Forexample, Tuan’s poetic writings stressed that place does not have any particular scale associated with it, but is created and maintained through ‘the fields of care’ that result from people’s emotional attachment. Using the notions topophilia and topophobia to refer to the desires and fears that people associate with specific places, his work alerted geographers to the sensual, aesthetic andemotional dimensions of space. The humanistic tradition that these thinkers developed conceptualized place as subjectively defined. As such, what constituted a place was seen to be largely individualistic. Although attachments and meanings were often shared. Simply put, a place meant different things to different people. Space Space is a central concept in geography, used in the form of absolute,relative and relational (cognitive) space. Absolute space is an understanding of space as a distinct, physical and imminently real or empirical entity. Traditional regional geography studies the empirical entities, dependencies or vertical connections between humanity and the environment within the ‘container space’ of a particular region. Relative space has the location of, and distance between,different phenomena (horizontal connections) as the focus of geographical inquiry. Distance as measured in terms of transport costs, travel time and the mileage within a network, as well perceived distance, is given explanatory power. The meaning of relational (cognitive) space is that space and place are intrinsic parts of our being in the world – defined and measured in terms of the nature anddegree of people’s values, feelings, beliefs, and perceptions about locations, districts, and regions. We relate to other people and the physical environment. Thus relational space is consciously or unconsciously embedded in our intentions and actions. (Arild Holt-Jensen 1999, p. 216, 226, 227 & P. Knox & S. Marston 2004, p. 505) Table 1. Different Kinds of Spaces Analyzed by Human Geographers 1Absolute Space: Relative Space: Relative Space Cognitive Space:

Mathematical Space
Points Lines Areas Planes Configurations
1

Socioeconomic Space
Sites Situations Routes Regions Distributions

Experiential/Cultural Space Behavioral Space
Landmarks Paths Districts Environments Spatial Layouts

Places Ways Territories Domains Worlds

Based on H. Counclelis, “Location, Place, Region and...