Sense of Place, Fast and Slow: The Potential Contributions of Affordance Theory to Sense of Place

State of science: refitting the human to nature

Environmental institutions are realising that the human-nature relationship is a tangible target for a sustainable future. Societal change of that relationship is a challenge involving modifications to both systems and human behaviours. We argue that as Human Factors and Ergonomics (HFE) focusses on relationships, interfaces and systems it is well placed to contribute. After introducing the state of HFE and nature connectedness science an analysis of areas of HFE and human-nature connectedness themes is used to consider current work and future opportunities. We conclude that despite decades-old calls to action, HFE is embedded in a dated paradigm and has had little positive contribution to the human-nature relationship. However, HFE is well placed to create sustainable communities, designed to create a new relationship with nature. To do this, HFE needs to recognise that it should move on from solely fitting the task to the human, to refitting the human to nature.Practitioner Summary: A more sustainable human-nature relationship can be achieved through applying HFE approaches. HFE expertise in human characteristics, systems, people and technology can be applied at differing scales with various social-economic and technical factors to address key themes in our failing relationship with nature.Abbreviations: HFE: Human Factors and Ergonomics; IPBES: Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services; STAMP: System-Theoretic Accident Model and Processes; CWA: Cognitive Work Analysis; NET-HARMS: NETworked Hazard Analysis and Risk Management System; NbS: Nature-based System.

An Evolving Understanding of Sense of Place in Social-Ecological Systems Research and the Barriers and Enablers to its Measurement

Social-ecological systems (SES) are changing more in the Anthropocene than ever before. With this also comes a change in Sense of Place (SoP), that is, the emotional bond that a person (or group of people) has with a place. This impacts how individuals and groups interact with a place (i.e., their behaviours) and respond to disturbance or change (i.e., their adaptive capacity). To understand how SoP is changing across space and time and to be able to compare this across social-ecological contexts, we must first take stock of how SoP is conceptualised so as to understand how to capture and measure the phenomena in a meaningful way (e.g., to inform policy). Based on in-depth qualitative interviews with leading SoP researchers (n = 17 from 8 countries) this paper aims to identify: (1) the current breadth of theoretical conceptualisations for SoP; (2) the methodologies that have been used to measure SoP in different contexts and settings; and (3) the barriers and (4) enablers to the use of different methodologies. Results show that there has been a change in how SoP has been conceptualised over time, whereby it was traditionally considered as something singular and limited, towards something much more dynamic. Results also show that diverse methods (both quantitative and qualitative) have been used to measure SoP, but the choice of method is often a result of resource constraints that limit research design. These findings suggest that broader collaboration among stakeholders and increased interdisciplinarity would undoubtedly lead to improved outcomes in our understanding of SoP, specifically how it is changing in response to anthropogenic pressures, and how the results can be integrated into policy and practice to support environment conservation and management. It is hoped these findings can help establish a community of practice around how we conceptualise SoP, and hence understand it, to create space for methodological integration and shared learnings as a field.

Stimulating creativity in the classroom: examining the impact of sense of place on students' creativity and the mediating effect of classmate relationships

BACKGROUND

Although previous studies have found a close relationship between sense of place and creativity, few studies have been conducted considering the micro-environment of the classroom. The mediating role of classmate relationships in the association between students' sense of place and creativity remains unclear.

METHODS

This study explores classmate relationships as a mediating factor in the relationship between sense of place and creativity. Therefore, we considered a sample of 1555 Chinese high-school students and used a paper-based questionnaire survey. Data analysis was performed using SPSS 24.0, PROCESS 3.2 plugin, and AMOS.

RESULTS

Sense of place in the micro-environment of the classroom has a significant positive predictive effect on creativity. Sense of place also has a significant positive predictive effect on peer relationships. The mediation analysis reveals that peer relationships play a mediating role in the relationship between the sense of place and creativity.

CONCLUSIONS

This study revealed the associations between sense of place, classmate relationships, and creativity. Creativity is better expressed in students with a strong sense of place in the classroom. Moreover, a student's sense of place can enhance their creativity by influencing their peer relationships. These findings enrich the research in educational psychology within the classroom, providing new insights for fostering creativity.

Liminality and insecurity: A qualitative study of young adults’ vulnerabilities during the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia

COVID-19 has disrupted the normative social order, particularly for young adults. Their deteriorating mental health over 2020 has been associated with the economic and social conditions during the COVID-19 lockdowns. We conducted 19 semi-structured interviews with young adults aged 8 and 29 most of whom lived in Victoria, Australia. The interviews explored participants' experiences and responses to COVID-19, covering areas such disrupted everyday practices and future plans, impacts on their physical and mental health, and interactions community and services. Young adults were concerned about loss of social connectedness, their mental health and the complex interplay of issues such as employment, income, education and housing. They developed routines to protect their physical and mental health while in lockdown and some made the most of opportunities. However, the pandemic may have had a profound effect by disrupting some young adults’ plans for the future, thus contributing to a sense of ontological insecurity.

Residents’ Motivations to Participate in Decision-Making for Cultural Heritage Tourism: Case Study of New Delhi

While academic research has established the need and importance of community participation in decision-making for cultural heritage tourism (CHT), there is still a lacuna in our knowledge when it comes to understanding what are the perspectives and motivations of people to participate in collaborative governance; thus, policymaking suffers from a lack of knowledge on how to effectively motivate and engage communities in heritage tourism management. Participatory approaches often focus on the management of various stakeholders without emphasising enough the understanding of practical and ideological factors that affect their participation. This study seeks to fill this gap in knowledge by attempting to understand residents’ attitudes and motivation towards participating in collaborative decision-making for cultural heritage tourism in their area. The objective of the study is twofold: (1) to identify residents’ attitudes towards CHT in their area and (2) to understand residents’ motivation for participating in participatory governance of CHT. The attitudes and motivations of the residents are looked at from a Weberian lens of formal and substantive rationality and it is established that residents are affected by both economic and non-economic factors in their support for tourism activities in the areas as well as to participate in collaborative decision-making. The study adopts a qualitative approach to study two heritage precincts of New Delhi, India. While the findings are based on the case study areas, they can be used to understand communities of other developing nations as well.

The Mediating and Buffering Effect of Creativity on the Relationship Between Sense of Place and Academic Achievement in Geography

Purpose

This study explored the relationship between sense of place and academic achievement in geography and used a mediation model to verify the mediating role of creativity in this relationship.

Methods

A total of 1,037 upper secondary school students were surveyed using the Sense of Place Scale, the Innovative Behavior Scale, and their geography test scores. SPSS (version 26.0) was used for descriptive statistical analysis and correlation analysis. The PROCESS plug-in (version 4.0) was used to test the mediating effect of creativity.

Results

(1) The correlation analysis showed that sense of place has a positive effect on academic achievement in geography and is related to creativity. Moreover, creativity exerts a positive effect on academic achievement in geography (2). The results of mediation analysis indicated that creativity plays mediating and buffering roles in the relationship between sense of place and academic achievement in geography after controlling for gender and residential address. The direct and indirect effects accounted for 65.708 and 34.292% of the total effect, respectively.

Conclusions

The results indicated that sense of place affected not only academic achievement in geography directly but also creativity indirectly. This conclusion provides certain ideas for the development of geography curriculums. Since academic achievement in geography is related to both sense of place and creativity, it is necessary to pay more attention to integrating sense of place in geography education and to foster creativity in curriculum development and teaching of geography.

When out-groups are perceived as out of place: urban disorder sensitivity and environmental distance

BACKGROUND

These studies aimed to determine whether a stronger preference for order, structure, and predictability in the urban environment (measured by the Space Intrusion subscale of the Urban Socio-Spatial Disorder Sensitivity Scale) and a higher score on the Out-Group Visual Encroachment scale are associated with more aversive reactions towards the idea of people of another race, ethnicity, or religion settling in the neighborhood.

PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE

Participants were recruited through online snowball sampling (pilot study) as well as from among university students. Students were also asked to send links to the study to their acquaintances. The pilot study, as well as Study 1B, were conducted online, whereas in Study 1A the paper-pencil method was used.

RESULTS

Scores on the Space Intrusion subscale and the Out-group Visual Encroachment scale were associated with outgroup negativity. Out-group Visual Encroachment was found to mediate the relationship between Space Intrusion and environmental distance toward Muslims.

CONCLUSIONS

Perceiving out-groups as out of place is a joint product of environmental features (visual cues of belonging) and characteristics of the individual (sensitivity to urban disorder). The challenge for neighborhoods in times of increased migration is how to shape the public domain to increase the chances of strangers becoming more familiar.

Effects of social position and household affordances on COVID-19 lockdown resilience and coping

In France, the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown measures have created unprecedented circumstances that increase stress and anxiety, thus leading individuals experiencing home confinement to adopt various coping strategies that contribute to building resilience. Given the novelty and recency of the COVID-19 lockdown, factors of coping and resilience in this specific context of home confinement remain undefined. Based on some recent observations, we conducted a study on a convenience sample in France (N = 809) in order to investigate two potential factors of lockdown resilience and coping: social position and household affordances, while also exploring some complementary hypotheses based on the literature. Social position and household affordances were identified as significant predictors of lockdown coping and resilience, and low social position was found to coincide with less social support coping strategies. Results are discussed in relation to the theory and the limits identified in this study. Recommendations are made for potential second waves of COVID-19 spread or similar pandemics in the future.

Place attachment and agricultural land conversion for sustainable agriculture in Indonesia

The relationship between place attachments and agricultural land conversion for developing countries had not been studied in many studies. This study aimed to provide empirical evidence of the psychological relationship between place attachment and agricultural land conversion, in contributing to sustainable agriculture in rural areas. The method used was the calculation of the place attachment index, while examining the relationship between latent and dependent variables implemented in Structural Equation Model (SEM), applied in AMOS Software. The result of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) calculation demonstrated the relationship between place attachment and agricultural land conversion. The attitude towards land development also had a weight of 0.657, which is substantially optimistic. Also, the weight value indicated that the place attachment relationship positively impacted the desire to maintain land, as maintenance decision was higher when the place attachment was high. That was accompanied by a 31.6% value of R2, meaning that the place attachment influenced 31.6% of the variance in the decision to preserve land.

Operationalising place for land system science

The following paper introduces the concept of place for land system science to better understand how the transformation of place, as place-making, can be operationalised. The aim is to operationalise place with the motivation that a deeper understanding of people-place interactions can advance knowledge of land systems towards practicable solutions to current sustainability challenges. An overview of place studies spanning a wide range of research disciplines is presented to form a clear and concise theoretical foundation, necessary when operationalising place beyond its traditional research domains and applications. The limitations and potential of place in the context of land systems science are then explored through examples and the importance of operationalising place as both a product and process is demonstrated. Place and place-making are presented as a conceptual model, which allows for expansion and substantiation when deployed to relevant land system research tasks. In closing, the directions and key themes for further development of people-place interactions in land system science are discussed.

Places in Information Science

Human spatial concepts, such as the concept of place, are not immediately translatable to the geometric foundations of spatial databases and information systems developed over the past 50 years. These systems typically rest on the concepts of objects and fields, both bound to coordinates, as two general paradigms of geographic representation. The match between notions of place occurring in everyday where questions and the data available to answer such questions is unclear and hinders progress in place‐based information systems. This is particularly true in novel application areas such as the Digital Humanities or speech‐based human–computer interaction, but also for location‐based services. Although this shortcoming has been observed before, we approach the challenges of relating places to information system representations with a fresh view, based on a set of core concepts of spatial information. These concepts have been proposed in information science with the intent of serving human–machine spatial question asking and answering. Clarifying the relationship of the notion of place to these concepts is a significant step toward geographically intelligent systems. The main result of the article is a demonstration that the notion of place fits existing concepts of spatial information, when these are adequately exploited and combined.

Antecedents of Residents' Pro-tourism Behavioral Intention: Place Image, Place Attachment, and Attitude

Few prior studies have investigated place image from the residents’ perspective, how this and residents’ place attachment influence attitude to tourism, and consequent reactions. Accordingly, this study aims to develop a model for local residents’ pro-tourism behavioral intention and to discover the relationships between constructs. Analysis was based on a sample of 370 residents in Huangshan City, China. Results indicate that residents’ attitude to tourism positively affects their pro-tourism behavioral intention. Residents’ place image is found to positively relate to place attachment and attitude to tourism, while place attachment is also related to attitude and pro-tourism behavioral intention. In addition, attitude to tourism mediates place image’s and place attachment’s respective relationships with pro-tourism behavioral intention. Lastly, place image indirectly impacts residents’ attitude to tourism and pro-tourism behavioral intention through place attachment. However, the positive relationship between place image and pro-tourism behavioral intention is not supported. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Impact of Place Identity, Self-Efficacy and Anxiety State on the Relationship Between Coastal Flooding Risk Perception and the Willingness to Cope

Inhabitants of coastal areas are constantly confronted with minor or major events such as storms, erosion or flooding. This article investigates the predictors of coping willingness among citizens exposed to coastal flooding. Coping can be defined as a set of cognitive and behavioral efforts to master, reduce or tolerate a given risk and these strategies are generally regrouped into two different categories: active coping strategies oriented toward the risk to reduce or master it, and passive coping strategies focused on the reduction of internal tensions such as anxiety or fear. In this paper, we focus especially on how place identity, perceived self-efficacy, anxiety-state and coastal flooding risk perception shape both active and passive coping willingness. Data were obtained from different areas at risk of coastal flooding located in France. The sample is composed of 315 adult participants (mean age = 47; SD = 15). Two competing models were tested using path modeling. We expected a direct relation between risk perception and the willingness to cope actively and that a higher perceived self-efficacy would increase active coping willingness. Concerning passive coping strategies, we expected that a higher anxiety-state increases passive coping willingness, and that place identity would act as a mediator and increases the relation between anxiety-state and passive coping willingness. Results suggest that place identity increased when the living place is threatened and that the use of passive coping strategies also increased. Also, we demonstrated a direct relation between risk perception and active coping willingness but it appeared that self-efficacy has no effect on this relation. Model fit indices suggest the good fit of our model and Bayesian model comparison reveals a very strong evidence of the best fit of this model compared to its saturated and independent equivalents.

Independent Mobility and Social Affordances of Places for Urban Neighborhoods: A Youth-Friendly Perspective

Meaning of place is usually approached as slow social cognitive construction. However, grounded on the theory of affordances, it may also stem from direct perception-action processes, which enable the formation of immediate perceived functional, social or symbolic meaning of place (Raymond et al., 2017b). In the present study, affordances of places, which are perceived by a specific perceiver in a specific place, were mapped using a web-map survey. Each place offers opportunities for interaction, behavior, use, feeling or meaning, which is directly perceived and actualized there. This paper aims at identifying the degree of youth-friendliness of urban neighborhoods using the hypothetical intertwined model of independent mobility and actualized affordances (Kyttä, 2004) combined with place use and meaning (Broberg et al., 2013a). SoftGISchildren methodology (Broberg et al., 2013a) was adopted to carry out a cross-sectional research, involving 145 sixth to ninth graders of the Great Lisbon area. SoftGIS integrates Public Participation Geographic Information Systems (PPGIS), enabling collection and place mapping of daily subjective environmental experiences in the physical environment, consequently allowing for individuals to be actively engaged in public processes of participation (Brown and Kyttä, 2014). A place based web survey called "Ideal City: a game of graphic imagination" was adopted. Participants were asked to map their home place, select and mark social, functional, leisure and emotional place transactions, and report actual and ideal mobility to these places. Findings on mobility showed that shorter distances to meaningful affordances of places promote active and independent travel; ideally, youths would like to be more frequently active and more frequently autonomous. As for meaningful places, a total of 1632 affordances were localized, with a higher number on social category. Neighborhood area (500 m around home place) was assessed as youth-friendly, where active and independent travel occurred more frequently, and social affordances were the most expressive type. Relational and affectional experience in the neighborhood places was meaningful for youth. Municipalities should consider these features when planning, designing and managing residential areas aiming for the well-being and health of young citizens; and include youths as specialists of space (spatialists) in planning participatory processes (PPGIS).