Phenomenology of local people's perception of sense of place in rural communities in Zaboul County

Sense of place usually refers to the experience of a place, which is gained through the use of, attentiveness to and emotions towards the place. The concept of sense of place characterizes the complex connections people have with the environments they encounter. Thus, explanation of sense of place as phenomena in rural areas should be done from the perspective of rural people. This research aimed to explain the sense of place and to identify constraining and fostering influencing factors on sense of place among rural people. For reaching a deep and analytical understanding of this phenomena, a qualitative methodological approach (descriptive phenomenology) was used to collect, analysis and synthesis of research data related to rural people perceptions of sense of place and related influencing factors. The target population includes 26010 of rural people in Zabol County (including Sae-Ghalea, GAEM-Abad, Allah-Abad, Khomak, Gehantigh, Sarhadi, Jhalehi, Karbask and Mansouri villages) and the interviewees were selected through purposeful sampling technique (n=17). Semi-structured deep interviews were implemented in order to collect data. The data collection process was continued until reaching theoretical saturation and usefulness threshold of available information. Furthermore, concepts and theories from Relph, Proshansky, Canter and Steele were used in this research. According to Colaizzi's method, qualitative thematic content analysis was carried out to analyze the collected data. Findings of this phase, including representative codes, frequency and percent of each code are described and summarized in tables. The fostering and hindering factors of sense of place among rural people were categorized in several subjective categories, including: socio-cultural, service-welfare, geographical -ecological and economic factors. These results indicate that the places can be thought of as made up of a range of quite different types of factors which extend from the built environment to people’s emotional and psychological engagement with place. Thus, understanding the “rural place” involves physical, as well as sensory factors – incorporated in rural people’s emotional and psychological engagements.