Presenting a Conceptual Model for Place Meaning and Continuity Indexes (Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of Lived Experiences)

Todays, the emergence and continuity of place meaning is significant in response to identity crisis. Additionally, it is clear that when a breakup occurred in the continuous flow of identity, a crisis appears, which is the focus point of this article. For this, the authors presented a conceptual framework for place meaning and indexes for its continuity, which could be a helpful guide in determining the priorities and continuity of place meaning. Considering this topic is really important as there is a large amount of literature on the meaning of place and its elements but there is not much on the continuity. On the other hand, regarding vast changes taken place in the Central part of Mashhad city, searching for the perception of continuity is essential. So, first of all, literature of place, place meaning and continuity as one of its major principles have been reviewed. Then our position in this amount of literature has been modified in the form of conceptual framework. In the conceptual framework a new conceptual triple model has been presented for place, which consisted of three components of space, time and human. In the proposed model, the meaning of place is considered as relations between these components. In addition, the concept of continuity as a principle governing place meaning is placed at the middle of the model. The primary criteria of continuity have also been described in this part. The concept of continuity has dynamics and stability in itself, simultaneously. These two are major dimensions of this concept. Stability in component’s relation and dynamic in the components themselves are different aspects of these two dimensions. Indeed, relations expected to be series of psychological generalities perceived through mental process, which are usually called the invisible theme, connecting meaning and material. In this article authors try to define and complete detailed indexes of these two major major dimensions of concept of continuity through case studies. Memory has a significant role in studying place meanings. It is the function of memory, which connects time and space and results in reforming the straight time axis to a curved line through placing meanings. This is why here, authors choose qualitative method and studied lived experiences of people. Therefore, next part explains the approach and methodology of the article. Overall approach here in the study of meaning is phenomenological semiotics. The techniques used in gathering data is qualitative interview around lived experiences of people and the techniques in analyzing data is interpretative phenomenology. Finally, considering the goal of this paper, which is a modification of criteria for continuity of place meaning, results were discussed. Results explained that stability of relations between different components of place seems to be more important than the stability of components themselves. Moreover, detailed analysis of interviews and implicated meanings revealed that the relation between space and human was more regarded. The focused indexes of this relation were vitality and content richness of activities.