Place Attachment; Conceptualization, Principals and Criteria

The growing interests in the notion of place during the 1960s led to the development of place attachment. The concept of place attachment was coined in environmental studies and then was extended to human geography, sociology, architecture and urban design and planning studies. Different definitions of this concept which have been offered, remained scattered in the literature, and thus the theoretical development of the concept has not yet been acknowledged, nor has a more general definition of place attachment been agreed upon. Furthermore, there are many similar terms such as sense of place, place identity, place dependence, belonging to place and so on. These various notions are seemingly interconnected and are often used interchangeably without much attempt to distinguish them from each other. This makes the concept of place attachment a slippery term and difficult to define. This paper tries to reach a specified and clear definition of this concept and its process which helps distinguishing it from other relevant concepts by reviewing the literature in place attachment. A Framework of principals and a conceptual model of place attachment process which embodies different dimensions of place attachment are proposed. Based on the proposed conceptual model, place attachment as the core of the sense of place and an affective, cognitive and behavioral process is being established by creating two levels of place dependence and place identity. Place dependency or functional place attachment is established when a place can meet ones or groups functional needs. Place identity or emotional place attachment refers to the condition that attaching meanings to a place and identification with it, construct a part of one’s identity. Because of the Emotional origin of place identity formation, functional Accountability has no role in this process. Also because of the weaker role of emotion in place dependency, it is more fragile than the place identity bond. Place attachment Behavior dimension, includes grief of being away from the place, desire to maintain closeness to the place, social support and choosing similar places. Dependent upon the proposed framework, principals of place attachment have been classified into four categories namely self-efficacy, continuity, self-esteem and distinctiveness. Self-efficacy refers to the capabilities of place to meet ones substantial demands. Continuity includes two distinct types; place-referent continuity and place-congruent continuity. In place-referent continuity places act as referent to past selves and actions and that for some people, maintenance of a link with that place provides a sense of continuity to their identity. Place-referent continuity refers to the self-maintenance of continuity via specific places that have emotional significance for a person, whereas place-congruent continuity refers to the maintenance of continuity via characteristics of places which are generic and transferable from one place to another. Then, Self-esteem refers to ones feeling of worth or social value as a result of communicating with the place. Finally, distinctiveness refers to a situation that a place can help people to maintain personal distinctiveness or uniqueness. The sub-components of each main principal will be different based on the context and its characteristics.