Place is a meaningful site that combines location, locale,
and sense of place. Location refers to an absolute point in
space with a specific set of coordinates and measurable
distances from other locations. Location refers to the
‘where’ of place. Locale refers to the material setting for
social relations – the way a place looks. Locale includes
the buildings, streets, parks, and other visible and tangible
aspects of a place. Sense of place refers to the more
nebulous meanings associated with a place: the feelings
and emotions a place evokes.
These meanings can be
individual and based on personal biography or they can
be shared. Shared senses of place are based on mediation
and representation. When we write ‘Calcutta’ or ‘Rio’ or
‘Manchester’ for instance, even those of us who have not
been to these places have some sense of them – sets of
meanings produced in films, literature, advertising, and
other forms of mediation.
While the word ‘place’ has been used as long
as geography has been written, it is only since the 1970s
that it has been conceptualized as a particular location
that has acquired a set of meanings and attachments