What the Social Scientists Say
Let’s begin with some definitions. Following is a list of five definitions from five
different fields. These examples are not meant to be an exhaustive list of all the definitions used
by various disciplines, rather they are a sample of the diversity and commonalities among
definitions. Hopefully, as a group, they address most of the aspects commonly associated with
the concept sense of place, also referred to as place attachment, topopilia, insidedness, and
community sentiment (1).
Sociology: David Hummon, “Community Attachment: Local Sentiment and Sense of Place” (6) “By sense of place, I mean people’s subjective perceptions of their environments ant their more or less conscious feelings about those environments. Sense of place is inevitably dual in nature, involving both an interpretive perspective on the environment and an emotional reaction to the environment.... Sense of place involves a personal orientation toward place, in which ones’ understanding of place and one’s feelings about place become fused in the context of environmental meaning.”