Relationships to Place
Residents of Nevada County described different types of connections with place, which I
have categorized into six types of relationships: biographical, spiritual, ideological, narrative,
commodified, and dependent. This typology should be seen as ideal types, or analytic categories
developed to facilitate understanding. The five types characterize what the people I interviewed
describe as fundamental ways they relate to places. They should not be seen as descriptions of
individual people. Many people are likely to have more than one relationship with a single place,
and those relationships are likely to change over time. Regarding the level of analysis, people