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A growing literature suggests our homes have a particularly powerful symbolic and psychological significance (Graham et al., 2015). In the UK, the certainty of safe, secure, and affordable housing for the most vulnerable in our society is under threat (Schrecker and Bambra, 2015). Historically, social housing was considered the solution to the housing crisis; however, its public perception as a desirable housing tenure has changed substantially (Thompson et al., 2017). This research aimed to explore the social processes, which underpin and determine the bonds people have with their social housing, communities, identities, and relationships with society. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve people living in social housing in London. Data was analysed using Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology and a theoretical model was co-constructed. Participants described their homes as representing bonds to places, people, and histories, which provided them a sense of security, safety, and belonging. These bonds were perceived as pivotal for their psychological wellbeing and informed how they view themselves. Participants experienced social and political discourses about social housing and its inhabitants as acts of discrimination and maltreatment. They described their housing being viewed as a commodity resulting in the neglect, fracturing, and erosion of their homes, local areas, families, and communities. As a result, many discussed ways of resisting its dismantlement. The research highlights important implications for Psychologists, other healthcare professionals, social housing communities, the housing system, and the government.

This thesis presents an empirical investigation on the process of place-making through design practice at a local level. The overarching research question, how does colour contribute to constructing place identity in urban environments?, directs the research towards an understanding of how colour functions through the visual dimension of urban design at macro-meso-micro scales. The qualitative research comprises a practice-led case study inquiry of four representative places in the city of Leicester in the United Kingdom: Belgrave Road, Narborough Road, King Power Stadium, and Highcross. These locations reflect complex urban settings in a diverse, yet typical, UK city. The study involves the concept of colour identity and develops strategy and method for articulating a methodology that reflects the research inquiry. It utilises a visual ethnographic approach combining interview and visual practice that emphasises the interpretation of colour meaning from ‘insider' and ‘outsider' perspectives. Moreover, the subsequent visual research engages in a negotiation process of observing and contrasting the visual effect of ‘sameness' and ‘difference'. The practice employs the use of digital technology, which is central to the creation of an immersive experience through photography and video. A combination of visual representations reflects a systematic colour analysis by contextualising the environmental colourscape. The data is archived in a public digital repository that allows other researchers to visualise and exchange colour knowledge. In addition to the academic benefit, this study also investigates the potential of these methods for future urban observation and research. The findings question the assumption of colour as an environmental intervention. A boundary condition uncovered by this study is that place identity is determined fundamentally by physical premises and human perspectives. Both involve colour contributions. The findings indicate that colour identity is a necessary consideration in place identity for the production and reproduction of genius loci. The research extends the work conducted on colour objects in urban environments by developing a framework from which to perform a systematic analysis of the structure and impact of colour identities. Furthermore, the study is inclined towards colour thinking as an intellectual capacity and pursuit that should be prioritised to inform urban design practice. As a contribution to knowledge, the research identifies new approaches in methodology, enriches terminology, and explores new realms for proceeding to colour research. The study aims to combine dynamic aspects of the colourscape with semantic analysis to achieve a fuller understanding of the urban visual context.

Adaptation has increasingly come to be recognised as an urgent and necessary response to climate change. The ability of a system to carryout adaptation is dependent on its adaptive capacity. To date, the majority of research relating to adaptation has focused on the objective and material determinants of a system's capacity to adapt to severe and extreme weather impacts. Whereas the role that subjective factors, such as people's perceptions, beliefs and values play in that same process, has received comparatively less attention. Despite being a global phenomenon, climate change is being experienced and responded to in local places. More than just physical locations, places are often imbued with meaning by the people associated with them. This thesis argues that these meanings have implications for the ways in which people adapt, or fail to adapt, to climate change impacts. It uses the concept 'sense of place', as a means of capturing this place meaning and as a lens for exploring adaptive behaviours in three low-income urban communities in the Dominican Republic. In particular it examines the specific roles of residents' place attachment, dependence and identity in motivating and constraining adaptive behaviours. Based on qualitative research with ethnographic underpinnings, the thesis shows that the urban poor sense of place is shaped by interconnected relationships between residents and; their homes, the physical and social aspects of their communities and a range of non-community actors. These relationships are shaped by physical and social interactions with and within places, but also through the discursive construction of the locations and the inhabitants of them in public opinion. Residents continuously seek out ways to enhance their sense of place, at times as an improvement in the built environment as a means of preventing or ameliorating environmental threats and events. However, often it is enhancement, in an aesthetic sense, which is envisaged as being of equal and sometimes greater importance. Although aesthetic improvements sometimes have the resultant impact of enabling adaptation, this tends to be incidental, rather than purposeful. Despite the importance placed by the urban poor on their sense of place, these subjective determinants and adaptation in the urban environment, remain unrecognised as well as absent from local institutional and policy radars. Overall the research suggests the need for a more comprehensive approach to understanding adaptive capacities. It requires an approach which continues to measure the objective determinants but which also recognises the role of people's relationships to places in converting or failing to convert objective capacity into climate change action and in dictating the type activities that are valued and prioritised by urban poor residents themselves.

Preventing the environmental impacts of economic growth is an important goal in today’s marketplace. This concern for a sustainable future incentivises marketing based around sustainability. The food and beverage industry had its fair share of criticism as its production uses more natural resources than most industries. One industry that has been ahead of other food processors in adopting environmental practices is the wine industry. The close relationship between wine and places is undisputable and so strong that people frequently visit places of wine production in the form of wine tourism contributing significantly to regional economies. For wine to be associated with sustainability, regional stakeholders would be required to represent similar values. The branding of places is far more intricate than branding of products and needs the support of those stakeholders involved. Such support is often discussed as a shared place identity. Only limited previous research has addressed whether the communication of sustainability enhances business performance. No research to date has empirically tested whether a shared stakeholder identity influences the relationship between sustainability branding and business success. To close this gap, a sequential mixed methods procedure was specified using quantitative questionnaires with 420 subjects and 20 qualitative interviews. A model with consequences of sustainability branding and a shared place identity was established using extant research. Mostly existing scales were adapted to fit this research context and tested with a structural modelling approach among Australian and German wineries. It was found that practicing and communicating sustainability significantly influences performance on an individual winery and regional destination level. Furthermore, a shared place identity has been established as a critical success factor in the relationship between sustainability branding and place performance. Both theoretical and practical implications can be drawn from this research. The results have provided empirical evidence on the direct relationship between sustainability and performance, in addition to the moderating role of a shared place identity. These findings extend the tourism literature which states that businesses practicing sustainably, enhance their own performance as well as the overall regional performance. It also extends stakeholder theory by establishing that a shared place identity strengthens this relationship even further, highlighting the need for regional management to initiate a shared sense of identification. Practically, regional managers who are eager to enhance economic performance should be actively involved in developing relationships between the individual wineries and the regional management in order to foster a shared place identity. Furthermore, it is of major importance to establish positive attitudes toward sustainability among winery owners. This can be done by building the confidence of winery owners by offering infrastructures for learning and support about sustainability.

This thesis examines how changes to rural places and landscapes are experienced by residents and incorporated into place attachments and identities over time. It does so through exploring findings from seventy-eight qualitative, ‘emplaced’, oral history interviews in three English villages: Mullion (Cornwall); Askam and Ireleth (Cumbria); and Martham (Norfolk). These villages are located near to at least one existing windfarm, which – as an example of rural change - provides a common focus for the research. The research is informed by a ‘middle-ground’ theoretical approach that considers discursive and experiential aspects of people-environment relationships and pays particular attention to how engagements with the past are enrolled in shaping experiences of landscape, place and change. Attitudes towards rural place-change are identified as being shaped by four complex, relational facets, viz: i) discursive interpretations of rural place, (post)nature and temporality; ii) experiential factors; iii) assessments of utility; and iv) local contexts. The thesis draws these together into a conceptual framework that helps guide analyses of place-change experiences. The framework’s value is demonstrated through applying it to the example of windfarms. The results reveal perceptions to be complex and multifarious but suggest that changes can be incorporated into place attachments and identities so long as highly-valued place assets are not harmed. The research makes a valuable contribution to geography by enhancing understandings about everyday rural lives and experiences; and revealing parallels between academic and lay discourses about landscape, ‘nature’ and place-temporality. It also adds to the considerable literature on perceptions of renewable energy by providing insights into attitudes towards windfarms at the post-construction, rather than proposal, stage.

Through various benefits of tourism, a place is transformed into a destination. These destinations compete with one another for tourists, with promoters creating and promoting the place as a destination, a product. Due to increased access to and use of the internet, promotion and reach have become much easier online, where individuals may obtain destination information with relative ease. These factors can contribute to tourists developing an illusory perception of a place that frequently differs from their experience. Locals are frequently absent from the narratives (both contributing and being a part) of their place which are depicted online. This can result in dissatisfaction among both residents and visitors and has the potential to negatively affect the relationships between them. While much of the research on locals’ perspectives on place focuses on developed country settings using quantitative approaches, there is a scarcity of literature that focuses on the qualitative nature of locals’ place image and their perceptions in a developing country setting. This research aims to address these gaps by exploring how local people respond to the online images used to promote their places. The study utilised as its case study site an area that is one of the most famous tourist destinations in Nepal, the Khumbu, the upper region of Solukhmbu which is known as the Everest region. The official Nepalese tourism website was used as the source for the online images analysed. Text and photos were gathered from Nepal's official tourism website and analysed to develop themes for a semi-structured interview with local people about their perspectives on destination image. Semi-structured online interviews were undertaken with 19 Khumbu residents. Their perspectives reveal that they have a strong sense of place based on their ancestral connection. They lacked faith in the official website as the true face of Khumbu. Their responses to the online themes were classified into three categories: acceptance, tolerance and disapproval. It was discovered that all of the participants wanted their community to be promoted and wanted to showcase Khumbu as their contemporary reality, including the stories of the various places and highlighting more of the culture and lifestyle, rather than only focusing on the mountains. The destination image formation model (Beerli & Martin, 2004) was modified based on the findings, to draw attention to the importance of local people and promoters as key agents in the destination image-making process. It is expected that this research will help inform authorities including official tourism promoters about the perspectives local people have regarding the portrayal of their place online. This will assist promoters in comprehending the destination which includes local people while also identifying opportunities to collaborate which improves the relationship between officials and local people and contribute to a more harmonious tourism system.

Abstract: This study explores the history of excursions, tourism, and resorts at Cooking Lake from 1894 to 1938. Cooking Lake was considered Edmonton’s favourite resort for summer recreation and tourism in the early 1900s, yet its recreational landscape history is largely obscure. Analysis centres the questions: why was Cooking Lake the site chosen for these activities and what drew people back to the lake for repeated visitation? The thesis addresses these questions related to private and public views of the landscape. I argue that recreation and leisure on Cooking Lake allowed individuals to feel connected to the place and to each other, encouraging them to dwell in the landscape as a living community of relationships that then formed a land ethic in the Beaver Hills. Cooking Lake’s tourism and resort offerings developed to promote excursions for regional visitors. Local business owners, the Grand Trunk Pacific railway, and resort developments facilitated the transformation of the lake into a favourite destination for summer amusement and entertainment. The Koney Island Club initiated early hunting and boating on the lake followed by cottage sales. With families and visitors of various classes spending weekends, holidays, and summers at the lake, Cooking Lake gained a seasonal tourism identity that was influenced by the rise of weekend excursions, train tourism, and a carnivalesque ‘anti-culture.’ These practices were also seen in the expansion of private cottages and subdivision communities where visitors enjoyed the lake and experienced the local leisure and recreational culture. Clubs and camps emerged to provide activities for groups, including the YMCA, military regiments, and Girl Guides, that fostered belonging and further enforced place identity ideals of the lake. The development of the Lakeview resort and dance hall at South Cooking by 1930 was the culmination of a recreational tourism node. Archival newspapers provide a basis for engaging with the historic context of Cooking Lake’s popularity. Additionally, the voices and perspectives of visitors to the lake are brought into analysis through the use of archived oral history interview transcripts and popular community histories. The interdisciplinary analytical framework of this study incorporates concepts from history, philosophy, and anthropology. The production of place identity and landscape commodification is examined through understandings of place and recreational development. Martin Heidegger, Tim Ingold, and Catherine Palmer’s conceptions of dwelling within a landscape form the theoretical basis for understanding social interaction at Cooking Lake. The study aids in understanding excursions, landscape commodification, tourism nodes, society and communities of resorts, and place identity in a central lake district east of Edmonton, Alberta.

The idea of the Southeastern United States as a region has long infatuated the popular American imagination. While it is a site of historic and present trauma for some, collective Southern regional identity is constructed as a geographic imagined community of belonging. This place-based identity is expressed in many ways, one of which is through college football fandom. Southeastern Conference (SEC) football has long been associated with the presumed region of the South, and a popular expression of both SEC football fandom and southeastern regional identity is the tourism act of attending college football games. This thesis is a critical environmental investigation into that tourism.The global tourism industry contributes to global anthropogenic climate change through the emission of greenhouse gasses. As such, carbon footprinting can help quantify the sustainability of individual tourism events in terms of emissions. This case study seeks to assess the carbon footprint of six seasons of University of Tennessee college football, an SEC institution with one of the largest football stadiums in the United States. Using an extensive geographic sample of ticketing data from Tennessee’s home games during the 2014-2019 seasons, a total carbon footprint was estimated to be 232,864,549 kg CO2eq.This study presents both a methodology for studying spectator sporting events in sport tourism and evidence for the need for tourism organizations and governments to account for and reduce the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. It also demonstrates grounded consequences for the often trivialized ideas of fandom and place-based identity in a fresh way by examining an environmental impact of an identity expression. This thesis highlights the paradox that Tennessee football fandom, an expression of place-based identity, is simultaneously an agent in social placemaking and environmental place-destroying.

RESEARCH QUESTION: How can architecture enhance identity within a satellite township of Auckland, fostering an arts-based industry related to that town's identity? ABSTRACT: Identity is essential to a sense of belonging. For a community, a strong sense of identity can bring people together and foster pride. A community's architecture becomes an integral part of developing identity; either as artefacts of a place's history or drivers for the future to come. Looking for context in the wider surroundings of a community provides further drivers for developing identity. Some townships surrounding Auckland have begun to stagnate in their efforts to preserve their identity and strengthen it for the future. This stagnation is a result of a hesitancy to explore different financial avenues within towns and the underutilisation of existing identity. The approach first identifies the appropriate township to research, then locates suitable sites for new and restorative architecture within the chosen town. The research next investigates the history of the town to provide a context for the development of its future identity. A hypothetical model is then developed as a vision of a potential future. The objective is to create a masterplan that can be used to progress art-based industry and identity of the township. Through architecture, artists can exhibit their work and engage with the public at various stages throughout their creative process. Individual artists will be able to immerse themselves in their art and the identity of the place they inhabit. This can be achieved through meaningful design and strong connection to place identity.

Within identity theory, researchers distinguish between large, intermediate, and proximate social structures which have been shown to impact individuals' self-structures by shaping interactional probabilities. To date, scholars have paid the least attention to intermediate social structure despite its important role in facilitating and/or constraining individuals’ abilities to reach the physical locations where they can regularly enact a given identity. In order to address this gap, this research seeks to examine how the physical layout of the social world impacts the identity process. Specifically, I examine how the effort required to traverse space to reach a given place is an element of intermediate social structure that shapes how regularly one comes into contact with identity related others at that place. Simultaneous, I will also examine the degree to which the place an individual lives in facilitates/constrains the likelihood of them coming into contact with identity related others through the presence of specific identity-interaction sites that serve as opportunities for expressing one’s various identities. Using the religious identity as the identity of interest, I examine these relationships using survey data collected from approximately 1000 individuals in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. The findings support the propositions that the easier it is to reach a place, the more frequently that place will be visited and thereby the greater the proportion of one’s regular social contacts who share the religious identity. These findings also support the proposition that when there are more opportunities in the place the individual lives to enact a given identity due to a greater number of identity-interaction sites the individual is aware of, that individual will more frequently come into contact with identity related others. These findings represents a potential path forward for both expanding a structural symbolic interactionist understanding of how society shapes self shapes behavior, but also for integrating considerations of social inequality and stratification in the layout of the physical world into identity theory.

This professional report addresses 1) how a three-dimensional, person-process-place framework (Scannell & Gifford, 2010) captures the complex interrelationship between individuals and collective groups who form place attachment, the ways in which they attach themselves to a place, and the place that is the object of their attachment; 2) how place attachment influences individual decisions to rebuild or relocate after a natural disaster; and 3) what the implications are for planners faced with these individual and collective decisions to remain or relocate. Using a case study from Meyerland, a close-in suburban neighborhood in southwest Houston which has recently endured a 27-month period of three massive flooding events culminating in Hurricane Harvey, the report addresses these questions through qualitative analysis of interviews and surveys of current and former residents of Meyerland, history of the neighborhood, and a thorough literature review of place attachment.

Climate change adaptation has largely failed to address the importance of changing place meanings in nature based-recreation and tourism (NRT) communities. Twenty-five semi-structured interviews and three focus groups were conducted with community leaders (e.g., residents that were tourism professionals, natural resource managers, and local elected officials) on the “North Shore” of Lake Superior in Minnesota, USA. These qualitative data were analyzed using grounded theory methods. Perceptions of local effects of climate change diverged: stakeholders felt vulnerable, had perceptions of resilience or lacked understanding of impacts. Climate change threatens to cause reduced place satisfaction (vulnerability) and is determined by the level of place dependence (exposure) and the degree of place identity (sensitivity) in the NRT community. This study proposes a theoretical model integrating place concepts and climate change vulnerability that addresses the overlooked role of place meanings and identity in climate change adaptation.

"Place for me is the locus of desire," writes Lucy Lippard in the opening to Lure of the Local (1997). This research project is about place. Two distinct sets of scholarship on place emerged in the 1970s and the 1990s. A third wave of place scholarship is evident today. Coming initially from geography and anthropology, the study of place is now ubiquitous across fields in history, cultural studies, architecture, planning, health sciences, art and other disciplines. Despite the sustained interest in the study of place, one of the hallmarks of place is the ranging and contested contours of what place means. Place is defined, for the purposes of this study, as a describable location characterized by a shifting confluence of historical, material, political, cultural, economic, built, sensed and imagined qualities. There are three distinct goals in this research project. First, this research project seeks to explore how place has been theorized, imagined, and understood. Second, this research project is an inquiry into how place can be studied. To these ends, I name, define, and refine a method I call place ethnography. Place ethnography is a methodological framework that blends ethnographic and historic research with a range of disciplinary techniques in order to study place. I develop several concepts in this project. These include the idea of a place imaginary, defined as a dominant place perception, the concept of an historical vacancy, the perception of an emptiness in the historical fabric and settlement of a place or region, a particular kind of place imaginary and topofabulas, a concept that describes a historically untenable place narratives that are accepted as historical truth and are place defining. The third goal of this research project is to apply place ethnographic methods to a specific place. To these ends, this research project recounts a place ethnographic study of a small town named Truth or Consequences, New Mexico undertaken from July 2012- August 2014.

This qualitative case study researched how adults from a community center and school acted as institutional agents in assisting youth navigating between community and school settings. The research was conducted in the context of Chagrin Falls Park, a historically marginalized community in the Cleveland metropolitan region. The research included semi-structured interviews with eleven participants across three participant categories, including institutional agents from Kenston Local Schools and Chagrin Falls Park Community Center and young adult Kenston graduates. The research explored: (1) the perceptions and roles of institutional agents in how Black youth construct identities, relationships, and navigate between institutional and community spaces within the sociological and historical context of Chagrin Falls Park; (2) how the racial-identity of adults influences their relationship with youth; and (3) whether institutional agents act as empowerment agents, viewing their role as providing access to social capital for Chagrin Falls Park youth and/or working against the tendency of schools to reproduce inequality (Stanton-Salazar, 2010). The research found that adults from both Kenston Local Schools and Chagrin Falls Park Community Center acted as institutional agents in supporting Chagrin Falls Park students, but rarely questioned institutional policies that reproduced inequality. Findings support the importance of adults acting on behalf of historically marginalized youth, and underscore the potential when agents from multiple institutions work together to support youth.

School closure has become an accepted method of school reform policy asoutlined in federal legislation found in The No Child Left Behind Act. The academicliterature regarding school closure is limited and tends to be quantitative in design,focusing on the relationship between student achievement and school closure and/orstudent transitions. Qualitative studies around this topic have only recently emerged,focusing on the immediate impact of school closure and transition. There is a need for aretrospective study, reflecting on the long-term effects of school closure on individualsand their communities, as told by the students who experienced it.This study seeks to understand the experience of DeVilbiss students who attendedthe high school in the year its closure was announced, and who transitioned to aneighboring high school for the 1991-1992 school year. Using semi-structuredinterviews to explore issues related to transitions, the study will examine identity, socialcapital, relational trust, community connectedness and engagement, school andcommunity pride, tradition, and the sense of belonging. The study will offer insight intothe long-term effects of school closure, particularly through the eyes of those whoexperienced the closing of DeVilbiss High School. The study has implications forcurrent and future policy decisions.

Although there are numerous studies of how resettlement affects refugees, there are fewer examining the dynamic of how refugees and long term residents join together in formal, and to even greater extent, informal relationships of care to reconstitute and reconfigure place. Theorists often focus on the economic, political and historical elements of place identity, ignoring the emotional, phenomenological, and grounded aspects of the everyday construction and experience of place. The production, distribution, and consumption of systems of care in Clarkston has immense impact on the habitual, mundane routines that significantly affect ideas of identity and spill over into social, cultural, economic, and political change. Using a qualitative analysis of interviews and participant observation, the focus of this thesis is on the material, performative, and representational ways in which the dialectical relationships of teacher and student, educator and educated, care-giver and recipient, are transforming the rapidly evolving City of Clarkston.

This project investigates the implementation of place branding theory via documentary filmmaking focused closely on the local characteristics of a place/region. Employing a close reading of WQED filmmaker Rick Sebak's Pittsburgh History Series focused upon recurrent themes about aspects of Pittsburgh's unique identity framed in relation to rhetorical approach and documentary techniques, while also noting aspects left out of Sebak's films, this dissertation demonstrates the progressive potential of publicly funded documentary filmmaking to enable the residents of a given place to rebrand their identity and foster revitalization, independent of the expectations of city planners or corporate sponsors, and without sacrificing the diversity of experiences that give that place its unique character. As a whole, Sebak's body of work constructs a particular narrative of Western Pennsylvania’s identity that revamps some of the preexisting notions about that identity. As a project of self-definition and self-understanding, the Pittsburgh History Series provides the local populace with some agency in recreating its image, rather than being branded from the outside. The success of this place branding approach to documentary filmmaking for Sebak and Western Pennsylvania suggests that other cities and regions could use it as a model to take greater control of their identities and cultivate renewal.On the whole, this dissertation views Sebak's films as a series of reconstructions. While place branding aims to reconstruct a place's identity, the process of documentary filmmaking involves a specific reconstruction of reality in order to communicate certain ideas about that reality. In other words, through his films Sebak constructs or reconstructs aspects of Pittsburgh identity and feeds them back to the residents of that area. Particular aspects of this unique identity frequently emerge in his films. These recurring characteristics that he stresses include neighborhoods that retain a sense of closeness and community as well as ties to their history, a uniquely dedicated workforce that can innovate without abandoning the working-class values of the past, and a rich cultural life that is competitive with that of larger cities in terms of quality yet also more modest and accessible than that found elsewhere. This redefinition of Western Pennsylvania's identity seeks a way forward without attempting to completely discard all aspects of the region’s existing identity. This celebration of the region's positive attributes—and consequent downplaying of its more divisive and unpleasant elements and episodes—encourages pride among the local population while also enhancing its appeal to outsiders who might consider relocating themselves and/or their businesses to the area.

The purpose of this ethnographic case study was to explore the construction and alteration of Roanoke Virginia's cultural imaginary, as well as the engagement of marginal groups and their concerns in those processes. This research examined these issues through the experiences of key actors involved with the creation of Roanoke's first city-wide arts and cultural plan and the creation and growth of the Roanoke-based Marginal Arts Festival (MAF). Cities around the globe are increasingly engaged in transnational projects of place identification, reconfiguration, and attraction: attracting capital, residents, workers, tourists and attention (Cronin & Hetherington, 2008; Hague, 2005; Jensen, 2005, 2007; Pine & Gilmore, 1999; Zukin 1995). Moreover, cities undertake various kinds of identity projects: on-going, dynamic processes through which spaces are produced and reproduced by conscious strategies of place making and identity building (Nyseth & Viken, 2009). Such initiatives are concerted efforts to establish or extend a particular idea, or imaginary, of a city. This study focused on one kind of urban identity endeavor that has become widespread during the past two decades: the effort to shape and market a creative, culture-rich place, to project a specific urban cultural imaginary. This analysis also responded to a straightforward problem, that of the manner through which people, in places pursuing arts and culture as a primary focus for development, come to terms with differing understandings of art and its role in development. This study identified four principal future paths for the analysis of cultural imaginaries and the practice of cultural development: studying and supporting civic tinkering activities, recognizing the relevance of localized imaginaries and urban identity projects, valuing full participation in the project of the city, and conducting place-specific and critical analyses.

Concepts and theories from Marketing and branding have been widely applied to tourism contexts in understanding the relationship between an individual and a destination. However, the human-place relationship is much more complex than human-brand relationship. Therefore more in-depth analysis is called for in human-place relationship research. Due to the development of social media, residents and tourists are playing increasingly important roles in place promotion. However, the consumer-to-consumer (C2C) phenomenon in the context of tourism has not received adequate attention from researchers. There are a number of problems understanding the motivations of this behaviour. This study starts with an attempt to understand the complex and multiple nature of human-place relationship. It proposes a six-dimension construct of place attachment (place identity, place dependence, social bonding, interactional past, and interactional potential), as well as a different taxonomy dividing word-of-mouth into three types (one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many) in terms of how the information is communicated. Furthermore a conceptual framework is proposed which presents the construct of place attachment as a determinant of different types of positive word-of-mouth behaviour for studying local residents and experienced tourists about their destination region. This conceptual framework is tested by several empirical studies in Australia and China. The thesis is structured by three different studies: Study One examines the proposed dimensionality and measurement of place attachment. A sample of 330 Shanghai residents and 361 Sydney residents is used to test the construct model, and the results are statistically acceptable. Study Two examines the dimensionality and measurement of word-of-mouth and the conceptual model of place attachment indicating the behaviour of word-of-mouth, with the same sample from Study One. The results indicate a strong impact of different dimensions of place attachment on word-of-mouth behaviour. In Study Three, the theoretical model is applied to study a special group of residents, Chinese students in Australia, to understand how Chinese students attachment to both China and Australia may influence their word-of-mouth behaviour to promote Australia as a favourable destination to their acquaintance in China. In the conclusion, the contributions, limitations, as well as further discussions are addressed.

Expanding suburbanization in metropolitan areas cause rapid changes to the surrounding rural landscape. Often the place identity of small rural towns is placed in peril by these rapid changes. Physical and community changes brought by suburbanization erode the traditional bonds between community and town. One such town, Bethany, is shown to suffer the affects of suburbanization. This thesis generates nine indicators of place identity to investigate and compare Bethany with three case study towns which have faced similar pressures. This thesis also investigates planning strategies employed by these case study towns for successful methods of improving place identity which could be applied in Bethany.

Abstract: The following is a qualitative exploration of place identity, wilderness and cultural tourism interpreter guides, and sustainable tourism development in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Four research sub-questions are used to glean insights and advance this study: 1) how are Yukon place identities characterized in relation to remoteness?; 2) how is Yukon tourism positioned in relation to these place identities of remoteness?; 3) how is remoteness reflected in the place identities of wilderness and cultural tourism interpreter guides?; and 4) how do the place identities of wilderness and cultural interpreter guides influence the way they design and deliver their tourism activities? Recognizing the importance of “sense of place” as a tourism development tool, cultural geography was used to analyse guide place identity in relation to place-making and place-marketing processes. The study involved textual analysis of resident and tourist oriented documents, participant observation of guides and their tourism activities, and an analysis of place identity narratives identified in interviews with wilderness and cultural tourism guides. Three collective place identity narratives were used as a framework to examine place relationships in a tourism context: 1) Masculinist Narratives, 2) Narratives of the New Sublime, and 3) Narratives of Loss. In this study, place identity is explored in terms of the way it is expressed through, and influenced by, notions of “remoteness.” Remoteness is conceptualized as a social, cultural, historical and geographical construct that holds meaningful – if differently experienced and expressed – place identity values for residents and tourists alike. Remoteness is defined by the Yukon’s vast wilderness, its distance [real and perceived] from southern Canada and “civilization,” and its unique cultural makeup and history, especially with regard to lingering notions of an untamed frontier and its First Nations residents. Findings discuss infrastructure as a pivotal paradox; one that hinges on the “remote-accessible” nature of the Yukon’s tourism development question. Relationships between guide place identity, tourism experience authenticity and the nature of interpretation, type of tourism operation and tourism experience are identified and considered in relation to special interest tourism. Finally, implications for tourism and destination management and the goals of sustainable tourism development are discussed.

This thesis examines the role of racialized practices in the discourses and processes that alter place identity. Drawing on ethnography from the East Village of Buckhead, a once vibrant nightlife district in Atlanta, I examine how discourses of danger, colorblindness, and the race card have been employed to “whitewash” the discussions about the redevelopment of the Village. In effect, the business and civic elite of Atlanta (and Buckhead) deployed racialized conceptualizations of group identity. In particular, they utilized “public safety” discourses to influence the Atlanta city government to support the redevelopment effort. This led to the elimination of the establishments that attracted African American partygoers in large numbers. Using interviews with government agents, night club operators, and Buckhead civic and business leaders, combined with archival analysis of newspaper accounts, I implemented a hybrid content-discourse analysis to explore the ways in which the discourses of race and place concerning the East Village changed between 2000 and 2008.

This dissertation investigates the influence of landscape architecture and urban design onthe establishment of sense of place in Irvine, California, and the consequences of designdecisions on the residents' place-identity and attachment to their hometown. It opens with anoverview of the evolution of the suburban model and the theories of place identity andattachment as environmental and social psychologists have interpreted them. It continues with abrief account of Irvine's history and a discussion of the idiosyncratic elements that made it whatit is today: its master planned nature, the presence of a single owner and developer, anexperimental planning process whereby landscape architects and urban designers acted asmediators between the various actors of the development process, and the interplay of designand marketing that guided every planning decision.This dissertation adopts a definition of place identity as a multifaceted "gradient," whichencompasses the emotional attachment that emerges from individuals' bonds with place, thesatisfaction experienced as their needs are fulfilled, the legibility and imageability of theirenvironment, and the social imageability and values that they share with other residents. Theauthor's assumption was that these dimensions of the person/place relationship contribute toestablish place identity, and that such place identity acts as a "gestalt." Thus, place identitybecomes more than the sum of each identity component, which is consistent with HaroldProshansky's (1983) place identity definition as a "pot-pourri."Through surveys, semi-structured interviews, cognitive mapping and traditional siteanalysis, this research revealed that Irvine's unique urban design does contribute to such anidentity gradient, ultimately shaping the lives and identities of the residents of three of Irvine'smost popular villages: Northwood, Westpark, and Woodbridge. Out of all the placemaking toolsurban designers employ, landscape architecture is the one residents value the most. Despite thedevelopers' investments in architectural details and its obsession with stylistic "authenticity," itis the landscape that dominates people's lives. To preserve its aesthetic appeal, rules and regulations are in place, which allow homeowner's associations to control every aspect of thelandscape, from the size and species of trees to the height of grass blades and the opening of agarage door. This rigidity is a source of frustration among residents and raises the issue ofwhether Irvine will be able to adapt to changing world economic and environmental conditions.This research concludes by highlighting the unique challenges faced by suburbancommunities like Irvine as they approach their mature stage. It also suggests ways in whichurban designers and landscape architects may be able to help move suburbia toward moresustainable futures.

This study explores the meaning of place and the role of the physical setting, relative to sociocultural elements, for long-term, year-round residents of northern New Hampshire for two dimensions of place: attachment and identity. Resident-employed photography was used to prompt research participants to think about how they are attached to place and how it shapes their identity, and their photos served as a way to enter quickly and deeply into a conversation about place meaning. Data was analyzed according to the tradition of grounded theory and five themes of meaning emerged as follows: The physical setting is stable, restorative, where people experience spirituality, provides sustenance, and fosters development and expression of ecological identity. These themes were revealed as instrumental to maintaining resident's well-being through attending to the needs of the self. Conceiving of the physical setting in this way expands our understanding of the relationship between people and place. This research has potential value related to attending to the well-being of residents and for guiding land management policies, particularly in communities where traditional ways of interacting with the land are undergoing change in land use and economic base.

The edge city is often criticized as being a center of placelessness. It is the devaluation and commodification of place in contemporary approaches to urban design and planning that is stifling the prosperity of place identity and subsequently the ability for edge cites to create 'a sense of place'. It is probable that a broadened understanding of the situational context and the role of human experience in place making can suggest alternatives to current practices that reduce place to location. Capturing the essence of place inspires superior strategies for producing place identity and a grasp on the meaning of how recovering ‘a sense of place’ is fundamental in turning edge cities from consumable space into real and lasting places.

By listening to peoples' constructed stories of special places, the average person begins to understand why and how attachments to places form. This study concerns the attachments residents of Isle au Haut, Maine possess on the remote island, which borders part of Acadia National Park. The purpose of this study is to uncover social components of both place attachment and place identity among island residents as well as explain the process by which those residents form attachments. Twelve interviews were conducted both on Isle au Haut as well as nearby Mount Desert Island. Qualitative data were collected from a purposive sample of island residents and National Park Service employees who are responsible for managing the park on the island. In-depth interviews were the sole means of data collection and provided detailed stories of life on the island and attachments that have formed. This study uses grounded theory techniques in data analysis to ultimately form a theory grounded in the collected data. The findings from this study indicate that social interaction is key to residents forming an attachment to Isle au Haut. Further, three major social constructs emerged from the data analysis. Those constructs are sense of community, shared purpose, and shared history, all of which were found to contribute to place identity and place attachment among the residents. The results also suggest place identity as more salient than place dependence in residents' narratives concerning their attachment to the island.

Inner-city neighborhoods are being recognized for their potential to contribute visually, economically, and culturally to the urban core. Efforts to revitalize these neighborhoods will need to address the economic, cultural, and social structure of the neighborhood. Resident groups, in particular long-time and newer residents, will likely be affected by the cultural changes that inevitably accompany revitalization. This project explores the processes of community life and place attachment, and their role in fostering healthy communities. Residents, depending on their length of time in the neighborhood, will be at different stages of these processes. Design and planning may support community life and place attachment by understanding this continuum and providing for the processes that engender them. This project began with a review of literature on the subject of inner-city neighborhoods, gentrification, community life, and place attachment. From this literature design and planning criteria were extracted. These criteria were then applied to the Belmont-Fallon neighborhood in Roanoke, Virginia, and were evaluated based on the conditions of the neighborhood and levels of attachment of long-time and newer residents. Design implications were developed that may support the process of place attachment within this community. These implications were then illustrated and tested through design.

Place identities have become contested subjects in contemporary tourism place promotion. The growing importance of difference and uniqueness in an increasingly competitive global tourism environment has made it more pressing than ever that tourism places brand globally recognisable, yet locally unique, place identities. A tension exists between this need to be globally recognisable and locally unique, however. Risks of increasing homogenisation and of alienation of local residents have led to increasing calls for the inclusion of local residents' values in tourism place promotion. The realities of the international tourism marketing context, by contrast, necessitate the creation and maintenance of internationally competitive, demand-oriented place products. This tension inherent in place making leads to a more fundamental theoretical question at the heart of the structure-agency debate in the social sciences generally and the space-place debate in geography in particular: how best to conceptualise the relationship between structure and agency in general and in contemporary tourism-based place making in particular? In this thesis, I explore and compare two different theoretical attempts to conceptualise this structure-agency relationship using two case studies of tourism place making in Queenstown and Glenorchy in the South Island of New Zealand. I explore both Lefebvre's (1991a) The Production of Space and two spatial applications of Habermas' critical theory (critical regionalism and communicative planning theory) in order to establish how they contribute to an understanding of the tension inherent in place making evidenced in the Queenstown and Glenorchy case studies. I conclude by suggesting that a synthesis of Lefebvrian understandings of power and material spatial practice with the normative, guiding stance drawn from critical theory may provide direction for the design of planning tools that support the development of critical versions of local place identity.

Previously, social movement theory has focused on constructs of identity, such as race/ethnicity, gender and sexual preference, for collective identity construction. Prochansky (1983:59) introduces the concept of place identity, situating it along with the other components of identity, such as the ones mentioned above. In addition, literature on Appalachia has shown land to be an important construct of Appalachian peoples identity. This paper analyzes, through content analysis, the collective identities of writers who wrote letters to the U.S. Forest Service in opposition to a proposed AEP power line. This power line was to run through lands in Appalachia, such as various private properties, the Jefferson and George Washington National Forests, and across the New River. Collective identities based on place-identity, specifically including land, were the main target of analysis, due to the importance of land for Appalachian people. This analysis suggests that land, as a type of place identity, does serve as a basis for collective identity.

The qualitative research reported in this study draws on sense of place theory to develop a new approach to evaluating interpretation. In this thesis I argue that interpretation, either explicitly or implicitly, aims to stimulate, facilitate and extend people's understanding of place so that empathy towards heritage, conservation, culture and landscape can be developed. A new approach is used to explore how effectively interpretation influences people's understanding of place at Mount Cook National Park, New Zealand. A typology of interpretive provision is developed which identifies three forms of interpretation - primary, secondary and tertiary. Each form of interpretation reveals the place in a different form and manner. Visitors to the national park are classified into four groups depending on their use of this range of interpretation. These categories are termed; seekers, stumblers, shadowers and shunners. By moving the majority of these visitor groups (even short stay visitors) towards an appreciation of the place, the interpretation at Mount Cook is deemed effective in achieving its aims. A number of other tangible and intangible factors are also identified as contributing to the development of visitors' appreciation of place. The case is made for a more theory driven approach to the evaluation of interpretation.