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This article explores the impact of mythology on urban planning within the creative economy framework. In an urban environment, mythology provides new potentials and introduces the possibilities of built heritage as well as its prose and narrative forms, historical contexts, and social relations. Activists, artists, and other cultural workers promote the culture of freedom of expression in this authentic space. Their bottom-up approach allowed Savamala to become one the most interesting quarters of Belgrade. Meanwhile, the Belgrade Waterfront project is nearing completion and the question whether it will preserve the cultural heritage of Savamala arises. This article investigates the role of mythology in Savamala's riverfront regeneration, the use of narrative myths and mythical spatial potentials, and the role of mythology in urban planning today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Shared symbolism and ideology at dark heritage sites construct the narrative of a collective national destiny. Visitors' experiences with such sites necessarily involve decoding signs and symbols. The commonality in interpretative practices is rooted in "collateral knowledge" and forms the identity of place. Yet, cultural materiality, collective identities, and semiotics have been overlooked by dark tourism academia. In broader tourism studies, semiotic attempts lack methodological homogeneity and congruence and efforts to transpose Charles Peirce's semiotic theory into practical experiential methodologies are scarce. This study introduces a practical, systematic, and replicable semiotic methodology for reading the identity of dark heritage sites. This methodology revolves around three interconnected Peircean concepts: the sign, the collateral knowledge, and the sign's relationship to its dynamical object. It is proposed that reading the indexical, iconical, and symbolical functions of signs through the filter of collateral knowledge can ensure a systematic meaning-making process and reveal subtle influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gentrification has been identified as a phenomenon that involves impacts on space and place. Particularly, gentrification's social and cultural impacts involve disrupted meanings residents associate with spaces. Although space and place dynamics of gentrification have been well-documented, gentrification research has primarily involved traditional quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches. These traditional approaches have not fully captured the nuanced ways space and place dimensions of gentrification converge in their impacts on residents. Also, traditional approaches have limited most gentrification research to theory and descriptions, as opposed to action and practice. To this end, innovative, integrated methodologies are needed for a paradigm shift in how gentrification is examined and addressed. In this article, we illustrate the use of photovoice and Geographic Information Systems' Story Map as an integrated methodological approach to examining and fostering action against gentrification's space-place impacts. We provide strengths and challenges of this approach and recommendations for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a focused perceptual dialectology study of variation in a single metropolitan area: New Orleans, Louisiana, long overlooked by linguists. We asked participants to complete a map-drawing activity using two maps, one of the city and its nearest suburbs, and one of the larger cultural zone. We also added the dimension of time by additionally asking participants to complete a map showing changes that have occurred since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which we identified as a catalyst for an increase in the rate of demographic change in the city. The results show that, unlike similar participants in other studies, African American and white New Orleanians draw the same city but label it differently, suggesting they occupy the same space but live in different places. When considering change over time, participants highlighted differences in the ethnic makeup of the city. We conclude that ethnicity in New Orleans is a key—if not the key—driver of perception both of linguistic variation and of change. With this study we confirm the importance of working with local actors to understand the way language practices map onto speakers' understandings of space and place and the ways they may influence variation and change. The findings we present here provide us with key questions that will strengthen the results of production studies currently underway, demonstrating the significance of such work as a corollary to production studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have increasingly recognized the sociocultural impacts of gentrification on Black residents. However, the gentrification literature lacks a theoretical model on the nuanced ways gentrification socially and culturally displaces longstanding Black residents. Limited attention has been given to factors that moderate social and cultural displacement. This article introduces a Theoretical Model of Gentrification-Induced Social and Cultural Displacement and Place Identity among longstanding Black residents based on extant theories and literature. Black neighborhoods' changing character was theorized as a precipitating factor leading to residents' negative experiences. Five types of experiences were theorized as contributing to social and cultural displacement: (1) confronting changing neighborhood norms, (2) "othering," (3) losing social connections, (4) encroaching, and (5) witnessing the erasure of what was. The theoretical model further advances knowledge by explicating how place identity may moderate longstanding Black residents' social and cultural displacement experiences. Implications for future research and equitable development for historically Black communities are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While sense of place has been increasingly used in planning literature over the last five decades, its conceptualisation varies by discipline and theoretical orientation, with disjointed elements. This study develops a three-theme conceptual framework articulating individual-community-place interrelationships by critically reviewing the literature on sense of place and place-based constructs of attachment, identity, and satisfaction. Theorising the interactions in-between contributes to theoretical debates on sense of place and developing conceptual clarity to understand the planning context, processes, and outcomes, informing decision- and policy-making. It also facilitates the analysis and synthesis of complex narratives in qualitative studies of people-place relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concerns have been raised that destination branding often overlooks the destination's internal stakeholders, and in some cases, has resulted in a brand identity that does not reflect the meanings and emotions that residents attach to places. Consequently, scholars have advocated for a more participatory approach to destination branding in which residents' sense of place can be acknowledged, represented, and operationalized. This paper synthesizes these arguments and demonstrates that such an approach can be achieved by embracing residents' place stories. Through storytelling, residents construe different facets of the place identity that is the foundation of destination brand identity. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role, constituents, and effects of storytelling in destination branding, particularly exploring whose stories should be told and how these stories should be conveyed. In doing so, a participatory approach to destination branding is presented that employs residents' place stories as a genuine form of participation in the destination branding process. Lastly, an agenda for future research is proposed, and practical implications for destination marketing practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sense of Place (SOP) can be defined as an attitude towards places, expressed through affective, cognitive and behavioural responses that can be operationalized using the SOP scale. However, this scale has not been explored in relation to factors of people-place bonds such as length of residence, personal involvement and landscape values. We conducted three studies to explore these factors in different populations, while also contributing to the validation of a reduced version of the scale. Study 1 (N = 184) focused on its latent structure through EFA; study 2 (N = 138) examined its links to length of residence and landscape values, and analysed data fit through CFA; study 3 (N = 58) examined links between SOP, length of residence, landscape values and personal involvement, and the scale's temporal stability. Results indicate a link between SOP and length of residence, personal involvement and some landscape values. They also support the validity of the reduced version of the scale as a unidimensional attitudinal construct, thus rendering it available for deployment in francophone samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to test hypotheses regarding the effects of commuting on commuters' access to community-based communication resources and their level of community engagement. This study is guided by communication infrastructure theory. Online survey interviews were conducted with 1,028 Seoul residents between May 30 and June 17, 2014. We found that (1) commuters showed a higher level of community engagement than noncommuters; (2) among commuters, there was a negative relationship between commuting time and a sense of neighborhood belonging; (3) commuting time showed a positive relationship with access to community-based communication resources (i.e., integrated connectedness to community storytelling network [ICSN]) and community participation; (4) among four place-based identity groups (integrators, home-dominant group, workplace-dominant group, and disconnectors), integrators, who connected to both home and workplace, showed the highest level of ICSN and community engagement; and (5) ICSN mediated between commuting variables and community engagement variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Place identity studies have attracted considerable interest in South Africa because of its history of separate racial development. However, there is a paucity of studies that have reviewed such studies in the country. This article, therefore, aims to present a selective review of place identity studies in post-apartheid South Africa. A literature search was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Studies published in English between 1994 and 2020, relating to changing place identities as a result of apartheid in South Africa, were included in our search. The search yielded studies from which four key themes were identified – these being identity and belonging, social identity and discursive practice, cultural symbolism and group identity, and social inclusion and exclusion. These themes attest to the social construction of place identity, with people forming cognitive and affective bonds within groups. In addition, these themes show that mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion are crucial for identity formation in which the self is contrasted with 'the other'. The studies collectively point to the intricacies surrounding attempts at desegregation and building social cohesion in post-apartheid South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children's hospices are key players in the provision of palliative care services for families with children with life-limiting conditions (LLCs). However, evidence suggests that some of the negative terminology/language which surrounds the notions of palliative and hospice care may contribute to the lack of uptake of hospice services by families. This article reports two elements of place bonding: parents' experiences of place identity and place belongingness at a children's hospice in a region in England. Underpinned by a constructivist grounded theory methodology, focus groups were undertaken with 24 parents of children with LLCs accessing a children's hospice. Despite initial reservations associated with the identity of the hospice, parents described how and why their view changed and therefore consequently how they were able to experience the hospice differently. This article demonstrates how parents' views of the identity of the hospice change and how the hospice becomes a place where parents experience a sense of belongingness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Benavente (Portugal) is a small town which, compared to the rest of the country, has higher levels of the following three types of risks: earthquakes (natural risk), criminality (social risk) and the running of the bulls (cultural risk). This has allowed us to explore spatial bias, i.e., whether people have lower perceptions of risk at the local level than at the national or international levels, or if there are any risks strongly related with the local culture that show a different pattern. We also test whether risk perception dimensions identified by a psychometric paradigm relate to the three risk types that are highly prevalent in Benavente. The results support the spatial bias in relation to earthquakes and criminality but reveal a reverse pattern regarding the running of the bulls (cultural risk). The results also showed that people scored higher on the Dread dimension for earthquakes, followed by criminality, with lower scores in regard to the running of the bulls. The opposite was verified regarding the Control dimension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La Unión is a city located in the southeast of Spain with a long mining tradition. Along the twentieth century, this place faced a severe industrial crisis. Building on its history, heritage, and resources, the local economy changed towards the mining heritage tourism business. This article describes such a process of sustainable development and urban resilience through a two-stage approach. First, the focus is on explaining how the locality moved from being a mining industrial area to a mining heritage tourism place. In doing so, the study highlights the key role played by the cooperation of the local government and the nearby university. The second stage shows how the new economic model is firmly rooted on the mining identity of the place and what provides higher levels of sustainability to the destination from a social and cultural view. In this context, the article shows how the place identity model of tourism would be eager to limit the negative impacts usually associated with the spread of tourism, consequently receiving further support by the local population. To better understand the second-stage process, the study defines a theoretical framework and tests it empirically through a structural equation modeling approach. Results of the research provide regional policy advices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to empirically examine an integrative model centered on customer delight drawing from cognitive appraisal theory and place identity theory. A self-completed survey administered in English at three tourism destinations in Australia (Phillip Island, Great Ocean Road, and Sovereign Hill) generated 457 valid responses. The results show that authenticity and employee helpfulness are positively associated with customer delight, which in turn, positively affects the positive word-of-mouth (PWOM) intention. Customer delight is a principal mechanism that transmits the influence of authenticity and employee helpfulness to PWOM. In addition, place identity moderates the relationship between customer delight and PWOM such that the higher the place identity, the weaker is the relationship between customer delight and PWOM. The findings advance the current theorizations on several fronts and offer managerial implications for destination marketing practice in terms of customer experience management, marketing communications, and customer service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed mixed methods photo elicitation to mitigate cultural and language barriers and to acquire deeper understandings of indigenous participants' place attachment. We define mixed methods photo elicitation to integrate quantitative rankings of photos with qualitative induction of the meanings ascribed to the photos. Multidimensional scaling is used to thematically analyze the resulting photo clusters in relation to qualitative investigation of photo meanings. We also introduce a novel approach to a mixed methods joint display, which was used to visualize emerging themes and reveal how quantitative and qualitative findings are integrated. Reacting to a collection of landscape photographs endemic to rural Guatemala, indigenous farmers expressed place dependence to landscapes for economic and noneconomic reasons, and place identity for sociocultural reasons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Placemaking is a valuable place-based development and integration tool in rural communities. This study examines how placemaking processes and outputs are associated with residents' bonds with local places through survey data collected in rural communities in Indiana. Results reveal that policy communication and localized public spaces design are critical for increasing residents' place dependence and place identity. These findings help pinpoint how local governments utilize placemaking in rural communities to effectively strengthen residents' ownership of public spaces while further providing implications for residents' empowerment and community planning in local governance scholarship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amid a globally increasing trend of urban segregation, this article asks why a particular urban place, the Gangnam area in the city of Seoul, has come to symbolize the rich and the powerful, consolidating both socioeconomic segregation and political conservatism in a short span of time. While different approaches exist that partially explain Gangnam's luxurious lifestyles, fervent real estate speculation, obsession with education, and political conservatism, this article seeks to provide a holistic explanation for the rise of Gangnam and draws particular attention to the social construction of place identity. Based on the analysis of historically and contextually grounded evidence, imaginations, and cognitive scaling of different stakeholders, it suggests bidirectional formations of self–other and present–future identities, highlighting the sociopsychological aspects of place identity formation. Specifically, it explains political conservatism as the attempts of Gangnam residents to sustain the area's entrance barrier and pass on their exclusivity to future selves and children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is intended to elucidate the impact of the experience of risk on emotions and coping strategies following an unexpected fire. It looked at residents of the Island of Madeira, where a highly destructive fire had recently occurred. Two groups were compared (people who had been affected directly by the fire event and others who had not) in order to study their risk perception, emotions and coping strategies, and to explore the variables that might contribute to explaining each group's coping strategies. The results showed that people affected directly by the fire reported higher levels of active coping strategies, such as analysis and prevention. Women displayed higher levels of fear and less use of active coping strategies. The results also revealed that anger, local identity and fire experience predicted both analysis and prevention forms of coping. However, coping delegation was only predicted by local identity, and coping denial just by fear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has long been recognised that the tangible and intangible characteristics that make a location distinctive and memorable contribute significantly to destination image. How this destination feel is communicated has largely been the domain of place branding and destination marketing, which have the potential to miss stakeholder voices. Recently though, practitioners are starting to carefully consider 'sense of place', that is an emotional attachment to place, which is defined more carefully in the literature review of this article, and which corresponds with long-running academic discussions. This paper attempts to identify some of these and bridge the gap between academic theory on sense of place and practice. In the UK, many rural areas are now seeking to operationalise sense of place through toolkit documents that might inform landscape interpretation and destination branding. A scenario echoed internationally, where local distinctiveness features in both rural and urban planning. However, sense of place in a tourism context, and more specifically the development of these toolkits, has received limited academic attention. Hence, this paper presents the case of Morecambe Bay and the development of a dedicated sense of place toolkit. The subsequent case emerges from a collaboration between academics and practitioners and draws on participant observation, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Specifically, the paper outlines a series of workshop activities developed with destination stakeholders and identifies how these inform subsequent toolkit design. It offers a critical analysis of the benefits and potential pitfalls of employing this approach. This case is of value to academics and destination stakeholders interested in identifying and communicating the uniqueness and emotional tone of the destination. Key lessons and recommendations are identified for those engaging in similar toolkit development initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the place-making and identifications practices of two high school girls in the out-of-classroom spaces of their school. We employ Henri Lefebvre's spatial triad, consisting of the interaction between the physical, social and mental dimensions of space, as the conceptual foundation for understanding how these girls turn space into place at their school. The article is based on an ethnographic study in which we utilised a range of methods, including unstructured, semi-structured and photo-elicitation interviews; participant observation; focus group discussions; student-produced photography and photo-diaries. We found that the ways in which the girls inhabited and 'made place' in the school's out-of-classroom spaces are determined by their unique biographies, interactions with the school's expressive culture, and the subsequent social networks, movements and practices that they mobilise in these out-of-classroom spaces. Via these daily practices, they turn their school spaces into a place which, in their unique ways, they are able to call home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivations and place attachment constructs have been previously used as antecedents of behavioral intentions regarding a destination. Nevertheless, previous studies investigating behavioral intention models have paid little attention to the influence of motivations on place attachment and the influence of place attachment on behavioral intentions within the same structural model. This article develops an integrated model to investigate these relationships. Data were collected from recreational scuba divers in Catalonia, Spain. The results suggest that personal escape and personal seeking are the main motivations, and these factors influence place dependence and place identity. Other findings indicate that place dependence influences behavioral intentions more than place identity. In addition, the level of involvement in the activity moderates the links between constructs in some of the relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature has approached the issue of leisure experience in protected areas from different theoretical and methodological angles, establishing, among other questions, the need to explore approaches capable of explaining the sense of place established by visitors to natural protected areas based on their leisure experiences and the influence exerted on this construction by sociodemographic variables and preferences. Taking a quantitatively driven mixed approach, a total of 704 tourists were surveyed in three national parks in Chile, and the findings included the following: (1) the most significant variable when it comes to constructing senses of place lies in the opportunity for visitors to enjoy their desired leisure experiences; (2) the levels of the different dimensions of sense of place vary according to gender, age, ethnic origin and quality of the leisure offer; and (3) confirmation of the emerging and multidimensional nature of leisure experience in contact with nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest for tourist destinations that few have visited, and the experience of a journey that few can share, is becoming even more difficult for those individuals who seek a reputation as tourists. Although this search for authenticity has already been studied, there is still much to be explored. Tourists can enhance their identity as travellers by place attachment with destinations they have visited, and that no longer exist. The fact that these destinations have vanished makes their experiences unrepeatable, turning them into connoisseurs of a gone place. The narration of that past visit enters into a re-interpretation process, especially by those who have not been to these places. Through this transformation of the visit into a chance event, this article shows the connection between chance, tourism and social spatialization. Through a content analysis approach, visitors' online comments to three tourist sites are used: the World Trade Centre in New York before 9/11, the historical sites of Nepal before the destructive earthquake of 2015 and the 'Pioneer Cabin Tree', a giant thousand-year-old sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park, before it was blown down in a storm in 2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While researchers increasingly address place meaning and place attachment as the cornerstones for understanding human–place relations, the factors that make a tourism destination meaningful have received less attention. Using Q method, this study investigated the dynamic nature of place meanings from the tourist perspective, and developed a theoretical framework to explain the construction of destination meanings. Data analyses identified four subjective views toward the meanings of destination and four underlying continuums that illustrate how a complex process of co-construction reveals distinct patterns of destination meanings. This study makes theoretical as well as practical contributions to the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When a traditional Indigenous identity is submerged beneath a cloud of contemporary politics and power relations, how might such a situation undermine its educational and developmental aspirations? This article examines the case of Te Riu o Hokianga (the valley of Hokianga) in Aotearoa New Zealand, where the imposition of a contemporary political identity is adversely affecting the development of a more culturally appropriate identity, otherwise known as Hokianga whänui (the wider Hokianga family community). Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six participants who shared an ancestral whakapapa (genealogy embodying layered connections) with the Hokianga. Voicing their interpretations, experiences and aspirations, participants disclosed how they envisioned educational and developmental success in Hokianga. Our interpretation of Te Ihomatua (a positive active essence for transformation)-informed by a hybrid theoretical framework that interweaves Marxist, elite and kaupapa Mäori (based on Mäori worldview) theory-is employed to discern the multifaceted whakapapa of place and how that might inform Indigenous arrangements that support identity and developmental aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article attempts to ‘rethink’ place brands after examining in detail how people form them in their minds. The article starts with a very brief account of the place branding literature to provide the necessary background and goes on to identify what we see as a shortcoming in current understanding of the place brand: the dominant idea that brands are formed as sums of mental associations. The article attempts to take current understanding of place brands further by going beyond associations and adding a missing element: the interactions between those associations. We propose a rethinking of place brands based on two pillars: first we incorporate more geographical understanding into place branding and, second, we outline a process that allows place elements and placebased associations to combine and form the place brand. The place brand formation process starts when people use place-making elements (materiality, practices, institutions and representations) to form mental associations with the place. These associations are not static but evolve and change over time as they interact with each other on several dimensions. These interactions constitute the way in which the place brand is formed. The argumentation leads to a novel conceptualization of the role of place branding in the above processes. The practical applicability and implications of the proposed rethinking of place brands suggested here are explored in detail through the examination of the branding process followed recently in Bogotá, Colombia, where our approach to place branding has found practical application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on theories from environmental psychology, social psychology, and entrepreneurship, this study examines a nonrecursive (simultaneous equation) model of entrepreneurs’ place identity, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and performance across male and female tourism entrepreneurs. Data were collected from 150 male and 148 female tourism business owners in Australia. The results found that place identity (sense of identity with their town of residence) was positively related to entrepreneurial self-efficacy (beliefs in their capabilities as entrepreneurs). Furthermore, self-efficacy is a direct driver of performance, and not vice versa, for both male and female entrepreneurs. However, multigroup invariance analysis suggests that the nonrecursive model is partially moderated by the entrepreneurs’ gender. The relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and performance was significantly greater for the male group. The findings have implications for scholars in tourism and entrepreneurial studies, and for policy makers trying to support the sustainable development of tourism destinations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this investigation, we adapted identity theory to reassess a conceptualization of place attachment—conceived herein as an attitudinal construct used by environmental psychologists to describe people’s bonding to the physical landscape. Past work has conceptualized the construct in terms of three components: cognitive, affective, and conative elements. Based on the tenets of identity theory, we hypothesized that the cognitive component—reflected in the dimension place identity—is an antecedent of these other affective and conative facets. We empirically tested this reconceptualization using data collected from two spatial contexts in Southern California: residents living in the wildland–urban interface outside of San Diego and Los Angeles. Analyses of both data sets provided strong empirical support for our conceptualization of place and its associated measures. Rather than existing on the same temporal plane, we suggest that identification processes drive other affective and conative elements that underlie people attachments to physical environments. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on place attachment and place identity has led to numerous definitions and theoretical positions on how they relate with each other. A line of research that aims to clarify previous results is concerned with the comparison of different cultural territories. The aim of this paper is to determine whether non-native residents differ in the level of place attachment and place identity taking into account differences in length of residence and territory chosen to immigrate. A questionnaire with scales of attachment and identity with the city was administered to a sample of 138 non-native residents in the island of Tenerife and 141 non-native residents in the state of Israel. Analyses show differences between the two places in the development of both bonds based on length of residence. The results are discussed based on the influence of culture in the development of bonds with the place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the authors explains the issue's focus on topics related to the impact of communication technology on urban life, including social media's effect on community, place identity, and urban planning.

Visitors on sight-seeing tours in contemporary globalizing Shanghai observe the futuristic ambitions, exponential development and chaotic polyrhythmicity of New Shanghai. The nostalgia industry simultaneously 'teleports' the tourists on tours back to a time when Shanghai was a legendary world metropolis; the Golden Age of the inter-war era. Inspired by Henri Lefebvre's critical rhythmanalysis, and by Jonathan Sterne's conceptualization of communication as organized movement and action, this paper explores bus tours by commission of the municipal government. Shanghai is the place where the movements of the buses, as well as the tourists on board, become part of communicating the place identity and multiple rhythms of the city. The buses are conceived as means of communication, in a twofold sense, and as both underscoring and binding together the many incommensurabilities of place: old and new, Western and Chinese, industrialism and post-industrialism, nationalism and globalism. The author argues that mobility, media modernity and a confounding mixture (reflexively manifested on the tour 'Confused and Mixed Shanghai') constitute a collective memory of the city, and that the buses in all their seeming banality, communicate Shanghai's particular rhythms of retromodernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces a novel approach towards place branding theory, adopting a view based on the relationship between the place brand and place identity. The article first evaluates the dominant conceptualization of identity within place branding. It is argued that better understanding of the relationship between place identity and place brands might advance the theory of place branding. In its current state, place branding practice and, to a great extent, place branding literature adopt a rather static view on place identity as something that can easily be articulated and communicated for the purposes of branding the place. This approach is limited as it does not reveal the full complexity of place identity and limits the role and potential of place branding. The article, drawing on a combination of the literatures on place identity and organisational identity, proposes a more dynamic view of place identity that considers identity a constant dialogue between the internal and the external. The role of branding within the identity dialogue is then clarified leading to an appreciation of the full dynamics of place brands. The true nature of place branding is revealed as one of interaction and dialogue between stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we investigate the cultural imageries of place and their relation to the politics of difference within China's emerging space of modernity. Using a case study of the place politics in Xiaozhou Village, Guangzhou, we consider how particular subject positions in relation to the ideologies of modernity and rurality shape particular imaginative structures of place and cognitive mappings of social relations. We argue that Massey's theory of a global sense of place needs to include a dimension concerning how concrete subject positions can be negotiated and challenged in the imagination of place. We also contend for a face-to-face politics of difference to analyze the anxieties and tensions between particularized subject positions. In concluding this paper we also suggest that the political potential of this model of place politics lies in its recognition that, while conflicts which are grounded in place-based social relations will not vanish, place should not to be mobilized as a citadel within which an enclosed subjectivity is protected from the interference of otherness. Thus the Other is also ascribed with the political potential to reproduce the cognitive mapping of the lifeworld of mine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on place identity show positive relationships between the evaluation of a place and mechanisms involved in place identification. However, individuals also identify with places of low social prestige (places that bear a negative social image). Few authors investigate the nature of place identity processes in this case. The goal of this study is to highlight the specific connections between the three components of place identification, place attachment, place dependence, and group identity, which depend on the social evaluation of the environmental context (negative vs. positive image). The author uses self-administered questionnaires to interview 542 high-school students, to collect data on the basis of these three dimensions of their high school place identity, and their evaluation of their high school’s image. Results show positive relationships between the students’ evaluation of his or her high-school’s image and his or her place identity. However, findings show that some students reported strong place identification even though they had rated their high school as having low social prestige (negative image). Findings also show that such place identification occurred through strong attachment ties, which were a strong influence. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The public identity of a neighborhood does not always reflect its demographic composition. Some groups sustain their collective visibility as they experience demographic decline. Oakwood, a neighborhood in Los Angeles where African Americans once made up the largest segment of the population, is still known as the 'black section of Venice' despite the fact that Latinos have outnumbered African Americans since 1980 and whites have outnumbered them since 1990. Historical and ethnographic research illuminates the divergent processes through which African Americans and Latinos became associated with Oakwood, established qualitatively distinct ties to the area, and maintained differing degrees of influence over its local culture. African Americans' social institutions, political organizations, visible patterns of public interaction, and periodic celebrations and commemorations enabled them to sustain their claim to the neighborhood, while Latino immigrants' marginal citizenship status, avoidance of public spaces, and affiliation with other places prevented them from attaining collective visibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an extension of organizational identity research, we draw on place identity theory (PIT) to argue that employees' identification with their place of work influences their perceptions of large-scale organizational change. To determine how different types of employees respond to threats to their sense of place identity, we conducted 34 interviews with senior and middle managers, supervisory and nonsupervisory staff, and external stakeholders at a public hospital undergoing change. Groups of employees at lower levels of the organizational hierarchy experienced a stronger sense of place and belongingness and greater disruption to their place identity than those at higher levels. We discuss how place identity operates as a component of social identity as well as the responses managers can make to ways in which employees with different place identifications deal with change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A critical element in the process of racializing place is the construction of memorial landscapes. Using the Martin Luther King Jr National Historic Site and the surrounding Auburn Avenue community as a case study this paper argues that the sites dedicated to Dr King along Auburn Avenue embody a normative Civil Rights discourse which emphasizes national unity and non-violence and serves to silence and reframe more radical interpretations of Dr Martin Luther King Jr's social thought and action. More specifically the King National Historic Site represents King as a mainstream leader who used the existing democratic structure of US society to affect social change. This is related to the role the King National Historic Site plays in the construction of hegemony. A critical aspect of this process is the way this normative Civil Rights vision is used to market an understanding of the City of Atlanta. Thus the King memorials along Auburn Avenue are important sites to examine the connections between race, place and nation and the way the memorial landscape dedicated to Dr King embodies particular social values and ideas about the historic legacy of race in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research has identified identity salience and satisfaction as important variables affecting word-of-mouth communications in several contexts, such as university giving, retail environments, and leisure activities. Given these findings, these same variables may also be important in a tourism context, depending on the type of tourist. This study explores the effects of satisfaction and identity salience on word-of-mouth promotion and differences in these variables based on five different destination market segments, including tourists and local residents. The data indicate that satisfaction and identity salience are significant in predicting word-of-mouth promotions and that level of satisfaction and identity salience vary significantly depending on tourist type and resident type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section presents abstracts of papers on city planning published from 2007 to 2008, including "Streets, Sounds and Identity in Inter-war Harlem," by Clare Corbould, "(Re)making the Other, Heterosexualising Everyday Space," by Kath Browne, and "Rankings and Reactivity: How Public Measures Recreate Social Worlds," by Wendy Nelson Espeland and Michael Sauder.

The article presents abstracts on planning which include "Labor Unions and Affordable Housing: An Uneasy Relationship," "Smoke and Mirrors: Willy Clarkson and the Role of Disguises in Inter-War England," and "Urbanization and Spatial Organization: Hospital and Orphanage Location in Chicago, 1848-1916."

Presents abstracts of articles related to city planning. "Promoting Retail Innovation: Knowledge Flows During the Emergence of Self-Service and Supermarket Retailing in Britain," by Andrew Alexander, Gareth Shaw and Louise Curth; "The Nature of Op Art: Bridget Riley and the Art of Nonrepresentation," by Simon Rycroft; "Was the 1937 U.S. Housing Act a Pyrrhic Victory?," by D. Bradford Hunt.

Presents several abstracts of published studies related to city planning. "Commemorating the Loyalists in the Loyalist City: Saint John, New Brunswick, 1883-1934," by Greg Marquis in the 2004 issue of "Revue d'histoire urbaine"; "Soviet War Memorial in Treptow, Berlin," by Paul Stangl in the 2004 issue of "Geographical Review"; "Multi-level Analysis of Community Coordinating Councils," by Nicole E. Allen in the 2005 issue of "American Journal of Community Psychology."

Presents abstracts of several studies on city planning. "Designing and Living in a New Industrial Suburb: Experiences in the Cannock Chase Coalfield From the 1950s to the 1970s," by Gareth Evans and Peter J. Larkham; "Learning to Shop in Zion: The Consumer Revolution in Great Basin Mormon Culture,1847-1910," by Greg Umbach; "Curing Congestion: Competing Plans for a Loop Highway and Parking Regulations in Boston in the 1920s," by Asha Weinstein.

Two field studies examined the relations between environmental concern, regional identity, and support for the institution of natural protected areas. Multiple regression (Study 1, N = 316) and structural equation modeling (Study 2, N = 157) were performed to assess the role of general and specific proenvironmental attitudes and regional identity in predicting participants' support for two new protected areas in Italy. As expected, results show the positive role of general and specific proenvironmental attitudes, as well as the positive role of regional identity, in predicting support for the protected areas considered. Implications of the results for the enhancement of public levels of consensus in the designation and management of natural protected areas are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]