APEGO AL LUGAR: UNA APROXIMACIÓN PSICOAMBIENTAL A LA VINCULACIÓN AFECTIVA CON EL ENTORNO EN PROCESOS DE RECONSTRUCCIÓN DEL HÁBITAT RESIDENCIAL.

Urban studies focused on spatial transformation processes have paid little attention to the emotional relationships between people and their transformed environments. Given its ambiguous definitions and concepts, this phenomenon has not been properly understood. Environmental psychology has thoroughly studied the individual-environment relationship through the analysis of the emotional attachment to a specific place. The present paper describes three possible approaches used by this discipline to study the subject-environment relationship: the analysis of the emotional affinity to places; the identification of the social meanings that create emotional attachment to spaces; and the exploration of the material practices that enable the creation and generation of feelings associated with places. Each approach is described and complemented with the outcomes of a research on the sociospatial relationships generated in four cases of socio-natural disasters in Chile. Finally, this paper considers the potential practices offered by emotional attachment in the reconstruction of residential habitat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]