Conceptual and Experimental Aspects of Regional Awareness: An Israeli Case Study

Measuring Sense of Place: Methodological Aspects

“…In a study in Hong Kong (La Grange & Ming 2001), home-owners manifested a somewhat higher level of positive attitude towards their community and a 'sense of Hong Kongness' than home renters. In an Israeli study (Shamai & Kellerman 1985), differences regarding regional awareness were probed: age and years of residence in the region and in the settlement, and ethnic origin (Israeli born vs immigrants; origin in Europe or North America vs Asia or Africa) were not found to be related to the level of sense of place. However, the rural population had a higher level of sense of place towards their region than urban respondents.…”

“…131-133), for example, distinguished between two degrees of regional awareness, yes (regional awareness exists) and no (it does not exist), while Piveteau (1969) distinguished between three levels (no, yes-low and yes-high). A fourlevel scale of sense of place was used by Shamai & Kellerman (1985). The levels used were: (1) not having sense of place, (2) knowledge of the place, (3) belonging to a place, and (4) attachment to a place.…”

“…The 'poles' are the highest positive score of sense of place and the 'lowest' negative score. Bi-polar studies (of which the current study is an example) apply negative and positive attitudes towards the sense of place); unipolar studies include only positive attitudes towards the sense of place (as in most studies); and 'semi-polar' studies range from not having sense of place to the positive pole (Piveteau 1969;Shamai & Kellerman 1985;Shamai 1991).…”

“…Are the questions phrased by using direct or indirect techniques? (Shamai & Kellerman 1985). A direct technique assumes that the place examined exists in the respondent's mind, while indirect questions, although they do not assume this, are complicated and are open to different interpretations.…”

The Identification of Residents with their Region and the Continuity of Socio-Historical Development / Identifikace Obyvatel Se Svým Regionem A Kontinuita Socio-Historického Vývoje

“…The measurement of the phenomenon is then unnecessary (Lewis, 1979). On the other hand, there are researchers (Shamai, 1991;Shamai, Kellerman, 1985;Shamai, Ilatov, 2005) who are influenced by positivist approaches and who try to measure and consequently categorise the levels of process of identification with the region. This paper lies somewhere in between these two approaches.…”