Place attachment and place identity: First-year undergraduates making the transition from home to university

Abstract

Original article can be found at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/02724944 Copyright Elsevier Ltd. DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2008.02.011This paper examines the issues emanating from the transition into a new social and cultural environment distant from the home, the context of which is provided by the transition from home to university. The study analyses the transitional process over a period of five months, using data obtained from in-depth semi-structured interviews and participant observation of ten first-year undergraduates who moved to study at the University of Gloucestershire in Cheltenham. It explores the mediating variables that impact place attachment and place identity during the transition from home to university. Within this context consideration is given to how participants made sense of changes in their socio-spatial environment, the ensuing problems and challenges of doing so, and how these meanings affected self-perceptions and self-evaluations. The analysis demonstrates how participant???s stories of the transition evince an abiding concern with the loss of place, manifest in terms of an erosion of a sense of belonging, attachment and continuity and an undermining of home???s capacity to symbolise the self. The implications of such accounts for our understanding of place attachment and identity are then explored. The paper concludes by advocating a holistic approach to our conceptualisation of place, given that place meanings are constantly being evaluated and redefined in light of changing social and physical relationships with place and between people and place

Place attachment, place satisfaction and pro-environmental behaviour: a comparative assessment of multiple regression and structural equation modelling

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Place attachment and pro-environmental behaviour in national parks: the development of a conceptual framework

“…It has been challenging for researchers to assimilate the multiple place attachment terms which are used (Raymond, Brown, & Weber, 2010). Viewed as a multidimensional concept (Gustafson, 2001, Scannell andGifford, 2010a;, place attachment incorporates several aspects of the people-place bonding of affect, emotions, knowledge, beliefs, and behaviour in connection with a place (Chow, & Healy, 2008) and arises from psychological, social, and cultural processes . Place attachment encompasses dimensions of person, process, and place (Scannell, & Gillford, 2010a) and serves as an affective link which people develop with an environment (Hidalgo & Hernandez, 2001;).…”

Developing A Sense Of Belonging: Findings From A Three Institution Study With Implications For BME Students And Staff Engagement.

“…In regard to transition, Chow and Healey (2008) note that transition to a different social and cultural environment away from home has profound significance. Hausmann et al, (2009) suggest that social relationships with fellow students that are considered to be like-minded, related to individual sense of belonging.…”