The contribution of sense of place to social-ecological systems research: a review and research agenda

Abstract

ABSTRACT. To develop and apply goals for future sustainability, we must consider what people care about and what motivates them to engage in solving sustainability issues. Sense of place theory and methods provide a rich source of insights that, like the socialecological systems perspective, assume an interconnected social and biophysical reality. However, these fields of research are only recently beginning to converge, and we see great potential for further engagement. Here, we present an approach and conceptual tools for how the sense of place perspective can contribute to social-ecological systems research. A brief review focuses on two areas where relation to place is particularly relevant: stewardship of ecosystem services, and responses to change in social-ecological systems. Based on the review, we synthesize specific ways in which sense of place may be applied by social-ecological systems researchers to analyze individual and social behaviors. We emphasize the importance of descriptive place meanings and evaluative place attachment as tools to study the patterned variation of sense of place within or among populations or types of places and the implications for resilience and transformative capacity. We conclude by setting out an agenda for future research that takes into account the concerns of resilience thinking such as the effects of dynamic ecology, interactions between temporal and spatial scales, and the interplay of rapid and incremental change on sense of place and place-related behaviors. This future research agenda also includes concerns from the broader sense of place literature such as the importance of structural power relationships on the creation of place meanings and how scaling up a sense of place may influence pro-environmental behavior.

The dynamic relationship between sense of place and risk perception in landscapes of mobility

“…Masterson et al (2017) describe sense of place as a social and ecological linkage, and here we highlight specific mechanisms through which environmental and social change are connected through sense of place. Previous research has demonstrated that changes in land use and character of urban areas (Von Wirth et al 2016) causes changes in attachment to place.…”

“…Our focus on how mobility processes in coastal areas may contribute to changing compositions of sense of place builds on evidence that the more mobile elements of a population express different place meanings compared to those that are more physically rooted (Masterson et al 2017). When people move to an area, they can establish emotional attachments of similar strength to those of longer term residents, but their place identity can be different, because place identity takes a longer time to develop than emotional bonds (Knez 2005, Hernández et al 2007).…”

“…Social-ecological systems (SES) literature has started to engage with place theory to better understand how people register, experience, and manage SES change (Chapin and Knapp 2015, Stedman 2016, Masterson et al 2017. In particular, a socialecological approach encourages a dynamic understanding of sense of place, emphasizing that the way people relate to their local areas sits within, and is connected to, wider social and ecological changes.…”

Dimensions of Landscape Stewardship across Europe: Landscape Values, Place Attachment, Awareness, and Personal Responsibility

“…In the present study, we focus on some psychosocial aspects of human-environment interaction that are connected to impulses towards landscape stewardship which have not yet been given enough attention in landscape research, albeit their importance for motivating landscape stewardship commitment has been recognised [16]. We understand such commitment as the willingness of people to take action on multiple landscape functions that they perceive as crucial for their own well-being.…”

“…Ives and Kendal [31] highlight the role of landscape values as key elements in people's involvement in landscape care and decision making. Masterson et al [16] (p. 54) claims that "place meanings [here captured in the perception of landscape values] underpin individual and collective behaviour in stewardship and in responding to change". Landscape values can be perceived collectively or individually [27], but each person ascribes different meanings to them [16].…”