THE POWER OF PLACE IN PLACE ATTACHMENT

ABSTRACT

Place attachment is a broad and burgeoning field of scholarship that, while maturing in theory, method, and application, would benefit greatly from more explicit contributions by geographers. Place attachment obviously relates to concepts of residency, including key questions such as: Who moves and why? Who stays and why? Who returns and why? But place attachment also encompasses broader networks of place and geographic contingency, including questions such as: How do place attachments form? Why do people form attachments to some places and not others? How do people form notions of home and homeland within and across varied conditions of mobility? This special issue presents multifaceted theories, methods, and applications inherent in geographical perspectives and suggests that advancing such approaches helps elide reductionism and highlights the power of place in place attachment.

Keywords::

• place attachment
• territorialization
• environmental psychology
• homeland

Acknowledgments

As guest editors of this special issue, Alexander and Joshua thank the contributors for sharing their varied expertise and perspectives on place attachment, as well as the anonymous reviewers for providing insightful comments. We also thank Dave Kaplan for his guidance as the special issue took shape and proceeded toward publication.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Kansas [General Research Fund].