The condition of an environment lacking significant places and the associated attitude of a lack of attachment to place caused by the homogenizing effects of modernity, e.g. commercialism, mass consumption, standard planning regulations, alienation, and obsession with speed and movement.
Globalization, commercialization, and mass communication have brought cultural and. geographic uniformity to urban spaces; a phenomenon labeled as placelessness, which. signifies the loss of local meaning and placeness. In particular, urban tourism spaces often. proposed as placeless are shopping complexes.
Term used in behavioral sciences and urban planning
The term sense of place has been used in many different ways.
It is a multidimensional, complex construct used to characterize the relationship between people and spatial settings.
It is a characteristic that some geographic places have and some do not, while to others it is a feeling or perception held by people.
It is often used in relation to those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as to those that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging.
Others, such as geographer Yi-Fu Tuan, have pointed to senses of place that are not positive, such as fear.
Some students and educators engage in place-based education in order to improve their sense(s) of place, as well as to use various aspects of place as educational tools in general.
The term is used in urban and rural studies in relation to place-making and place-attachment of communities to their environment or homeland.
The term sense of place is used to describe how someone perceives and experiences a place or environment.
Anthropologists Steven Feld and Keith Basso define sense of place as: 'the experiential and expressive ways places are known, imagined, yearned for, held, remembered, voiced, lived, contested and struggled over […]’.
Many indigenous cultures are losing their sense of place because of climate change and ancestral homeland, land rights and retention of sacred places.
