ABSTRACT
Theories of place are a core concern in human geography. To speak of human beings and their experiences, activities, cultures, and socio-political structures in geographic terms entwines people, locations, time, and environments – as well as the complex interconnections, flows, and interdependencies among them. Place is not an abstraction; places are fundamental to the ways in which we affectively experience those interactions and the world we live in (Tuan, 1979). As Edward Casey (1996) asserts, human beings are ʻplacelingsʼ in that everything we do, think, say, and experience occurs somewhere and somewhen, in and among places. When we reflect on our own experiences in the world this assertion may seem self-evident. Place, as Tim Cresswell (2004) observes, is a ubiquitous term used in everyday speech. We visit places. We stay and live in places. We talk about places in terms of emotion, memory, desire, identity, power, and change. It is only when we try to articulate just what place means that it becomes clear that this apparently simple and well-understood term is not so transparent after all, and that place can be understood in multiple ways. Understandings of place in human geography are necessarily multiple, varied, and contested, depending on the ontological and theoretical perspective, focus, and purpose of the writer.
