ABSTRACT
The identification of individuals and groups with specific places, whether they are family homes, villages, cities or landscapes, is one of the most commonly accepted yet profoundly significant aspects of everyday life. This chapter explores what the new discoveries mean for our understanding of the relationships between people and the places they identify with. It examines the meaning of place-identity and related ideas of urban space and form and provides a more focused look at the writings of two modern philosophers of the last century on the body as the fulcrum or nucleus of human experience. The chapter explores the implications the findings have for what we know of the nature and development of the self, and of the role of familiar artifacts and places in that process, and ultimately, what influence these findings might have on the way architects and other designers shape our world.
