ABSTRACT
Notions of place in human geography arose out of a critique of spatial science by humanistic geographers in the 1970s. Rather than seeing the world as a blank space, geographers turned to place as an idea that described human attachment to the world. Since human geographers of all theoretical persuasions have grappled with how humans make places through the creation of meanings attached to locations. Recognizing that places — from a chair to the Earth – are meaningful raises the question of how they become meaningful. To some geographers the ways that materiality, meaning and practice coalesce in place result in deep and abiding forms of care and attachment. Places are also meaningful – meanings which may be individual and may be shared. The meaning of a place may arise out of the constant reiteration of practices that are simultaneously individual and social.
