Place: A Short Introduction (Short Introductions to Geography)

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Short Introductions to Geography are highly accessible books designed to introduce key geographical concepts to students. Published GIS: A Short Illtroductioll

Place Q short introduction

Nadine Schuurman

Place: A Short [Iltroductiou Tim Cresswell

Tim Cresswell

In preparation

Maps: A Short Illtroductioll Matthew Edney Tcrritory: A Shor!" Illtroductioll David Delaney

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Blackwell Publishing

r (0200-1 by Tim Cresswell

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350 Main Strec[, M terms .0 f ~ixel-r-\rTs,i_~~l,e" ~ II cLiileasilr:;;lJiIUtf1iIl)~liI~"7 tl:;"ls711a n y houses, TmrCI)Opld:ltToil~,'''these amenities).-!..\s ~UC!l_ they become 'little more than frozen scenes for human activrt,rr-(,Pr'e'li i98~1, 279). I-Tumanistic (Tedg-'r~i.I-Jli:e'i'S' do-'n-ot -e'5C2lj'j'e l1i's--c6tic'a:l :'comnlents as they too conceive Cl of place as an inert, experienced scene' (Pl'ed '1984,279). Pred argues instead for a notion of place that emphasizes change and process. £@ces afE' never 'finisht:~d~JluLQh
hav:e:a :p~rttcular ~ignificance" assig11iHt:d by'the Tespo~lse in, the ,press and

th~ ,~ledia ':' to ,the Dlurders: Gllilft-)rd: plqiply' ~it'S" into ,-cadogpiphies ftrUfS&lei P~()\'V?l'i i1:1d,discoufse in,~altinio,re: ci~rin very speda!'vvays~;;,B:ut ' ditferent maps localejtliiffen2ntly, '1.'rtre two,'contrasting repor~s in the"Slll1 'ij1cj.icated,' (Hdl;Vey 1996:, ,'29~)

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Here Harvey uses the well rehearsed and fanliliar characteristics of place Ca discursive/symbolic meaning well beyond that of mere location') to argue that it is just such characteristics that become important in the attempts of privileged groups in Baltimore to further 'fix' GlliHord as a secure white bourgeois place. It is important to bear in mind Harvey's choice of example when exploring the rest of his paper on the nature of place. One aspect of place that the example

READING 'A GLOBAL SEI\lSE OF PLACE'

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does cleJrly sho\'\l (and this was Harvey's intention) is that places don't just exist but that they are alway's and continually being sc;cially constructed by powerful institutional forces in society,

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Think of the efforts of cities around the \'\.'orld to become' safe' and 'attractive' places for people to live and work. So called 'urban renaissance' projects such as the Guggenhei111 museum in Bilbao, Spain, the l\1illennium Dome in London or the Portman Centel' in downtown Atlanta are part and parcel of the need to attract both businesses and consumers (i.e. residents) to particular places rather than others. Similarly large cultural events sllch as VVol'ld's Fairs, Olympic Games and World Cups are used to sell places to a world audience. Universities c0111pete for students by advertising their localion as well as their acaden1ic 111erit. JnyeS{111erit' in ,co 115umption specbcles, the' selling,of'ii'nogcs ',of pl:ilCeg~ competition,Qver the definifion ,~)f t;ultu~al a~ld ~YIT1bo)ic ,cqpItal" the reviyat ofvernacuJar traditi011s aS$odated with plqces,as,a t;OI1~qp!~r',n~tradiol:, ,pH JJecome conflated in inter-piah! comveUtioI1, ' ':(!:"blrv~y: 1996~ 29~)

Harvey' 5 next Inove is to consider the formativE' influence of the vvo1'k of IVIartin Heideggel' und his notion of 'dwelling'. He notes (as Edward Relph had several decades earlier) that Heidegger sees place-as-dvvelling- as the 'locale of the truth of beimT ' - as the thing thi:lt lllakes hun\ans human. He points out that "'Heidegger vva~ already terrified of time-space compression in pre-\I\r ar Germany because it resulted in a loss of place-based identity. It is this terror

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READING 'A GLOBp,L SEI"JSE OF PLACE'

READING 'A GLOBAL SENSE OF PLACE'

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that forces Heidegger lc~ '\\'ithdr