Browsing by Subject "Place Attachment"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Occupy Madison Village: A Case Study of the Lived Experience
    (2019-10) Longworth, Michelle
    In December 2018, The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development conducted its annual point-in-time homeless assessment study. The study estimated the national homeless count as 553,000, an increase from the previous 2017 report. Developments of tiny house villages, as an alternative approach to the on-going challenge of housing the homeless, were found in several regions of the country. The purpose of the case study was to describe the phenomenon of people with a history of homelessness living in Occupy Madison Village, a tiny house village located in Madison, Wisconsin. Participant narratives were analyzed to identify themes and describe their perceptions of the experience. The advocates for the Occupy Madison Village creatively combined best practices from multiple approaches of housing and community development. The objective was to pull together elements of governance, community-based decision making, and communal living elements. Descriptions of participatory governance, decision making, and design created an environment that encouraged individuals to develop place and community attachment. Themes of place and community attachment emerged from examples of personalization of the space, sense of belonging, length of residency, purpose, and community participation. The integration of community focused principles of cooperative housing and cohousing and place and community attachment encouraged experiences that generated long term residency, self-efficacy, leadership skills, and community engagement.
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    Place Attachment and Female Identity of Traditional Souk Wajif: Implications for Interior Design
    (2016-12) Dashti, Reem
    Traditional markets were and still are the backbone of any Islamic city. They are effective on the formation of the collective identity and emotional bond between the citizens, historic places and culture. Kuwaiti traditional markets experienced intense changes these past few decades. Architectural and technological advances are clashing with the character of traditional interior spaces and women traders are caught in the midst of this change and have to navigate tradition and modernity. This thesis focuses on women traders in traditional markets in Kuwait City and explores their attempts to construct identity through traditional public space, particularly, inside women’s market known as Souk Wajif. This exploration will help interior designers to better understand how places are produced and how materials, textures, and spatial layouts influence place attachment and relate to personal identity. Place attachment describes the positive bonds between people to physical and social settings, which support their identity and psychological needs. The concept of place attachment may serve as a defense mechanism against identity crises in the periods of transitions between major developmental stages in Kuwaiti society and it can contribute to preserving traditional architecture from identity loss. The study elaborates on the theory-base aspect of place attachment as well as the interior design field by identifying a cluster of social and physical characteristics such as social and physical characteristics associated with traditional spaces that influence women’s identity and psychological needs. This study will examine the impact of renovating a Kuwaiti traditional market on place attachment and identity of women sellers. Mixed methodology was implemented to conduct survey and interviews of 20 women sellers in Souk Wajif in Kuwait, while personal observations were used as a supplementing data source through visual documentation of the Souk’s interior space, which assisted in understanding the spatial dynamics of Souk Wajif. Findings that emerged from the study of 20 women sellers showed that social attachment is heavily influenced by physical attachment. Also, the degree of attachment varied with age, personal experiences, and length of settlement in the Souk. This study broadens the knowledge of interior design practice and education based on traditional architectural concepts by identifying a cluster of design traits implemented in traditional spaces that influence Kuwaiti female’s identity. Also, this study identifies ways to address women traders’ needs and spatial requirements of the stalls inside the Souk, and proposes thoughtful design solutions that are culturally responsive. This will provide a helpful guideline for the government and policy makers for future developments to similar traditional public environments.
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    Quality connections: recreation , property ownership, place attachment, and conservation of Minnesota Lakes.
    (2009-05) Schroeder, Susan Arlene
    Recently, people have expressed concerns about how declining outdoor recreation participation and increasing housing development in high-amenity areas may affect conservation attitudes and behaviors as well as environmental quality. Recreation participation and property ownership have been identified as antecedents to place attachment. However, limited research has examined how people develop attachments to specific places and how these attachments relate to management preferences and support for conservation of specific areas. This study used data from two 2004 surveys addressing the management of lakes and aquatic plants in Minnesota. One study was conducted with a sample of Minnesota residents and the other with a sample of lakeshore landowners on "fisheries lakes" in the state. Data were analyzed to examine relationships among recreation participation, lakeshore property ownership, place attachment, and intentions to conserve lakes. Four clusters of recreationists were identified: all-around, appreciative, consumptive, and less-involved. Respondents were also segmented based on their ownership of lakeshore property, and whether property was used as a primary or second home. This study contributed to research on how participation in outdoor recreation relates to environmental attitudes and behavioral intentions. Results suggested that recreation participation relates to attitudes and behavioral intentions for lake protection. Among members of the general public, less-involved participants in lake-based recreation reported significantly lower intentions to take political or philanthropic action to protect lakes. Appreciative recreationists from the general public sample were more likely to take political action, while all-around and consumptive recreationists were somewhat more likely to donate time and money to protect lakes. Among lakeshore property owners, less-involved recreation participants reported lower personal responsibility for protecting their lake generally and a lower rating of personal norms for protecting native aquatic plants. However, all-around recreationists from the lakeshore property owner sample reported significantly higher behavioral intentions to remove native aquatic plants compared to appreciative, consumptive, and less-involved recreationists. The study advanced research on place attachment by: (a) examining visitors' and residents' attachment to Minnesota lakes and (b) how place attachment relates to conservation attitudes and behavioral intentions. Stronger place attachment was associated with property ownership and frequency of recreation participation. The study developed a scale to measure family connections to a lake, which was introduced in this dissertation as normative place attachment. Results supported previous research that has suggested: (a) a positive relationship between outdoor recreation and environmental attitudes, and (b) differences based on the type of recreation participation. Study findings suggested the importance of recreation participation to protection of Minnesota lakes. Participation in lake-based outdoor recreation was related to place attachment, personal responsibility, and behavioral intentions related to lakes. In particular, less-involved recreation participants reported lower levels of attitudinal and normative place attachment to lakes, expressed less personal responsibility for protecting lakes, and had the lowest intentions of taking philanthropic or political action to protect lakes. However, a substantial amount of unexplained variance remained in models of attitudes and behavioral intentions related to the protection of lakes and aquatic plants. Future studies of recreation, property ownership, place attachment, and conservation, could incorporate more comprehensive measures of recreation participation, place attachment, "insidedness" to a place, and environmental attitudes, and behavioral intentions. In addition, future research could examine the influence of place meanings, environmental values, social capital, sense of community, political ideology, educational background, and length of association with a place on environmental attitudes, behavioral intentions, and actual behaviors.