Sense Of Place Essay

According to dictionary.com, the word place has multiple meanings that are conveniently all nouns: a particular portion of space whether of definite or indefinite extent, a space in general: time and place, and the specific portion of space normally occupied by anything. To me, the word space means much more than just the black and white, logistical definition. To Tim Cresswell, the author of an article called “Place: A Short Introduction,” the word space has more of an emotional meaning. Within his article he states, “sense of place refers to the way in which places are experienced subjectively. It describes a complicated set of emotions and feelings that are evoked by a particular place. Often this is experienced as a sense of attachment …show more content…
It is a benefactor to one’s formation of their personality, lifestyle, vernacular, cultural awareness, and much more. Sense of place is especially an advocate for one’s identity, also known as “the condition or character as to who a person or what a thing is; the qualities, beliefs, etc., that distinguish or identify a person or thing.” This identity that one forms at a young age is the result of the place they may have been raised in, or unfortunately had to raise themselves in. Essentially, how we decipher the meaning leads us to how we determine whom we really are and where we really come from. Author of the article “Understanding Cultural Geography Places and Traces,” Jon Anderson, touched upon the topic of identity within his personal understanding of sense of place. He, alongside many others, believes that “our identity- our sense of selfhood- is a geographical thing, it is characterised to some extent by our geographical and cultural context. In short, our identity is defined by place.” To generalize his remarks, he wholeheartedly thinks that one’s lifelong identity and personality is fully formed as the product of where said one was geographically raised and where they currently reside