Having a relationship to our places is considered a foundational human experience and need (Heidegger, 1996; Relph, 1977). The meanings, memories, or feelings a person ascribes to a location comprise a sense of place. Sense of place arises out the interplay of the physical world, social and cultural forms and the individual (Gustafson, 2001). A positive sense of place has been found to lead to feelings of belonging and attachment to the world (Hay, 1998; Stedman, 2002) and to trigger protective and custodial attitudes (Gibson, 1981; Kaltenborn; 1997). Connerton (2009) and Farman (2012) argue that our contemporary lifestyle has disconnected us from the experiences and emotional connections that aid in forming a positive sense of place. Additionally, our economic and political structures promulgate hegemonic notions of place that restrict our ability to create meanings from place (Farman, 2012). Scholars have thus asserted the need for more open and egalitarian power to define our spaces (Harvey, 2008; Soja, 2010).
Emerging mobile, geolocative technology has recently sparked discussion in academic literature on the role that such technology may have in relationship to physical places. The advent of open-access geographic data and mapping software combined with increasing access to the Internet is enabling people to create and share their own place-related information and representations (Corbett, 2013). One form of this technology is locative media (also known as location-based services). Locative media are a form of mobile media that access a user’s physical location to deliver content and user experiences specific to the user’s location.
Locative media enable people to capture and preserve a diverse range of information on place, virtually tie it to that place, and share it with others. Despite increasing usage of locative media (TNS, 2013), its role in relation to how we conceive and feel about place, that is our sense of place is not well understood. People have used various ways, described by Crawford (2012) as counter dynamics, to interact with place and create their own notions of place – yet how such counter dynamics are manifested in locative media has not been examined.
My research questions are thus:
- In what ways does people’s use of locative media influence their affective, environmental, or social aspects of their relationship to place?
- What forms of spatial counter dynamics are manifested in people’s use of locative media and how do they relate to people’s sense of place?
With locative media becoming increasingly mainstream globally, understanding the nature and outcomes of use of locative media is an area worthy of further research. Anticipated findings from my proposed research would contribute to theory and praxis. This research may offer guidance to developers and users to better enable participatory, counter-hegemonic publishing, thus allowing citizens a greater ability to share stories of their world.
At a theoretical level, this research will advance the understanding of the role of locative media in the formation of sense of place. Generally, the role of mediated place information and representations in the formation of sense of place has been frequently debated but seldom empirically investigated. Specifically, the role of locative media in relation to sense of place is under-studied and the influence of interface or usage context has not been established.
References
* Connerton, P. (2009). How modernity forgets. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
*Corbett, J. (2013). “I don’t come from anywhere”: Exploring the role of the geoweb & volunteered geographic info. In rediscovering a sense of place in a dispersed aboriginal community. In D. Sui, S.
* Elwood, & M. Goodchild (Eds.), Crowdsourcing geo. knowledge (pp. 223–241). New York, NY: Springer.
*Crawford, M. (2012, August). Urban interventions and the right to the city. Architect, 101(8), 84–85.
*Farman, J. (2012). Mobile interface theory: Embodied space and locative media. New York, NY: Routledge.
*Gibson, S. D. S. (1981). Sense of place – defense of place: A case study of the Toronto Islands (Doctoral dissertation). University of Toronto, Toronto, ON.
*Gustafson, P. (2001). Meanings of place: Everyday experience and theoretical conceptualizations. Jrnl.of Env. Psych., 21(1), 5–16.
*Harvey, D. (2008). The right to the city. New Left Review, (53), 23–40.
*Hay, R. (1998). A rooted sense of place in cross‐cultural perspective. Canadian Geographer, 42(3), 245–266.
*Heidegger, M. (1996). Being and time. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
*Kaltenborn, B. P. (1997). Nature of place attachment: A study among recreation homeowners in Southern Norway. Leisure Sciences, 19(3), 175–189.
Relph, E. C. (1976). Place and placelessness. London, UK: Pion.
* Soja, E. W. (2010). Seeking spatial justice. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
*Stedman, R. (2002). Toward a social psychology of place. Environment & Behavior, 34(5), 561–581.
*TNS. (2013). Two thirds of world’s mobile users signal they want to be found. London, UK. Retrieved
from http://www.tnsglobal.com/press-release/two-thirds-world%E2%80%99s-mobile-users-signal-they-want-be-found
Locative Media Research 