place__placelessness_classic_texts.pdf

[This commentary is published as a chapter in Key Texts in Human Geography, P. Hubbard, R. Kitchen, G. Vallentine, eds., London: Sage, 2008, pp. 43-51 ? David Seamon Jacob Sowers] Place and Placelessness, Edward Relph David Seamon Jacob Sowers Geographers have long spoken of the importance of place as the unique focus distinguishing geography from other disciplines. Astronomy has the heavens, History has time, and Geography has place. A major question that geographers must sooner or later ask, however, is “What exactly is place?” Is it merely a synonym for location, or a unique ensemble of nature and culture, or could it be something more? Beginning in the early 1970s, geographers such as Yi-Fu Tuan (1974), Anne Buttimer (1976), and Edward Relph (1976, 1981, 1993) grew dissatisfied with what they felt was a philosophically and experientially anemic definition of place. These thinkers, sometimes called “humanistic geographers,” probed place as it plays an integral role in human experience. One influential result of this new approach was Edward Relph’s Place and Placelessness, a book that continues to have significant conceptual and practical impact today, both inside and outside geography. In the early 1970s, Relph was a doctoral student at the University of Toronto, working on his dissertation concerning the relationship between Canadian national identity and the symbolic landscapes of the Canadian Shield, especially those represented by lakes and forests (Relph 1996). As his project progressed, he became dissatisfied with the lack of philosophical sophistication given to the definition of place. Relph found this supposed conceptual pillar of the discipline to be superficial and incomplete, especially in terms of the importance of place in ordinary human life. How could one study place attachment, sense of place, or place identity without a clear understanding of the depth and complexity of place as it is experienced and fashio