Larger humanistic spaces and places

As I said last time I needed to read Yi-Fu Tuan's Space and Place, but I felt a book written in 1976 was not enough to inform of space/place theory: therefore, I also got Key Thinkers in Space and Place (KTSP), a 2004 review of the key researchers in the field. Both of these works were informative to my research. KTSP gave a nice overview of the field and the different approaches as well as a detail description of dozens of space and place thinkers. Space and Place though is a more theoretical and informative.

In reading KTSP I became grounded in humanistic geography as oppose to other approaches like Marxism/structuralism, feminist, race, or positivism. This is unusual for me since I readily identify with a neo-liberal structural approach. Yet, when one looks at landscapes it becomes obvious that humanism not structuralism plays the more important role. This is not to say I have given up my roots in structuralism because I will be comparing landscapes and looking for structures as I go. Outside of the theories overview I was introduced to several other researches I should cover. Ley and Jackson are leading humanistic geographers who are known for studying local communities. There work could be very helpful in my studies.

Yi-Fu Tuan may have written the book on space and place theory, but he was influenced by J B Jackson and his this book really connects space place theory to landscape theory. The three chapters Intimate Experience of Place, Attachment to Homelands and Visibility: the Creation of Space address how people create place, then experience it making landscapes. I see space as any undefined area, (those buildings over there) place is a defined area (San Francisco) Landscape as an expression of a culture (China Town). Nature and people can build in space defining it as a place, but it is not until people experience and interact in a place that it begins to take on a landscape.

It is during this transformation from place to landscape that culture and communities are born. This transformation is a conflict between the place and the culture inhabiting it. If place becomes dominate the landscape maybe seen as conservative or even stagnate as the people have given up the transformation process. On the other hand if the people continue to change and transform an area we may see a vibrate exciting landscape.