Table Of ContentPlace
Attachlllent
Human Behavior
and Environment
ADVANCES IN THEORY AND RESEARCH
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3: Children and the Environment
Volume 4: Environment and Culture
Volume 5: Transportation and Behavior
Volume 6: Behavior and the
Natural Environment
Volume 7: Elderly People and the
Environment
Volume 8: Home Environments
Volume 9: Neighborhood and
Community Environments
Volume 10: Public Places and Spaces
Volume 11: Environment and Behavior Studies:
Emergence of Intellectual Traditions
Volume 12: Place Attachment
Place
Attachment
Edited by
IRWIN ALTMAN
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
and
SETHAM. LOW
Graduate School and University Center of
the City University of New York
New York, New York
PLENUM PRESS • NEW YORK AND LONDON
LIbrary of Congress CatalogIng-In-PublIcatIon Data
Place attach.ent I edited by IrwIn Alt.an and Setha M. Low.
p. c •. -- (Human behav I or and env I ronoent ; v. 12l
Includes bIblIographIcal references and Index.
I. Envlron.ental psychology. 2. Attach.ent behavIor. 1. Altman.
IrwIn. II. Low, Setha M. III. SerIes.
BF353.P53 1992
155.9' l--dc20 92-14552
CIP
ISBN 978-1-4684-8755-8 ISBN 978-1-4684-8753-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4684-8753-4
© 1992 Plenum Press, New York
A Division of Plenum Publishing Corporation
233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any mans, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming,
recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher
To the memory of
HAROLD M. PROSHANSKY
pioneer of environment and behavior studies,
distinguished scholar, charismatic leader,
friend, colleague, and mentor
Articles Planned for Volume 13
WOMEN AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Editors: Irwin Altman and Arza Churchman
Women and Home-Based Work
KATHLEEN CHRISTENSEN
There Just Comes a Point ....
Women Residents' Activism in Public Housing
ROBERTA FELDMAN AND SUSAN STALL
Women, Work, and the Urban Environment
SUSAN HANSON AND GERALDINE PRATT
Women's Roles in Planning Organized Settlements
LIISA HORELLI
The Aging Woman: Domains of Choice
SANDRA HOWELL
Everyday Life in Contextual Perspective
WILLIAM MICHELSON
Sociospatial Relations of Transition
ELLEN J. PADER
Land Use and Zoning Barriers to Women-Sensitive Environments:
Strategies for Change
MARCIA RITZDORF
Feminist Theory and Environmental Design
LYNDA SCHNEEKLOTH
Girls, Boys, and the Environment
RACHEL SEBBA
Women and Transportation
LALITA SEN
Women and the Environment Revisited:
Learning from Lesbian Invisibility
MAXINE WOLFE
Contributors
SHERRY BOLAND AHRENTZEN • Department of Architecture, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201
IRWIN ALTMAN • Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake
City, Utah 84112
RUSSELL W. BELK • Department of Marketing, David Eccles School of Busi
ness, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
BARBARA B. BROWN • Department of Family and Consumer Studies, Environ
ment and Behavior Area, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112
LOUISE CHAWLA • Whitney Young College, Kentucky State University, Frank
fort, Kentucky 40601
MARY HUFFORD • American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington,
DC 20540
DAVID M. HUMMON • Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Holy Cross
College, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610
DENISE L. LAWRENCE • Department of Environmental Studies, California State
Polytechnic University-Pomona, Pomona, California 91768
SETHA M. Low • Ph.D. Programs in Environmental Psychology and Anthro
polog-I, Graduate School and University Center of the City University of
New York, New York, New York 10036
CLARE COOPER MARCUS • Department of Landscape Architecture, University
of California, Berkeley, California 94720
PATRICIA A. PARMELEE • Polisher Gerontological Research Institute, Phila
delphia Geriatric Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141
DEBORAH PELLOW· Department of Anthropology, Syracuse University,
Syracuse, New York 13244
ix
x Contributors
DOUGLAS D. PERKINS • Department of Family and Consumer Studies, En
vironment and Behavior Area, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah
84112
ROBERT B. RILEY • Department of Landscape Architecture, University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois 61801
ROBERT L. RUBINSTEIN • Polisher Gerontological Research Institute, Phila
delphia Geriatric Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19141
Preface
This twelfth volume in the series examines an emerging area of research and
scholarship in the behavior and environment field that has long-range implica
tions for environmental design. Within the past several years, the broad issue
of place attachment has become an exciting topic of discussion at conferences
and in scholarly and professional journals. Furthermore, place attachment is
being studied by scholars from several disciplines who are bringing to bear
different philosophical approaches, theoretical formulations, and research
methodologies.
The diversity of analyses and increased attention being given to place
attachment highlight its multifaceted nature. Not only is place attachment
being studied from diverse perspectives, but such study also investigates a
variety of environments: small-scale objects, moderate-scale environments
such as homes, larger-scale communities and neighborhoods, and very large
scale cities and regions.
Consistent with our approach in previous volumes, the present volume
draws together scholars from several disciplines, including anthropology, ar
chitecture, family and consumer studies, folklore, gerontology, landscape ar
chitecture, marketing, psychology, sociology, social ecology, and urban plan
ning. Authors address aspects of place attachment from the perspective of
their disciplines, unique conceptual approaches, and research programs. Each
chapter also presents some promising directions for future studies of place
attachment.
The volume is organized in terms of the scale or scope of environments to
which people are attached, although several chapters deal with more than one
level of environmental scale. Following a broad overview of the concept by
Riley (Chapter 2), who addresses definitional, theoretical, and philosophical
issues, Belk (Chapter 3) analyzes place attachment to microenvironments, spe
cifically objects and collections of objects. There then follows a cluster of chap
ters that deal with different aspects of home or local environments. Chawla
(Chapter 4) examines childhood attachments to homes and related environ
ments; Cooper Marcus (Chapter 5) analyzes adult attachments to childhood
and contemporary homes; Ahrentzen (Chapter 6) focuses on homes as work
xi
xii Preface
settings; and Rubinstein and Parmelee (Chapter 7) examine older people's
attachments to institutions and previous home environments.
Another group of chapters analyzes attachments to larger-scale environ
ments. Low (Chapter 8) analyzes a Central American plaza from the perspec
tive of a broad theoretical framework; Pellow (Chapter 9) reports on life in a
residential compound in Africa; Lawrence (Chapter 10) describes an annual
ritual activity in a Spanish community. Then, at a somewhat larger environ
mental scale, Hufford (Chapter 11) illustrates attachment processes in a ritu
alized fox chase in a forest preserve. Finally, Hummon (Chapter 12) and Brown
and Perkins (Chapter 13) address community levels of place attachment.
The concept of place attachment is rich and varied, and deserves con
tinued attention by scholars and designers from many disciplines. The contrib
utors to this volume reflect the diversity, complexity, and fullness of the con
cept of place attachment, and collectively encourage further study and analysis
from many disciplinary, theoretical, and philosophical perspectives.
Volume 13 in the series, Women and the Environment, will focus on a variety
of environmental settings in homes, workplaces, transportation, and public
settings in relation to young girls and adult and elderly women. The first editor
is pleased to be coediting that volume with Arza Churchman, Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
The present volume is dedicated to the memory of Harold M. Proshansky,
who died in 1991. An intellectual pioneer, Hal Proshansky was also a warm
and dedicated friend, colleague, and mentor. His professional and personal
courage, and his persistence and unflagging loyalty to the ideals and goals of
behavior-environment studies, have sustained successive generations who
followed in his path. Although we will sorely miss his leadership and scholarly
contributions, we are thankful to have benefited from his sustained creativity
and commitment to the field.
IRWIN ALTMAN
SETHA M. Low
