Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-200).

This thesis explores the use of sound recordings in the revitalisation of two minority languages – the Ainu (Japan) and the West Frisian (the Netherlands). Over the last few decades, a growing concern about linguistic diversity in the world has led to an increasing awareness of minority languages, which are endangered by loss. The concept of language revitalisation calls for work which will affect the vitality of these languages. The nature of these revitalisation efforts is inscribed into place-related processes and the interpretations of the relationships between language speakers and the place they live in. Sound recordings can afford language revitalisation with the restoration of sounds of languages. This thesis argues that the heart of language revitalisation lies in the re-sounding of place attachment and sense of place. The selection of the two language cases studies, which allow for the multi-faceted use of sound recordings to be revealed and understood, constitutes an important part in the search for an understanding of these interconnections. Based on these two language case studies, which contrast in degrees of language endangerment, this research analyses how and why sound recordings engage in the processes of language revitalisation. Qualitative methods of research, encompassing forty one semi-structured and episodic interviews conducted in Japan and the Netherlands along with observations and secondary data analysis, were used in this study. The comparative approach revealed similarities and differences in the revitalisation of the Ainu and West Frisian languages and the practices of using sound recordings. Importantly, this thesis demonstrates that the significance of sound recordings arise from their capability of creating aural experience of the language, which empowers both processes of language revitalisation with the restoration of place attachment and sense of place. This finding represents a key contribution to the research of linguistic and geographical knowledge about the revitalisation of endangered languages, the role of technology in language revitalisation and to the debate on saving linguistic and cultural diversity in the world.

This thesis examines how changes to rural places and landscapes are experienced by residents and incorporated into place attachments and identities over time. It does so through exploring findings from seventy-eight qualitative, ‘emplaced’, oral history interviews in three English villages: Mullion (Cornwall); Askam and Ireleth (Cumbria); and Martham (Norfolk). These villages are located near to at least one existing windfarm, which – as an example of rural change - provides a common focus for the research. The research is informed by a ‘middle-ground’ theoretical approach that considers discursive and experiential aspects of people-environment relationships and pays particular attention to how engagements with the past are enrolled in shaping experiences of landscape, place and change. Attitudes towards rural place-change are identified as being shaped by four complex, relational facets, viz: i) discursive interpretations of rural place, (post)nature and temporality; ii) experiential factors; iii) assessments of utility; and iv) local contexts. The thesis draws these together into a conceptual framework that helps guide analyses of place-change experiences. The framework’s value is demonstrated through applying it to the example of windfarms. The results reveal perceptions to be complex and multifarious but suggest that changes can be incorporated into place attachments and identities so long as highly-valued place assets are not harmed. The research makes a valuable contribution to geography by enhancing understandings about everyday rural lives and experiences; and revealing parallels between academic and lay discourses about landscape, ‘nature’ and place-temporality. It also adds to the considerable literature on perceptions of renewable energy by providing insights into attitudes towards windfarms at the post-construction, rather than proposal, stage.

This phenomenological study contributes to scholarship on the geographies of higher education by examining the importance of “place” for the design and planning of college campuses. In particular, the study explores the lifeworlds of two community college campuses in British Columbia, Canada, comparing the “sense of place” at an urban campus in the lower mainland of British Columbia with a rural campus on Vancouver Island. In contrast to conventional treatments of the campus as absolute space, this dissertation considers how higher education campuses serve as places of meaning to those who use them. Using a combination of natural walk-along interviews and mental mapping methods with 23 participants, the findings from this study support Seamon’s (2013) contention that places – in this case, college campuses – are interanimations of people and their physical environments where meanings and a sense of place are created through the practices of daily routines. Participant responses also suggest that a sense of belonging to community, with its concomitant academic benefits, is advanced by encouraging a feeling of “at-homeness” on campus. These findings put into question the reliance of conventional campus design and planning approaches on the visual impact of the built environment to create a sense of place. Instead, building from Gehl (2011), they highlight how design and planning efforts that support the gathering of people and their routine use of campus spaces can foster the “place-ballets” that make vibrant and distinctive places. In generating spontaneous interpersonal encounters, place-ballet also sets the conditions understood to support the creation of new knowledge. To advance the notion of place-ballet, the study concludes by offering the neighbourhood as a model for campus design and planning that both connects home to community and encourages citizen engagement. / Graduate

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This study aims to analyze young adults born, raised, and currently living in the county of Jämtland in northern Sweden. The study explores the phenomenon of youth choosing to remain in the county, either in the city or in the smaller surrounding towns. Through a qualitative approach, employing semi- structured interviews, the factors, and motivations behind their decision to stay is investigated. The study reveals the complex dynamics of place attachment and place identity through a youth perspective. In addition, the study highlights several key themes, including youths’ perceptions of their hometowns, their sense of having actively chosen to stay, and the reception they have received from their surroundings, regarding their decision to remain locally anchored. The results reveal a complex interplay of individual-, social- and structural factors influencing young people’s choices to remain in Jämtland. It also testifies to a notable difference between the two groups where the place itself seems to have an impact on the sense of place, anchoring and identity. The study challenges preconceived notions behind immobility and the choice to remain, in order to better understand the phenomena trough a youth perspective.

Death is a profoundly solitary moment in which one faces the meaning of one's existence. Death is an emotional, spiritual, psychological and physical act. For the terminally ill, the hospice is a viable alternative to dying in a hospital. The Hospice can accommodate death being faced intimately amidst loves ones. This emerging institution places new and unique demands upon architecture. Solitude and fellowship have significant implications for triumph by simply dying well. A building's meaning comes from its making, culture, syntax, and from the immutable qualities of humans. Meaning is discovered, not applied. Structuralist architects search for the order within various phenomena. Anthropological Structuralism involves the discovery of the underlying structures found within and between cultures and the human mind. Myths of different cultures address similar underlying questions even if they generate different answers. Linguistic Structuralism studies the role of language and the individual expression of language. Topology, the science of place, is the study of relation and invariance. Structuralism proposes a signification of place and occasion. Particular articulations occur while the capacity to be interpreted is retained. In-betweens are tangible elements that make sense. Moments within the architecture relate to each other as a series of places. In this thesis a hospice and a chapel are designed. Massive walls are carved out to form rooms, subtractive in nature. Series of walls are placed together, additive in nature, to form rooms. Geometric forms are studied for their qualities and are placed according to forged relationships. A travel journal explores the building practices of the Soninke / Master of Architecture