Abstract Residents of communities that are at the edge of the rural-urban divide are likely to have many senses of place reflective of the changes occurring around them. As the place where they have resided in and identify with becomes transformed by changes in land use and social composition, these residents may be forced to either adapt or leave. Often overlooked, these individuals may feel as if the place where they have long resided is no longer their home. As the familiar routes, stores, and neighborhoods give way to new highways, big name stores, and exclusive subdivisions, their understanding of its sense of place becomes challenged. This thesis seeks to understand changing senses of place among residents in Lutz, an unincorporated community at the edge of the city of Tampa in Florida. Using a humanistic geography approach which focuses on individual perceptions, nine semi-structured interviews were conducted on questions related to community boundaries, everyday experiences of demographic and land use transformations, and possible futures of the community. Further background on the community was collected by traveling through it and analyzing media accounts which provided both historical and contemporary perspectives on its cultural landscapes. One of the main findings of this thesis is that the unincorporated nature of this community adds a unique dimension to discussions of its socio-spatial transformations since the role of boundaries in sense of place becomes complicated here. Thus, in contrast to firm lines drawn by cartographers or postal agencies, cultural boundaries have a high degree of subjectivity and are often at odds with official demarcations. Overall, this thesis highlights the value of focusing on residents of unincorporated communities in order to build more complex notions of place-based identities.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation defines heritage tourism as: "traveling to experience the places and activities that authentically represent the stories and peoples of the past and present. It includes irreplaceable historic, cultural, and natural resources." Heritage tourism is a lucrative industry in the United States. On average, heritage tourists spend $623 per trip compared to $457 for all U.S. travelers. The rise of heritage tourism is inextricably linked with several trends in American society, namely: the historic preservation movement, the desire for a sense of place, and nostalgia. These motivating tendencies often inspire problems of authenticity, commodification, and an unhealthy romanticization of the past.The present study seeks to analyze the heritage tourism industry in Florida. Chapter one offers a brief look at the history and anthropology of tourism. Chapter two provides an explanation of heritage tourism and the human motivations that drive it, as well as an examination of several U.S. locations where it is practiced. Chapter three provides a short history of tourism in Florida, an overview of state organizations and agencies that promote and practice heritage tourism, and a look at several of Florida's unique heritage tourism locations.Chapter four is a case study focusing on the heritage tourism industry in St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in the United States. St. Augustine presents the best example of heritage tourism in Florida, and offers a perfect setting in which to examine many of the typical problems of heritage tourism. A popular tourist site since the 1800s, St. Augustine followed the lead of Colonial Williamsburg by extensively renovating its historic district in the 1960s. Tourism is the city's only true industry, but the number of tourists that visit annually pales in comparison to non-historical Florida attractions like Disney World. St. Augustine raises unique questions about the neglect of the Hispanic influence in the history of the United States, the American public's fascination with myth and primacy, and the inherent difficulties of maintaining authenticity in any heritage tourism location.

This thesis is an attempt at understanding the theoretical work of Joshua Meyrowitz in communication. The self-proclaimed specificity of his "contextual" media analysis will be recognized as well as its relevance for the development of a general logic of social change. The sources and foundations of Meyrowitz's media analysis will be respectively reconstructed in terms of the schools of thought which informed it and of a metatheoretical typology of the social sciences. The contextual logic of social change will be framed as a type of formal functionalism dealing with self-regulated systemic changes and integrating aspects of a more comprehensive sociology. It will be evaluated in view of recent empirical studies of some (post-)modern transformations in community life. The integrity of Meyrowitz's work in regard to his sources, the contribution of his media analysis to the development of community studies, and the foundations of his logic of social change will be here in question.

Due to the growing population in Stockholm, some of the urban green areas are beingsubjected to exploitation. Hammarbyskogen is an urban forest in the south of Stockholm andis an example of a green area that is planned to be transformed into an urban environment.This paper investigates key qualities and values of an urban forest of Hammarbyskogenvalued by local inhabitants of the neighbourhoods of Hammarbyhöjden and Björkhagen in thesouth of Stockholm. In addition to that, the study seeks to investigate people’s perception ofthe planned development of the forest as well as investigate how these perceptions andqualities are being incorporated into the process of neighbourhood development.Using text analysis, interviews and discussion forums, findings have been made showing thatthe local inhabitants value the urban forest mostly for its ecological and recreational qualities.Regarding perception of the change, people are either positive or negative to the developmentwhich can be explained by people’s experienced sense of place and place attachment of thearea and the forest itself. The study has also shown that the urban planners rely on localinhabitants’ view, as well as on expert knowledge during the process of planning.The results of the study contributes to a better understanding of why and for what purposesurban forests are important for the city dwellers.

This thesis is concerned with the lived experience of placemaking in Argentina’s Antarctic gateway port Ushuaia. Based on 12 months ethnographic fieldwork, it explores the relations between tourism, urban development, and socio-economic difference. As such, it investigates how agents from across the social spectrum conceive of, and construct their sense of place “at the end of the world”. As the world’s southernmost city, Ushuaia is attractive to tourists for its stunning landscapes, unique location, and strategic proximity to Antarctica. However, the image of a friendly tourist destination crucial to everyday life in this Patagonian city is contested by its stakeholders. This thesis looks beyond the image presented to tourists to explore frictions among residents, the city council, and touristic enterprises. Ushuaia is revealed as an urban location beset by growing unrest due to issues of population growth and social polarization. This is analyzed in relation to its geopolitical significance for the Argentine state, territorial struggles with Chile, and economic incentives for in-migration. Consequently, this thesis considers the dynamic and shifting character of the city’s population through an engagement with economic and lifestyle migrants, including those dwelling in non-legal settlements, and tourists who occupy Ushuaian space alongside more longstanding citizens. The thesis demonstrates how conflicting views collide regarding issues of urbanization, industrialization, tourism, and environmental conservation, analyzed in relation to the interests and concerns of different social constituencies. Through extensive interviewing with a diverse array of social actors, this thesis also explores the different levels of economic and socio-cultural attachment to Antarctica, suggesting a schism between Ushuaia’s touristic representation, Antarctic alignment, and the needs and interests of its inhabitants. This thesis, then, explains the diverging place-based ideas and aspirations of different social groups in relation to the governmental, socio-economic, and socio-cultural forces implicated in placemaking.

This thesis examines the everyday experiences of Anglophone communities in three different regions of Quebec – the Gaspésie, Gatineau and Eastern Townships – with the aim to understand their sense of place. Specifically, the focus is on the role of different geographic contexts on everyday access to social services, particularly healthcare, and how these experiences contribute to Anglophones’ place attachment. Data collection involved semi-structured personal interviews with ten participants in each region. Comparative analysis yielded three main findings: (1) issues with accessing healthcare in English reinforces Anglophones’ minority status; (2) in spite of the challenges faced as a linguistic minority, Anglophones demonstrate a strong sense of place to their region; and (3) feelings of home, heritage, and rootedness constitute elements in Anglophones’ place attachment and contribute to their sense of place in Quebec. The study also concludes that age, mobility, and location are important variables in influencing everyday experiences in each of the three regions.

This thesis examines four regional community cultural festivals in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It reveals the complex interplay of a sense of place and community, a destination’s identity and representation, host guest relationships and the underlying nature and role of celebration expressed in each festival. It examines the regional context in which the Jacaranda Festival in Grafton, the Beef Week celebrations in Casino, the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Byron Bay and the Mardi Grass Law reform rally in Nimbin are conducted. An extensive literature review provides a global perspective on theories, issues and trends in the sectors reflected in the case study festivals. The phenomenological approach to the case study methodology is explained before each festival is closely scrutinized, addressing the study’s aim.The thesis aims at a better understanding of the elements of resilience fostered by festivals when communities take intentional action. This resilience dimension emerged as a major outcome of the initial investigation of the nature and role of festivals in regional communities.The thesis argues that festivals allow people to reflect and determine a sense of community and place, represent their image and identity and contribute to cultural tourism. Community festivals involve the local population in a shared experience to their mutual benefit by providing both social functions and symbolic meanings. This study contends that community-based festivals celebrate the community’s social identity, its historical continuity and its cultural resilience. They are socially constructed and negotiated phenomena and can be staged in everyday places that also become tourist places. Festivals provide a forum for creativity, custom, heritage and cultural practices for both resident and guest.Investigating community cultural festivals from multiple perspectives allows for greater understanding of the nuances of the relationships between stakeholders. By identifying the patterns, structures and meanings of the contexts that festivals represent we are better informed of the distinctive values, interests and aspirations held by residents when they host festivals. Perspectives on community festivals and resilience were canvassed from diverse perspectives as demonstrated by the following typical responses:Nourishing resilience through Festivals and CommunitiesThere are many intangible reasons why a community chooses to host a festival such as socio-cultural, economic, political and environmental and each reason is not mutually exclusive (Backman et al, 1995).The Northern Rivers region stands apart from the rest of rural Australia as living as if the future matters. This is a very powerful attractor in these times of urban decay and environmental despair (Dunstan, 1994:2).Sense of place, can be described as, the common ground where interpretation and community development meets in a concern to create or enhance a sense of place, to establish what is significant and valued in the environment or heritage of a particular community, and to provide action for its wider appreciation and conservation (Binks, 1989:191 cited Trotter, 1998).Democratic communities take responsibility for their future. It is undeniable that cohesive community events based on ideals create a sense of community. The excitement and joy that people feel when they work together for their community and future means that they will attempt to recreate that experience. It becomes their preferred way (Emery, 1995:70).…the notion of community is always something of a myth. A community implies a coherent entity with a clear identity and a commonality of purpose. The reality is that communities, more often than not, are made up of an agglomeration of factions and interest groups often locked in competitive relationships (Smit, 1995 cited in Joppe, 1996:475).Community, the custodians of the content of Australian tourism, must be enabled to participate in tourism by forming its content. Only if Australians are involved in tourism will it survive, (Wood, 1993:7).Through direct contact and interaction with each festival, the qualitative exploratory study reveals how in formal and informal ways participants at the four case study sites demonstrate the diverse and fragmented nature of festivals. Although none of these festivals is identical, some consistent patterns do emerge to demonstrate that comparisons can be developed. These patterns have their own advantages and disadvantages and it is evident that success or failure is not linked to a particular model for such festivals. Each community has an ongoing challenge of determining how their festival can best meet its needs presently and into the future. Each is trying to keep pace with the changes that are taking place within their communities, within the region and from external forces. This is where the study also generates new knowledge: tracking the changes occurring in community festivals in contemporary regional Australia.Through a systematic analysis of data the study significantly contributes to our understanding of the character of community festivals. Through surveys, interviews, media analysis, photographic images and critical observation, it clearly observes that social, economic and environmental issues currently presented in the literature require greater deconstruction and critical engagement. Rich and quilted description of the festivals informs this research providing grounded scholarly investigation. This approach leads to a greater understanding of significant social and cultural agendas in regional communities. Festivals add value to communities. They creatively produce and embed culture. They can be viewed as celebrations of resilience.Through a systematic analysis of data the study significantly contributes to our understanding of the character of community festivals. Through surveys, interviews, media analysis, photographic images and critical observation, it clearly observes that social, economic and environmental issues currently presented in the literature require greater deconstruction and critical engagement. Rich and quilted description of the festivals informs this research providing grounded scholarly investigation. This approach leads to a greater understanding of significant social and cultural agendas in regional communities. Festivals add value to communities. They creatively produce and embed culture. They can be viewed as celebrations of resilience.At the core of the investigation is an analysis of how the process of nourishing resilience by making inclusive celebrations, unleashes relationships between many stakeholders. Each participant contributes to the program, traditions, cultural practices, impact and reach of events with differing voices and emphases.In principle, festivals and their host communities offer individual members a framework for attending to general aspects of life. This study reaffirms that community festivals particularly hold a significant position in three areas of the human condition. They celebrate a sense of place through organising inclusive activities in specific safe environments. They provide a vehicle for communities to host visitors and share such activities as representations of communally agreed values, interests and aspirations. Finally, they are the outward manifestation of the identity of the community and provide a distinctive identifier of place and people.

This thesis examines four regional community cultural festivals in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia. It reveals the complex interplay of a sense of place and community, a destination’s identity and representation, host guest relationships and the underlying nature and role of celebration expressed in each festival. It examines the regional context in which the Jacaranda Festival in Grafton, the Beef Week celebrations in Casino, the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Byron Bay and the Mardi Grass Law reform rally in Nimbin are conducted. An extensive literature review provides a global perspective on theories, issues and trends in the sectors reflected in the case study festivals. The phenomenological approach to the case study methodology is explained before each festival is closely scrutinized, addressing the study’s aim.The thesis aims at a better understanding of the elements of resilience fostered by festivals when communities take intentional action. This resilience dimension emerged as a major outcome of the initial investigation of the nature and role of festivals in regional communities.The thesis argues that festivals allow people to reflect and determine a sense of community and place, represent their image and identity and contribute to cultural tourism. Community festivals involve the local population in a shared experience to their mutual benefit by providing both social functions and symbolic meanings. This study contends that community-based festivals celebrate the community’s social identity, its historical continuity and its cultural resilience. They are socially constructed and negotiated phenomena and can be staged in everyday places that also become tourist places. Festivals provide a forum for creativity, custom, heritage and cultural practices for both resident and guest.Investigating community cultural festivals from multiple perspectives allows for greater understanding of the nuances of the relationships between stakeholders. By identifying the patterns, structures and meanings of the contexts that festivals represent we are better informed of the distinctive values, interests and aspirations held by residents when they host festivals. Perspectives on community festivals and resilience were canvassed from diverse perspectives as demonstrated by the following typical responses:Nourishing resilience through Festivals and CommunitiesThere are many intangible reasons why a community chooses to host a festival such as socio-cultural, economic, political and environmental and each reason is not mutually exclusive (Backman et al, 1995).The Northern Rivers region stands apart from the rest of rural Australia as living as if the future matters. This is a very powerful attractor in these times of urban decay and environmental despair (Dunstan, 1994:2).Sense of place, can be described as, the common ground where interpretation and community development meets in a concern to create or enhance a sense of place, to establish what is significant and valued in the environment or heritage of a particular community, and to provide action for its wider appreciation and conservation (Binks, 1989:191 cited Trotter, 1998).Democratic communities take responsibility for their future. It is undeniable that cohesive community events based on ideals create a sense of community. The excitement and joy that people feel when they work together for their community and future means that they will attempt to recreate that experience. It becomes their preferred way (Emery, 1995:70).…the notion of community is always something of a myth. A community implies a coherent entity with a clear identity and a commonality of purpose. The reality is that communities, more often than not, are made up of an agglomeration of factions and interest groups often locked in competitive relationships (Smit, 1995 cited in Joppe, 1996:475).Community, the custodians of the content of Australian tourism, must be enabled to participate in tourism by forming its content. Only if Australians are involved in tourism will it survive, (Wood, 1993:7).Through direct contact and interaction with each festival, the qualitative exploratory study reveals how in formal and informal ways participants at the four case study sites demonstrate the diverse and fragmented nature of festivals. Although none of these festivals is identical, some consistent patterns do emerge to demonstrate that comparisons can be developed. These patterns have their own advantages and disadvantages and it is evident that success or failure is not linked to a particular model for such festivals. Each community has an ongoing challenge of determining how their festival can best meet its needs presently and into the future. Each is trying to keep pace with the changes that are taking place within their communities, within the region and from external forces. This is where the study also generates new knowledge: tracking the changes occurring in community festivals in contemporary regional Australia.Through a systematic analysis of data the study significantly contributes to our understanding of the character of community festivals. Through surveys, interviews, media analysis, photographic images and critical observation, it clearly observes that social, economic and environmental issues currently presented in the literature require greater deconstruction and critical engagement. Rich and quilted description of the festivals informs this research providing grounded scholarly investigation. This approach leads to a greater understanding of significant social and cultural agendas in regional communities. Festivals add value to communities. They creatively produce and embed culture. They can be viewed as celebrations of resilience.Through a systematic analysis of data the study significantly contributes to our understanding of the character of community festivals. Through surveys, interviews, media analysis, photographic images and critical observation, it clearly observes that social, economic and environmental issues currently presented in the literature require greater deconstruction and critical engagement. Rich and quilted description of the festivals informs this research providing grounded scholarly investigation. This approach leads to a greater understanding of significant social and cultural agendas in regional communities. Festivals add value to communities. They creatively produce and embed culture. They can be viewed as celebrations of resilience.At the core of the investigation is an analysis of how the process of nourishing resilience by making inclusive celebrations, unleashes relationships between many stakeholders. Each participant contributes to the program, traditions, cultural practices, impact and reach of events with differing voices and emphases.In principle, festivals and their host communities offer individual members a framework for attending to general aspects of life. This study reaffirms that community festivals particularly hold a significant position in three areas of the human condition. They celebrate a sense of place through organising inclusive activities in specific safe environments. They provide a vehicle for communities to host visitors and share such activities as representations of communally agreed values, interests and aspirations. Finally, they are the outward manifestation of the identity of the community and provide a distinctive identifier of place and people.

Adaptation has increasingly come to be recognised as an urgent and necessary response to climate change. The ability of a system to carryout adaptation is dependent on its adaptive capacity. To date, the majority of research relating to adaptation has focused on the objective and material determinants of a system's capacity to adapt to severe and extreme weather impacts. Whereas the role that subjective factors, such as people's perceptions, beliefs and values play in that same process, has received comparatively less attention. Despite being a global phenomenon, climate change is being experienced and responded to in local places. More than just physical locations, places are often imbued with meaning by the people associated with them. This thesis argues that these meanings have implications for the ways in which people adapt, or fail to adapt, to climate change impacts. It uses the concept 'sense of place', as a means of capturing this place meaning and as a lens for exploring adaptive behaviours in three low-income urban communities in the Dominican Republic. In particular it examines the specific roles of residents' place attachment, dependence and identity in motivating and constraining adaptive behaviours. Based on qualitative research with ethnographic underpinnings, the thesis shows that the urban poor sense of place is shaped by interconnected relationships between residents and; their homes, the physical and social aspects of their communities and a range of non-community actors. These relationships are shaped by physical and social interactions with and within places, but also through the discursive construction of the locations and the inhabitants of them in public opinion. Residents continuously seek out ways to enhance their sense of place, at times as an improvement in the built environment as a means of preventing or ameliorating environmental threats and events. However, often it is enhancement, in an aesthetic sense, which is envisaged as being of equal and sometimes greater importance. Although aesthetic improvements sometimes have the resultant impact of enabling adaptation, this tends to be incidental, rather than purposeful. Despite the importance placed by the urban poor on their sense of place, these subjective determinants and adaptation in the urban environment, remain unrecognised as well as absent from local institutional and policy radars. Overall the research suggests the need for a more comprehensive approach to understanding adaptive capacities. It requires an approach which continues to measure the objective determinants but which also recognises the role of people's relationships to places in converting or failing to convert objective capacity into climate change action and in dictating the type activities that are valued and prioritised by urban poor residents themselves.

Large-scale mining modifies the existing physical environment and has multiple long-term impacts on landscape but also on communities, and their cultural values. In Finland, social impact assessment has become a customary practice in assessing and estimating mining impacts that cause changes to the well-being of individual people and their livelihoods. However, the assessment is often lacking notions of social dimensions of the environment, neglecting discussing aspects such as localities and subjective well-being. Recent studies have highlighted the importance of considering the cultural benefits of the environment to human well-being in environmental decision-making. The purpose of this study is to explore and illustrate how cultural ecosystem services could contribute to the current practice in social impact assessments in Finnish mining projects by highlighting the relation between local people and environment through the valuation of cultural services. The study used a conceptual framework approach of cultural ecosystem services and conducted eight qualitative semi-structured interviews in two villages in Finnish Fell Lapland. The aim was to explore how the local people themselves describe their non-material benefits from the environment. Six out of the eight interviews were conducted walking with the participants. The interviews were recorded and later transcribed for analysis against the conceptual cultural ecosystem services framework. The results show how the well-being of local people was strongly linked to cultural benefits such as sense of place, enabled by meaningful activities in places that were often happening in mundane everyday places. The study implies the importance of considering cultural ecosystem services such as sense of place in the current social impact assessment practice as they help unveiling connections between people, the natural environment and subjective well-being.