My study explores the role of geography in the construction of cultural identity for place-based communities of practice. I combine recent advances in cultural geography, which focus on the role of cultural traces to culturally order and geographically border a place with recent research on communities of practice, which are communities characterized by a domain focus, an interpretive tradition, and a day-to-day practice. I demonstrate this by exploring the newly constructed town of Ave Maria in the US state of Florida, a community whose domain focus is the day-to-day practice of conservative Catholicism. The study uses a qualitative research methodology to determine the features of the town's landscape that promote the community's domain focus. It uses a quantitative research methodology to investigate the contributions that the spatial configuration of those features makes to the community's cultural identity. An ontology and knowledge base provide a systematic formalization of my qualitative data for subsequent use in quantitative analysis. My results indicate that the cultural ordering and geographical bordering of the community promote a high degree of homogeneity among residents along the community's domain axis. I also conclude with the finding that the community has developed a cultural district whose spatial configuration and location play important roles in the day-to-day lives of its residents. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Geography in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2012. / July 10, 2012. / communities of practice, cultural geography, cultural identity, cultural traces, landscape analysis, spatial configuration / Includes bibliographical references. / Jon Anthony Stallins, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Victor Mesev, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Karen L. Laughlin, University Representative; Mark W. Horner, Committee Member; James B. Elsner, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183256 |
| Contributors | Huff, Brad (authoraut), Stallins, Jon Anthony (professor co-directing dissertation), Mesev, Victor (professor co-directing dissertation), Laughlin, Karen L. (university representative), Horner, Mark W. (committee member), Elsner, James B. (committee member), Department of Geography (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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