Who defines and manages the environment? The significance of lay senses of place

The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of the images of the environment held by ordinary people, ie those using a particular environment as an arena of everyday living and who are not "environmental professionals', such as architects and planners. Although some of the suggestions of the paper may be of relevance for such professional practice, it is couched in terms of a humanistic geography which recognizes that this geography must take account of three dimensions: the centrality of anthropomorphism, the social nature of experience and (the often forgotten) constraints of context. These three elements shape not only the study of sense of place, but sense of place itself. Further, it must not be assumed that images and senses of place are significant for all people at all times and in all places. Over one-half of the British population now lives in suburban developments. Thus, most people do not create the spaces and places in which they live in a physical sense. Those spaces and places are largely given and predetermined. They remain amenable, however, to manipulation in the senses of physical re-arrangement and re-definition and of psychological and social creation. -from Author