Perceptions of Place

These are some of the differing perceptions of place, and some of the criteria that can be used to create a notion of place through the imagination, or by evaluating past experiences. Each of these factors also considers place through different scales, from personal knowledge and experiences right through to local to global perception/ images; a key factor to bear in mind when examining concepts of place, as thoughts and feelings, as well as actual places can change over time and in space.
One way place can be explored is through the use of examining pictures and evaluating how that place makes people feel, how it may be percieved by others, and what we learn from that place, or feeling of place in a snapshot. Place can also be considered as the concept of how individuals fit into a certain place/ places, their feelings and experiences surrounding that place, and how this feeling fits into the individual's own world (or own 'place').

-Local newspaper
Take a local newspaper and analyse the images it present of the place. Whose identity is presented in the paper? Which groups are represented? Which groups are not represented? Why might this be?
-Clothes and fashion
A person's identity is related to the clothes he or she wears. Where do these clothes come from? With which places in the world is the person's identity linked? Where are the strongest links and why?
-Food
A person's identity is related to the kinds of foods they like to eat. What do pupils like to eat most? Where do these foods come from? To what extent is the food we eat English and to what extent does it come from other countries and cultures? Does this give us a hybrid identity?
-Belonging
Mapping places where they feel they belong (streets, shopping centres, leisure areas, areas in school/school grounds, etc) and areas where they don’t belong. Discussing and explaining own maps A fair view of England - see pages 184-7 of Learning Through Enquiry (Roberts, 2003).
-Local representations of place
On postcards or promotional brochures - how are local places represented? To what extent do I relate to these representations? How would I represent the area differently? Taking photographs to represent the identity of area with digital camera.
-Personal biographies
Of people who have lived in different places: migrants, refugees – and mapping their experience of place.
-Representations of Britain
In tourist brochures, in advertisements, in photographs in geography textbooks - How is the country I live in represented in texts/photographs etc? Do I identify with this country? Do I identify with these images? What images would I select of local/regional/national to include my sense of identity?

http://www.geography.org.uk/projects/valuingplaces/cpdunits/furtheractivities/#953