How much place attachment is important in today's globalized world? Is there such a concept with the existence of smooth mobility and the freedom of movement, validity of citizenship that allow people to move freely in the world?
An interesting question, Louai Alhussein. And not one that I can remember seeing on ResearchGate before.
There has been a lot of work looking into place attachment; I think it is something that very much the majority of people can discuss where they feel attached to. This is very meaningful:
Chapter The psychology of place attachment
I have not travelled very far in my lifetime and only once out of the UK (on a school holiday) and - to use an old proverb - 'home is where the heart is'. Where I live, and have done for years, with the same person, is where I feel place attachment to.
However, I will be very interesting to read what other ResearchGate members respond. I expect that some will have travelled globally and found place attachment to a new destination. It will be really fascinating to find out why.
This is a relevant review article:
Lewicka, M. (2011). Place attachment: How far have we come in the last 40 years?. Journal of environmental psychology, 31(3), 207-230.
Article Place Attachment: How Far have We Come in the Last 40 Years?
Thank you for your input! Mary C R Wilson I have viewed important articles and researches in the scope of this question, however, I see a few that focuses on the geo-political or modern urbanity.. nevertheless, there has been found in a research by (Leila Scannel and Robert Gifford, 2010) that there are a difference between the term "attraction" and "attachment", where persons feel attracted to a place does not necessarily feel attached to and the opposite is true.
In addition, it has been hypothesized that the way in place attachment has been formed reflects the type of the attachment itself (Moore and Graefe, 1994). Thereby, for example social attachment takes time to be formed and therefore, it has been hypothesized that social connections are often more salient and more important.
References:
Moore, R. L., & Graefe, A. R. (1994). Attachments to recreation settings: The case of rail‐trail users. Leisure sciences, 16(1), 17-31.
Chicago
Smaldone, D. (2007). The role of time in place attachment. In Proceedings of the 2006 Northeastern Recreation Research Symposium (pp. 47-56).
Place attachment can be the visual interface of a deeper main attachment or memory that have connection with important events in ones life, mostly the positive ones, when a person felt loved, cared, appreciated, successful, important, needed, etc. If somebody is subject to mobility factor these places are scattered and will be difficult to have easy access to it, but if someone is more stabile in space and time, the access to attachments or memories are more facile. It is the same with people that impacted our lives; if we are closer or connected the positive influence still runs in. If we are far, and separated, we miss the person and we ache for the positive flow towards us. Yes, I agree, the globalization process is advancing more culturally, but because of the unbalanced distribution of financial resources, the place attachment is still important as a location. Yes, I also agree that the social attachment have the main impact.
Effects of the globalization can be seen in paralleling to TCK's culture.
Article Very short ANTHROPOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION of THIRD CULTURE KID...
How beautifully you put in your response 'It is the same with people that impacted our lives; if we are closer or connected the positive influence still runs in. If we are far, and separated, we miss the person and we ache for the positive flow towards us. '
If you travel with the person who gives you this positive impact / influence, I don't think the lack of the place that you are attached to is nearly so distressing.
Thank you very much for your answers! It is very exciting to hear different opinions about a subject of which I consider myself new to but an interested scholar in this particular subject.
Indeed, I agree, that the relationship between the person and their attachment has a very deep roots in terms of its originalities. Now, assuming we have a case where someone lives in a metropolitan city, with long ways to reach to anywhere and very few social life. Do you think that such ideas would exist? Considering of course the admiration and the attraction to the landscape of the place - and I call it attraction to landscape but it might be questioned weather it is attachment at the same time-.
A case study like Istanbul, where in order to go to anywhere, you need between an hour and 2 hours and half-, Hypothetically, the feeling of attachment to city and especially to the social layer might be very low comparing to the neighborhood or to the house/ complex residence/ ..