Nature of the Processes Constructing Places: A Consideration from American Geography

Abstract

This paper is an inquiry into the nature of the processes constructing places, or "place-making", taking as examples eight case studies in American cultural or social geography. The place targeted in each study is a living space or a territory for the people who live there, at the same time is a geographical sphere imparted with an image or symbolic meaning tied to their identity, ethos, or heritage. The processes through which these places have been constructed are in most cases described as landscape-making. The place-making is to create their own territory by physical and symbolic ways, as well as to create an ideal landscape under a certain cultural contexts. It is noteworthy to suggest that a cultural (re)production of a place may reproduce a society or culture. The actual forces to make a place are physical as well as symbolic acts by inside stakeholders, however external cognitive representation may play important roles in place-making. In addition, the backgrounds, contexts, or parameters surrounding the place-making may impose some characteristic traits upon each case.