Kyle, T.G., A.J. Mowen & M.Tarrant, 2004, Linking place preferences with place meaning: an examination of the relationship between place motivation and place attachment, in: Journal of Environmental Psychology, ,
- Author : Kyle, T.G., A.J. Mowen & M.Tarrant
- Year : 2004
- Journal/Series : Journal of Environmental Psychology
- Pages : 439-454
- Contents in English : The purpose of this investigation was to examine the relationship between individuals’ motivation to interact with natural settings and their attachment to these settings. Base on the literature suggesting that natural environments provide humans with a variety of desired psychological, social, and physiological outcomes, the authors hypothesized that outcomes would motivate respondents to interact with the park environment and facilitate the development of their attachment to the setting. The authors offer a summary of literature related to place attachment. In the concluding comments they make clear why the study into place attachment may be important. “In the context of public land management within the United States, an appreciation of the role of place attachment as a managerial tool is growing. In particular, several authors have called for greater consideration for humans to be considered part of the ecosystem. In many of the ecosystem models employed by public management agencies there is a tendency to treat people as autonomous individual agents outside the ecosystem at best a sources of values to be incorporated into decisions, at worst agents of catastrophic disturbance of an otherwise smoothly running system. Together, the cited authors have noted that an understanding of the bond many people share with places has potential to bridge the gap between the science of ecosystems and their management. Williams and Stewart (1998) argued that an understanding of human place bonding in the context of public land management, offers managers a way to anticipate, identify, and respond to bonds people form with places. It is often the bonds that humans share with places and meanings they ascribe to these places that are root of many of the issues confronting resource management (e.g. conflict between stakeholders over the appropriate use and management of settings). Thus, effort directed toward understanding factors influencing human’s attachment to natural environments, like motivation, will advance our understanding of humans’ relationships with these environments and better enable managers of these settings to accommodate the diversity of meanings among users of these resources within their management plans”
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: place attachment, preference, natural environments, parks.