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How to Write a Sense-of-Place Essay

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Thinking of a certain place can bring about strong emotions. A sense-of-place essay strives to do the same. This form of a descriptive essay requires you to describe a particular location, such as a childhood home, a park or an entire city, and you will write your essay so that the reader believes she has been there. Knowing what you need for this type of essay will give you the tools you need to share with your reader. [Reference: #2 (for descriptive essay explanation) and personal experience]

Selecting the right topic can make all the difference when you begin writing your essay. To make writing easier, make a list of places that make you feel a strong connection. Close your eyes and picture the location. Your essay will require details, so make sure you have a clear image of the places you write down. Once you have a list of places, choose the place that has the most meaning to you. When you have a clear image and a strong connection to the place, you may find you have more to say and there is less likelihood of suffering from writer’s block. [Reference: personal experience]

Details make up the main part of a sense-of-place essay, so you will need to consider all of your senses: sight, sound, taste, smell and touch. Can you see the layout of your grandmother’s home? Can you hear the dishes clinking in her kitchen? Can you taste her cookies? Do you smell the moist soil around a lakeside cabin? Can you feel the grain of the wood on the staircase? Use specific details when you describe the place. Do not simply state “the dishes.” Perhaps the dishes were mismatched plates, each with a chip along the edge. These details create a sense of place and build a connection with the reader. [Reference: 2 and personal experience]

Along with concrete details about a location, a sense-of-place essay requires you to reflect on the place and your own connection to it. [Reference 1] Perhaps the place you write about provides you with a sanctuary from the stresses of everyday life. Or perhaps the negativity in your childhood helped define the choices you made as an adult. If you struggle to find a connection to the place you choose to write about, make a list of feelings you associate with the location. This may help as you reflect on the importance of the place. [Reference: personal experience]

The length of a sense-of-place essay may vary, but if your essay stems from a class assignment, your instructor may have provided a specific word count. Begin by introducing the place. Tell the reader the location and then state how this particular place impacts you. Throughout the rest of your essay, provide specific details using your senses and description, as well as particular memories that explain the effects this place has on you. In the closing paragraph of your essay, restate the importance of the place. In the end, your reader should believe she has been to this location and has a similar, strong connection. [Reference: personal experience]

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Sense of Place

Jennifer adams, new york city. david greenwood, thunder bay. mitchell thomashow, seattle. alex russ, ithaca. 26 may 2016.

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Different people perceive the same city or neighborhood in different ways. While one person may appreciate ecological and social aspects of a neighborhood, another may experience environmental and racialized injustice.

A place may also conjure contradicting emotions—the warmth of community and home juxtaposed with the stress of dense urban living. Sense of place—the way we perceive places such as streets, communities, cities or ecoregions—influences our well-being, how we describe and interact with a place, what we value in a place, our respect for ecosystems and other species, how we perceive the affordances of a place, our desire to build more sustainable and just urban communities, and how we choose to improve cities. Our sense of place also reflects our historical and experiential knowledge of a place, and helps us imagine its more sustainable future. In this chapter, we review scholarship about sense of place, including in cities. Then we explore how urban environmental education can help residents to strengthen their attachment to urban communities or entire cities, and to view urban places as ecologically valuable.

Sense of place

Research and scholarship around the relationship between “place” and learning reflects diverse perspectives, many of which are relevant to urban environmental education. Education scholars point to the need for people to develop specific “practices of place” that reflect embodied (perceptual and conceptual) relationships with local landscapes (natural, built, and human). Further, some scholars and researchers have used a lens of mobility—the globalized and networked flow of ideas, materials, and people—to build awareness of the relationship between the local and global in the construction of place in urban centers (Stedman and Ardoin, 2013). This suggests that understanding sense of place in the city generates an added set of situations and challenges, including dynamic demographics, migration narratives, and complex infrastructure networks, as well as contested definitions of natural environments (Heynen, Kaika and Swyngedouw, 2006). One critical question is how we think about sense of place in cities when places and people are constantly on the move. Given rural-urban migration, sense of place today includes where a person came from as much as where she now finds herself. In one study in a large, urban center in the U.S., Adams (2013) found that notions of “home” and identity for Caribbean-identified youth were largely constructed in the northeastern urban context in which they found themselves either through birth or immigration. Such dimensions of place relationships are vital for thinking about meaningful and relevant urban environmental education.

Understanding sense of place in the urban context would be incomplete without a critical consideration of cities as socially constructed places both inherited and created by those who live there. Critical geographers such as Edward Soja , David Harvey , and Doreen Massey draw on a Marxist analysis to describe cities as the material consequence of particular political and ideological arrangements under global capitalism. Critical educators (e.g., Gruenewald, 2003; Haymes, 1995) have drawn upon critical geography to demonstrate how cities are social constructions imbued with contested race, class, and gender social relationships that make possible vastly different senses of place among their residents. For example, Stephen Haymes (1995) argued that against the historical backdrop of race relations in Western countries, “in the context of the inner city, a pedagogy of place must be linked to black urban struggle” (p. 129). Although Haymes was writing twenty years ago, his claim that place-responsive urban education must be linked to racial politics resonates today with the Black Lives Matter movement in the U.S. and ongoing need for environmental educators to be in tune with the political realities that so deeply inform a given individual’s sense of place. This also resonates with the notion that different people may ascribe different meanings to the same place. The complexity of meaning surrounding urban places and our understandings of such contested meanings make a powerful context for personal inquiry and collective learning.

In the U.S., Tzou and Bell (2012) used ethnographic approaches to examine the construction of place among urban young people of color. Their results suggest implications for equity and social justice in environmental education, such as the damage that prevailing environmental education narratives could do to communities of color in terms of power and positioning. Further, Gruenewald (2005) suggests that traditional modes of assessment, such as standardized tests, are problematic in place-based education; instead, we need to redefine education and research as forms of inquiry that are identifiably place-responsive and afford a multiplicity of approaches to define and describe people’s relationships to the environment.

Sense of place and urban environmental education

Although not always explicitly stated, sense of place is inherent to many environmental learning initiatives (Thomashow, 2002). A goal of such programs is nurturing ecological place meaning , defined as “viewing nature-related phenomena, including ecosystems and associated activities, as symbols” of a place (Kudryavtsev, Krasny and Stedman, 2012). This approach is prevalent in bioregionalism, the “no child left inside” movement, community gardening, sustainable agriculture, as well as in natural history, place-based, and other environmental education approaches. Place-based education has goals important to urban life, including raising awareness of place, of our relationship to place, and of how we may contribute positively to this constantly evolving relationship, as well as inspiring local actors to develop place-responsive transformational learning experiences that contribute to community well-being.

Nurturing a sense of place

With the global population increasingly residing in cities, ecological urbanism requires new approaches to understanding place. How does sense of place contribute to human flourishing, ecological justice, and biological and cultural diversity? Using a theoretical basis from literature described above, we offer examples of activities to help readers construct field explorations that evoke, leverage, or influence sense of place. (Also, see a relevant diagram in Russ et al., 2015.) In practice, urban environmental education programs would combine different approaches to nurture sense of place, perhaps most prominently place-based approaches (Smith and Sobel, 2010), which teach respect for the local environment, including its other-than-human inhabitants, in any setting including cities.

Experiences of the urban environment

Making students more consciously aware of their taken-for-granted places is an important aspect of influencing sense of place. Focusing on places students frequent, educators can ask questions like: “What kind of place is this? What does this place mean to you? What does this place enable you to do?” Hands-on activities that allow students to experience, recreate in, and steward more natural ecosystems in cities could be one approach to nurture ecological place meaning. Another activity could use conceptual mapping to highlight places and networks that are important to students, for example, related to commuting and transportation, the internet, food and energy sources, or recreation. Maps and drawings also might focus on sensory perceptions—sights, sounds and smells—or locate centers of urban sustainability. Such maps can help students learn about specific neighborhoods, investigate the relationship among neighborhoods, or create linkages between all the places they or their relatives have lived. Further, mapping activities may help students recognize how their own activities connect to the larger network of activities that create a city, as well as allow them to reflect on issues of power, access, and equity in relation to environmental concerns such as waste, air pollution, and access to green space.

Other observational and experiential activities to instill sense of place might include: (1) exploring boundaries or borders, for example, space under highways, transition zones between communities, fences and walls; (2) finding centers or gathering places and asking questions about where people congregate and why; (3) following the movements of pedestrians and comparing them to the movements of urban animals; (4) tracing the migratory flows of birds, insects and humans; (5) shadowing city workers who are engaged in garbage removal or other public services as they move around the city; (6) observing color and light at different times of the day; (7) observing patterns of construction and demolition; and (8) working with street artists to create murals. All of these activities could serve to develop new meanings and attachments to places that may or may not be familiar to people. The activities build on seminal works related to urban design, including Christopher Alexander’s “Pattern Language,” Randolph T. Hexter’s “Design for Ecological Democracy,” Jane Jacobs “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” Jan Gehl and Birgitte Svarre’s “How to Study Public Life,” and the rich material coming from New Geographies , the journal published by the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

Social construction of place meanings

Activities that allow people to explore and interpret places together could contribute to developing a collective sense of place and corresponding place meanings. Participatory action research and other participatory approaches raise young people’s critical consciousness, influence how they see themselves in relation to places, and build collective understandings about what it means to be young in a rapidly changing city. For example, photo-voice and mental mapping used during a participatory urban environment course allowed students, many of them from marginalized racial and ethnic groups, to experience a shift from viewing a community as a fixed geographic place to a dynamic, socially constructed space, and to describe how they experience and understand urban phenomena such as decay, gentrification, and access to green spaces (Bellino and Adams, 2014). These activities enabled students to expand their notions of what it means to be urban citizens, and to transform their ecological identities in ways that prompted them to take steps towards imagining environmentally, economically, and culturally sustainable futures.

Further, ecological place meaning can be constructed through storytelling, communication with environmental professionals, interpretation, learning from community members, and sharing students’ own stories (Russ et al., 2015), as well as through representation of places through narratives, charts, music, poetry, photographs, or other forms that encourage dialogue and reflection about what places are and how they can be cared for (Wattchow and Brown, 2011). Other social activities, such as collective art-making, restoring local natural areas, or planting a community garden, could contribute to a collective sense of place that values green space and ecological aspects of place. New socially constructed place meanings can in turn help to promote community engagement in preserving, transforming, or creating places with unique ecological characteristics (e.g., fighting to keep a community garden safe from developers), and create opportunities to maintain these ecological characteristics (e.g., group-purchasing solar power). Environmental educators who are able to engage with a community over time can watch these initiatives take root and grow, and can observe individual and collective changes in sense of place.

Developing an ecological identity

In addition to paying attention to social construction of place, environmental educators can nurture ecological identity, which fosters appreciation of the ecological aspects of cities. Humans have multiple identities, including ecological identity, which reflects the ecological perspectives or ecological lens through which they see the world. Ecological identity focuses one’s attention on environmental activities, green infrastructure, ecosystems, and biodiversity, including in urban places. Ecological identity in cities can be manifested in realizing one’s personal responsibility for urban sustainability, and feeling oneself empowered and competent to improve local places (Russ et al., 2015). Urban environmental education programs can influence ecological identity, for example, by involving students in long-term environmental restoration projects where they serve as experts on environmental topics, by valuing young people’s contribution to environmental planning, respecting their viewpoint about future urban development, and recognizing young people’s efforts as ambassadors of the local environment and environmental organizations (e.g., through work/volunteer titles, labels on t-shirts, or workshop certificates). Even involving students in projects that allow them to become more familiar with their community from an ecological perspective goes a long way towards adding an ecological layer to their identity and perception of their city (Bellino and Adams, 2014).

The environmental education challenge presented in this chapter is how to embed deeper meanings of place and identity in dynamic urban environments. Because urban settings tend to be diverse across multiple elements, ranging from types of green space and infrastructure to global migration, there are countless ways to proceed. In addition, while environmental educators can design and facilitate experiences to access and influence people’s sense of place, it is also important for educators to have a strong notion of their own sense of place. This is especially critical for environmental educators who may not have spent their formative years in a city. Such persons may have a sense of place informed more by frequent and ready access to natural areas, and less by access to urban diversity and the density and diversity of people found in an urban environment. It is important for all urban environmental educators to engage in reflective activities that allow them to learn about their personal sense of place, including what they value about the natural, human, and built environment. Demonstrating one’s own continued learning, and learning challenges, will greatly aid in the process of facilitating other learners developing sense of place in diverse urban settings. Through sharing their own experiences with places, all learners can deepen our awareness of and sensitivity to our environment and to each other. Such awareness and receptivity to place can positively influence collective and individual actions that help create sustainable cities.

Jennifer Adams, David A. Greenwood, Mitchell Thomashow, and Alex Russ New York, Thunder Bay, Seattle, and Ithaca

This essay will appear as a chapter in Urban Environmental Education Review , edited by Alex Russ and Marianne Krasny, to be published by Cornell University Press in 2017. To see more pre-release chapters from the book, click here .

This essay also appears at the North American Association of Environmental Educators site . References

Adams, J.D. (2013). Theorizing a sense of place in transnational community. Children, youth and environments, 23 (3), 43-65.

Basso, K.H. (1996). Wisdom sits in places: Notes on a Western Apache landscape. In Feld, S. and Basso, K.H. (Eds.), Senses of place (pp. 53-90). Santa Fe, New Mexico: School of American Research Press.

Bellino, M. and Adams, J.D. (2014). Reimagining environmental education: Urban youths’ perceptions and investigations of their communities. Revista Brasileira de Pesquisa em Educação de Ciências, 14 (2), 27-38 .

Gruenewald, D.A. (2005). Accountability and collaboration: Institutional barriers and strategic pathways for place-based education. Ethics, Place and Environment , 8 (3), 261-283.

Gruenewald, D.A. (2003). Foundations of place: A multidisciplinary framework for place-conscious education. American Educational Research Journal, 40 (3), 619-654.

Haymes, S.N. (1995). Race, culture, and the city: A pedagogy for Black urban struggle . SUNY Press.

Heynen, N., Kaika, M. and Swyngedouw, E. (2006). In the nature of cities: Urban political ecology and the politics of urban metabolism . New York: Routledge.

Kudryavtsev, A., Krasny, M.E. and Stedman, R.C. (2012). The impact of environmental education on sense of place among urban youth. Ecosphere, 3 (4), 29.

Kudryavtsev, A., Stedman, R.C. and Krasny, M.E. (2012). Sense of place in environmental education. Environmental education research, 18 (2), 229-250.

Russ, A., Peters, S.J., Krasny, M.E. and Stedman, R.C. (2015). Development of ecological place meaning in New York City. Journal of environmental education, 46 (2), 73-93.

Smith, G.A. and Sobel, D. (2010). Place- and community-based education in schools . New York: Routledge.

Stedman, R. and Ardoin, N. (2013). Mobility, power and scale in place-based environmental education. In Krasny, M. and Dillon, J. (Eds.) Trading zones in environmental education: Creating transdisciplinary dialogue (pp. 231-251). New York: Peter Lang.

Thomashow, M. (2002). Bringing the biosphere home: Learning to perceive global environmental change . Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.

Tzou, C.T. and Bell, P. (2012). The role of borders in environmental education: Positioning, power and marginality. Ethnography and Education , 7 (2), 265-282.

Wattchow, B. and Brown, M. (2011). A pedagogy of place: Outdoor education for a changing world . Monash, Australia: Monash University Publishing.

About the Writer: David Greenwood

Dr. David A. Greenwood is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Environmental Education at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, where he now lives in the forest with all of its wildlife.

About the Writer: Mitchell Thomashow

Mitchell Thomashow devotes his life and work to promoting ecological awareness, sustainable living, creative learning, improvisational thinking, social networking, and organizational excellence.

About the Writer: Alex Russ

Alex Kudryavtsev (pen name: Alex Russ) is an online course instructor for EECapacity, an EPA-funded environment educator training project led by Cornell University and NAAEE.

About the Writer: Jennifer Adams

Jennifer D. Adams is an associate professor of science education at Brooklyn College and The Graduate Center, CUNY. Her research focuses on STEM teaching and learning in informal science contexts including museums, National Parks and everyday settings.

6 thoughts on “ Sense of Place ”

I would like to see more about the tools for articulating, preserving and/or creating sense of place as related to the topics discussed in this essay. The work of Kevin Lynch and William Whyte in particular. An important aspect of urban planning is helping a community articulate a desired sense of place and to use urban design and landscape architecture to help create, preserve and reinforce it.

love it and it gives sense and meaning to many concepts . thank you

Pingback: A Sense of “Independence” – Practicing Public History at a Presidential Library

I’m writing a capstone for my EMBA on the social values impact of long term infrastructure projects utilizing the Public Private Partnerships method. This came about when I observe that much of the literature review on the performance assessment of P3s are based on value for money. The Canadian Auditor General’s report and PPPCanada’s annual report do not include social impact assessment. Your write up on Sense of Place is a breath of fresh air. – E. Rustia, P.Eng.

can you make a topic outline of this ?

Thank you for this article it summaries sense of place, place making and place meaning beautifully for me.

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How to Write a Sense-of-Place Essay

Kori morgan.

From backyards to childhood homes to first apartments, places play a significant role in shaping our memories. In a sense-of-place essay, authors paint a vivid picture of an important place in their lives for readers. Unlike a narrative essay, sense-of-place essays are shorter and focus on providing an in-depth look at a particular setting rather than telling a story. Using specific detail, conveying emotion and reflecting on the place's importance will help you effectively share your favorite settings with readers.

Explore this article

Brainstorming

1 Brainstorming

A good way to begin thinking of topics is to make a list of meaningful places from your past. You might find yourself recalling family gatherings at your grandparents' old farmhouse, your elementary school classroom or a lakeside beach where you went swimming as a child. You can then select a place that holds particular significance or vivid memories for you, and make another list of everything you remember about it, such as sounds, particular smells or prominent colors and textures.

The Purdue Online Writing Lab states that good descriptive essays instill "a sense of familiarity and appreciation" in readers. In a sense-of-place essay, this is accomplished through imagery, the portrayal of sensory details. You can use your list of important aspects of the place for ideas of what to bring to life in your setting. If you were writing about your grandmother's kitchen, for example, you might write about the smoky scent of turkey dinner, while a description of your backyard could include the stained glass appearance of sunlight streaming through the trees.

A sense-of-place essay also makes readers feel the emotion associated with your chosen setting. This is done through tone, the portrayal of the author's attitude toward the subject. Description plays a key role in establishing tone. For example, if you were describing your favorite amusement park, the details of bright colors, up-tempo carnival music and children's laughter would convey a carefree tone, while a graveyard would carry a somber tone with details of cold, gray headstones and faded silk flowers.

4 Reflection

A good way to end your essay is by reflecting on why the place you've chosen is so important to you. Discussing what you learned there, what the place means to you and its impact on your life will complete the picture you've created. In an essay on your grandmother's kitchen, you might talk about how being there taught you the value of service to others, while an essay about your backyard might illustrate your nostalgia for the innocence of childhood. By the conclusion, readers should clearly understand the significance of this place in your memory.

1 Purdue Online Writing Lab: Descriptive Essays
2 University of Vermont: "Sense" of Place

About the Author

Kori Morgan holds a Bachelor of Arts in professional writing and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing and has been crafting online and print educational materials since 2006. She taught creative writing and composition at West Virginia University and the University of Akron and her fiction, poetry and essays have appeared in numerous literary journals.

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Concept of Place

One of the oldest tenets of geography is the concept of place. As a result, place has numerous definitions, from the simple “a space or location with meaning” to the more complex “an area having unique physical and human characteristics interconnected with other places.” There are three key components of place: location, locale, and a sense of place. Location is the position of a particular point on the surface of Earth. Locale is the physical setting for relationships between people, such as the South of France or the Smoky Mountains. Finally, a sense of place is the emotions someone attaches to an area based on their experiences. Place can be applied at any scale and does not necessarily have to be fixed in either time or space. Additionally, due to globalization, place can change over time as its physical setting and cultures are influenced by new ideas or technologies.

Geography, Human Geography, Physical Geography, Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

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Sense of Place - Essay:

Abstract: This easy asks the question what is identity and how does a sense of place / belonging relate to this concept? It is argued in this essay, that it’s via the processes of memory and belonging / place attachments, that we attain an individual / social identity. This process has been analysed within the context of memory and via a belonging / place attachment contextual processes.

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Allison Stern

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate how powerful experiences of place shape one’s sense of self. The human–place relationship is germane to today’s rapidly changing global landscape of political instability, conflict, climate change, population growth, and lack of opportunity, all of which are increasing human displacement, migration, and mobility. Further exploration of place identity is thus relevant to addressing these issues. This interdisciplinary study examined the literature in sense of place, sense of self, place identity, and transformative experiences. The research question was: How do powerful experiences of place form, inform, and transform one’s sense of self? This qualitative study used Finlay and Evans’s (2009) phenomenological Relational Approach. The data sources were in-depth interviews with 8 participants, selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Interview were conducted in 2 parts. The first part uncovered participants’ essential descriptions and meanings of powerfully transformative experiences of place. 6 themes emerged: (a) natural elements and geography, (b) community, roots, and belonging, (c) aliveness, wholeness, and the cycle of life, (d) freedom, adventure, and escape, (e) possibility, becoming, liminality, and the unknown, and (f) enchantment, the sacred, and coherence. Data from the second part were categorized by how experiences formed, informed, or transformed participants’ sense of self and life path. 5 dimensions of experiences were also noted: peak, plateau, nadir, epiphany, and liminal states. Further analysis revealed 4 larger patterns. The first pattern was an opposing tension of forces between participants’ sense of self-continuity and change, based on 3 meta themes of The Known, The Unknown, and The Balancing Present. The second pattern related to participants’ seeking similar place experiences. The third pattern noted variations in dimensions of experiences across the lifespan. The fourth pattern pointed to participants’ felt-sense of coherence and spirituality. This study contributes to a greater understanding of how powerful experiences of place form, inform, and transform individuals’ relationships with themselves, others, and the larger world. Implications indicate a need for the cultivation of greater awareness of the people–place relationship toward a more coherent partnership. Further research into co-affecting factors influencing place identity formation and development is needed.

Bernardo Hernandez

Journal of Environmental Psychology

Maria Lewicka

Psyecology: Revista Biling??e de Psicolog??a Ambiental

Tomeu Vidal

Charis Anton

This study explores the relationships between place of residence, living in a threatened place and the subsets of place attachment: place identity and place dependence. Six hundred participants living in south-west Western Australia in rural and urban areas with varying degrees of bushfire risk responded to surveys asking about their reasons for living in their local area, their place attachment and their socio-demographic details. MANOVAs revealed a significant effect of place of residence on place identity with rural residents reporting higher place identity than urban dwellers. Urban dwellers reported lower place dependence than rural dwellers except when they lived in a fire prone area, in which case their place dependence was on par with that of rural residents. Socio-demographic predictors of both place identity and place dependence to the home and local area were also explored, these included length of residence, education, and owning one’s home.

Judith Phillips , Nigel Walford

The aim of this paper is to explore how heritage contributes to 'sense of place' and how engagement with heritage can aid social sustainability. These are relationships tacitly accepted and little discussed in the literature. The paper draws on an analysis of in-depth interview data collected amongst individuals engaging with heritage in the rural northern uplands of the UK. The paper identifies within the environmental psychology literature a framework for investigating sense of place which is then used to analyse the interview data. Cultural heritage is found to contribute to sense of place as a source of pride and by supporting feelings of distinctiveness and senses of continuity across time. Engaging with heritage moreover develops belonging through forms of social capital thereby building stronger communities. The paper concludes that as a process of 'memory talk', as an expression of cultural distinctiveness or in its built or natural physical form, heritage contributes to sense of place by providing a network of references helping individuals place themselves in the past and the present. Using theories of social capital, it is possible to see that engaging with heritage can potentially aid social sustainability.

Andrés Di Masso , John Dixon

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Doreen Massey’s Concept of a Global Sense of Place Critical Essay

Introduction, analysis of doreen massey’s concept of a ‘global sense of place’, reference list.

In the recent past, geographers and scholars have applied various concepts related to networks and place making as they strive to comprehend and explain the current political processes and communal transformation. One of those geographers is Doreen Massey. Her concept of ‘global sense of place’ has had a substantial impact on how people construe the issue of place development.

Having understood Massey’s concept, the discussion in this paper will relate her concept to the question of place development and especially, the issue on how to increase social as well as economic development of an ethnically divided community.

In the discussion, it will be noted that all the place-descriptions observed by the disparate domestic actors represents a particular ‘global sense of place’, although the results of this method of place-making still remains complex to seize empirically.

By comparing ideas from personal surveillance and conceptual assessment, Massey comprehensively addresses issues relating to globalisation as well as time-space solidity. In an article that is often cited by various geographers and scholars, Massey introduces a different understanding of place that includes globalisation in a constructive manner.

In explanation, she contradicts previous concepts developed by David Harvey as well as other Marxists who often portrayed the negative effects of globalisation. Massey globalised Kilburn Hill Street in North London and observed how various domestic ideas could be viewed as an expression of domestically interacting ‘global’ developments as well as flows (Massey 1991).

From her observation, she infers that place ought to be considered as dynamic domestic and international, social as well as economic relations. Although she concurs that there is an element of specificity in place made of certain collections of social connections, she asserts that factors such transformation human behaviours and relations with a foreign culture can actually affect a given place.

According to Massey, a community is not made up of individuals who reside close to each other but instead it is composed of persons who have similar interests or challenges. In comparing the relationship between geography and social connections, Massey asserts that individuals who live in a particular area are likely to share views and challenges with people residing in other areas in the world, foreigners (Massey 1991).

Massey concept has raised various debates as scholars try to understand how global can be seen as locally-based as well as how one can construe that, in relation to the meaning of place. One of the commonly debated issues involves places with ethnically disparate residents as portrayed in Kilburn Street.

The main question revolves around the influence of the sense of place founded on the reasoning that there is global in the local coupled with how it can assist local societies to introduce mutual programmes aimed at fortifying the socio-economic status of the entire community (Massey & Jess 1995).

Another debate revolving around ethnically disparate communities that have adopted a wider scope is the significance of entrepreneurship particularly in the case of retail trade and health care services. In the case of immigrants, entrepreneurship gives them an opportunity to improve the socio-economic status within their native community and in the foreign location.

It is normally intricate for first generation immigrants to get employment because of cultural disparities and lack of relevant qualifications. However, subsequent immigrants find it easy to practice entrepreneurship because they are aware of the culture, resources, and legal procedures in the host country.

Hence, self-employment can act as a means of survival for people residing and operating in a given place. Subsequently, it can help in improving the socio-economic position of a whole neighbourhood (Featherstone 2003).

In reference to Massey’s concept, the discussion in this paper will examine the link between ethnic entrepreneurship and place development and how three clusters of participants that is, entrepreneurs, retail traders and domestic lawmakers as well as foreign expert can combine their skills to create a foundation for the community investments plans.

The paper uses a neighbourhood similar to Kilburn Street, which has developed to an ethnically diverse place and it has become a core part is municipal reconstruction plans.

In essence, the discussion in this paper acts as an evaluation of Massey’s rational accomplishment as well as try to combine Massey’s opinions on the extensive debate on self-employment and its relation to place into developing a place with multi-ethnic community (Adams, Hoelscher & Till 2001).

In her explanation of space and place, Massey infers that spatial relations ought not to be viewed with uncertainty. Every place is composed of various distinct qualities that are difficult to comprehend within a rigid local surrounding. These qualities evolve from the combination and intertwining series of incidents as well as processes, normally transpiring at a scope broader that the place in question (Mayer 2008).

By including the aspect of ‘global’ in the definition, Massey succeeds in escaping the ‘endogeneity trap’ that has challenged several contemporary geographers. These series of combination and intertwinement, which Massey refers to as trajectories, affect places in two major forms: introducing types of investments as well as culture and redefines construed histories and spatial relations.

These trajectories assist local participants to create a sense of place as well as participate in movements of place-making. In essence, trajectories are crucial components of place-making (Massey & Jess 1995).

By recognising the fact that trajectories have diverse effects in place, an individual develops an authentic candidness about the future.

It is important to note that when addressing the issue of space and society, theoretical frames do not create neutral notion because they are entrenched in social as well as political compositions that are initiated through policy making, communicated and eventually emphasised by academic analysts.

Scholars have observed that there is no single description of a town because different people may describe it by underpinning certain features and ignoring others. Hence, every trajectory embodies how various practices are influenced by wider transformations and trends (Featherstone 2003).

By understanding the relationship between sense of place and trajectories, one adopts clear perspective when it comes to handling the issue of place. The sense of place explains how a place is related to other parts of the globe through the trajectories.

Massey emphasises that understanding the relationship between trajectories and sense of place helps one to understand the numerous developments and narratives that influence place-making. This concept neutralises the contemporary idea that the trajectories of place combine to form a certain product in given time.

Instead, Massey’s conception provides that the trajectories integrate to form particular union as well as spatial relations hence, creating a product and political manifestations (Massey & Jess 1995). From the relationship of trajectories and sense of place, one can deduce that the former provides a place with resources as well as semiotic factors such as business investments and population transformation that nourish the sense of place.

On the other hand, the latter influence how the trajectories are adopted and shared within the local area. A ‘global sense of place’ in this situation provides even a better way of creating ample reactions to trajectories that occur in a wider scope such as those involving foreign investments, migration or even global drug peddling.

Thus, a society that draws its information from ‘a global sense of place’ is at a upper hand when it comes to handling problems or opportunities that occur at non-domestic scales, but affect the local residents (Massey 1991).

The idea of trajectory underpins the semiotic as well as material features of the globe. It begins it observation from a practical point view, which is an essential component of place-making. Thus, trajectories are often disclosed and categorised according to the features of a given place. Nonetheless, the idea does not define a type semiotic structure where particular components and associations prevail.

In trajectories, what is of essence is the development of an integrated effect on place-making rather than uniting diverse network (Adams, Hoelscher & Till 2001). In reference to Massey’s article, we apply the concept of a ‘global sense of place’ to an ethnically divers Dutch community in Willemskwartier. Most of its residents are immigrants who took over the houses, which were initially inhabited by native citizens.

Historically, the area has faced various social and environmental predicaments such as joblessness, increased rate of crime and environment dilapidation because of poor physical environment (Swyngedouw 2004).

The neighbourhood grew to host several small enterprises that gave an opportunity for illegal business such as global narcotic trade. The growth of drug peddling led to the emergence of violent groups who have caused a lot of mayhem in the neighbourhood.

The mounting problems drew the attention on the government and it initiated several mitigation policies including a series of urban planning programmes, which acts as a good trajectory to analyse (Massey 2004).

Another substantial factor to consider as a trajectory is the recent development of entrepreneurship in the neighbourhood with entrepreneurs from different ethnic groups accelerating economic growth in the community. A majority of these entrepreneurs are immigrants from Turkey who adopted the Dutch culture and have adequate knowledge of the community’s resources (Spaan, Hillmann & Van Naerssen 2005).

The high population of Turkish entrepreneurs signal their desire to venture into retail business. The policy of multiculturalism has played a major role in raising the number of immigrant entrepreneurs in the community. The cultural outlook on place-making, which considers how the residents interact in issues relating to community development, also provides another trajectory (Razin 2002).

The development of the Dutch urban programmes has been dominated by logical planning as well as policies because of the emphasis given to communication. One of the main planning programmes include the standard zoning, which monitors the allotment of residential houses, retail premises as well as business areas through accurate estimation and prediction.

Another popular programme is the land-use plan that was initiated in 2006 to promote the constructive attitude on ethnic entrepreneurship and thus permitting mixed purposes. Other programmes have also been adopted to check the growth of the hospitality industry, which has attracted several investors.

The huge investment in the hospitality industry has led to the introduction of laws that entrepreneurs from venturing into the industry. Furthermore, the government sought other means to handle the issue no within the standard regulatory framework.

This action created opportunities for novel types of events as well as enticements to complement the urban planning trajectory. Moreover, the government has also made an effort to fight drug peddling and illegal groups though the deployment of law enforcers and expropriation (Featherstone 2003).

The second trajectory, viz. ethnic entrepreneurship, can play a significant role in improving the status of a given place, in this case Wilemskwartier. The trajectory is based on narratives characterised by policy and academic issues, showing how migrant entrepreneurs improved the socioeconomic status of the community.

Various scholars have asserted that the duty of immigrant investors should be associated with the opportunities as well as challenges that develop from domestic organisational and market environment (Lin 1995). Most of the entrepreneurs who conduct business in Wilemskwartier invest their capital in the neighbourhood although they do not reside there.

The decision to invest their capital in the area was inspired by the data they received about the neighbourhood through social connections. Their social relations with the inhabitants, they learnt how to conduct business in the area successfully, which in itself is a manifestation of the concept of a ‘global sense of place’. The large numbers of Turkish and Moroccan shops are evident across the streets.

The original intention of these entrepreneurs was to serve their own community but the demands of their products and services increased as native and other immigrants developed an interest in services. In a bid to satisfy this massive number of clients, the entrepreneurs have been compelled to expand their services to cater for all Dutch-speaking clients (Lin 1995).

The entrepreneurs have been successful mainly because of the strong personal as well as social relations when it comes to establishing and seeking workforce for the enterprises. The third trajectory develops from the manner in which the neighbourhood handled the social, cultural, as well as economic affiliations.

Although the authorities were initially hesitant to accept the inhabitation of the immigrants, they eventually welcomed their existence. Their attitude changed when the immigrant begun paying taxes and participating in domestic politics (Adams, Hoelscher & Till 2001).

Analysing the Willemskwartier through the Massey’s concept of ‘global sense of place’, one can infer that the place has challenges and opportunities that are not only affected by local communities but also global factors. Moreover, the area also shows how trajectories unite with various spatialities and at times even clash.

In reference to the community in Willemskwartier, one can extract the ‘political’ in two primary levels: trajectory and place. The urban planning projects initiated by the government are correlated to the first, second, and third trajectory (Massey 2004).

The developments witnessed in Willemskwartier reveal that the resurgence of an ethnically disparate society entails the merging of ethnic uniqueness, economic integration, as well as modernisation of traditions. Moreover, for geographers to identify trajectories and create conjectural initiatives, it is important to consider the hypothetical concepts that relate to the trajectories.

From the discussion in this paper, one gets to understand the relationship between global influences, spatial relations, and trajectory. Geography is a matter of theory and thus various geographers such as Harvey, Massey, and Watts have given various definitions of space and even as people struggle to understand their concepts, it is important to question their presuppositions.

Adams, P, Hoelscher, S & Till, K 2001, Textures of place, Minnesota University Press, Minneapolis.

Featherstone, D 2003, ‘Spatialities of transnational resistance to globalisation: the maps of grievance of the Inter-Continental Caravan’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers , vol. 28 no. 4, pp.404–421.

Lin, J 1995, ‘Ethnic places, postmodernism, and urban change in Houston’, Sociological Quarterly , vol.36 no.4, pp.629-647.

Massey, D 1991, ‘A global sense of place’, Marxism Today, vol.8 no.2, pp 24-29.

Massey, D 2004, ‘Geographies of responsibility’, Geographiska Annaler, vol.86 no.5, pp.5-18.

Massey, D & Jess, P 1995, A Place in the World? Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Mayer, M 2008, ‘To what end do we theorise sociospatial relations’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol.26 no.4,pp. 414-419.

Razin, E 2002, ‘The economic context, embeddedness and immigrant entrepreneurs’, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research , vol.8 no.2, pp.162-167.

Spaan, E, Hillmann, F & Van Naerssen, A 2005, Asian migrants and European labour markets: patterns and processes of immigrant labour market insertion in Europe, Routledge, Abingdon.

Swyngedouw, E 2004, ‘Globalisation or Glocalisation? Networks, Territories and Rescaling’, Cambridge Review of International Affairs , vol.17 no.1, pp. 25-48.

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Descriptive Essay

Descriptive Essay About A Place

Writing a Descriptive Essay About A Place - Guide With Examples

Understanding Descriptive Essays

A descriptive essay is a type of writing that aims to describe and portray an object, person, or place. The essay typically includes sensory details to help the reader imagine its contents more vividly. Descriptive essays can be written about a person , place, or other themes like nature , autumn , food , or even yourself .

A descriptive essay about a place should provide enough details for the reader to build a mental image of it. To do this, you need to include vivid descriptions and relevant information that could paint a picture in their minds.

Let's read some examples to see what a good descriptive essay looks like.

Examples of Descriptive Essay About Any Place

Here are some descriptive writing about a place examples:

Example of a Descriptive Essay About a Place

Descriptive Essay About a Place You Visited

Descriptive Essay About a Place Called Home

Descriptive Essay About a Place You Loved as a Child

Descriptive Essay About a Place of Interest I Visited

Descriptive Essay About a Favorite Place

Do you need more sample essays? Check out more descriptive essay examples t o get inspired.

Tips for Writing an Excellent Descriptive Essay About A Place

Now that you've read some examples of descriptive essays about places, it's time to learn how to write one yourself. Here are some tips on writing a great essay:

Choose The Right Topic

The topic of your essay should be something that you have a strong connection to or feeling about. It could be a place you've visited recently or a place from your childhood. Moreover, make sure that it's something that you can write about in enough detail to make your essay interesting.

Check out this blog with 100+ descriptive essay topics to get your creative juices flowing.

Gather Information

Gather as much information as possible about the topic of your essay. This will help you craft vivid descriptions and portray an accurate picture for your readers. Gather your observations, research online, and talk to people who have visited the place you're writing about.

Make sure to research the topic thoroughly so you can provide accurate and detailed descriptions. Read up as much as you can about the history of the place, and any interesting facts or stories about it.

Structure Your Essay

Outline your descriptive essay before beginning to write so all points flow logically from one to another throughout the entire piece.

Make sure to include a strong introduction and conclusion, as well as several body paragraphs that help support your main points.

Include Sensory Details

Use sensory language by including details such as sights, smells, tastes, sounds, etc. This helps to engage readers and transport them into the setting of your essay.

When writing a descriptive essay, make sure to include vivid descriptions that involve all five senses. This will help create a more engaging and immersive experience for your readers.

Use Vivid Language

Make sure to use strong and powerful words when describing the place you're writing about. Use metaphors and similes to bring your descriptions to life and make them more interesting for readers.

Proofread Your Essay

Proofreading is an important step in any writing process, especially when it comes to descriptive essays. Make sure to check for any typos or spelling errors that may have slipped through in your writing.

You also need to make sure that the flow of your essay is logical and coherent. Check if you've used a consistent point of view throughout, and make sure that all ideas are well-supported with evidence.

Follow these tips and examples, and you'll be well on your way to writing a great descriptive essay.

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Thoreaus Sense of Place: Essays in American Environmental Writing

In this Book

Lawrence Buell, Richard J. Schneider
Published by: University of Iowa Press
Series: American Land & Life

Acknowledgments
pp. vii-viii
Introduction
I. Relating to Place: "Between Me and It"
Believing in Nature: Wilderness and Wildness in Thoreauvian Science
Thoreau's Transcendental Ecocentrism
"Climate Does Thus React on Man": Wildness and Geographic Determinism in Thoreau's "Walking"
"In Search of a More Human Nature": Wendell berry's Revision of Thoreau's Experiment
Water-Signs: Place and Metaphor in Dillard and Thoreau
II. Imaging Place: Finding a Discourse to Match Discovery
The Written World: Place and History in Thoreau's "A Walk to Wachusett"
Thoreau, Thomas Cole, and Asher Durand: Composing the American Landscape
Reading Home: Thoreau, Literature, and the Phenomenon of Inhabitation
pp. 115-132
Seeing the West Side of Any Mountain: Thoreau and Contemporary Ecological Poetry
pp. 133-146
III. Socially Constructing Place
Ten Ways of Seeing Landscapes in Walden and Beyond
pp. 149-164
Sauntering in the Industrial Wilderness
pp. 165-178
Walden, Rural Hours , and the Dilemma of Representation
pp. 179-193
Wordsworth and Thoreau: Two Versions of Pastoral
pp. 194-206
Humanity as "A Part and Parcel of Nature": A Comparative Study of Thoreau's and Taoist Concepts of Nature
pp. 207-220
IV. Saving Place: Writing as Appropriation or Preservation of Nature
Speaking for Nature: Thoreau and the "Problem" of "Nature Writing"
pp. 223-234
Depopulation, Deforestation, and the Actual Walden Pond
pp. 235-243
Skirting Lowell: The Exceptional Work of Nature in A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
pp. 244-253
Rustling Thoreau's Cattle: Wilderness and Domesticity in "Walking"
pp. 254-265
Counter Frictions: Writing and Activism in the Work of Abbey and Thoreau
pp. 266-280
Contributors
pp. 281-284
Works Cited
pp. 285-300
pp. 301-310
The American Land and Life Series
pp. 311-312

Additional Information

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Haunted Voices: An Anthology of Gothic Storytelling From Scotland - Rebecca Wojturska

This enthralling collection of gothic tales celebrates Scotland’s rich tradition of oral storytelling. It’s available in print, ebook, and audio — and we 100-percent advocate for the audiobook. It features both archival recordings and new performances that will cause delicious little tingles up the back of your neck.

Soulmates , told by Gavin Inglis, is a bittersweet story about a goth couple who frequent the paths of Greyfriars Kirkyard (a historical cemetery in Edinburgh) and a love that will not die. When you listen to the The Stolen Winding Sheet by Fran Flett Hollinrake, you will feel the wind and rain of the storm on your face.

Throughout the 27 stories, you’ll encounter shadowy demons, ephemeral ghosts, mysterious shapes in the darkness, undying love, wry humor, dramatic weather, poor decisions, well-deserved comeuppances, and the other elements that make Gothic stories so jubilantly dark and unsettling. The vocal performances are seductive and immersive, with an urgency and intimacy that can only be found when one human tells a story to another. { more }

Hear Mel talk about this book in the Scotland episode of our podcast .

He was sitting in Greyfriar’s Kirkyard at sunrise, watching mud creep up the cover of Descartes’ Passions of the Soul and wondering if it would be too much of a cliché to throw himself off North Bridge. She came past in clumpy boots and a velvet skirt, took her headphones out and yelled at him for letting a library book get stained. After that they were friends. — Gavin Inglis, ‘Soulmates’

New Zealand

Can you tolerate this: essays - ashleigh young.

Purchase Can You Tolerate This? —

Ashleigh Young was born and raised Te Kuiti, a town of 5000 on New Zealand’s North Island and the ‘Sheep Shearing Capital of the World.’ Her essays, read together in a rush inspired by their urgency and lyricism, form a coming-of-age story that’s both personal and universally affecting.

In one essay, we meet the chiropractor who’s routine question Can you tolerate this? inspired the book’s title. It’s a heartrending piece of writing about egoism and the now. Equally moving is the story about her brother’s music career and the punk rock scene in their hometown. There are also tales of Japanese shut-ins, a French postman who crafted a stone fortress by hand, teenage yearning for Paul McCartney, falling in and out of love, and the double-edged sword of self-improvement projects — all set against the backdrop of New Zealand’s beauty and isolation.

Young is both a poet and an essayist. If you’d like to meet a New Zealander with whom you could become fast friends, this book is a fantastic place to start. { more }

Hear Dave talk about this book in the New Zealand episode of our podcast .

Was there any story I could tell that was truly certain? Write your way toward an understanding, a tutor had told me in a creative writing class during my third year of university. But what if you went backward and wrote yourself away from the understanding? Was it better than never to have started at all? If you were uncertain, should you make the understanding up - construct a meaningful-sounding statement so that your reader wouldn’t feel that you’d strung them along, wasted their time? — Ashleigh Young

F*ckface: And Other Stories - Leah Hampton

Purchase F*ckface —

These are tales about sex and death and being human and the collapse of the environment — all set in post-coal Appalachia — will stop you in your tracks.

Author Leah Hampton said of the assertive title of her literary debut, ‘If I’m going to be 46 years old when my first book comes out, y’all are going to know the name.’ The stuff inside the covers of her book is worthy of the attention. Her characters are park rangers and GameStop employees and rural firefighters. They wrestle with family trouble and health issues and loneliness and desire.

Some of the stories are funny; most will make you wince at least once. All of them will transport you directly to the Blue Ridge mountains.

The title story is worth the price of admission — it will stomp all over your heart and then take up residence in it. Exhibit A to back up this assertion: The first line. ‘Nothing’ll ever fix what’s broken in this town, but it would be nice if they’d at least get the dead bear out of the parking lot at Food Company.’

It goes on very effectively from there. The narrator is a young queer woman living a sheltered life in a small town. Her name is Pretty, and she works in the grocery store while nursing a crush on her friend Jamie. Jamie is leaving town for Asheville — which they call ‘hippietown’ — and is trying to convince Pretty to move with her. As she’s making her sales pitch for why the city could be a good move, she says, encouragingly, ‘Girl, you could be out and proud.’ Pretty picks at a scab on her ‘fat knuckle’ and shrugs. ‘Proud of what?’

Another story ‘Sparkle’ features a ‘cotton-candy-pink ticket booth,’ a water park next to Dollywood, and a near-mythological promise of seeing Ms. Dolly Parton in the flesh.

This book was named a Best Book of 2020 by The Paris Review , the New York Public Library, Slate , and others. It’s easy to see why. { more }

Hear Dave talk about this book in the Appalachia episode of our podcast .

Inside the cotton-candy-pink ticket booth, Mavis — that’s what her name tag said — shifted her ample, cardiganed breasts off the counter and looked out the customer window to see if there was anybody behind us. ‘Now, it’s not her usual thing,’ said Mavis when she’d decided we were alone. ‘But.’ Behind me, James tensed. I figured it was going to be some kind of sales pitch for Splash Country, the water park next to Dollywood. James and I did not want to go to Splash Country. It was November, and it was raining. Mavis looked me square in the face. ‘Bu-ut’ — Mavis dropped her twang to an emphysemal whisper — ‘Dolly … is in the park today.’ She twitched her mouth and pursed it to the side, satisfied with herself, then placed her hands primly on the cotton candy windowsill. ‘No shit,’ I said. ‘Oh, yes, ma’m,’ said Mavis. Her hands went pat, pat, softly. — Leah Hampton

An American Childhood - Annie Dillard

Purchase An American Childhood —

The sentences crackle with energy in Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Dillard’s memoir of growing in 1950s Pittsburgh. Buckle up for a rollicking trip through her childhood with writing so good, it might make you nostalgic for your own hometown.

Dillard’s powers of observation and recall — and, perhaps, imagination — are shocking. She nails what it’s like to be a child of five and 10 and 15. To feel the wonder and fear and beauty of waking up to the world.

Constructed as a series of sort-of essays, this book invites you to dip in and out, spending time with young Annie as she explores the external world and her internal landscape. She takes us to the Pittsburgh of her childhood and its vibrant downtown, and into her fantasies about the French and Indian War, her fascination for drawing, and her fervent, passing interests in rocks, bugs, and the French symbolists.

Her memoir is the story of an all-American girl, growing up mid-20th century — and the making of an award-winning writer who would charm the world with her words. { more }

Hear Dave talk about this book in the Chicago episode of our podcast .

Now we sat in the dark dining room, hushed. The big snow outside, the big snow on the roof, silenced our words and the scrape of our forks and our chairs. The dog was gone, the world outside was dangerously cold, and the big snow held the houses down and the people in. Behind me, tall chilled windows gave out onto the narrow front yard and the street. A motion must have caught my mother’s eye; she rose and moved to the windows, and father and I followed. There we saw the young girl, the transfigured Jo Ann Sheehy, skating along under the streetlight. She was turning on ice skates inside the streetlight’s yellow cone of light — illuminated and silent. She tilted and spun… Distant over the street, the night sky was moonless and foreign, a frail, bottomless black, and the cold stars speckled it without moving. — Annie Dillard

This is Paradise - Kristiana Kahakauwila

Purchase This Is Paradise —

This remarkable story collection will transport you to Maui, Oahu, Kaua’i, and the Big Island. Sure, the islands can be a vacation paradise, but for the people who live there year-round, it’s simply home — the place they work, love, struggle, survive, and triumph.

Author Kristiana Kahakauwila is a hapa writer of native Hawaiian, German, and Norwegian descent. She brings a seriousness of purpose and undeniable warmth to her stories. She also possesses a magical gift for describing the version of Hawaii that natives experience in their everyday lives without losing the wonder of the place. It’s a neat trick to make something seem familiar and extraordinary at the same time.

The story ‘Thirty Nine Rules for Making a Hawaiian Funeral Into a Drinking Game’ is a standout; it’s worth the book’s purchase price for this story alone. Told in the form of a bleakly funny, gut-wrenching list, it’s a portrait of Hawaiian family and tradition set at a grandmother’s funeral.

The story begins with a simple, incisive, dark-as-pitch rule:

‘ 1. Take a drink each time the haole pastor says hell.

2. Take a drink each time he asks if anybody in the room wants to go there.

3. Take a drink each time he looks at one of your uncles when he says this. ’

As the story unfolds, the items on the list grow longer and more involved, increasingly more poignant, weaving in family history and food and the awkward, nothing-to-do-but-laugh truths that come up at a funeral.

We won’t spoil the ending, but number 39 is well worth the trip. This is a beautiful story, very well told.

All of the stories address universal themes, but they arise out of things that are specifically Hawaiian. Kahakauwila is a compassionate tour guide as she explores the beauty and heartache underneath the allure of paradise. { more }

Hear Mel talk about this book in the Hawaii episode of our podcast .

We pause outside the Banyan Hotel, the warm light from the lobby casting our shadows across the water’s edge. The tide sucks at the sand beneath our toes like a vacuum. We look into the hotel, and we can almost understand why here, in Waikīkī, the world appears perfect. The hotel lobbies are brimming with flower arrangements and sticky with the scent of ginger. The island air is warm and heavy as a blanket. And the people are beautiful. Tan and healthy, with muscles carved from koa wood and cheeks the color of strawberry guava. These people — our people — look fresh as cut fruit, ready to be caressed, to be admired. These are people to be trusted. This is not New York or Los Angeles. No, Hawaiʻi is heaven. A dream. — Kristiana Kahakauwila

The Last Storytellers - Richard Hamilton

Purchase The Last Storytellers —

For a thousand years, professional storytellers, known as hlaykia , have told their tales in Jemaa el Fna square in Marrakech, Morocco. But this art form is slowing fading, replaced by TV, movie, and the internet. In 2006, journalist Richard Hamilton traveled to Marrakech for the BBC. While there, he interviewed the storytellers — ‘without exception, elderly men at the end of their career’ — about their art form. Then for three years, he tracked down more and more of these artisans to document their stories, translating from the original Darija (Moroccan dialect) to English.

This collection of 37 tales dives deep into folklore with murder, mystery, and magic. There are evil relatives and animals that talk and creatures that transform from one thing to another. There are happy endings and tragic finales. Like the Western tradition of Grimm’s fairy tales, these stories are filled with morality lessons in which characters get their due, both for ill and for good.

With this book, Hamilton beautifully captures these stories so they can live on for at least another thousand years. { more }

Hear Dave talk about this book in the Morocco episode of our podcast .

When I first arrived in Marrakesh, it felt more like 1006; it seemed to be somewhere that had not changed for a thousand years… There are rich and poor, merchants and mad men, beggars and thieves, travelers and tarts, hustlers and holy men, dark-eyed beauties and disfigured cripples, and they all swirl around the giant plug hole that is the main square of Marrakesh. — Richard Hamilton

Secret Passages

Underground: a human history of the worlds beneath our feet - will hunt.

Purchase Underground —

This collection of essays about the world beneath our feet is nonfiction fireworks, packed with one remarkable revelation after another. With infectious enthusiasm and a voice that deftly juggles science and wonder, author Will Hunt will take you underground into sacred caves, derelict subway stations, nuclear bunkers, and ancient underground cities.

The book opens with his origin story, an anecdote that shows how he became so attuned to what mysterious underground spaces mean to us, physically and emotionally.

As a kid in Providence, Rhode Island, Hunt learned from a teacher about an abandoned underground tunnel nearby. He went looking for that tunnel and just never stopped. In subsequent chapters, he shares the story of a group that traversed Paris entirely underground. He explores how some cultures deify the spaces underground; in the Bolivian Andes, we learn about what the locals call ‘the mountain that eats men.’ He examines the significance of 14,000-year-old cave drawings and tells a story that proves Pythagoras was more than his geometry theorem.

If you’re not intrigued and entertained by a book that’s filled with fantastic photos and celebrates illegal parties in Paris and the possibility of extraterrestrial life, perhaps you need to reexamine your priorities. { more }

Hear Dave talk about this book in the Secret Passages episode of our podcast .

The doors on the underworld kingdom blew open in 1994, when a young biologist from New Mexico named Penny Boston climbed down to the very bottom of Lechuguilla Cave, two thousand feet underground. It was an environment, she said, ‘as close as you can get to traveling to another planet without actually leaving earth’ — far too remote to support even the hardiest troglobite, or any other living creature. But at one point, Boston was scrutinizing a furry, brown geological growth on the ceiling of a cave passage, when a drip of water plopped directly into her eye. Boston was amazed to find that her eye puffed up and swelled shut. It could only have meant one thing: she had been infected by bacteria, by tiny microorganisms living in the cave’s depths, far deeper underground than anyone imagined possible. — Will Hunt

Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion - Barbara Ras

Purchase Costa Rica —

The 26 short stories in this compelling collection — written in Spanish by 20th-century Costa Rican authors and beautifully translated — are arranged by geography. When read in order, they’ll take you on a literary journey from the north near Nicaragua, then head to the capital region of San Jose. Next, you’re off to the sunny beaches of both coasts to end your trip at the southern border.

In the standout mini-thriller She Wore a Bikini by Alfonso Chase (translated by Leland H. Chambers), the beautiful and mysterious Adelita Gonzalez goes missing. As the unnamed (and sympathetic) narrator explains, ‘no death notice has come out because the family isn’t certain whether she has been drowned, kidnapped, or murdered, since her body has never appeared. It seems that she spent those days writing in a notebook that has never been found…’

There are also stories laced with magical realism, literary meditations, fairy tales and fables, revenge plots, and 19th-century morality tales. The common thread? Vividly rendered settings that place you firmly in the jungles, villages, cities, and beaches of Costa Rica — against which family drama, history, colonialism, and daily life unfold. { more }

Hear Mel talk about this book in the Costa Rica episode of our podcast .

After we pass the city of Bagaces, we will arrive in Liberia, the White City, so called because in the past it was paved with limestone gravel, of which now barely a trace remains. But in point of fact, I must tell you this: our mothers and grandmothers recount that at night, in the moonlight, the city appeared completely white and luminous, and such was its brightness that you could read in the middle of the night without electric lights. — Mystery Stone , Rima de Vallbona (translated by Barbara Paschke)

The Whale and the Cupcake - Julia O’Malley

Purchase The Whale and the Cupcake —

Fresh-picked salmonberries and spam sushi. River-to-table salmon fillets and box cakes gussied up with rum. Vietnamese Pho and muktuk and eider duck and pilot bread. The foods eaten every day by Alaskans are a delicious dichotomy of fresh-from-the-land and shelf-stable.

By the time you’ve finished reading this collection of essays, you’ll feel like you’ve gone on a road trip to Alaska’s cities and villages, meeting quirky, smart, interesting people and eating a whole bunch of really good stuff along the way. The interviews, personal stories, and photos of home cooks, restaurateurs, grocery store workers, and farmers clearly illustrate how food matters to Alaskans in a fundamental way. Most of the year is spent preparing — mentally and physically — for the scarcity of winter.

James Beard Award-winning journalist Julia O’Malley is a third-generation Alaskan, and her story about subsistence whale hunting in the Siberian Yup’ik village of Gambell was included in The Best American Food Writing 2018 . She writes with obvious affection and restraint about the food culture of the 49th state. Fair warning: It will give you an appetite for king crab that tastes of the Bering Sea and homesickness for a place you’ve never been. { more }

Hear Mel talk about this book in the Alaska episode of our podcast .

Sure, Californians might love the avocado they picked from a backyard tree the way Texans love their barbecue or New Yorkers celebrate apple cider in the fall, but that love cannot compare to Alaskan food sacraments like picking blueberries from a mountainside, carrying a bowl of moose broth to a family member stuck in the Alaska Native Hospital, or having a whole king eider sea duck in the freezer. — Julia O’Malley

If You Lived Here, I’d Know Your Name: News from Small-Town Alaska - Heather Lende

Purchase If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name —

Ninety miles north of Juneau, Alaska, is the tiny town of Haines. You don’t drive to Haines; it’s boat or plane, only. It’s devastatingly beautiful. And for 30 years, writer Heather Lende has called it home. This is her love letter to the landscape and the people in her town.

A few things to know about Haines: It’s accessible only when the weather is amenable to water and air travel. There’s no traffic light, nor mail delivery. And because it’s in Alaska, a wilderness of everyday danger, people can — and do — disappear without a trace on a disturbingly regular basis.

As our guide, Lende introduces us to the characters of Haines, present and past, and we learn their stories. It’s all ordinary and unforgettable, impactful stuff — the good and bad and tough and transcendent business of living life in one of the most remote areas in the States. { more }

Hear Dave talk about this book in the Alaska episode of our podcast .

Our senior member is Maisie Jones, a widow who has an English accent. She always dresses up and sometimes wears a hat to church. When I had knee surgery, Maisie took the opportunity to get me acquainted with opera. She lent me videos of Carmen and La Bohème and them came over and watched them with me, just to make sure I understood the story lines. — Heather Lende

Prague Noir - Pavel Mandys

Purchase Prague Noir —

We love these hard-boiled detective stories, suspenseful yarns, and classic detective tales. Set in all of the neighborhoods of Prague, they highlight the darker side of Prague.

These are Czech stories written by Czech authors, so you get a strong sense of the Czech outlook on life. Spoiler: It’s darker than black shoe polish.

The stories are arranged thematically: crime teams, magical Prague and the supernatural, shadows of the past. Each category delves into Prague history, culture, and customs through the eyes of the marginalized — criminals, cops, informers, witnesses, and victims.

In ‘The Dead Girl from a Haunted House,’ a cynical private detective is hired by the patriarch of a carnival family to investigate a murder: a girl died in the haunted house at the carnival on the Prague exhibition grounds. Other stories reference the Golem, fortune tellers, modern drug dealers, and the conflict between old-school cops and modern technology. { more }

Hear Mel talk about this book in the Prague episode of our podcast .

I watched Arnold’s scarred hand, bigger than that of the brown coal digger in the Mostecká Basin. It was scratched and scuffed like the hands of all carnival and circus men. These guys build their autodromes and centrifuges and circus tents and merry-go-rounds in rain and sleet. Their hands are as scarred as their souls. — Jiří W. Procházka, The Dead Girl from a Haunted House

Prague: A Cultural and Literary History - Richard D.E. Burton

Purchase Prague —

This essay collection offers a completely different approach to traveling in Prague. Rather than photos and sightseeing logistics, it explores the significance and history of various facets of Czech culture.

Written with intelligence and insight, it delves into Jewish history in Prague (including the legend of the golem), Vyšehrad castle, the legacy of Franz Kafka, Czech theater and music, the significance of the architecture, life under Communism, the drama of the Velvet Revolution, and more.

You can enjoy this book without ever setting foot in Prague, and if (when?) you do visit, these essays will deepen your understanding of must-see spots like Prague Castle, the National Theater, Wenceslas Square, and more. There’s also a useful overview of Prague’s neighborhoods and a Czech pronunciation guide ‘for the faint-hearted.’ { more }

Visible from everywhere during the day, and now also dramatically floodlit at night, the cathedral and castle haunt the imagination of Prague… — Richard D.E. Burton

Gottland - Mariusz Szczygieł

Purchase Gottland —

Polish investigative journalist Mariusz Szczygieł wanted to explore everything that the Czech Republic is and has been. This compelling collection of essays about fascinating Czechs is the un-put-downable result. The first essay is about the Bata family, and it sets the tone for the entire book. Written in short one- to four-paragraph chunks, it tells the made-for-a-movie story of a legendary Czech shoe-making family.

You’ll also meet other remarkable Czech citizens: Lida Baarova, who was the mistress of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Gobbels. Jaroslava Moserova, an expert in skin grafting and a translator who adapted 44 Dick Francis mystery novels from English to Czech. And Karel Gott, the Slavic answer to Elvis Presley.

Engaging, humorous, and surprisingly moving, this is one of those ‘Can I read this to you?’ books in which you discover bits so shocking or well-written, you need to read them aloud to someone else. { more }

Hear Dave talk about this book in the Prague episode of our podcast .

This we know: in order to survive in unfavorable circumstances, a small nation has to adapt. — Mariusz Szczygieł

Top image courtesy of Clay Banks/Unsplash .

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Sense of Place: Athens wouldn't be the same without this college radio station

Raina Douris

Kimberly Junod

WUOG on World Cafe

WUOG music directors Mal Holmes (left) and Elizabeth Kim. Miguel Perez/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

WUOG music directors Mal Holmes (left) and Elizabeth Kim.

R.E.M., "Shiny Happy People"
Of Montreal, "Everything Disappears When You Come Around"
Honeypuppy, "Suck Up"
Djo, "End of Beginning"

The University of Georgia dominates the city of Athens, Ga. Before you even get to the campus, you're greeted by the bright red of the UGA Bulldogs everywhere you turn, and fresh-faced, bright-eyed students roam the streets.

It's clear Athens is a college town and a sports town, but Athens is also a music town. Inside the imposing Tate Student Center on UGA's campus, tucked behind a long Starbucks line, is a radio station with a long legacy of getting the music made in Athens out to the wider world. WUOG 90.5 , UGA's student-run radio station, first signed on in 1972, and in 1980, they were the first radio station to ever broadcast what would become Athens' biggest band, R.E.M.

Today, the World Cafe team is kicking off our brand new Sense of Place: Athens series with a visit to WUOG, where current music directors Elizabeth Kim and Mal Holmes share some of the music that makes Athens special.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod. The web story was created by Miguel Perez. Our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

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COMMENTS

How to Write a Sense-of-Place Essay
Structure. The length of a sense-of-place essay may vary, but if your essay stems from a class assignment, your instructor may have provided a specific word count. Begin by introducing the place. Tell the reader the location and then state how this particular place impacts you. Throughout the rest of your essay, provide specific details using ...
Sense of Place
In general, sense of place describes our relationship with places, expressed in different dimensions of human life: emotions, biographies, imagination, stories, and personal experiences (Basso, 1996). In environmental psychology, sense of place—how we perceive a place— includes place attachment and place meaning (Kudryavtsev, Stedman and ...
Sense of place
Geographic place. Cultural geographers, anthropologists, sociologists and urban planners study why certain places hold special meaning to particular people or animals. Places said to have a strong "sense of place" have a strong identity that is deeply felt by inhabitants and visitors. Sense of place is a social phenomenon. Codes aimed at protecting, preserving and enhancing places felt to be ...
"Sense of Place" Concept: Literature Views Essay
This is why his attitude to the sense of place is a powerful example of how a prudent architecture may raise a deep issue and define its essence. Picture 1: Reality of the RCA Slab. In Delirious New York (p. 232). Picture 2: The Double Life of Utopia: The Skyscraper. In Delirious New York (p.72).
How to Write a Sense-of-Place Essay
From backyards to childhood homes to first apartments, places play a significant role in shaping our memories. In a sense-of-place essay, authors paint a vivid picture of an important place in their lives for readers. Unlike a narrative essay, sense-of-place essays are shorter and focus on providing an in-depth look ...
The meaning(s) of place: Identifying the structure of sense of place
Sense of place holds promise for understanding people's behaviour because when place attachment is strong, social or ecological changes that threaten important place meanings can also threaten one's identity (Stedman, 2016). This threat can motivate a response such as increased stewardship and conservation behaviour. Threats to a shared sense ...
Concept of Place
One of the oldest tenets of geography is the concept of place. As a result, place has numerous definitions, from the simple "a space or location with meaning" to the more complex "an area having unique physical and human characteristics interconnected with other places." There are three key components of place: location, locale, and a sense of place. Location is the position of a ...
Sense Of Place Essays (Examples)
2. The expression of social and political messages through graffiti. 3. The impact of graffiti on community identity and sense of place. 4. The importance of providing a platform for marginalized voices through graffiti. 5. The potential for graffiti to spark dialogue and discussion about important issues. 6.
Sense of Place
† Sense of place reflects how people perceive and feel about places, includ-ing meanings they attribute to places and how strongly they are attached ... even published an essay on how moving away had changed the way she viewed the place where she was from (Yu 2018b). And my colleague and friend Akiima
A changing sense of place: Geography and COVID-19
In this essay, I explain how geography offers important ideas to better understand what is happening to our sense of place during the COVID-19 crisis, complementing the scientific understandings provided by epidemiologists and public health experts. I explain how geographical ideas relating to place and mobility can help us make sense of our ...
PDF A Global Sense of Place
It is a sense of place, an understanding of 'its character', which can only be constructed by linking that place to places beyond. A progressive sense of place would recognize that, without being threatened by it. What we need, it seems to me, is a global sense of the local, a global sense of place. Created Date.
Sense Of Place Essay Examples
Stuck on your essay? Browse essays about Sense Of Place and find inspiration. Learn by example and become a better writer with Kibin's suite of essay help services.
20 Examples of a Sense Of Place
Sense of place isn't necessarily fully positive. Nothing builds social bonds like adversity and hardship. For example, poverty, crime, pollution, overcrowding, corruption, incompetence, risk and disasters can be a central part of a community's sense of place. This gives a community a set of problems to tackle together creating urgent need for ...
Essay On Sense Of Place
Essay On Sense Of Place. 843 Words4 Pages. When you hear about the subject of sense of place. Many have tried to give it a definition for people to understand. From my knowledge and the research I 've done, I 've come to understand that I can wrap my head about the subject. Everything around us what, when and how we relate to what 's in orbit ...
(PDF) Sense of Place
In-fact, within this essay I would imply that both sense of place and belonging, are to be perceived to be similar within their contextual relevance. For instance, belonging can be seen as a measurement / tool concept for sense of place / attachments, etc. (Lewicka, 2011, pp.225-226) (Hernandeza, Hidalgob, Laplacea, Hessc, 2007, p.311).
Thoreau's sense of place : essays in American environmental writing
In the wake of Buell's Environmental Imagination, the nineteen essayists in this challenging volume address the central questions in Thoreau studies today: how "green," how immersed in a sense of place, was Thoreau really, and how has this sense of place affected the tradition of nature writing in America?
(PDF) Sense of Place
According to V an clay, a sense o f place i s; "A biophysical, social and spiritual co n cept, which is de emed to b e speci al to some one." p.3 (Vanclay, 2008, p.3). In fact I would argue ...
Doreen Massey's Concept of a Global Sense of Place Critical Essay
One of those geographers is Doreen Massey. Her concept of 'global sense of place' has had a substantial impact on how people construe the issue of place development. We will write a custom essay on your topic. Having understood Massey's concept, the discussion in this paper will relate her concept to the question of place development and ...
Descriptive Essay About A Place
A descriptive essay is a type of writing that aims to describe and portray an object, person, or place. The essay typically includes sensory details to help the reader imagine its contents more vividly. Descriptive essays can be written about a person, place, or other themes like nature, autumn, food, or even yourself.
How to Use the Five Senses in Your Writing
To really create descriptions that will stay with your reader and improve your writing skills, you'll need to learn how to describe the sensory details of all five of your senses. Description is one of the most basic tools in a writer's toolkit. You can't get very far in a story, a poem, or a narrative essay if you can't convey what the ...
Project MUSE
Thoreaus Sense of Place: Essays in American Environmental Writing. Recent Thoreau studies have shifted to an emphasis on the green" Thoreau, on Thoreau the environmentalist, rooted firmly in particular places and interacting with particular objects. In the wake of Buell's Environmental Imagination, the nineteen essayists in this challenging ...
Strong Sense of Place: 17 Collections of Short Stories and Essays with
This compelling collection of essays about fascinating Czechs is the un-put-downable result. The first essay is about the Bata family, and it sets the tone for the entire book. Written in short one- to four-paragraph chunks, it tells the made-for-a-movie story of a legendary Czech shoe-making family.
Descriptive Essay: Sense Of Place
Sense of Place. My family's van driving into an isolated Hispanic village taking in a deep breath of nature at its purest. Surrounded by big green trees, we passed a mini mart as we made a turn to the village. As the drive continues the refreshing smell of nature entices my sense of smell. Approaching my grandfather 's home, the excitement ...
Sense of Place: Athens wouldn't be the same without this college ...
Sense of Place: Athens wouldn't be the same without this college radio station : World Cafe : World Cafe Words and Music Podcast Welcome to WUOG, the University of Georgia's student-run radio station.

How to Write a Sense-of-Place Essay

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Thoreau's sense of place : essays in American environmental writing

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Doreen Massey’s Concept of a Global Sense of Place Critical Essay

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17 Collections of Short Stories and Essays with a Strong Sense of Place

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