Stewart 1

John Michael Stewart

Professor Agosta
UWRT 1102-002
3 November 2014
Annotated Bibliography
What does strong place identity create?
Devine-Wright, Patrick. "Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology Volume 19,
Issue 6, Article First Published Online: 5 JAN 2009." Rethinking NIMBYism: The Role of Place
Attachment and Place Identity in Explaining Place-protective Action. Wiley InterScience, 5 Jan.
2009. Web. 03 Nov. 2014. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/casp.1004/pdf>.
In this article it discusses how a strong place identity can be too strong to the point where it
can almost become detrimental to society as a whole. This is strongly supported by the
existence of NIMBY (not in my back yard) which embodies the strongest place identity. The
members of this group and others like it are saying that yes what everyone is trying to do is
good or needed but I do not want it around me. I have connections here and I do not want my
area to change.
When looking at this article the place identity is proven to be strong and resilient. That one can
create connects to the point that this area is worth more undisturbed and holding the memories
than to disturb it and improve life for others. This surprised me greatly that someone would be
able to create such connections with an area that they would resist a beneficial impact. That
was until I thought about if someone wanted to disturb my house or my land where I have lived
and I completely agree that my land staying undisturbed would be more important to me than
any development regardless of what benefits it could bring.
What gives these connections such power and depth?

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How has moving affected you?

Federle, Robert A. "Place Defining You." E-mail interview. 01 Nov. 2014.
Place Defining You
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How many times have you moved? At what ages did these moves occur?
a. 5
b. 6, 7, 8, 16, 18
How far away did each move take you?
a. 20 miles
Has moving had an effect on friendships from each location?
a. Yes, lose contact with childhood friends.
Do you have close ties to any of the places you have lived?
a. Yes, the first home my father built for my family. Lived in it the longest, great time in my life
as well, I was 8 when we moved in and 16 when I moved out. So those years in-between were
really special.
If you could go back would you chose to move or stay?
a. Stay, even though my family would have spent way to much money on the home.
What if any effect has moving had on how you grew up compared to someone who didnt move?
a. Im not used to living in one area, ive learned to adapt to different living circumstances.
Helped me a lot when I got to college.
If you could go anywhere where would you chose and why?
a. Live in Colorado; love the mountains and a lot of land to live somewhere private and quiet.

This was an email interview with a student here at University of North Carolina Charlotte.
Primarily, I do not recommend doing email interviews. It makes it almost impossible to see, hear
or feel the emotion in the interviewees answers. With this interview I knew Mr. Federle
personally and had previous knowledge that he had moved multiple times in his life. This
allowed me to tailor the interview questions to show the effect moving had in his life. So as I
created the interview questions I leaned more toward asking about the ages at which he moved,
and how far away. This allowed Mr. Federle to express his knowledge and experience with
moving at young ages as well as moving at older ages.
The answers I received from Mr. Federle, allowed me to see that moving does have an effect on
the connections that one will have to a certain place. While he was able to connect to certain

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houses he grew up in, the connections were more with the people who stayed around him such
as family. So the house that his father built created a connection, but it was more to the fact
that his father built it than the actual building. This led me to think about my own connections
and what I was really connecting to being that I never experienced moving, other than coming
to college. In complete opposition to Mr. Federle, I have many connections and memories linked
to the building and ground around where I grew up.
How does the connection change if it is to a person or to a place?

How do people who we associate with a place affect the connections we have with that place?
Johnstone, Micael-Lee, and Denise M. Conroy. "Place Attachment: The Social Dimensions of the
Retail Environment and the Need for Further Exploration." Place Attachment: The Social
Dimensions of the Retail Environment and the Need for Further Exploration 35 (n.d.): n. pag.
Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/v35/naacr_vol35_190.pdf>.
With this article it has researched how the social aspect of a place can affect how people
connect to it. It broadens the view of place to include the social aspect to obtain a view on the
social normal accepted in one place but thought of as taboo in another. It relied heavily on
interviews with locals in a small area to get a consensus as to what they felt as a whole. To see
how connections could be strengthened by the social aspect of a community, or weakened by
having a feeling of being an outsider. It went further to prove that an active community led to
stronger connection to a place.
This was particularly interesting to me as I wanted to explore how moving could affect ones
place identity. This article clearly shows that the move in of itself has relatively little affect it is
more based on the actions of the new community. Whether someone strains to stay connected
where they were verse connecting to the new area determines the affect of the move. This was

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a hard concept to me for it would require someone to push through the awkward phase of
feeling like an outsider to be active in the new community to create new connections. This
makes me wonder what it would take to truly connect into a new area. Would one have to fully
give up the past connections to create new ones? Or is there a balance that can be reached to
stay connected to both areas?
What allows one to establish new connections in a different community?

What effect do places from our past have on ones identity today?
Mayes, Tom. "Why Do Old Places Matter? Individual Identity." Web log post.Preservation Leadership
Forum Blog Insights and Information for Preservation Professionals. National Trust for Historic
Preservation, 8 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Oct. 2014.
<http://blog.preservationleadershipforum.org/2014/01/08/old-places-matter-identity1/#.VFDa1_nF-Sq>.
Mayes claims that old places dictate a persons persona, basically stating that the experiences
and places people have shape their personality. It is widely accepted that the places people have
been influence the way other people view them. Places where people have been for extended
periods of time have created a connection to memory and to emotion. This Mayes identifies as
place identity. This connection is created from memories and time spent. It is often confused
with memories of people surrounding you, whereas these are connections strictly to the area or
building.
With this article it perfectly aligns with my inquiry as to how places from our past shape who we
are and the connection between the two. It was interesting to see that there have been true
scientific studies about how places can affect the mood, emotion and overall subject. It was
really interesting to see the different views people have taken on this connection. It also helped

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to clear up that for it to be considered place identity the connection has to be based in the area
or building and not people. Yet people can become associated with the place.
What gives us such connection to place?

How does not moving change the way you view the world and the habits of other people?
Stewart, Anna L. "Staying Put." Personal interview. 30 Oct. 2014.

This was a truly personal interview for Anna Stewart is my younger sister. This allowed for the
interview to be very relaxed and informal. This fluidity allowed for more in depth answers to the
questions which turned into more of a conversation by the end of it. Knowing the interviewee
again allowed me to tailor the questions to relate more toward Mrs. Stewarts life. I was able to
ask her about how living in one house her entire life has given her connections to the place not
only to the people but to the actual place. While she has had friends that stayed around, she

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also has had friends move away, which impacted their relationship significantly. The connections
she has to the house however, will never change.
This interview really affirmed what I had believed as far as people being able to create
connections to where they grow up and the area around it. It however did not affect her
perceptions of habits that come from other cultures and places. Which contradicts what I had
originally thought would be the case. I had suspected that only knowing one way of life would
skew her view of others and how they lived. This made me think that there as a different reason
why humans perceive a persons persona by location.
What creates bias in peoples perception of others?