Locale

From Geography

Locale is a concept used Anthony Giddens and Nigel Thrift. The opposite of 'locale' is 'social action'. Both are components of contextual regional research. Locale is a matter of material context and the given constellation (setting) of action and interaction.

In the article 'Everyday Regionalizations' by Benno Werlen the definition of 'locale' is: a spatial context or setting for action comprised of material elements as well as sets of social norms and culturally shared values, to be understood as a material, socioeconomic, and socio-cultural constellation of action with inter-subjective shared meaning contents. Therefore, it is an action related concept that cannot be turned into an objective fact or generalized as social category, having the same meaning for members of a society (in a certain region). Werlen states that the locale is a piece of space used for a specific activity. An example of a piece of space used for a specific activity is a house. This piece of space can be regionalised in space and time. A house, for example, is made up of different floors and rooms. This process is called Regionalisation. Each specification had a social definition. In the example this means that the different rooms have different defintions, such as a bathroom or a bedroom. Therefor the difference between locale and region is that locale cannot be placed in time.

Giddens however has a differenct opinion about locales. Speaking about locale, Giddens means a physical region connected to a certain environment of interaction. This physical region has specific boundaries so the interaction beween those boundaries in quite intense. There are also normative elements which play a part in the outlining of a physical region. In these regions there is common identity but not a concrete one (Kaspersen, 2000).

There is a great differentiation in locales, one example are ‘dominant locales’. These are defined by the fact that time must be determined to them on the basis of economic or state. Understanding these dominant locales is possible because there is a straight connection among ‘the interaction structure of the regionally situated actor’ and local social structure (Werlen, 2009).

Main Effects

Locales have five main effects (Werlen, 2009).

1. Locales structure people’s life-paths in space and time to provide the main nodes through which life must flow

2. Locales can have effect on other people’s life-paths

3. Locales provide the arena in which interaction with other people takes place (also the places where conflicts happens)

4. Locales provide the activity structure of everyday routine

5. Locales are the major sites for the processes of socialization, they are the places where behaviour will be learned.

So locales have great impact on people’s lives.

Published by Jobke Heij (s4049713) on 1st of October, 2011

Edited by Bert Hegger on September 12th, 2012.

Edited by Jan-Peter Hoste (s4026349) on September 16th 2012.

References:

Kaspersen, L.B. (2000). Anthony Giddens: An Introduction to a Social Theorist. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

Werlen, B. (2009). Everyday regionalizations. In: International encyclopaedia for Human Geography. Elsevier.