Sociability and community

From Geography

'Sociability and community' is one of the four aspects of 'social action', distinguished by Nigel Thrift. This is an important component of contextual regional geography. According to Werlen (2009) "this field of research concentrates on the relationship between 'sense of community' and 'sense of place'. The spatial pattern of the social arguably finds its expression in the rural, urban, or regional community. It is the symbolic reference to place here, to spatial context complete with physical attributes, which reinforces the sense of community and determines on which of those three levels – rural, urban, or regional – the sense of community finds its strongest expression. (p.6). A typical research project about this issue could be a research about the relationship between the port of Rotterdam (Netherlands) and the forming of an specific Rotterdam identity. The citizens of the city of Rotterdam are known for people who are hard working with a no-nonsense working culture. In a research you could find out whether these attitudes has supported the forming of a strong economic port as a symbole for these attitudes. Or could it be the other way round? Was it the port which supported the forming and creation of these attitudes?

References

• Werlen, B. (2009). Everyday Regionalizations. In: International Encyclopedia for Human Geography. Elsevier.

Contributors

• Page edited and created by --JikkeVanTHof 15:40, 3 October 2011 (UTC)
• Page edited by --HennyLi 18:56, 11 October 2012 (CEST)