Action setting

From Geography

In Benno Werlens work the Action setting (or Locale) denotes a spatial context of action, as a setting for action. It is constituted by material elements as well as by sets of social norms and culturally shared values, these should also be understood as material, socio-economic and socio-cultural constellation of action with intersubjective shared meaning contents. Therefore, it is an action-related concept that cannot be turned into an objective fact or a generalized as a social category, having the same meaning for members of a society (in a certain region).

Setting is not just a physical containment of social interaction of a spatial parameter. It has rather to be understood as an element of an inherent part of interaction that is mobilized.

Example

According to Werlen (2009), a house is used as an example. We can only call a locale a 'house' if we observe that this material context is treated like a house and has the furnishings for living. A locale can almost be everything: a house, a street corner, a city or the territory of a state. "The determination that a constellation is a 'locale/setting' does not depend on the size or spatial dimensions, but rahter from the way in which actions are carried out" (Werlen, 2009, p.51).

References

Werlen, B. (2009). Structurationist Geography, Elsevier

Contributers

Published by --CasparEngelen 20:45, 17 December 2011 (CET) & Natasja van Lieshout

Edited bij Anke Janssen