What a Difference Place Makes

Abstract

Place is a recurrent yet contested theme in the social sciences, and an emerging theme within qualitative inquiry. How one understands place has significant bearing upon the difference that place makes to methodology. Accounts that rely on fixed, bordered, and exclusionist notions of place-based authenticity are problematic. A conceptualization of place as dynamic, open, and more-than-human offers other methodological possibilities regarding the representation of the self in relation to place. It also offers a rationale for research that engages with the more intangible elements that constitute sense of place such as emotions, dreams, and imaginings, and research that engages with how people construct meaning in relation to place-based phenomena.