The introduction to the book “Community and the Politics of Place” begins with a discussion of the similarities and differences between the Montana constitution and the US Constitution. The author sets up the idea that place (that is, the rolling plains and majestic mountains mentioned in the document) had much to do with how and why people gathered together in citizenship as “a people.”
In my recent academic work, I came to define place as an emergent quality of the natural environment, the built environment, and the social landscape. Place is socially palpable. Place mediates human experience.
Where I live, place is fairly controversial. We spend little time pondering our built environment, as parks and sidewalks Youth in unmediated spaces (or just hanging out in a gangly, long-legged bunch near where local seniors trailblaze and wandering tourists roam) erupts in heated circumstances from time to time. Greenspace becomes part of the local political discourse when council allocates public funds for the purchase of farmland for preservation with easements. While everyone, arguably, wants to preserve greenspace, often times those who support the theoretical underpinnings of greenspace know no limits to the application of the “no-build” mindset. Too often, they are the loudest voices in the room.
This may prove to be an interesting read. I hope it challenges my current thoughts on the politics of place.