Sharing the globe: The role of attachment to place

doi:10.1016/0959-3780(91)90005-E

Global Environmental Change

Volume 1, Issue 5, December 1991, Pages 396-406

https://doi.org/10.1016/0959-3780(91)90005-E Get rights and content

Abstract

Issues posed by global environmental change can be viewed as the problem of the commons on a larger geographic scale. A framework for analysing how geographic scale affects governments' ability to manage environmental problems is suggested here. It is based on interactions between four dimensions: production-consumption relationships; distribution of the benefits and costs of various activities; level of administrative control; and spatial scale of individuals' attachment to place. Global environmental problems can be viewed as a case where benefits from polluting activities are spatially concentrated relative to costs. The difficulty in addressing such problems stems from the discrepancy in geographic scale between adverse impacts and level of administrative control. The possibility of adapting institutional structures to match the scale of the problems is examined, in light of the increasing spatial scale of production-consumption relationships in the post-industrial world and the growing demand for local control across the globe. The geographic scale of ideological attachment to place is identified as an important variable in determining the ability to respond to large-scale environmental problems.

References (75)

Piers Blaikie
Natural resource use in developing countries
Sidney N. Brower
Territory in urban settings
D.J. Webber et al.
Interregional equity and national policy: a conceptual analysis with applications to acid rain
Susan Rose-Ackerman
Effluent charges: a critique
Canadian Journal of Economics
(1973)
Lattie McSpedden-Werner
Pollution control: implementation alternatives
Policy Analysis
(1978)
Steven Kelman
What Price Incentives?
(1981)
David B. Knight
Self-determination as a geopolitical force
Journal of Geography
(1983)
David D. Kemp
Global Environmental Issues: A Climatological Approach
(1990)
Edward O. Wilson
The threats to biodiversity
Scientific American
(1989)
Robert M. White
The great climate debate
Scientific American
(1990)
B.L. Turner
Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions
Global Environmental Change
(1990)

G. Hardin

The tragedy of the commons

Science

(1968)

William J. Baumol et al.

The Theory of Environmental Policy

(1988)

B.L. Turner

Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions

Global Environmental Change

(1990)

P.J. Taylor

World-systems analysis and regional geography

Professional Geographer

(1988)

J.G. Titus

Greenhouse effect, sea level rise and coastal zone management

Coastal Zone Management Journal

(1986)

Jodi L. Jacobson

Holding back the sea

Nigel Thrift

The geography of international economy order

B. Warf

Telecommunications and the globalization of financial services

Professional Geographer

(1989)

Nigel Thrift

The geography of international economy order

I. Wallerstein

The Capitalist World Economy

(1979)

J.R. Logan et al.

Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place

(1987)

K.R. Cox et al.

Locality and community in the politics of local economic development

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

(1988)

David Harvey

The Urban Experience

(1989)

Nigel Thrift

The geography of international economy order

B.L. Turner

Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions

Global Environmental Change

(1990)

William J. Baumol et al.

The Theory of Environmental Policy

(1988)

E.J. Mishan

The postwar literature on externalities: an interpretive essay

Journal of Economic Literature

(1971)

B.C. Smith

Decentralization: The Territorial Dimension of the State

(1985)

H.K. Jacobson et al.

National entanglements in international governmental organizations

American Political Science Review

(1986)

David B. Knight

Self-determination as a geopolitical force

Journal of Geography

(1983)

C.S. Fischer

Networks and Places: Social Relations in the Urban Setting

(1977)

S.A. Shumaker et al.

Toward a clarification of people-place relationships: A model of attachment to place

Marc Fried

Residential attachment: Sources of residential and community satisfaction

Journal of Social Issues

(1982)

L.F. Dunn

Measuring the value of community

Journal Urban Economics

(1979)

M. Dynarski, The Economics of Community, unpublished PhD dissertation, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore,...David B. Knight

Identity and territory: Geographical perspectives on nationalism and regionalism

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

(1982)

Erik Cohen

Environmental orientations: a multidimensional approach to social ecology

Current Anthropology

(1976)

David B. Knight

Identity and territory: Geographical perspectives on nationalism and regionalism

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

(1982)

David Harvey

The Urban Experience

(1989)

Peter Gould et al.

Mental Maps

(1986)

Yehoshua S. Cohen et al.

Neighborhoods and Networks

David B. Knight

Identity and territory: Geographical perspectives on nationalism and regionalism

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

(1982)

B.L. Turner

Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions

Global Environmental Change

(1990)

Alan V. Kneese et al.

Pollution Prices and Public Policy

(1975)

P.A. Sabatier et al.

Can Regulations Work?

(1983)

C. Schultze

The Public Use of Private Interest

(1977)

Cited by (38)

Quantifying the importance of socio-demographic, travel-related, and psychological predictors of public acceptability of low emission zones
2023, Journal of Environmental Psychology
As ambient air pollution increases, governments are imposing traffic management strategies to improve air quality. A common strategy is the implementation of Low Emission Zones (LEZs), which have generated considerable public debate. Nonetheless, little research has explored which factors determine their public acceptability. Previous empirical studies have also typically lacked power for regression analyses and have not determined the relative importance of different predictors. After conducting a large online survey in a UK city, well-powered multiple regression and dominance analyses demonstrated that psychological factors, such as environmental moral obligation, were the most important predictors of LEZ acceptability. However, travel-related and socio-demographic factors, such as distance lived from the LEZ and having dependent children, were also unique and important predictors. Overall, we argue that, whilst psychological factors are important, travel-related and socio-demographic barriers must not be overlooked during LEZ implementation.
Beyond the triangle of renewable energy acceptance: The five dimensions of domestic hydrogen acceptance
2022, Applied Energy
Citation Excerpt :
Supported by an associated study on the local acceptance of wind power projects [109], Wüstenhagen et al. [110] suggested that community acceptance follows a U-shaped curve, which sees acceptance go from high to relatively low during the siting or construction phase, before reaching a higher level of acceptance once the project becomes operational. While such studies and related post-NIMBY theories typically look at a specific energy project or technology, it has also been argued that place attachments and identities may prove influential to how society responds to the climate change crisis [143]. Place attachment need not be limited to one place and to the local scale but can extend to the ‘polylocal’ and ‘polyscalar’, which may motivate public engagement in climate change action vis-à-vis the adage, “think globally, act locally” [144].
The ‘deep’ decarbonization of the residential sector is a priority for meeting national climate change targets, especially in countries such as the UK where natural gas has been the dominant fuel source for over half a century. Hydrogen blending and repurposing the national grid to supply low-carbon hydrogen gas may offer respective short- and long-term solutions to achieving emissions reduction across parts of the housing sector. Despite this imperative, the social acceptance of domestic hydrogen energy technologies remains underexplored by sustainability scholars, with limited insights regarding consumer perceptions and expectations of the transition. A knowledge deficit of this magnitude is likely to hinder effective policymaking and may result in sub-optimal rollout strategies that derail the trajectory of the net zero agenda. Addressing this knowledge gap, this study develops a conceptual framework for examining the consumer-facing side of the hydrogen transition. The paper affirms that the spatiotemporal patterns of renewable energy adoption are shaped by a range of interacting scales, dimensions, and factors. The UK’s emerging hydrogen landscape and its actor-network is characterized as a heterogenous system, composed of dynamic relationships and interdependencies. Future studies should engage with domestic hydrogen acceptance as a co-evolving, multi-scalar phenomenon rooted in the interplay of five distinct dimensions: attitudinal, sociopolitical, community, market, and behavioral acceptance. If arrived to, behavioral acceptance helps realize the domestication of hydrogen heating and cooking, established on grounds on cognitive, sociopolitical, and sociocultural legitimacy. The research community should internalize the complexity and richness of consumer attitudes and responses, through a more critical and reflexive approach to the study of social acceptance.
Love for the globe but also the country matter for the environment: Links between nationalistic, patriotic, global identification and pro-environmentalism
2022, Journal of Environmental Psychology
Citation Excerpt :
A global identification represents a unique and inclusive group membership, because it includes a variety of groups regardless lower level group differences such as race, ethnicity or culture. Previous research argued that a global place attachment is critical for understanding pro-environmental tendencies (Feitelson, 1991) and environmental problems such as climate change and declining natural resources are examples of global challenges that can only be solved with a ‘global approach’ (Römpke et al., 2019). For example, Schultz and Fielding (2014) examined environmental behaviors from a common ingroup identity perspective.
The current study examined whether and how national (patriotic versus nationalistic) and global-level identification would predict pro-environmentalism. Study 1, including a large sample of Turkish participants (N = 1121, M_age = 35.79, SD_age = 15.33), demonstrated that patriotism as a constructive form of national identification, and global identification were both positively associated with pro-environmental beliefs and behaviors, whereas nationalism as the dark side of one's ingroup love was negatively associated with pro-environmental beliefs and activism, after controlling for various demographic variables, political orientation, religiosity, ideologies, and values. Study 2 involved secondary data analysis of a pool of 95.213 participants from 70 countries (World Values Survey) and largely replicated the findings, while showing some country/region-level variables to interact with individual-level identification processes. Findings were discussed in the light of social identity theories and the newly emerging right-wing populist rhetorics which may obstruct pro-environmental tendencies.
The impact of community split on the acceptance of wind turbines
2021, Solar Energy
Public acceptance is critical to the successful implementation of renewable energy policy. Most of the literature on public acceptance within the community framework has focused on the tension between neighboring communities or the conflict between state planning processes and the needs of local communities. The community, in these cases, is often categorized as a unified and homogeneous unit of measurement. This emphasis on aggregate numbers at the regional and national levels rather than the community level conceals the inequalities that are likely to lurk beneath the surface and therefore hinder the renewable transformation. In an effort to understand the nuances of renewable energy conflict within a community and its effect on public acceptance, this article examines the acceptance of the establishment of renewable energy projects on a kibbutz and a moshav – two cooperative forms of rural settlement in Israel. Our findings suggest that policymakers interested in promoting renewable energy should also pay attention to inner community dynamics in order to foster bridge building initiatives and community cohesiveness. If the priority is to maintain the cohesion of an existing community, policymakers should first seek fairness and respect social acceptance. In both cases, religion was found to act as a strong pacifying factor shaping both community cohesion and community acceptance. In addition, it was found that a deep split within the community renders the introduction of monetary incentives inconsequential.
Backyard voices: How sense of place shapes views of large-scale energy transmission infrastructure
2020, Energy Research and Social Science
While scholars have assessed the drivers of public views of electricity generation infrastructure, attention to transmission infrastructure has been limited. Moreover, economic benefits are often wielded to garner public support in siting debates, but questions remain about what shapes local perceptions of economic impacts. We examine how the symbolic content and geographic scale of place sentiments shape residents’ interpretations and evaluations of proposed transmission infrastructure projects as a threat or an opportunity. We draw from in-depth interviews with public officials, residents, landowners, and stakeholders in communities along the routes of two proposed energy transmission projects in the American Midwest. Symbolic meanings, including but not limited to those reflecting economic identities, inform interpretation of project impacts and evaluations of the projects as threats or opportunities. Place meanings at the local, state, and national scales also help define the values through which respondents evaluate the projects.
My neighbourhood, my country or my planet? The influence of multiple place attachments and climate change concern on social acceptance of energy infrastructure
2017, Global Environmental Change
Citation Excerpt :
Second, people may feel strongly attached to other localities, including places where they have lived in the past that are associated with feelings of nostalgia (Gustafson, 2014; Lewicka, 2014). Third, people-place relations encompass feelings of belonging with ‘imagined communities’ (Anderson, 1983) that implicate social and place identities beyond the local − for example at regional, national and even global levels (Feitelson, 1991; Devine-Wright and Lyons, 1997; Devine-Wright, 2013; Devine-Wright et al., 2015), as noted by an early place scholar: ‘At one extreme a favourite armchair is a place, at the other extreme the whole earth’ (Tuan, 1977, 149). Studies of people-place relations at distal scales have become more prevalent in recent years, with interest in the impacts of globalization upon identities (Arnett, 2002), concern about an exclusionary politics of local attachment (Fried, 2000; Massey, 2005) and the emergence of global identities or cosmopolitanism (Leung et al., 2015).
Research on place attachments and identities has made an important contribution to understanding social acceptance of low carbon infrastructure, which are often objected to by local communities. However, a focus on local attachments predominates in studies to date, neglecting the potential role of national and global attachments and identities on energy beliefs and attitudes, despite the fact that large energy infrastructures are not only local in significance or function. To investigate this, survey data was collected from a representative sample of UK adults (N = 1519), capturing place attachments at local, national and global levels, climate change concern, beliefs about power lines and support for energy system change. Findings show significant differences in infrastructure beliefs and attitudes depending upon relative strength of attachments at different levels, controlling for personal characteristics. Analyses of variance revealed that individuals with stronger national than local or global attachments were less likely to support European grid integration; those with relatively stronger global attachment were most likely to support decentralised energy and those with relatively stronger local attachment were most likely to protest against a nearby power line. In addition, those with strong attachments at local, national and global levels were most willing to reduce energy demand, and those with weak attachments were least likely to trust grid companies. Relatively stronger global than national attachment was positively associated with support for decentralised energy, with this effect partially mediated by climate change concern. Explanations for the findings and implications for future research are discussed.

View all citing articles on Scopus

^☆: An earlier version of this article was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers, Toronto, April 1990. Helpful comments by Professor M. Gordon Wolman and two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged.

View full text

Sharing the globe: The role of attachment to place☆

Abstract

Canadian Journal of Economics

Policy Analysis

Journal of Geography

Global Environmental Issues: A Climatological Approach

The threats to biodiversity

Scientific American

The great climate debate

Scientific American

Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions

Global Environmental Change

The tragedy of the commons

Science

The Theory of Environmental Policy

Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions

Global Environmental Change

World-systems analysis and regional geography

Professional Geographer

Greenhouse effect, sea level rise and coastal zone management

Coastal Zone Management Journal

Holding back the sea

The geography of international economy order

Telecommunications and the globalization of financial services

Professional Geographer

The geography of international economy order

The Capitalist World Economy

Urban Fortunes: The Political Economy of Place

Locality and community in the politics of local economic development

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

The Urban Experience

The geography of international economy order

Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions

Global Environmental Change

The Theory of Environmental Policy

The postwar literature on externalities: an interpretive essay

Journal of Economic Literature

Decentralization: The Territorial Dimension of the State

National entanglements in international governmental organizations

American Political Science Review

Self-determination as a geopolitical force

Journal of Geography

Networks and Places: Social Relations in the Urban Setting

Toward a clarification of people-place relationships: A model of attachment to place

Residential attachment: Sources of residential and community satisfaction

Journal of Social Issues

Measuring the value of community

Journal Urban Economics

Identity and territory: Geographical perspectives on nationalism and regionalism

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Environmental orientations: a multidimensional approach to social ecology

Current Anthropology

Identity and territory: Geographical perspectives on nationalism and regionalism

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

The Urban Experience

Mental Maps

Neighborhoods and Networks

Identity and territory: Geographical perspectives on nationalism and regionalism

Annals of the American Association of Geographers

Two types of global environmental change: Definitional and spatial-scale issues in their human dimensions

Global Environmental Change

Pollution Prices and Public Policy

Can Regulations Work?

The Public Use of Private Interest