Connecting Dots: tracing the sense of space with people, places and their identity

Chickpete is a local marketplace filled with co-existing diversity. Aside from being a marketplace, It has history, architecture, community, diversity, stories, memories, sorrow, pain, and happiness.
The physical environment is the basic structure of the place that gives it the form to exist in a surrounding, which includes architecture, history and, in coordination with that, it evolves and changes to reciprocate with human actions. Human experiences and actions add uniqueness and diversity, which adds identity and character to the physical structure of the environment. It outlines people-place interaction and attachment that gives the understanding of the existence of a sense of place. With the lived human experiences and physical spatial settings, it asks questions in search of answers to dissect what makes space a place. What is the sense of place? How do a person and space together self-weave a place? It focuses on understanding how the human experience with the physical settings adds to the sense of a place.

Survival is a basic human need. Every child is born in a way to adapt to their surroundings for their survival. For the need to survive, humans have the understanding to seek and form attachments in the social environment, which shapes and directs their social interactions and attachment to people and objects in the form of social relationships. It can manipulate and persuade the need for human survival in a social setting influenced by the inbuilt need for attachment through parent-child interactions.

As humans adapt to different environments for survival, the nature of the attachment depends on the need for human survival in that place and how much that place can provide in association with the attachment. The human attribute to adapt to survive in better conditions gets influenced by the initial pre-defined attachment, and this definition and argument of survival act as a base for future choices in different settings. The bond between a child and their caregiver serves as a model for all other social relationships with people and places to come. Human choices are attributed to their past and present experiences; in a world full of spaces, the human need for survival makes sense of these spaces.

Public spaces act as a window to perceive a place. Pete is a public marketplace located in Bengaluru filled with co-existing diversity. It has history, architecture, community, diversity, stories, memories, sorrow, pain, and happiness like any other public marketplace. Then how is Pete a different space, or is any space different from the others? What does make a space different?

The text discusses the physical, social, anthropological and psychological understanding of how a space amalgamates into a place in the context of Pete and puts forth the view that a place is complimented by people-place attachment and interactions. The human need for survival makes them form attachments with different places directed by their past and complimented and influenced by the place.

The bond and attachment between people and place define how one place differs from the other. It focuses on how a blank space is combined with the aspects of human life and becomes a place. What are the factors and happenings that recast a space into a place? It looks into different aspects of the sense of a place, with the physical environment and social and psychological relations. It asks questions in search of answers to dissect what makes a place. What is a sense of a place? How do a person and space together create a place? How and why does that add to the identity of a place?

Sense of A Place

Sense of place can be perceived with the physical environment, social and psychological relations and human actions and experiences in a place. A space is defined to be a location or a blank place. The place gives a space context, personality and a link to a sense of one's own identity. The place is the locus of an environmental setting where happening and nuances of the everyday life of a person or community have been outlined together.

To trace the understanding of a place, there are conventional methods like referring to digital or physical maps and the historical and geographical nuances of the place. Or by observing the interactions of people by focusing on their everyday actions and outlining the happening of their expressions with the place in that particular setting. With the physical settings of boundaries, discovering varied experiences and expressions associated with that place adds to understanding the sense of place.

The emotional relationships and attachments people form or feel with specific places, and surroundings due to the human need for adaptation and attachment is referred to as a 'sense of place'.4 The notion of the feeling of a place focuses on people-place relationships and experiences in the physical setting of the environment. Lived human experiences associated with the emotional bond of the physical setting of a place convey the sense of emotions that can be used as an approach to understanding the sense of space.

Every place is the same yet different from each other; a space becomes a place with the interaction of people in a spatial setting. People and the physical setting are the constants that remain the same in every physical setting. However, the lived human experiences formulated with the interaction of people in that spatial setting make that place different from the other. These social interactions directly respond to the amount of diversification in that place. As seen in Pete, the place being a marketplace emerges to be different as it caters to multiple social interactions in the physical setting. This interaction embraces and highlights the coexistence of diversity existing in the place, which explains the sense of uniqueness of the place.

People Space Relationship

Attachment to a place is a responsive bond which is developed between people and their surroundings due to the inbuilt characteristic of humans of adaptation, which is navigated by their past to their present. According to Shumaker and Taylor, with the variation in the intersection of the physical setting of a place and human characteristics, the person-place relationship keeps on evolving.

The attachment and relation between people and place refer to a psychological bond. People get attached to a place that can resonate their emotions individually or in a group in a physical setting. Their need for survival and adaptation assisted in their past influences their exploration to ease their adaptation in that setting.

There are different symbolic meanings to a place, which influence human interaction with the place. Jorgensen and Steadman reason that affection, cognition and behaviour are three distinct constructs of response to an evolving expression, such as a place. This can be observed in Pete with the existence of different communities living in the place and doing their business in that place. In the search for the opportunity of livelihood, they have migrated to a place like Pete, as the place has already accommodated familiar people, providing a sense of attachment, security, and emotional stability. With the assurance of life sustainability in that place. This emotional bond between people and place is led by the experiences from their past to their future and can be termed a people-place attachment.

How a space becomes a place?

Tuan suggests that space is considered a black space, as it lacks interaction.6 Humans add meaning to a space based on their past and present attachment to that physical setting. When people give undifferentiated space value with their interaction, it adds symbolic connotations to people's engagement on a social level. As suggested by Hummon, the symbolism found in the physical setting of a place adds to the sense of a place. The physical settings associated with the place reflect human identities rather than pre-defined boundaries. As it can be observed in this situation of Pete, the whole place is divided into different parts, which correspond to the human interaction in that place depending on different communities and people residing in different parts for their livelihood. From selling flowers in the KR market to selling lights in Mamulpet and Chickpete to selling sarees in Nagarpete to finding tailors in Cottonpete. They all reside in different but same spatial settings, diversified with different cultures. People and place self weave human experiences for themselves and outsiders to perceive that particular place, emphasising their emotions and relationship with it.

Ryden, in Mapping the invisible landscape: Folklore, writing, and the sense of place, says a place formulates its essence by the people as they add meaning to the place with their presence. It can be observed through observation and experiences that Pete is unique in human culture and variation as it is home to different communities who have migrated to an urban city for better opportunities. As the urbanised city is able to form attachments and a sense of belonging with these people. This explains the uniqueness of human culture and the variation residing in that place. A space cherished with human interactions and experiences in its physical setting is interpreted as a place as it gains character with human influence. As suggested by Greider and Garkovich, these reflections are the cultural identities of people.9 This explains that a place can encompass multiple places, depending on the versatile encounter and diverse interactions. These encounters will reflect the cultural identity as the physical setting in the place.

A space cherished with human interactions and experiences in its physical setting transforms into a place with lived experiences. The happenings in the physical setting add value and explain the social relation between people and place.

How does  People-Place attachment shape their identity

The emotional bond between people and place, the place attachment, is an aspect of place identity.Place identity is an essential aspect in understanding the sense of place, place attachment and people-place relationship. According to Jorgensen and Steadman, place identity is the cognition, behaviour, perceptions and belief of an individual or a group in a physical setting that tends to create human interaction for a reason. In Pete, the interaction of the people with the place outlines the existing diversification co-existing in the space and explains the spatial setting of the place. Every individual in that place has a unique identity associated with the place, which can be observed in the diversity of the things happening in the same frame of sight. The social interaction of people and places in different but the same spatial settings of the place explains the happenings of human experiences.

As explained by Hufford, the place is a meaning-based concept, and these meanings are derived from the interaction and experiences of people in a physical place. In Pete, if we dissect and choose to observe the BVK Iyenger road between Sultanpete and Chickpete, the one stretch of three-kilo meter road has diversified shops in a straight order with every passing sight. However, with the order specified in the place, there is a lot of chaos happening in the same frame of sight. The whole lane is filled with diversified shops of fruits, flowers, lights to accessories. In every shop, there is a different experience inhaled by the observer as every experience is shaped by a different kind of human interaction, which includes chanting rhymes, creative display of objects, and colourful banners. All these physical interactions happening at the moment relate to the place but are also unique, narrating Pete's uniqueness and diversity in different forms.

The intersection of physical and conceptual settings of a place defines a place and also helps in creating the meaning of a place. These meanings represent the experiential understanding of people in the place. As Gustafson suggests, these meanings are created with the experiences of people with others with the social relationship in the environment. Place identity develops with time in a physical setting with human interaction as it adapts and adds to the place attachment and enhances the sense of belonging in a particular place.

Perception or sense of a place can be derived from the symbolic meanings, attachment and interaction in a physical setting by an individual or a group. Every organism in this world is pre-programmed to adapt to the social environment for survival. The human need for survival creates and forms relations and attachments to different objects to adapt and evolve in that setting. Space is one of those elements that gets recast into a place with human relations and attachments.

People tend to form bonds with places for a secure and safe choice of livelihood. These choices create a place attachment with a physical environment setting, which explains the sense of a place. In the context of Pete, one can observe the intersection of physical and conceptual settings in different parts of the place, which indicates the meaning of the place is influenced by diversified lived human experiences in different physical settings. As explained by Hewitt place, attachment strongly resembles the social psychological concept of identity.1Based on the interactions and perception of the symbolic meaning of the place, identities are attributed to the people. It can be observed in Pete that with the influence of diversity in the place, people have adapted to the overlapping diversity, which adds value to their existing identities that can be explained in the context of Pete. Such human interactions in different places strengthen the attachment to the place and heighten the sense of belonging in that particular place. Over time this pattern highlights the place identity formed with the people and their interaction with the environment.

The human need for survival has changed and evolved with time. Since childhood, humans have been inbuilt to seek attachment for survival, but with the moving time and changes, the choice of attachment has evolved. With time, people are attached to the familiar, comfortable and progressive things for their survival. With respect to the changes, the human need for attachment derived from their past to present is motivated for a better way of living

It has been observed in past that human interpretation of a better way of living is directly associated with life sustainability that assures security in a familiar setting. However, with changing times, the human need for survival has evolved with different influences, from attachment to satisfaction. Now with time, people's choices seek satisfaction with attachment for a better way of living.

The human interactions formed in the physical settings with the intent of satisfaction create new meanings to the place. The physical settings of the place create a vast interpretation of the place's identity. Which can not be explained by the thought that a place can encompass many places at the same time, as it acts to out to be a different place that creates a sense of belonging to the people with their actions and evolves their identity, which does not resonate with their past experiences but is cherished by the attachments formed through mental satisfaction of an individual.