Finding a Sense of Place

Looking back on my first post, it amazes me how my analytical approach to perceiving a “good place” has changed since the beginning of the semester.  While the theme of the experience of the place has been present throughout the semester, through our readings I have learned the countless aspects that go into creating a true sense of place.  From discovering the importance of a building’s site from Michael Pollan in his book A Place of My Own to the connotation of “The Stoop” in Michael Sorkin’s Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, my sense of place has broadened and become more intricate by taking this class.
 
Another reoccurring theme that is present throughout several of my blog posts is gentrification, specifically in Soho.  In one of my posts I highlight Kunstler’s notion of a loss of community in his book Geography of Nowhere.  I applied his declaration that “we have become accustomed to living in places where nothing relates to anything else, where disorder, unconsciousness, and the absence of respect reign unchecked”(185) to the corporatization of Soho.  I returned to this notion of the gentrification of Soho when discussing Sorkin’s claim that “gentrification suppresses reciprocity by its narrowed scripting of formal and social behavior, by turning neighborhoods into Disneylands or Colonial Williamsburgs, where residents become cast members and the rituals of everyday life become spectacle or food consumption”(145).  The ones that seem to be responsible for these ever increasing problems is the government and its relationship with the largest business conglomerations that are monopolizing the market place, an issue that has been prevalent in several of my other courses this semester as well.  In my Social and Cultural Analysis class as well as The Culture Industries, we have discussed how the close yet unspoken of ties between the government and the largest of conglomerates shapes our culture and world we live in today.  I believe many of our readings and assignments especially on the construction of public spaces directly relates to this as well.
 
I thoroughly enjoyed A Sense of Place mostly because it acquainted me with the city I live in and I realized, no almost nothing about.  This course has provided me a better connection and a deeper understanding of the place where I live and has allowed me to develop a sense of home that I had lacked.  All I could have wished for is that I took this class earlier in my college education.  While studying abroad in Paris next semester I hope to find a similar course in which a sense of place can be contemplated and analyzed even further from my notion of home. 

(Photo by me)