Rethinking the power of place in the age of virtual social media

Subject Areas : Space Ontology International Journal

Hoseyn Reza Keshavarz Ghadimi ¹ , Manouchehr Tabibian ² , Maryam Moinifar ³

1 - Ph.D. candidate of Urban Planning, Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran
2 - Professor of Urban Design and Planning, College of Fine Arts, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
3 - Assistant Professor, Department of Urban Planning, Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qazvin Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qazvin, Iran.

Received: 2021-06-05 Accepted : 2022-03-13 Published : 2022-09-01

Keywords: Space, Identity, Place, Virtual, sense of place,

Abstract :

In the past years, the use of cyberspace has increased day by day to the point that today, people create personality, gain experience and create memories in these spaces. This has created an emerging phenomenon of virtual space. This should be accepted that nowadays, cyberspace has become a virtual reality. A reality which has created cyberspace accessible as a new experience and opportunity. By using documentary and library methods and with an analytical look, this article seeks to describe the power of place in the form of a sense of place in the virtual age by examining different theoretical perspectives on space and cyberspace. The present article, while does not consider the advent of the digital age and the increasing expansion of cyberspace users as a threat to the sense of place, by using the content analysis method, analyzes the effect of cyberspace on identity and sense of place and provides a codified framework for the power of place in the virtual age. The results show that in the present age, virtual media has a direct effect on the sense of place. And despite the similarities between the components of sense of place in real places and virtual spaces, there are also differences; including indirect but powerful interactions and experiences, removal of temporal / spatial constraints, immersion instead of physical presence, and free and limitless communication in virtual media.

References:

1.    Abdel-Aziz, A.A., Abdel-Salam, H., El-Sayad, Z. (2016) 'The role of ICTs in creating the new social public place of the digital era', Alexander Engineering Journal, 55: 487–493.


2.    Altman, I., Low, S. (1992) 'Place Attachment', New York: Plenum Press.


3.   Artopoulos, G. Arvanitidis, P. Suomalainen, S. (2019) 'Using ICT in the Management of Public Open Space as a Commons', Smaniotto Costa et al. (Eds.): CyberParks, LNCS 11380, pp. 167–180. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-13417-4_14.


4.    Bandar Abad, A. R.  Shahcheraghi, A. (2015) ' Environmental: Application of environmental psychology in architecture and urban planning', First Edition, Tehran: The Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR), (in Persian).


5.    Barati, N.and Shokri, V. (2011) ' Newly Emerged Public Field ', Manzar, Nazar Research Center, Architecture and Urbanism (NRC) 3(17): 93-95, (in Persian).


6.    Buntin, S. B. (2009) 'Virtual Sense of Place', Terrain.org and the Online Nexus of Literature and Environment,https://www.terrain.org/ecomedia/docs/VirtualSenseofPlaceSimmonsBBuntin_May2009.pdf. Challenges to Trust and Knowledge in News. Journalism & Mass Communication Monographs 21(2): 84–146.


7.    Dameria, C. et al. (2018) ' Whose Sense of Place? Re-thinking Place Concept and Urban Heritage Conservation in Social Media Era', the 4th PlanoCosmo International Conference, IOP Conf. Series: Earth and Environmental Science 158 (2018) 012010. doi :10.1088/1755-1315/158/1/012010.


8.    Georgiou. M. (2010) ' Media and the city: Making sense of place', International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 6 (3): 343-350. doi: 10.1386/mcp.6.3.343-3.


9.    Gussow, A. (1972) 'A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land', 1st Edition, Washington D.C.: Island Press.


10.    Heidegger, M. (1971) 'Building, Dwelling, Thinking', In A. Hofsdater (Ed.), Poetry, Language and Thought. New York: Harper & Row.


11.    Hernandez, B., Hidalgo, M.C., Salazar-Laplace, M.E. and Hess, S. (2007) ' Place attachment and place identity in natives and non-natives', Journal of Environmental Psychology 27: 310-319.


12.    Humphreys, L. (2010) ' Mobile Social Networks and Urban Public Space', New Media & Societ 1: 76-78.


13.    Jacobson-Widding, A. (1983) ' Identity: Personal and socio-cultural', A Symposium, Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Uppsaliensis.


14.    Jorgensen, B.S. & Stedman, R.C. (2001) 'Sense of place as an attitude: Lakeshore owners attitudes toward their properties', Journal of Environmental Psychology 21: 233–248.


15.    Kukkakorpi, M.  Pantti, M. (2020) 'A Sense of Place: VR Journalism and Emotional Engagement', Journalism Practice, DOI: 10.1080/17512786.2020.1799237. To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2020.1799237.


16.    Maher Mafoz, A. S. (2019) ' The impact of open spaces in the social life; the case of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia', Dr. Arc. Maria Pilar Garcia-Almirall, Phd thesis, Doctoral program in Urban and Architectural Management and Valuation, Department of Architectural Technology (TA), Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña, UPC, Barcelona – España, SEPTEMBER 2019.


17.    McRoberts, J. (2018) 'Are We There Yet? Media Content and Sense of Presence in Non-Fiction',
    Studies in Documentary Film 12 (2):  101-118.


18.    Nonejad, N. Nazemi, A. Saberi, H. (2021) ' Evaluating and measuring the effect of cyberspace on the indices of meaning in urban spaces', Sepehr Geographical Information Journal 29(116): 27-43, (in Persian).


19.    Omidbakhsh, M. Heshmati, A. (2008) ' Social interaction in virtual communities', Chista Journal, 252: 40-47.


20.    Partovi, P. (2013) ' Phenomenology of place', second edition, Tehran: Art Press, (in Persian).


21.    Prestinenza Puglisi, L. (2007) 'Special Issue: Italy: A New Architectural Landscape', Architecture Design 77(3): 1-143.


22.    Rahimi, R. A. et al. (2020) 'Evaluation of the Effect of Physical Components on Place Attachment in Communal Spaces of Selected Residential Complexes in Tehran', BAGH-E NAZAR, The Scintific Juornal in the Field of Theortical Studies of Art and Architecture 17(83): 15-30, (in Persian).


23.    Relph, E. (2007) 'Spirit of Place and Sense of Place in Virtual Realities', Techne: Research in Philosophy and Technology, 10(3): 17-25.


24.    Seamon, D. (2018) 'Life takes place: Phenomenology, lifeworlds, and place making', London: Routledge.


25.    Seamon, D. (2021) 'Sense of Place. International Encyclopedia of Geography: People, the Earth, Environment, and Technology', Douglas Richardson, Editor-in-Chief. NY: Wiley. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/43525088/Sense_of_Place_encyclopedia_entry_2021. Acssessed in: 4/25/2021.


26.    Shamai, Sh. (1991) 'Sense of Place: an Empirical Measurement', Geofmm 22(3): 347-358.


27.    Sharghi, A. et al. (2019) ' Sense of belonging to a place and its comparative study in real and virtual places', Two Scientific Quarterly of the Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies 9(1): 157-177, (in Persian).


28.    Sirkkunen, E. et al. (2016) 'Journalism in Virtual Reality: Opportunities and Future Research Challenges', In Academic MindTrek’16: Proceedings of the 20^th International Academic MindTrek Conference: 297–303. New York: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).


29.    Stedman, R.C. (2002) ' Toward social psychology of place, Predicting behavior from place-based cognitions, attitude, and identity', Environment and Behavior 34: 561–581.


30.    Steele, F. (1981) ' The Sense of Place', Massachusetts. CBI Publishing Company.


31.    Falahat, M.S. (2006) 'The concept of sense of place and its shaping factors', Honar-hay-Ziba 26: 57-66.


32.    Taher Tolou Del, M.D., Mahdi Nejad, j., Sadat, S. A. (2020) ' The effect of semantic, behavioral and physical components of sense of place on residential satisfaction', Sustainable urban architecture 1(8): 165-182, (in Persian).


33.    Tuan, Y.F. (1980) ' Rootedness versus Sense of Place', Journal Landscape 24: 3-8.


34.    Tussyadiah, I. Fesenmaier, D. R. (2009) ' Mediating Tourist Experiences: Access to Places via Shared Videos', Annals of Tourism Research 36 (1): 24–40.


35.    Ulrich, R., Simons, R., Losito, B., Fiorito, E., Miles, M. and Zelson, M. (1991) ' Stress recovery during exposure to natural and urban environments', Journal of Environmental Psychology 11: 231-248.


36.    Usher, N. (2019) 'Putting ‘Place’ in the Center of Journalism Research: A Way Forward to Understand Challenges to Trust and Knowledge in News', Journalism and Communication Monographs 22(2): 84-146.


37.    Williams, D.R., Patterson, M.E., Roggenbuck, J.W. & Watson, A.E., (1992) ' Beyond the commodity metaphor: Examining emotional and symbolic attachment to place', Leisure Sciences 14: 29-46.


38.    Zhang, Ch., Perkis, A., Arndt, S. (2017) ' Spatial Immersion Versus Emotional Immersion, Which is More Immersive? ', Ninth International Conference on Quality of Multimedia Experience (QoMEX), Erfurt, Germany. IEEE.


39.    Sadeghi Fasaei, S., Erfan Manesh, I. (2015) ' Methodological foundations of documentary research in social sciences, studied: The effects of modernization on the Iranian family', Rahbord-e-Farhang, 8(29): 61-91.