Coral reef collapse and sense of place in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia
Book Chapter ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
Given global social and environmental change, understanding how resulting place change affects people–place bonds is of pressing importance. However, given traditional views of these bonds as static, understanding the fluidity of people’s relationship with place remains nascent. We examine how people’s sense of place relating to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef changed over a four-year period during which the reef suffered climate-change-induced mass coral bleaching. Operationalising sense of place with seven indicators representing place attachment, identity and meanings, we found increases in attachment, identity and two meanings (pride, biodiversity) and decreases in three meanings (lifestyle, aesthetics, scientific value). We suggest that place change heightened the emotional and intangible elements of sense of place, while having a negative effect on the more instrumental meanings. Our results challenge a notion of people–place bonds premised on fixity, stability, and low dimensionality, instead suggesting the need to consider them as dynamic and multidimensional.
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Changing Senses of Place: navigating global challenges
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ISBN/ISSN
978-1-108-47726-0
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Pages Count
11
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Publisher
Cambridge University Press
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Publisher Location
Cambridge, UK
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DOI
10.1017/9781108769471.004