The dynamic relationship between sense of place and risk perception in landscapes of mobility

Abstract

Coastal areas are exposed to changing patterns of mobility and increasingly extreme weather events, offering unique opportunities to study the complexity of adaptation to global changes and the diversity of responses to risk. How individuals and communities respond to risk varies widely, however traditional rationalist and economic based understandings have proved limited in explaining responses to risk. Increasingly social science, and specifically, a focus on peoples’ relationships with their local places is providing a useful approach to understanding human responses to place based change. We bring together literature on sense of place, mobility, risk perception, and adaptation and develop a conceptual model to highlight the dynamic links between these processes. In particular we concentrate on a way of understanding risk that focuses on the role of different types of attachments to place. We explore this model using a pilot study (n = 70) and present data that indicates how different types of place attachments are significant in whether people perceive themselves to be at risk of flooding. Our review and results emphasize the interconnectivity of social and environmental change, and suggests that by identifying particular place attachments, as shaped by mobility, we can deepen our understanding of how communities choose to respond to risk.