Place and Placelessness

by E.C. Relph

First published forty years ago and still widely referenced, Edward Relph′s Place and Placelessness has taken its place as a classic of the phenomenological approach to the study of place and has influenced a generation of scholars.

For this reprint Professor Relph has written a new introduction setting his original work in its contemporary context. He shows how the concepts of place have been modified and yet continue to be of vital importance in interpreting a world which travel and commerce have made very different from that of 1976. In his "sense of place has the potential to serve as a pragmatic foundation for addressing the profound local and global challenges, such as climate change and economic disparity, that are emerging in the present century."

Genres: Architecture, Philosophy, Geography, Nonfiction, Cities, Academic, Sociology

174 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Do no read E.C. Relph's Place and Placelessness in a single setting. I read the short little book over 2 and a half days, and I could have easily spent several weeks reading Relph's insights on place and placelessnes, on being and living in an everyday landscape.

This is a book I shall return to. Though some of Relph's ideas (especially on the automobile and native peoples) are outdated, he warns against the practice of preserving and restoring places to a past. He falls back on the idea of Disneyfication of America as a bad thing, but he does not limit the idea to Main Streets or city downtowns. He talks about Disneyfication working on a smaller level--the plywood cutouts of pigs in front of so-called fancy French restaurants, or the proliferation of McDonald's characters and the Colonel of KFC.

Overall, Relph suggests if we do not remain vigilant, places that we live in will loose meaning, and thus we will then too loose a part of our own humanity.

[Joe Liang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Place and Placelessness is a book ahead of its time in describing emerging trends in the 20th century that have really taken hold in the 21st century. Its central idea of placelessness is rooted from several standardization factors resulting from "technique", or a formulaic, scientific way to produce environments suitable for people. This literary review or synthesis E. C. Relph remains neutral in its analysis, without overtly denouncing placelessness as an inherently negative phenomenon, as a lack of character may typically be associated with a negative connotation. It is the trend that the placelessness results from more of a lack of culture and insideness tied specifically to a geographic location, but it does not necessarily mean that lack of place means a downward trend of culture and society.

The book concludes with the thought that meaningful places people feel "inside" of or feel specific belonging to may be decreasing in number, but that does not mean places of the old are necessarily better than the places today. Places today may simply be more technical and universally standardized to be accommodating to our needs. Although people's lives today may not be as unique and tied to a place as Aboriginal people, they are generally more convenient and comfortable. There is still awe in place, though diminished and flat, without depth in many instances. Place and Placelessness articulates and provides vocabulary that gives voice to the phenomenological feelings a person may feel in contemporary times, and by articulating this thought, it may provide a path to understand ways of regaining a sense of place, if that is truly desired by the collective.

[Kei · Rating 4 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone learning or interested in Environmental Psychology.