ՀՀ խոշորացված համայնքների բնակչության տեղի զգացման գործոնային կառուցվածքը / The Factor Structure of the Sense of Place of the Residents of Extended Communities of RA

Spatial sense-making processes, which underlie the logic of space-community interactions, provide opportunities for each of them for sustainable development and reproduction. Continuous interactions with space at the individual level form a unique cognitive system - a sense of place, which allows individuals to position themselves in various socio-spatial processes. Analyzing the existing approaches to the sense of place, it becomes clear that the sense of place is not isolated from other phenomena determining space-individuum relationships and is often determined by the abovementioned phenomena. Such units are, in particular, place identity, place attachment and sense of community. Although various authors have addressed and even empirically confirmed the interdependence between the sense of place and the mentioned phenomena, but taking into account the variability of the conceptual and operational systems within each research case, there is a need to continuously adjust the relationships discussed by improving the existing models. It is also worth noting that although there are a number of studies devoted to intra-community and inter-community socio-economic and political relations caused by new realities formed as a result of the enlargement of communities, the latter only briefly touches on the existing refinement of the logic of reproducing the sense of place of the population in enlarged communities. In this context, the research aimed at revealing the socio-spatial practices of territorial management in the enlarged communities of RA also addressed the sense of place and its factor structure. In particular, by adapting the indicators proposed by different authors to the research case, an attempt was made to find out the characteristics and factor system determining the sense of place of the residents of the enlarged communities of RA. In particular, it was found that the vast majority of the population of enlarged communities has a high degree of sense of place, but this varies significantly depending on the gender of the residents. Thus, women have a lower sense of place than men. In the context of the conducted factor analysis, qualitative and quantitative indicators of intrafactor and interfactor interaction, formed by grouping indicators, made it possible to find out that local identity, attachment to place, as well as a sense of community are factors that determine the sense of place of the population of enlarged communities of the Republic of Armenia. At the same time, place attachment has the greatest influence in the abovementioned framework.