Making sense of territorial changes: affective and moral dimensions of place attachments and meanings

For the last five decades, several approaches to sense of place have been developed and used to better understand the complex dynamics between multiple coexisting spatial practices and experiences. The relationship between territorial changes (place change) and senses of place is still under investigation. Our research method contributes to the inquiry about sense of place and place attachment by combining concepts and practices from two research communities: environmental psychology and pragmatics of attachment approaches. The study was conducted in a rural community in northern Senegal and used a mixed-methods approach that included questionnaires, interview-photos, and a participatory theater device. The observations revealed a plurality of attachments and meanings associated with both the territory and the places that form it. Above all, they revealed multiple elements implicated in the construction and evaluation of place attachments and meanings. The results showed that, while diverse entities are simultaneously involved in the production and evaluation of sense of place, the acceptance of change by the members of a community as a whole depended on maintaining affective relationships that engage them and respecting the moral values they hold. Based on the results, we used the framework of affective arrangements to characterize the complex set of relationships involved in the attachment dynamics and territorial changes.