Mah, Alice (2009) Devastation but also home : place attachment in areas of industrial decline. Home Cultures, Vol.6 (No.3). pp. 287-310. doi:10.2752/174063109X12462745321462

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Abstract

This article analyzes the phenomenon of place attachment to "home" in two areas of industrial decline: Walker, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), and Highland, Niagara Falls, New York (USA). The research contributes to theoretical and empirical literatures from sociology, anthropology, geography, environmental psychology, and material culture studies on notions of place, community, memory, and home. Despite socioeconomic deprivation and material devastation in areas of industrial decline, houses and neighborhood spaces can become invested with notions of family and community unity, nostalgia for a shared industrial past, and stability amidst socioeconomic change. Place attachment to “home” is particularly painful during times of post-industrial transition: in the case of Walker, people's homes are under threat of demolition with imminent City-Council-led regeneration of the community; and in the case of Highland, houses are located on contaminated and economically unviable land. Drawing in both cases on semi-structured interviews with a range of local people between 2005 and 2007, this article argues that narratives of place attachment—of "devastation but also home"—reveal some of the contradictions and uncertainties of living through difficult processes of social and economic change.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Place attachment -- England -- Newcastle upon Tyne -- Walker Riverside, Place attachment -- United States -- New York -- Niagara Falls -- Highland, Community life -- England -- Newcastle upon Tyne -- Walker Riverside, Community life -- United States -- New York -- Niagara Falls -- Highland, Home -- England -- Newcastle upon Tyne -- Walker Riverside, Home -- United States -- New York -- Niagara Falls -- Highland, Industries -- England -- Newcastle upon Tyne -- Walker Riverside, Industries -- United States -- New York -- Niagara Falls -- Highland
Journal or Publication Title:	Home Cultures
Publisher:	Berg Publishers
ISSN:	1740-6315
Official Date:	2009
Dates:	Date Event 2009 Published
Volume:	Vol.6
Number:	No.3
Number of Pages:	24
Page Range:	pp. 287-310
DOI:	10.2752/174063109X12462745321462
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

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