The silent voice of sense of place in spatial planning: Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site, South Africa

Abstract

Sense of place is widely acknowledged across multiple disciplines as an umbrella term for the interplay between the environment, person in the environment and the broader context that shape the interactions between these as well as the relationships that develop from these interactions. However, no universal definition for sense of place exists. In spatial planning scholarship, the topic has been theorised for more than sixty years. The root of the concept, as acknowledged in spatial planning, dates back to the ancient Roman mythological term genius loci, the Latin for spirit of place. The spirit of place has been loosely translated and accepted in spatial and design disciplines (e.g., architecture and urban design) as the unique character of a place that distinguishes it from other places. Character in this sense, is claimed by planners as residing in observable environmental properties (mostly visual). Numerous environment-based frameworks have been developed for planners to apply in different contexts to investigate a (singular) and mono-dimensional (environment-based) sense of place that can guide spatial development. However, sense of place is a complex and integrated concept that comprises multiple dimensions including implicit dimensions (e.g. experiences, emotions etc.) as well as spatially expressed dimensions (activities, buildings etc.). Implicit dimensions have remained underexplored in the context of spatial planning and not fully integrated due to a lack of the understanding of the relativistic nature of pluralised sense(s) of place that vary significantly across different spatial and temporal contexts. From the lack of an integrated understanding of these silent voices that have remained latent in spatial planning, three interrelated problems arose: a conceptual problem, relating to singular universal conceptions that are not flexible enough to allow for pluralised diverse sense(s) of place to be acknowledged; a methodological problem, relating to how to access and elicit implicit dimensions of sense(s) of place; and an applied practice-based problem relating to guidance on how to integrate multiple, overlapping implicit sense(s) of place in spatial planning. The novelty of the study is embedded in this limited guidance that exist for spatial planners on how to access, elicit and integrate implicit sense(s) of place, especially from perspectives from the global South. Most existing sense(s) of place theories have been developed outside the context of the global South while extremely limited research exists in Africa and in South Africa from where contextual insights have been developed about sense(s) of place. The research question that guided the study is "How can spatial planners access, elicit and integrate the multiple dimensions of sense(s) of place that emerge from participants' interactions with a rural landscape in VDWHS in South Africa, into spatial planning?" It is against this background of a lack of contextual insights about implicit sense(s) of place, especially in rural landscapes in developing countries (where there exists extreme pressure for development and people-environment interactions and relationships are volatile) that this research has been conceptualised. The study reflects on an in-depth qualitative investigation of implicit sense(s) of place by means of a singular intrinsic, retroductive case study design of people-environment interactions on the farm Kromdraai, a rural landscape in Vredefort Dome World Heritage Site in South Africa. From a critical realists' ontological position, it was possible to move beyond the mere descriptive to generate contextual insights about implicit sense(s) of place and to interpret these for spatial planning purposes. The inclusion of a pragmatist position as a supplementary ontological stance allowed for the crossing of disciplinary boundaries to include a variety of exogenous and endogenous theoretical frameworks (a communicative planning theory spatial planning lens, sense(s) of place theories from different disciplines and people-environment meta-theories, social theories, psychology theories and interdisciplinary theories). Also, pragmatism allowed for the selection of and combined use of various inclusive participatory methods (interviews and focus groups) as well as different data generation tools (visual tools in this instance that included photographs and collages). The data that was analised included 256 pages of verbatim transcriptions (obtained from face-to-face interviews of between 60-90 minutes with 22 purposefully selected participants), 270 photographs and four visual images (layout plans and collages) that were generated from focus groups. The empirical part of the thesis are presented in three interrelated research papers on different spatial planning thinking levels, each addressing one of three interrelated research problems namely a conceptual problem, methodological problem and applied practice based problem. The first paper (substantive level) focuses on the dimensions and nature of sense(s) of place dimensions and uses principles of grounded theory in order to develop a more nuanced conception of sense(s) of place in spatial planning. The second paper (procedural level) focuses on the use of Visual Participatory Research as methodology in order to access and elicit implicit sense(s) of place for spatial planning purposes. The third paper (applied practice-based level) illustrates how implicit sense(s) of place can be translated to concrete spatial expressions in order to integrate them in spatial planning guidelines for development. Factual, interpretive and conceptual conclusions are drawn from the empirical findings in the thesis whereafter a suggested flexible framework is suggested for spatial planners in order to develop an integrated understanding of sense(s) of place and to provide guidance on how planners can access, elicit and integrate (implicit) dimensions of sense(s) of place in spatial planning - dimensions that have remained underexplored silent voices in spatial planning up until now.