Sense of place. The term sense of place describes characteristics of a particular place that make it special and unique in its own right as well as the human relationship to a particular place in which they have an authentic sense of attachment and belonging. How a sense of place develops and evolves informs how people interact with their environment. Given the opportunity, children create a strong bond with the places they inhabit through direct experiences. Such ‘primal landscapes’ of one’s youth can become a part of a person’s identity, informing their relationship with subsequent places later in life and creating a greater propensity for continuing to cultivate a sense of place. The extent to which children are able to create a sense of place is strongly mediated by the influences of family as well as community and cultural norms.
Research on the relationship between sense of place and PEB recognizes that it may be possible to harness an individual’s attachment to and affect towards a place in order to influence her or his environmental behavior. Numerous studies have found place attachment to be an important antecedent to environmental awareness, pro-environmental attitudes, and PEB, with higher levels of place attachment being associated with more PEB. The affective or emotional connection between people and place is also well documented, as is the positive relationship between place affect and PEB. For example, in a study by Ramkisson, Smith, and Weilerd (2013), place affect was the strongest predictor of both low effort and high effort pro-environmental behavioral intentions.

​Sense of Place Team

​The core Sense of Place Matters community of practice team is comprised of four members of the 2015 class of the Prescott College PhD Program in Sustainability Education.  Each of us actively explored the relationships between sense of place and sustainability in our academic research and continue to focus on this area in our professional work: fostering social and ecological well-being by connecting families with nearby nature (Chiara); nomadic perceptions of climate change around the Mekong headwaters in Tibet (Meg);  the experiences of women practicing regenerative agriculture (Clare);  and engagement with community food systems and place-based storytelling (Jeremy). 

​Chiara D’Amore is a mother, educator, researcher, writer, community organizer, and environmental consultant.  She lives in Columbia, Maryland where she serves as the founder and director of Columbia Families in Nature and president of Trilogy Eco-Systems Solutions.  Her work is focused on understanding the effects of time spent in nature on personal, social, and ecological well-being. She holds a M.S. in Environmental Science and Engineering and a PhD in Sustainability Education.

Clare Hintz is the editor for the Journal of Sustainability Education.  She runs Elsewhere Farm, a production Permaculture farm in Wisconsin near the south shore of Lake Superior,  is part of the teacher’s guild of the Permaculture Research Institute in Minneapolis, and is the coordinator for the Lake Superior Sustainable Farming Association.  Clare has a M.S. in Sustainable Systems and a PhD in Sustainability Education with a focus on Regenerative Agriculture.  She has over a decade of experience teaching at area colleges.

Meg Ferrigno has been working on educational development projects in India, Nepal and Tibet for the past decade. She is the founder and director of the Pureland Project, which supports the projects she manages with Tibetan Nomadic Communities. The Pureland Project is bridged to her U.S. home, Philadelphia, by way of the Ahimsa House, a center for nonviolence and sustainability. Meg has her Masters in International Educational Development Program and a PhD in Sustainability Education, that later focused on nomadic perceptions of climate change around the Mekong headwaters.

Jeremy Solin is an educator, community sustainability organizer, gardener, father, and husband. He has worked in the sustainability and environmental education field for over 15 years in Minnesota, Oregon, and Wisconsin. He has a PhD in sustainability education, master of education degree in environmental education and a Bachelor of Science degree in water resources. Jeremy is currently the Wisconsin ThinkWater Coordinator and National Program Manager with UW Extension Cooperative Extension.