[3][4][5] It is often used in relation to those characteristics that make a place special or unique, as well as to those that foster a sense of authentic human attachment and belonging.
[11] Cultural geographers, anthropologists, sociologists and urban planners study why certain places hold special meaning to particular people or animals.
[20] Some historic sites or districts that have been heavily commercialized for tourism and new housing estates are defined as having lost their sense of place.
[24] Learning about surrounding environments during childhood is strongly influenced by the direct experience of playing, as well as through the role of family, culture, and community.
[26] This childhood landscape forms part of an individual's identity and constitutes a key point of comparison for considering subsequent places later in life.
Research states that these emotional experiences that arise are inherently adaptive and recommends collective processing and reflecting on these in order to increase resilience and a sense of belonging.
[30][31] Ethnomusicologists, among other social scientists (like anthropologists, sociologists, and urban geographers), have begun to point toward music’s role in defining people’s “sense of place.”[32] British ethnomusicologist Martin Stokes suggests that humans can construct an idea of “place” through music that signals their position in the world in terms of social boundaries and moral and political hierarchies.
[33] Stokes argues that music does not simply serve as a reflection of existing social structures, but yields the potential to actively transform a given space.
Examples of music’s role in defining a sense of place include ethnomusicologist George Lipsitz’s research on the performance of Mexican-American cultural identity in Los Angeles.