Coral Reef Collapse and Sense of Place in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

doi:10.1017/9781108769471.004

1 - Coral Reef Collapse and Sense of Place in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

from Part I - Climate Change and Ecological Regime Shifts

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 July 2021

Petina L. Pert and

Edited by

Christopher M. Raymond ,

Andrés Di Masso and

Christopher M. Raymond: Affiliation:
University of Helsinki, Finland
Lynne C. Manzo: Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle
Daniel R. Williams: Affiliation:
USDA Forest Service, Colorado
Andrés Di Masso: Affiliation:
Universitat de Barcelona
Timo von Wirth: Affiliation:
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam

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Summary

Given global social and environmental change, understanding how resulting place change affects people–place bonds is of pressing importance. However, given traditional views of these bonds as static, understanding the fluidity of people’s relationship with place remains nascent. We examine how people’s sense of place relating to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef changed over a four-year period during which the reef suffered climate-change-induced mass coral bleaching. Operationalising sense of place with seven indicators representing place attachment, identity and meanings, we found increases in attachment, identity and two meanings (pride, biodiversity) and decreases in three meanings (lifestyle, aesthetics, scientific value). We suggest that place change heightened the emotional and intangible elements of sense of place, while having a negative effect on the more instrumental meanings. Our results challenge a notion of people–place bonds premised on fixity, stability, and low dimensionality, instead suggesting the need to consider them as dynamic and multidimensional.

Keywords

place change climate change environmental change sense of place place attachment place meanings place identity Great Barrier Reef

Type: Chapter
Information: Changing Senses of Place
Navigating Global Challenges
, pp. 21 - 31

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108769471.004 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2021

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1 - Coral Reef Collapse and Sense of Place in the Great Barrier Reef, Australia

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