Culture, place and urban growth in the U.S. South

People's connection to land is an important contributor to identity in traditional southern society. In small southern communities, to know where someone lives is to know who someone is because place assigns biography. Studies have investigated the physical and economic implications of landscape change in the South, but comparatively little research focuses on the impacts to culture of urban growth. We consider how sense of place (as an indicator of culture) may be impacted, over time, by physical and structural changes in a locale. This point of departure examines the temporal dimension of sense of place, or how place perceptions may vary as familiar places and practices are altered by landscape moderations. We review the literature on sense of place and changing Southern landscapes and also offer a conceptual framework for analyzing sense of place over the long-term. © 2007 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.