Haltunen Speech/ Genealogy of Place

Reading Haltunens speech and Cresswells Genealogy of Place, how we as people define place will always be different. Place can be as small as the corner of a room or as large as the earth itself: that the earth is our place in the universe is a simple fact of observation to homesick astronauts.( Tuan 1974a )  Growing  up I remember watching the Wizard of Oz, and as Dorothy goes through her journey that leads her to her place of home she is reminded of her Ant Em and Uncle. Also learning more about herself on the way.

Place can also lead to a sense of placelessness.  Halttunen recalls the disaster of Hurricane Katrina leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless. I can only guess the atmosphere in the dome, sense of abandonment, anger, fear. A middle-aged woman at a Baton Rouge shelter said, when the first truckload of supplies arrived, “It makes you feel like a person again, not a displaced person”—voicing her fear that to be placeless was to forfeit humanity. (Halttunen 6) As a society, no one should feel like this. Of course amongst other issues in this world this is minor problem as some would say unfortunately will never change. Yi-Fu Tuan developed the idea of Topophilia, meaning a bond between people and place.

Which in all summarizes what we have been talking about since day one what we know or do or see on a daily basis is our sense of place. Our sense of belonging.