Sense Shaping Place: Interaction of Planning Actor’s Values in Social- Ecological Resilience: Case Study of Urbanizing Coastal Rural Communities in Pontian, Malaysia.

Abstract

Drawing on the literature from bioregional planning that encapsulates theories on place, stewardship and conservation, this study explores the dynamics in the interaction between the various planning actors and how this contributes to the resilience of socio-ecological systems (SESs). Using the urbanizing coastal rural communities of Pontian as a case study, I have employed a mixed-methods approach to examine the sense of place held by three distinct planning actor groups involved in the local land use planning activities. The groups are Local Active Community, Civic and Institution, and Environmental and Cultural Advocacy. I analyzed qualitative interviews as well as quantitative surveys to elicit the sense of place structure across groups, the relationship between structures and stewardship attitudes and behaviors, and examined how these characteristics might shape the trajectories of landscape change. This study extends the examination of the people-place relationship and its impacts on resilience, as prior place research has focused on sense of place at the individual level but is limited when assessing group level outcomes. A number of distinctions were found. The sense of place structure was found to be comprised of four traits; place dependence, place identity, place attachment and community attachment. The latter appeared to emerge separately. The structure patterns were similar across groups in the survey, however, a more nuanced description in the interviews revealed that the place structure for each of the first two groups emphasized social and community aspect of place, while the latter emphasized functional aspect of place dependency. The relationship between sense of place, stewardship and visions was far more complex than reported in the literature, where stewardship was divided between affirmative and non-supportive attitudes towards rural landscape change. In contrast, in this study “place dependence” correlated with “concerned but supporting attitude” and was characteristic of the first two groups. The qualitative findings specified that this variability between groups is linked to specific worldviews and motivations and visions that are layered in social, cultural and political backgrounds. Multiple pathways to sustainability were observed from different place conception and attitudes among the groups, based on analysis that is grounded in a model of SES and resilience. The insights were critiqued in a bioregional planning context and justify further research on sense of place as an integrative concept for understanding societal impacts on ecosystems in a complex, rapidly changing world. Keywords: bioregional planning, sense of place, environmental stewardship, socialecological resilience, landscape change.