Laura Šakaja objavila je članak Sense of place in a neighbourhood – Vrbik (Zagreb).

Članak je objavljen u zborniku “The Overarching Issues of the European Space. Preparing the new decade for key socio-economic and environmental challenges” (Universidade do Porto – Faculdade de Letras, 2018).

Sažetak:

The understanding of the concept of place as a phenomenon that is subjectively sensed and experienced opens the way for the geographical exploration of human experiences in connection with a place. Among them is the study of the senses of place. The term sense of place denotes the structure of attitudes and feelings, which individuals or communities have in relation to the area in which they live. In this paper, the concept sense of place is used as a tool in the exploration of attitudes and feelings of residents in the Vrbik district in Zagreb, concerning their neighbourhood. The study is based on a survey conducted in Zagreb on the sample of 132 respondents. The study combined the application of different tools, all of them being used in order to understand how Vrbik is sensed and experienced by its residents. The first tool looked at the level of importance that the residents attributed to various aspects of life in the neighborhood, i.e. – the functional, aesthetic and social. The second tool was focused on the feelings that the residents had about their neighbourhood, namely the feelings of indifference, rootedness and belonging to the community or to the place. In addition to that, the 5-point Likert scale was used to measure the degree of satisfaction with the neighbourhood as a whole, and also with the particular aspects of the neighbourhood. Several open questions were also included in the survey questionnaire in the order to clarify received data. Methodological flexibility used in this research made it possible to get insight into the broad spectrum of attitudes and feelings of the residents of Vrbik in regard to their neighbourhood.  It was also possible to make some general conclusions. Received data indicate to overwhelming predominance of the functional attitude to a place of life over the social or aesthetic attitude. Results also show that young people appreciate the social relationships in the neighbourhood more than the older people and they are also in general more affectionate towards their neighbourhood than its older residents. The analyses on the larger sample, as well as comparative analyses are needed to understand whether the patterns identified are locally specific or do they point to universal phenomena.

Pristup Sense of place in a neighbourhood – Vrbik (Zagreb)