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WAITARA: SENSES OF PLACE IN 1998 

A thesis presented in partial 
fulfilment of the requirements 

for the degree 
of Masters in Resource and Environmental Planning 

Massey University 

Denise Catherine Young 

1999 



ABSTRACT 

This study investigates and describes "senses of place" as experienced by l 3 long­

term Pakeha residents of Waitara in 1998. The town of Waitara is located on the 

West Coast of the North Island in New Zealand, and at the 1996 census had a 

population of 6,507 people. On 15 December 1997, the town 's main employer, the 

AFFCO freezing works plant, was closed. The effect of this closure on the town of 

Waitara has been devastating. The town has gone from a 'working town' to one in 

which the majority of its working age population are now dependent on State suppo11 

as their primary source of income. 

The primary objective of this study is to examine how sense of place is affected by 

economic restructuring. This study uses a combination of secondary quantitative 

analysis, to situate Waitara within the broad patterns of global and national 

restructuring, and in-depth interviews to describe 13 individual experiences. 

This research documents that economic restructuring does indeed change places. The 

closure of the freezing works plant has left the town marginali sed and di sconnected 

from national and global economies. But more importantly the findings of this study 

support Massey's ( 1994) assertion that there is no universal sense of place. The 

identity of places, and therefore our 'senses of place', are constructed through our 

contact with the outside world . Consequently, an individual 's sense of place is 

unfixed , contested and multiple and changes in response to processes occurring on a 

local, national and global scale. 

Finally, this study challenges planners to incorporate local knowledge into planning 

processes. To focus on a more people-centred style of planning, where the 

community is empowered to take a more direct role in local decision-making 

processes. 



ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 

This thesis is dedicated to the memory of my grandparents, William (Bill) and Agnes 

Easton, whose aroha for Waitara and the people who live there was unquestionable. 

Who through their stories and the time they spent with me, both as a child and as an 

adult, fostered in me a belief in the importance of that place called 'home', and never 

forgetting Waitara, the place in which I spent the early part of my life . 

This thesis could not have been written without the help and support of many people. 

Caroline Miller had a significant input in the earlier stages of this thesis. Julianna 

Munsvelt was invaluable in guiding me through the geography theories on place and 

providing advice on the methodological aspects of this research. 

I would like to thank Phil McDermott for all his advice and critical input and Garry 

McDonald at McDermott Fairgary Group for kindly supplying me with the New 

Zealand Statistics Business Directory data. 

Special thanks also to Prue Hyman, for letting me look after her house for fi ve 

months. It provided me with the perfect haven in which to write. 

I owe special thanks to my mother Eileen, whose support throughout this project has 

been invaluable. I would also like to thank Anna-Ma1ie, Maree, Mary-Jane, Ngaere, 

Cath, Beth, Ronnie, Anne, Mel and Dave for providing me with much needed 

laughter, which enabled me to remain relatively sane while writing this thesis. 

Finally, I would like to thank the 13 individuals who participated in this study. I 

thank you all for your warmth, your stories and your time. I only hope this thesis 

does you justice. 



Abstract 
Acknowledgements 
Table of Contents 
List of Tables 
List of Figures 

Waitara: Senses of Place in 1998 

Denise Catherine Young 

Chapter One : Introduction 
Introduction 
Relevance of Sense of Place to Planning 
Thesis Aims and Objectives 
Thesis Structure and Chapter Outline 
Waitara: Present and Past 

Chapter Two: Sense of Place - A Conceptual Overview 
Introduction 
Review of Literature on Place and Sense of Place 

Postivism 
Humanist approach to place 
Marxist geography 
Feminism and place 
Place as part of a structuration process 
Cultural or post-modern geography 

Changing Understanding of Place 
Review of Economic Restructuring Theory 
Conclusion 

Chapter Three: Research Methodology 
Introduction 
An Interpretative Approach (Informed by Marxism and Feminism) 
Role of Both Qualitative and Quantitative Methods 
Research Design and Methods 

General issues 
Research techniques 

Conclusions 
Chapter Four: The Restructuring of Waitara From 1976 to 1996 

Chapter Five : 

Chapter Six : 

Bibliography 

Introduction 
Description of Local Restructuring 

Changes to Waitara' s manufacturing sector 
Changes to Waitara' s retail sector 
Changes to Waitara' s central and local government agencies 

Impacts of Closures 
Alternative Restructuring Model 
Conclusion 

Individual Experiences of Place and Restructuring 
Introduction 
Profile of The Sample 
Main Themes Revealed by In-depth Interviews 
Reflections 

Overall Conclusions 

List of Appendices 
Appendix l: Table One: Business Changes in Waitara From 1983-1998 
Appendix 2: Information Sheet 

Consent Form 
Waitara Timeline 
Check.list of Topics 



LIST OF TABLES 

Table One: Waitara' s key statistics at the 1996 census 

Table Two: Summary of main theories on place from l 960 ' s until l 990' s. 

Table Three: Role of informants 

Table Four: Sources of job loss in Waitara 1985-1998 . 

Table Five: Closures of central and local government agencies in Waitara 
between 1985 and 1994. 

Table Six: Changes in Waitara' s full-time employment by industry, 1986-
1996 

Table Seven: Relative changes in full-time employment by industry, 1986-1996 

Table Eight: Changes in Waitara's full -time employment by industry, 1996-
1998 

Table Nine: Relative changes in full-time employment by industry, 1996-1998 

Table Ten : Changes in part-time employment, 1986-1996 

Table Eleven : Changes in unemployment by area, 1986- 1996 

Table Twelve: Percentage of people not in the labour force at the 1996 census 

Table Thirteen : Changes in Waitara' s population by age cohort, 1976-1996 

Table Fourteen: Changes in Waitara's school rolls, 1993-1998 

Table Fifteen: Years at usual address at the 1996 census 

Table Sixteen: Hours of unpaid work outside of the household at the 1996 census 

Table Seventeen: Tenure of private dwellings by area at the 1996 census 

Table Eighteen: Weekly rent for privately rented dwellings at the 1996 census 

Table Nineteen: Recorded offences at the Waitara police station, 1994-1998 

Table Twenty: Characteristics of respondents 

Table Twenty-one: Synthesis of restructuring and its effect on respondents' senses of 
place 



LIST OF FIGURES 

Figure One: Location map of Waitara. 

Figure Two: View of main street of Waitara in l 995 

Figure Three: Research design and methodology 

Figure Four: AFFCO freezing works plant at Waitara as at 30/4/93 

Figure Five: Neo-classical economic model of restructuring 

Figure Six: Model l: Restructuring of Waitara 's demographic make-up 

Figure Seven: Model 2: Restructuring of Waitara 's labour market 

Figure Eight: Employment and unemployment as a percentage of the labour 
force 

Figure Nine: Highest qualification gained by area at the l 996 census 

Figure Ten: Percentage share of population by age cohort at the 1996 census 

Figure Eleven: Address in 199 1 of Waitara' s population at the 1996 census 

Figure Twelve: Personal income of immigrants to Waitara from 199 1- 1996 

Figure Thirteen: Personal income by area at the 1996 census 

Figure Fourteen: Median sales prices for houses sold in Waitara and New Plymouth 
City 

Figure Fifteen: Housing turnover for Waitara, 1992- 1998 

Figure Sixteen: Alternative restructuring model 

Figure Seventeen: Aerial view of the Waitara River and Township, as at 14/ 1/78 

Figure Eighteen: Working on the beef chain at the Waitara freezing works on 
30/5/91. 

Figure Nineteen: 'Waitara Tum Right', sign located on the north entrance to 
Waitara as on 29/12/83. 

Figure Twenty: Tom's Place on the main street of Waitara, as at l/6/88. 



CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 

1. 1 Introduction 

Places are important. As Hanson (I 992, p582) states " the idea that life is lived on the 

head of a pin, not anchored in space and time" is indeed science fiction . Place is the 

point at which human experience of the world occurs. To me Waitara is an important 

place. It is the place where I was born, where my mother was born and where my 

mother's parents spent the majority of their lives . While I have not lived in Waitara 

since I was a young child, my affection for a place which I still think of as 'home' 

remains . 

7 

It has therefore greatly saddened me to observe, from the outside, the impact that rapid 

economic restructuring has had on the town of Waitara over the past ten years . Waitara 

is a single industry town. The economic well-being of the 6,507 people (the population 

as at the 1996 census) was still reliant to a large extent on the continuing prosperity of a 

much-contracted meat freezing works plant . The freezing works , which once employed 

1,200 people at the peak of the season, through a series of wind downs and closures of 

individual chains was finally mothballed by Auckland Farmers ' Freezing Co-op 

(AFFCO), the plant ' s owner, on 15 December 1997. On l O November 1998 AFFCO 

announced that the plant would never re-open (National Radio, 1998). The impacts of 

the closure of the works on Waitara have been significant. The town has gone from a 

'working town ' to one in which the majority of its population are now reliant on state 

benefits as their primary source of income. 

A number of previous studies of economic restructuring in New Zealand (Melser et al , 

1982; Nicholls and Plesse, 1982; Britten et al , 1992; Peck, 1985; Conradson, 1994; 

Wilson, 1995 and Le Heron and Pawson, 1996) have documented the fact that 

restructuring does indeed change places. The devastating impacts of closure and 

economic recession are not unique to Waitara. There is no doubt that economic 

restructuring has left Waitara vulnerable to the entrenchment of long-term 

unemployment in a community more notable in the recent past for its stable and 

productive workforce. One question that remains is how restructuring affects the way 

in which long-term residents of Waitara view their town. The focus of this research is 



on the human dimension of restructuring, as to how it ultimately affects our 

relationship and attachment to where we live, our "sense of place". What are the 

elements which make up our attachment to a place? And how are these elements 

influenced by factors outside of our control , such as economic restructuring? 

1.2 Relevance of Sense of Place to Planning 

8 

Recent planning theorists (Lucy, 1994; McLaughlin, 1994 and Sandercock, 1998) 

argue that strengthening the relationships of people with place should be a fundamental 

professional goal of planning in the 1990s. Thi s view contrasts with that of other 

writers, such as Levy ( 1992, p81) who states that since the comprehensive plan lost its 

dominance the field of planning "does not seem to have any guiding principle or 

central paradigm". Lucy ( 1994, p305) asserts that: 

"planning does have a central principle. The central principle is healthy places 
nurture healthy people, and that public policies should aim at sustaining both 
healthy people and healthy places, not one or the other". 

McLouglin ( 1994) pleads for planning to once again view itself as an interdisciplinary 

project aimed at achieving a rounded understanding of the places in which we li ve. He 

claims that planning should encompass sociological, economic, environmental and 

political perspectives without giving priority to any one of them. 

Sandercock (1998 , p204) argues for: 

"An insurgent planning, one which is prepared to address issues of social, 
cultural and environmental justice in the cities and regions that are being shaped 
by these larger forces of economic and demographic mobility". 

Planning, Sandercock ( 1998) goes on to explain, needs an extended language to focus 

on the city of memory, the city of desire, and the city of spirit. She states that the 

question of a 'planner's knowledge' is at the heart of planning epistemology. In 

particular, Sandercock (1998, p58) requires planners to ask themselves the following 

questions; What do I know? How do I know? What are my sources of knowledge? 

What is valid knowledge in planning? Who decides that? And who possesses 

knowledge that is relevant to planning? 



9 

Other planning theorists, Friedmann ( 1973, 1993), Healy ( 1992), and Forester ( 1989) 

also address the issues surrounding the source of planning knowledge. The question of 

different types of knowledge and its applicability to planning was first raised by 

Friedmann (1973) who questioned the growing polarity between knowledge processed 

by experts (whose knowledge was grounded in science-based, professional knowledge) 

and knowledge processed by actors (people). He claimed that the actors processed a 

great deal of experiential knowledge, which was not however acknowledged as having 

any validity in the planning process. Sandercock explained that "in the old model, [as 

alluded to by Friedmann, 1973] planning was concerned with making public decisions 

more rational, ... Planning knowledge and expertise was thus grounded in positivist 

science" (Sandercock 1998, p204-205). 

More recently, planning theorists have advocated the idea of planning as 

"communicative action", which turns its back on the model of technical rationality and 

systematic analysis in favour of a more qualitative and interpretative mode of inquiry, 

seeking to understand the unique and the contextual, rather than arri ving at general 

rules for practice (Healy, 1992 and Forester, 1989). They advocate a greater and more 

explicit reliance on practical wisdom. Planners must not only be able to hear words; 

they must also be able to listen carefully and critically to others. This study of sense of 

place is intended to contribute to this movement in planning towards a more 

interpretative conception of practice. It addresses both the substantive issues, by once 

again putting people and place at the heart of planning epistemology and issues of 

planning practice, by enabling people in their own words to describe the place in which 

they live. 

This research is also an attempt to look beyond the regulatory constraints of the 

Resource Management Act 1991 (The Act), which places an understanding of sense of 

place, largely focused on an individual ' s social connection to where they live, outside 

of the framework of sustainable resource management. Upton (1994, p2) writes: 

"The Act is not about directing the wise use and development of resources in 
order to effectively promote and safeguard health, safety, convenience, and 
economic, cultural, and social welfare (to use the language of the Town and 
Country Planning Act) . 



Nor is it about balancing socio-economic aspirations and environmental 
outcomes. The Act is not designed as a social planning statute. I consider the 
Resource Management Act to be first and foremost an environmental statute." 

The singular focus of the Resource Management Act 1991 on the sustainability of the 

physical environment is further reinforced in the long title of the Act, which reads: 

"An Act to restate and reform the law relating to the use of the land, air, and 
water". 

10 

The proposed amendments to The Act reinforce its primary focus on the sustainable 

management of natural and physical resources (Ministry for the Environment, 

November 1998). ln particular, it is proposed that the phrase "social and economic" be 

removed from the definition of environment in Section 2 of the Act. These 

amendments clearly limit The Act to the biophysical and physical environment. 

McDermott ( 1998, p63 l) asserts that with the introduction of the Resource 

Management Act in 1991 , planning in New Zealand was limited to the mediation of the 

environmental relations of production and consumption. Consequently, urban planning 

in New Zealand in 1998 largely ignores people, and in particular their sense of place, 

by focusing only on those elements of urban life, such as housing design, which are 

directly linked to resource use (Perkins and Memon 1993, p2 I ). However, it is the 

assertion of this research that neighbourhoods, towns and cities are much more than 

houses. They are, when functioning well, the locations in which people find a positive 

sense of place (Perkins and Memon I 993, p22) . Furthermore, gaining an 

understanding of the impact of economic restructuring on localities, such as Waitara, 

cannot be achieved by confining the debate and public process to environmental 

matters. People matter, and an understanding of "place" is important, for as Massey 

and Allen ( 1984, p5) point out " a sense of place, a commitment to location and to 

established community, can be a strong element of people's resistance to planners ' 

plans". 

To this end a people-centred focus for planning demands that planners move beyond 

the structures and constraints of the Resource Management Act. By building our 

understanding of place, this thesis aims to contribute to this broader concept of 

planning for the places that people know. 



11 

1.3 Thesis Aims and Objectives 

The main aim of thi s research is: 

To investigate whether sense of place, as experienced by long-term residents of Waitara 

in 1998, has been changed or altered by economic restructuring. 

Objectives: 

1. To identify a framework in which to explore sense of place. 

2. To describe the different elements which make up sense of place as experienced by 

long-term residents of Waitara in 1998. 

3. To explore the impact of economic restructuring on Waitara at both a macro 

(community) and micro (individual) level. 

4. To make suggestions as to how an understanding of sense of place can improve a 

' planners' knowledge of the places for which we plan. 

The main aim and objectives of this research are achieved through the use of a 

combination of methodologies . An analysis of secondary statistical data provides a 

broad picture as to how economic restructuring has impacted on Waitara and its people 

at a macro-level. In-depth interviews are used to explore the impacts of restructuring 

on individuals in the town and to describe the unique factors and processes which 

contribute to their various senses of place. 

1.4 Thesis Structure and Chapter Outline 

This thesis is divided into six chapters. The balance of this chapter introduces Waitara, 

the site of the research. Chapter Two reviews the literature and theory of both sense of 

place and economic restructuring theory, in relation to its ability to provide a 

conceptual understanding of how place and sense of place are constructed. It outlines 

a theoretical framework on which the original research is based. 

Chapter Three outlines the research methodology, research methods and techniques 

used in this research. It reviews the philosophies which informed the choice of both 

qualitative and quantitative methodologies, and outlines the overall research design. 



The research is divided into two parts; a detailed 'macro' -level statistical phase, 

combined with a series of ' micro' in-depth interviews. The chapter examines the 

advantages and disadvantages of the research methods and techniques. 

12 

Chapter Four analyses census data and other secondary sources to identify some of the 

broad changes which have occurred in the social and economic structure of Waitara 

from 1986 to 1996. This chapter di scusses the main agents of change and provides a 

broad economic and social context in which to situate an individual' s experiences of 

sense of place of Waitara in 1998. 

Chapter Five presents the findings of the in-depth research interviews and describes the 

effects of restructuring on long-term Pakeha residents of Waitara in 1998. This chapter 

also outlines the elements and processes which contribute to an individual respondent's 

sense of place. 

The final chapter, through a process of synthesis of the qualitative and quantitative 

analysis, provides critical reflections in relation to theory and states the overall 

conclusions of the research. 

1.5 Waitara: Present and Past 

The purpose of this section is to briefly describe the context in which this research is 

set. The township of Waitara is located at the mouth of the Wai tara River on the West 

Coast of the North Island of New Zealand (Figure One). The demographic 

characteristics of Waitara's population are summarised in Table One. 



13 

Figure One: Location map of Waitara 

:\e\, Plvrrouth 

Source: Super map - Statistics New Zealand 1997 



Table One: Waitara's key statistics at the 1996 census 

Population: 

Ethnicity: 

Education: 

Industry base: 

Personal Income: 

Waitara has a usually resident population of 6,507 people. 

62 percent of usually resident population are Pakeha/ European, 32 

percent are Maori , 0.6 percent are Pacific Island and 0.6 percent 

are Asian. Waitara's Maori population is significantly higher than 

that found in the New Zealand population of 14 percent. 

Waitara's population has fewer educational qualifications, when 

compared to the total New Zealand population. Only 1 percent of 

Waitara's population aged 15 years and over hold a university 

qualification, compared to 8 percent in the total New Zealand 

population aged 15 years and over. 

Waitara is characterised as a manufacturing town. The majority of 

the town's full-time labour force are employed in occupations 

associated with manufacturing, metal trades, processing and 

labouring. 

The personal income of the Waitara population is significantly less 

than the personal income of the total New Zealand population. 66 

percent of Waitara's popu lation aged 15 years and over earn under 

$20,000 per annum. 51 percent of Waitara's population aged 15 

years and over receive at least one form of government support. 

Of those households in Waitara receiving government support, 23 

percent receive the unemployment benefit, compared to only 19 

percent of the total New Zealand population who receive 

government support. 

Source: Statistics New Zealand. 1996 census 

14 

While Waitara is onl y 16 kilometres north -east of New Plymouth, the town itself has a 

di stinct character and history which contributes to a strong sense of local identity. The 

town is laid out in a classical grid subdi vision pattern, which is modified only whe re it 

touches the foreshore or on the periphery of the town where there is more recent 

development. The streets are wide and its low-density development provides a feeling 

of openness. The town ' s central retai l area comprises a traditional strip development 

and contains a signifi cant number of buildings of heritage value (Holman 1995, p35) . 

The wide streets, heritage buildings, and semi-rural nature of the town provide the 

visitor with a feeling that they have entered a place in which time has stood still. 



Figure Two: View of the main street ofWaitara from Manukorihi lookout in 1995 

Source: Taranaki Newspapers Ltd 

15 



16 

Its location at the mouth of the Waitara River has frequently made Waitara an 

important site for both Maori and Pakeha. For more than 600 years, Maori people have 

occupied land adjacent to the River. Both the River and the coast provided early Maori 

with a valuable source of food. Physical evidence of Maori occupation and association 

with the land is still visible today. There are a number of pa sites and marae located 

along the Waitara river. These include the beautifully carved Owae marae, which is 

situated on Manukorihi hill above the township of Waitara and Pukerangiora Pa, which 

is located on a cliff top some IOOm above the Waitara River. (Taranaki Catchment 

Commission and Regional Water Board 1986, p I) . 

European settlement began in 1841 . By 1843 there were over I ,OOO Europeans living 

in the greater Waitara area. However the occupation of land by the Pakeha created 

conflict between local Maori and the settlers. In 1860 this conflict escalated into the 

first Taranaki land war. In 1865 the purchase of the Waitara land was abandoned and 

the land was confiscated by the Crown (Waitangi Tribunal , 1996). Today physical 

evidence of the land wars remains . Buildings such as military blockhouses, early 

cottages for military personnel, and an early butcher' s shop which served the British 

troops have been conserved and reflect the town ' s European early history. 

By the end of the nineteenth century North Taranaki was at peace and the area was 

developing into a highly productive agricultural district. By 1885 Waitara had a large 

meat chilling factory and an active shipping trade (Alexander, 1979, p36). Waitara was 

the first port in Taranaki to engage in overseas trade when, in 1823, the barque William 

Stoveld anchored off the mouth of the river and began trading with the Maori . The port 

soon became busy, and with the development of the freezing works trade flourished. It 

was even suggested that the main settlement for Taranaki should be situated on the 

banks of the Waitara River (Wright 1989, p174). 

In 1902 the British based company, Borthwicks CWS, purchased the meat chilling 

factory . Borthwicks owned and managed the factory until 1988. The plant, although it 

has been extensively re-built and expanded over the years, remains on its original site. 

It is sited very close to the centre of the town, the only meatworks in New Zealand to be 

in this kind of location (Holman, 1995). 



17 

Until the closure of the freezing works in December 1997 the rhythm of its activities 

dominated much of the life of the town. The hooters signalled to the townspeople the 

time for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, and the end of the working day. The odours 

emitted from the works on a muggy day formed the butt of many jokes and were 

detested by many townspeople and visitors alike. 

The dominance of the freezing works not only provided the town with a stable 

economic base, but also determined the main characteristics of the labour force . The 

loss of jobs experienced since the l 980 ' s in New Zealand's manufacturing sector, and 

in particular the restructuring of the New Zealand export meat industry, have been felt 

unevenly within the town. There has been no new influx of industry to replace the 

freezing works . Waitara is facing a crisis of long-term unemployment. 

ln the early l 980' s the construction of the two 'Think Big' energy projects in the areas 

surrounding Waitara provided the town's economy with a short-term boom, which 

masked the impact of a national economic recession . While the projects themselves 

did not provide any significant employment for local people, they did have a short-term 

beneficial effect on the town ' s retail sector. Between 1983 and 1986, 49 new 

businesses were opened in Waitara (Universal Business Directories). 

The Think Big Projects also contributed to the development of new infrastructure in the 

town . ln 1982, the Waitara bypass road was constructed. The bypass road re-aligned 

State Highway Three, so it no longer ran through the main street of Waitara. The 

trickle-down effects of the projects were however, short lived. The mature projects 

only required a minimum of staff to control their daily operations and this, combined 

with the fact that Waitara was no longer on the main highway, contributed to a decline 

in the town ' s retail sector. By 1987 the number of businesses closing in Waitara began 

to exceed the number of new businesses opening (Universal Business Directories). 

Waitara's economy was in decline. 

Between 1986 and 1996 Waitara experienced a loss of 729 full-time jobs (Statistics 

New Zealand, 1997). However the population of Waitara has remained relatively stable 

in comparison to the number of jobs lost, with only a net population loss of 171 people 

within the same ten-year period (ibid) . While Chapter Four provides a more detailed 



statistical analysis of the impact of this job loss on the community of Waitara, the 

question remains as to why, with the closure of the freezing works, the town did not 

experience a much greater population loss. 

18 



19 

CHAPTER TWO : SENSE OF PLACE - A CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW 

2.1 Introduction 

Planning and geography share a common interest in space and place. Generally, 

planning has focused on the need to exert some control over society's spatial 

arrangements (Sandercock 1998, p33) . Planning, as a discipline. has not obviously 

examined the history of, or people's attachment to, place. McLaughlin (1994, p 112) 

outlines how town planning since the l 920's has become quite detached from an interest 

in the actual social process of production of urban form and urban crisis . Eric Reade 

( 1987, cited in McLaughlin 1994) asserts that planners place great emphasis not on what 

is actually happening in the built environment, but rather on plans and the process of 

their production. Planning as a profession has established a dichotomy between social 

action and the management of physical space. Lucy ( 1994, p 309) concludes that: 

" In the intellectual arenas where planning academics and professionals operate, 
the connections between people and place are not adequately conceptualized, 
researched, or related to practical operations". 

The main literature of place and 'sense of place' is found in the writings of human 

geography. While interest in place as a theoretical concept has greatly increased among 

human geographers in the last two decades, the concept of "genius loci" or "sense of 

place" is derived from an ancient Roman concept. Norberg-Schulz (1980, p 18, quoted 

in Harvey 1996, p306-307) explains : 

"Genius loci is a Roman concept. According to ancient Roman belief every 
'independent' being has its genius, its guardian spirit. This spirit gives life to 
people and places, accompanies them from birth to death, and determines their 
character or essence ... The genius thus denotes what a thing is, or what it 'wants to 
be'. [Ancient man] recognised that it is of great existential importance to come to 
terms with the genius of the locality where his life takes place. In the past, 
survival depended on a 'good' relationship to the place in a physical as well as a 
psychic sense". 

The purpose of the following section is to examine how different theorists in human 

geography have interpreted the concepts of 'place' and 'sense of place', in order to 

develop a theoretical framework for this research. This chapter also briefly reviews 



20 

theories of economic restructuring, in order to explore the relationship between 

economic restructuring and the senses of place as experienced by long-term residents of 

Waitara. 

2.2 Review of Literature on Place and Sense of Place 

2.2.1 Positivism 

Place and, in particular, sense of place became key concepts in human geography in the 

I 970 ' s. The humanist conceptualisation of place was a response to the positivism which 

dominated the discipline of geography in the 1960's. Positivism, as promoted in the 

writings of Berry and Marble ( 1968), Harvey ( 1969), and Abler et al (1972), was based 

on the notion of scientific rationality and involved the use of mathematical models to 

define 'spatial interactions '. It was an attempt to explain in a scientific manner the 

spatial organisation of places. Space under the positivist model was viewed as objective 

(space is viewed as an empirical fact , indisputable and fixed) or relative (space is viewed 

as the relative placement of objects to other objects) . Places in tum were viewed as 

objective, independent entities. 

The abstract theories of positivism were translated into working models . Everything that 

was conceivably quantifiable was quantified. Theories were tested against objective 

data, experiments were viewed as repetitive and independent events. For example, 

positivist models measured the growth of cities as if each city was an "independent 

event"; as if there were no trade, capital flow, migration, or cultural and political 

influence between cities . 

But as Harvey (1989,p3) points out: 

"science can never be neutral in human affairs (it would otherwise be irrelevant); 
attempts to put ourselves outside history and politics at best produce well­
meaning pseudo-sciences (of which positivism is one example) and at worst so 
break that chain of moral connection between what scientists do and what society 
does as to sanction the grossest forms of political and social irresponsibility." 



While positivism fails to acknowledge people' s irrational attachments to place, it is 

important to recognise that its theories provided much of the theoretical basis for the 

development of normative planning. 

2.2.2 Humanist approach to place 

21 

By the l 970' s, however, human geographers had begun to stress the importance of 

people' s experiences of place and their sense of place. The work of early humanist 

theorists (Relph ( 1976) and Tuan ( 1977)) created a concern for the importance of place 

to human life, for place raised precisely the question of human meaning. They 

celebrated places as spaces given meaning by human feelings . Humanists defined space 

as "amorphous and intangible and not an entity that can be directly described and 

analysed" (Relph 1976, p8). Space, Relph went on to explain, "provides the context for 

places but derives its meaning from particular places". Space and time were viewed as 

social constructs . In particular, Tuan ( 1977) recognised that different societies produce 

qualitatively different conceptions of space and time. 

Both Relph and Tuan took a phenomenological approach to place. Phenomenology, 

Buttimer and Seamon ( 1980, p 148) explained, "strives for the actualization of context. 

As a way of study it seeks to meet the things of the world as those things are in 

themselves and so describe them". Phenomenological geography seeks to understand 

how people live in relation to everyday places, spaces and environments. It seeks to 

understand the essential structures of the human experience. 

This approach was adopted because, according to Relph (I 976, p4), " the foundations of 

geographical knowledge lie in the direct experiences and consciousness we have of the 

world we live in". Through these phenomenological philosophies, humanist geographers 

sought to recover the essence of the experience of place. Place, according to Tuan 

(1977, p54 ), "is a calm centre of established values". Relph (I 976, p38) stated that "to 

be attached to places and have profound ties with them is an important human need". 

"To have roots in a place is to have a secure point from which to look out on the 
world, a firm grasp of one's own position in the order of things, and a significant 
spiritual and psychological attachment to somewhere in particular"(ibid). 



22 

However, with all its promise of and attention to understanding the 'human experience' 

of place, phenomenology fails to fully explain the relationship between an individual's 

sense of place and events occurring in the world outside one' s immediate realm of 

experience. For example, it is important to note that places can also be oppressive and 

imprisoning, and that this may be influenced to a large extent by factors occurring 

outside that place. Relph ( 1976, p4 I) explained that "there is a sheer drudgery of place, 

a sense of being tied inexorably to this place, of being bound by the established scenes 

and symbols and routines". He went on to assert that drudgery: 

"is always a part of profound commitment to a place, and any commitment must 
also involve an acceptance of the restrictions that place imposes and the miseries 
it may offer. Our experience of place, and especially home, is a dialectical one -
balancing a need to stay with a desire to escape" (Relph 1976, p42) . 

While Relph ( 1976) identified that places involve restrictions he does not explain how 

these restrictions affect and influence people' s experiences of place. He also assumed 

that there are certain aspects of place about which everyone would feel similarly. For 

example, while Relph ( 1976, p58) outlined that " for different groups and communities 

of interest and knowledge, place has different identities", he does not discuss the 

potential conflict which may result from these different identities, or the possibility that 

there are no shared or common experiences of place. 

Related to the Humanist concept of place is the concept of placelessness, which 

describes the modem day situation arising out of the pressures of the market and 

globalisation where people no longer identify with or have a sense of place. Alvin 

Tofler ( 1970, p91-94, quoted in Relph 1976, p33) suggested that in the modem western 

society of the I 970' s many people feel at home wherever they are with people of similar 

interests, regardless of the particular place they are in. Relph ( 1976) outlined how place 

is being destroyed, rendered ' inauthentic' or even 'placeless' by the sheer organisational 

power and depth of penetration of the market. Tuan ( 1977, p 198) also discussed the 

concept of an inauthentic sense of place as "being rooted in a place is a different kind of 

experience from having and cultivating a 'sense of place"' . 

However, this concept of "placelessness" fails to acknowledge any sense of moral 

responsibility beyond the world of immediate sensuous and contemplative experience. 



The rejection of globalisation puts a place and an individual's sense of place in a time­

space vacuum, with no larger context. It produces a romantic and selective 

understanding of the places in which we live. It is the phenomenologist inability to 

incorporate the wider structures outside of a person's everyday experience which has 

drawn criticism from both Marxist and feminist geographers . 

2.2.3 Marxist geography 

23 

During the l 980's Marxist geographers such as Massey and Meegan (1982) and Massey 

and Allen ( 1984) began to examine the geography of job loss . Massey and Meegan 

( 1982) challenged the general neo-classical economic assumption that jobs are lost in an 

industry because that industry is itself in decline. This assumption , they asserted, was 

too simplistic and failed to explain the unevenness of the decline of the British 

manufacturing sector in the 1960' s, as to why job losses were occurring in some areas 

and not others. Massey and Meegan' s analysis provided a link between the 

conceptualisation of employment decline and geography. 

Massey and Allen (1984) developed this idea further and sought to theorise place as 

manifesting specificity within the context of general processes. This work raised a 

fundamental methodological question about the need to "keep a grip on the generality of 

the events, the wider processes lying behind them, without losing sight of the 

individuality of the form of their occurrence" (Massey and Allen 1984, p9) . Looking 

only at the general process does not adequately explain changes occurring in particular 

places . Massey and Allen urged geographers to once again focus on the local. 

Marxist geographers, such as Massey ( 1984, 1989) and Harvey ( 1990, 1996), 

emphasised that there is a need to acknowledge that we live in a world of universal 

tension not only between personal and interpersonal social relations, but also between 

the local and the global. Put more simply, Harvey ( 1996, p3 l 6) asserts that 

"what goes on in a place cannot be understood outside of the space relations 
which support that place any more than the space relations can be understood 
independently of what goes on in particular places." 



24 

Marxist theorists promoted the need for a new understanding of place which recognised 

that place construction, as with capitalism, is a process which creates tensions and 

conflict. In particular, there needs to be an implicit recognition of the influence of the 

speculative element of capitalist development, which often pits one fraction of capital 

against another. The tension between place-bound fixity and spatial mobility of capital 

therefore forces places to change. As Harvey ( 1996, p 296) states "old places have to be 

devalued, destroyed and redeveloped while new places are created". The history of 

capitalism, Harvey concludes, is "punctuated by intense phases of spatial 

reorganisation"(ibid) . For example, Harvey ( 1989, p6) links urbanisation and capitalism 

in the following way: 

"The study of urbanisation is a study of that process as it unfolds through the 
production of distinctive way of thinking and acting among people who live in 
towns and cities. The study of urbanisation is not the study of a legal, political 
entity or of a physical artefact. It should be concerned with processes of capital 
circulation; the shifting flows of labour power, commodities, and capital; the 
spatial organisation of production and the transformation of time-space relations; 
movements or information; geopolitical conflicts between territorially-based class 
alliances; and so on". 

In order to understand the process of place construction, then, we must also examine the 

general conceptions of capital accumulation. Harvey ( 1996, p297) contends that "space­

time relations have been radically restructured since around 1970 and this has altered the 

relative locations of places within the global patterning of capital accumulations". 

Urban places which once had a secure status now find themselves vulnerable to 

economic recession. Harvey ( 1990) coined the term "space-time compression" to 

explain this process of globalisation, with its vast reorganisations of capital as regional 

and local economics are increasingly locked in, not so much to national economies, but 

directly to the world economy. 

Harvey ( 1990) asserts that the influence of the market and globalisation has created a 

greater, rather than a lesser, quest for place and personal identity. The collapse of spatial 

barriers has resulted in a need for people to cling to: 

"place and neighbourhoods or nation, region, ethnic groupings, or religious 
belief as specific marks of identity. Such a quest for visible and tangible marks 
of identity is readily understandable in the midst of fierce time-space 
compression" (Harvey ( 1990, p427). 



25 

This position is also supported by Watts ( 1991 , p 10 quoted in Benko and Strohmayer 

1997, p 126) who states that "globalization does not signal the erasure of local difference, 

but in a strange way its converse, it revalidates and reconstitutes place, locality and 

difference". 

Later work by Massey (I 991 , 1992, 1993 and 1994) further develops this concept of 

globalisation and asserts there is a need to develop a new understanding of place which 

incorporates the influences of globalisation into the local experience. A new 

understanding of place, Massey ( 1993, p64) summarises, should be progressive, one 

which would fit in with the current global-local times . She (I 992, p 12) proposes the 

following progressive understanding of place: 

"If space is conceptualised in terms of a four-dimensional 'space-time' and, as hinted 
at above, as taking the form not of some abstract dimension but of the simultaneous 
co-existence of social interrelations at all geographical scales, from the intimacy of 
the household to the wide space of transglobal connections, then place can be 
reconceptualised too. 

Given that conception of space, a 'place' is formed out of the particular set of social 
relations which interact at a particular location. And the singularity of any individual 
place is formed in part out of the specificity of the interactions which occur at that 
location (nowhere else does this precise mixture occur) and in part out of the fact that 
the meeting of those social relations at that location (their partly happenstance 
juxtaposition) will in tum produce new social effects." 

Massey's understanding of place contains four key concepts ( 1994, p 155). First of all , 

the concept of place is absolutely not static. Places are conceptualised in terms of the 

social interactions which they tie together. These interactions are themselves not 

motionless things, they are processes. 1n this way places may also be viewed as 

processes. 

Second, places do not have boundaries in the sense of division which frame simple 

enclosures. While boundaries are useful for the purpose of the study of a particular 

place, they are not necessary for the conceptualisation of a place itself. Places 

themselves are defined through their linkages to that which is 'outside' . The specificity 

of place derives from the fact that each 'place' has a distinct mixture of the wider and 



more local social relations. The identity of place is in part constructed out of positive 

interrelations with elsewhere. 

26 

Third, places do not have single, unique ' identities'; they are full of internal conflicts. 

Massey ( 199 1, p276) states " for places, certainly when conceptualised as localities, are 

of course not internally uncontradictory. Given that they are constructed out of the 

juxtaposition, the intersection, the articulation, of multiple social relations they could 

hardly be so". Places are shared spaces and consist of a number of different but 

connected settings for interaction. 

Fourth, and finally, none of the first three concepts denies place nor the importance of 

the uniqueness of place. The specificity of place is continually reproduced. This does 

not mean that the past is irrelevant to the identity of place, rather that there is no 

internally produced essential past. Instead of looking back with nostalgia to some 

identi ty of place which it is assumed already exists, the past has to be constructed. This 

progressive understanding describes a sense of place which according to Massey ( 1993, 

p66) " is extra-verted, which includes a consciousness of its links with the wider world, 

which integrates in a positive way the global and the local". 

2.2.4 Feminism and place 

Feminist geographers have been pioneers on the frontier of theories about space and 

gender. McDowell ( 1983, cited in Spain 1992, p7) argued that urban structure in 

capitali st societies reflects the construction of space into masculine centres of production 

and feminine suburbs of reproduction. Places, space and our sense of place are gendered 

through and through (Massey, 1994). Feminist geographers Hanson (I 992) and Rose 

( 1993a and 1993b) are critical of the way in which humanist geographers describe place 

as a key organising concept yet have dealt with it as if it were completely ungendered. 

Rose (1993b, p44) goes on to state that early humanist geography "makes its claims 

about being able to access the essence of place in a highly authoritative manner". She 

asserts that these claims are masculinist because the essence of place is theorised in 

terms of an implicit masculine norm. Humanist geography falsely assumes that the 

experiences of men can represent all experiences. 



In particular, a group of feminist geographers argued in 1984 (quoted in Rose 1993b, 

p44)that: 

27 

" humanists tend to show a general concern for the way in which ordinary people 
are subject to various forms of authority, rather than analysing the specific forms 
of exploitation and oppression that occur". 

Rose (1993a, p 71) explains that geographers have perceived "place" as an enigma, 

which is very often characterised through images of the domestic maternal home. In the 

humanist tradition Tuan ( 1977, p 147) claimed that "hearth, shelter, home or home base 

are intimate places to human beings everywhere", while Relph ( 1976, p39) asserted that 

home is "an irreplaceable centre of significance" . 

However, the humanist view of place as "home" fails to acknowledge that the concept of 

"home" is a contested zone, especially in gender terms, where the socially sanctioned 

authority of men is pitted, in numerous cultures, against the authority of women rooted 

in the routine of the home. For many women their home may be a "prison house" rather 

than a "castle" as Tuan ( 1977) and Relph ( 1976) would lead us to believe. Overall, 

feminist critiques challenge us to confront the relativity of all knowledge about place and 

in particular to recognise that our gender influences the way in which we experience 

place. 

For as Massey ( 1994, p 187) writes; 

"space and place, spaces and places, and our sense of them (and such related 
things as our degrees of mobility) are gendered through and through. Moreover 
they are gendered in a myriad of different ways, which vary between cultures and 
over time. And this gendering of space and place both reflects and has effects 
back on the ways in which gender is constructed and understood in the societies 
in which we live". 

With the new wave of feminist thinking in the 1970s also came a spate of research on 

women and the urban environment. In particular, this research identified that 

"[w]omen face problems of such significance in cities and society that gender can no 

longer be ignored in planning practice" (Leavitt 1986, p 181 ). In support of the 

arguments presented by feminist geographers, feminist planners, such as Hayden ( 1980, 

1984 ), who wrote widely on the topics relating to women and the design of a western 

urban city, also acknowledged that women' s experience of place is different from that of 



men. However, Sandercock and Forsyth ( 1992, p53) assert that, while significant 

amounts of research in relation to gender exist in the field of urban design, "feminist 

planners are still struggling to incorporate the issue of women's safety into land-use 

planning" . 

2.2.5 Place as part of a structuration process 

28 

Historical geographers such as Pred (1984) and social geographers , such as Eyles ( 1985) 

have drawn on the theories of the sociologist, Giddens , in interpreting places as part of a 

structuration process . Eyles ( 1985, p4) describes the theory of structuration as a concept 

which involves a duality of structure. It "expresses the mutual dependence of structure 

and agency" (Giddens 1979, p69, quoted in Eyles 1985, p4). Structure refers to rules 

and resources, organised as properties of social systems, which in themselves consist of 

reproduced relations between individuals or groups, organised as regular social practices . 

Agency refers to a continuous flow of conduct, involving actual or contemplated causal 

interventions in the process of living (Eyles 1985, p4). 

In terms of structuration theory, sense of place is not merely a phenomenon that exists in 

the minds of individuals, but one that develops from and becomes part of everyday life 

and experiences. However, there is a need to examine the structures, mechanism and 

forces beyond our immediate observation. 

Eyles and Pred also challenged the notion that people' s sense of place is a uniformly 

experienced phenomenon. Eyles ( 1985) argues that different life-style and life-cycle 

groups, and social classes, may have differing senses of place of the same location. 

Eyles ( 1985, p 122-126) lists the dominant sense of place or ideal- types that arose from 

his research as follows: 

1. Social sense of place - place has social significance and social ties have place 
significance. 

2. Instmmental sense of place - place is a means to an end and its significance depends 
on whether or not goods, services, and opportunities are available. 

3. Nostalgic sense of place - people are dominated by feelings toward place at some time 
other than the present. 

4. Commodity sense of place - place is seen as an ideal place which is quiet, safe, and 
has certain valued facilities and types of residents . 

5. Platform/stage sense of place - place is like a stage on which life is lived out. 



29 

6. Family sense of place - place is family interactions and attachments . 
7 . Environmental sense of place - place is not important for its social, familial , or 

traditional meanings but as an aesthetic experience. Place is something to be lived in 
itself. 

In his 1985 study the 'social' ideal type was the most frequent sense of place identified 

by the individuals surveyed. Eyles made the following comments to explain the 

significance of this finding, when he wrote (1985, p 132-133): 

"The 'social ' sense of place is not only activity-related but also owes much to the 
importance attached to people, specifically family , neighbours and friends , in 
shaping and defining life in general. That appears to be a trivial remark. It is 
necessary to make it to establish the social meaning and relevance of place. We 
interact and identify specifically with 'people like ourselves ' in a locality. 
Patterned, stable and harmonious social relationships represent an important 
dimension for a happy life. Interacting with or simply living close to, people 
perceived to possess similar attributes provides a sense of belonging; it 
symbolises a sense of identity with people and place". 

It is important to note that Eyles himself recognised that "ideal-types are not theories . 

They do not provide a mechanism of explanation" (Eyles 1985, p 129). His study is 

important, however, because it highlights the importance of micro-factors, such as 

personal characteristics, circumstances, place-in-the world and place in the social and 

economic order, that shape and influence an individual's sense of place. For example, 

an event such as bereavement may result in a 'nostalgic ' sense of place, where an 

individual's sense of place is dominated by feelings of the past. An individual ' s sense of 

place is therefore not fixed , but changes in response to changes in personal 

circumstances . His research suggested that even within a group of individuals that are of 

the same social economic class and race, their sense or senses of place may vary. 

Under the Resource Management Act 1991 , a planner can only address an individual's 

environmental sense of place. Even the definition of amenity values under The Act 

must be rooted in natural and physical qualities and characteristics (Upton, 1996). 

However, Eyles's 1985 study of a semi-industrial town found that only two out of the 

162 respondents surveyed indicated that their sense of place was derived from the 

natural environment of a locality. He concluded that " place is not an independent 

phenomenon which people sense or experience in its own right. Life, existence, place­

in-the-world, seem to intrude and become manifest in sense of place" (Eyles 1985, 

p 129). The inability of the Resource Management Act to address these social factors , 



which are not associated with the physical environment, largely position an 

understanding of the meanings people derive from a place outside the Act. 

2.2.6 Cultural or post-modern geography 

30 

In contrast to the Marxist geographers, recent cultural and post-modern geographers have 

tended to foc us on the individual identity. In thi s section the term 'cultural geographers' 

refers to the body of literature written since the writings o f Carl Sauer. Pos t-modernist 

writers (such as Lyotard, 1984, and Rorty, 1979, quoted in Harvey, 1989, p7) have 

questioned whether any kind of meta-theory (such as that proposed by Marx) is 

legitimate at all. ln particular, the ri se of the post-modem attitude or outlook has been 

especially decisive in opening up possibilities of dialogue between explanatory 

paradigms by challenging all claims to universal truths . Ley ( quoted in Agnew and 

Duncan 1989, p5) asserted that " the post-modern struggle for place is viewed as part of 

a wider struggle over the de finitions of c ulture and attempts to ' rehumanize' urban 

space". 

Other postmodern w1iters, such as Rutherford ( 1990), also reject Marxist arguments that 

there is a direct correspondence between the economic base and political identities. 

Instead Rutherford 's writing focused on the cu ltural politics of identity and difference. 

Identity, asserted Rutherford ( 1990, p 19): 

"marks the conjuncture of our past with the social, cultural and economic relations 
we live within. Each individual is the synthesis not only of ex isting relations but 
of the history of these relations. [She/] He is a precis of the past. Making our 
identities can only be understood within the context of this articulation, in the 
intersection of our everyday lives with the economic and political relations of 
subordination and domination. There is no final deciding logic that masters and 
determines this complex structuring of identity". 

The idea that identity is never a static location, but contains traces of the past and what 

is to be is also supported by Hall (quoted in Rutherford 1990, p22). He wrote: 

"identity is not as transparent or unproblematic as we think . Perhaps instead of 
thinking of identity as an already accomplished fact, which the new cultural 
practices then represent, we should think, instead, of identity as a ' production' 
which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not 
outside representation" (ibid) . 



31 

Cultural geography ' s explanation of place is also concerned with describing people' s 

distinctive understandings of the world . Cultural geographers have focused on the 

individual ' s sense of place, or the identification with a place engendered by living in it 

(Agnew and Duncan 1989, p2) . Anderson and Fay ( 1992, p9) highlighted "the need to 

take seriously people' s ideas and values, especially those which are constitutive of 

broader moral and material systems". Cultural geography recognised that the process by 

which cultural understandings are constructed and reproduced through time and space is 

complexly negotiated. It involves not just the struggles of powerful groups to secure 

conceptual and instrumental control , but also the struggle of weaker groups to resist 

definitions that exclude and marginalise them (Anderson and Fay 1992, p8) . Senses of 

place are often also sites of conflict. 

Cultural geographers also argued that the everyday knowledge of ordinary people -

however distorted, contradictory, partial and biased, makes its own contribution to 

macro social and spatial structures, economic and political arrangements, environmental 

quality and other conditions (Anderson and Fay 1992, p I 0). However, post-modern and 

cultural geography's focus on individual identity has tended to produce a highly 

subjective sense of place. There is a tendency for description of place to be constructed 

"as otherworldly utopias by world-weary dreamers" (Women and Geography Study 

Group, 1997, p9). Moore (1997, p89) also warns that this focus on individual identity 

can lessen the importance of 'place' as a concept, outlining the problem as follows : 

"Despite studies of the historically, geographically, and culturally specific 
struggles over territory, rarely do the politics of place occupy critical ground. 
Ironically, as the procedural, dynamic, and power-saturated aspects of identity 
have become prominent features of cultural studies, they threaten to become 
relatively naturalised fixtures of the contemporary theoretical landscape, the 
backgrounds against which analyses carve themselves out" . 

Post-modern thought, with its focus on individual struggle for identity, has tended to 

obscure rather than reveal the fundamental issues of place construction. For while the 

notion of personal identity has been problematised and rendered increasingly complex by 

recent debates, the notion of place and its construction has remained relatively 

unexamined (Massey 1992, p 11 ). 



32 

2.3 Changing Understanding of Place 

There are many valid, if partial, ways of viewing place. As the modem, scientific 

conception of place has been challenged since the i 960's, so the notion of any meta­

theory or universal explanation of how places are constructed or experienced has been 

undermined (Table Two). The neo-Marxist conception of place as the site of 

accumulation and production has been modified by the recognition that places and our 

senses of place are also influenced by individual characteristics, such as gender. 

Feminist conceptions in turn have been challenged by the more individualistic and 

individualising tenets of post-modernism. However, the irony of post-modernity may be 

that, despite its emphasis on the individual and the unique manifestations of complex 

forces at any one place, there are also underlying common factors , such as the forces of 

the global economy, which inherently link places. 

These theories and approaches to place overlap and compete. Yet they may all be valid 

to a degree, each contributing to an understanding of the e lements of place and reflecting 

an intellectual if not social construction appropriate to its time. Hence, in the I 990's, 

improvements in technology and communication mean that places are directly linked 

into a global communication system, and thereby into global production systems. We 

can no longer ignore the impact of globalisation on our everyday lives, and on the place 

which we called ' home' . Our lives are also increasingly mobile; we may move a 

number of times in our lifetime in search of employment or lifestyle opportunities. 

Generations no longer rest within each other. Grandparents or cousins are rarely seen; 

many of us do not know where our ancestors are buried. An individual in the I 990's 

may have several places which they call 'home'. The humanists' concept of 

placelessness is no longer relevant in the I 990's, nor is the positivists' view that places 

are individual entities. 



33 

Table Two: Summary of main theories on place from 1960's until 1990's 

Year Theory Main concept of place 
1960's Positivism based on the notion of Places are viewed as independent 

scientific rationality. Involved the use entities. They are subject to rational 
of mathematical models to define analysis, and described in uniform or 
'spatial interactions', modernist manner. 

1970's Humanists phenomenological Place seen as the calm centre of 
approach created a concern for the established values. Often described in 
importance of place to human terms of the domestic home. 
existence. Belief that a sense of place was 

universal, i.e. everybody experienced 
a similar sense of place. 

1980's Structuration based on the concept Place not only exists in the minds of 
that place construction expresses the individuals, but are us shaped by 
mutual dependence of structure and mechanisms and forces beyond our 
agency. immediate observation. 

1980's - Marxist place construction viewed as Place, as with capital , viewed as a 
1990's the outcome of a process of global process. 

capital accumulation and local sources Places defined by interrelationships 
of reproduction. with the outside world. 

Globalisation has intensified the quest 
for place. 

1980's - Feminism space and place are Places are gendered, in that men and 
1990's gendered through and through. women experience place differently. 

Explains, in particular, occurrences of Place, when linked with humanist view 
masculine centres of production and of domestic home, often viewed as a 
feminine suburbs of reproduction in contested zone which oppresses 
relation to the organisation of modern women. 
cities. 
Questions ways of knowing. Stresses the need to question 

knowledge and ways of knowing in 
relation to place construction, as often 
in the past these have centred on 
masculine norms. 

late Post-modernism (modern cultural Sense of place is viewed as being 
1980's to geographers) focus on the individual highly subjective. 
1990's and search for individual identity. 

It is important to question, through 
dialogue, universal truths. 

Place viewed as part of a wider 
struggle over definitions of culture and 
individual identity. 

Understanding the evolution of thinking on place and its historical specificity is 

important in understanding the treatment of place in planning practice. Positivism, with 

its emphasis on scientific rationality, informed the rational comprehensive planning 

models of the 1960' s and 1970' s and is reflected in the writings of Faludi (1986, cited in 

Sandercock 1998, p62). According to Faludi the ideal planner appears as rational, 

detached, a-political, confident in the universality of planning principals to protect the 

public good. The Humanists and the social geographers, such as Eyles, stressed the 



34 

importance of a return to a focus on the individual , the non-rational and on every-day 

experience, which is reflected in Friedmann' s (1973) questioning of planning' s reliance 

on expert knowledge. Other critical theorists, including feminist and Marxist have also 

criticised the rational planning model. Feminist theorists argue that knowledge in 

planning is loaded with assumptions about the appropriate relations (of subordination 

and domination) between the sexes (Sandercock 1998, p70). Feminist planners, 

including Levitt (1986) and Hayden (1980, 1984), highlight the need for urban designers 

to recognise that men and women experience place differently. Neo-Marxist theorists 

have alerted planners to the need to integrate local planning issues with processes 

occurring on a national and global scale. 

The influence of the highly subjective post-modem theories on planning is less clear. 

Post-modernism and its application to planning is a contested zone. According to 

Goodchild (1990, p I 34) the post-modem sense of fragmentation is readily interpreted as 

leading in the direction of individualism and market-orientated interventions. Other 

theorists argue that the post-modernists' emphasis on discourse and communication 

supports a more communicative style of planning practice, with a greater use of local 

knowledge and the practical wisdom of everyday people (Forester 1989, Healy 1992 and 

Sandercock 1998). 

More importantly, the feminists, Marxists and post-modernists all emphasise a 

widespread disillusionment with the principle of comprehensive town planning. While 

the feminist and Marxists are more prescriptive than the post-modernists, all theories 

have contributed to a paradigm shift away from rational comprehensive planning. They 

point to a new style of planning which leads to an acceptance of the tensions and 

contradictions that have long existed in planning practice and yet which have been 

largely ignored by an emphasis on comprehensiveness and technical rationality. 

The challenge presented by this research is to develop a theoretical framework which 

examines the different elements contributing to senses of place as experienced by 

individuals in Waitara in 1998. As outlined in the previous chapter, Waitara's tradition 

as a 'freezing works' town has made it vulnerable to outside forces. Marxist theories of 

place, as adapted by Massey ( 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1994 ), emphasise the need to 

examine place and sense of place as articulated moments in networks of social relations. 



35 

Places, according to Massey, are defined through their linkages with the outside world. 

Massey ' s analysis of place provides a progressive and consistent analysis of the different 

elements which contribute to place, and sense of place, at a macro (or locality) level. 

The question posed in this research also requires an analysis of place at a more personal 

or individual level. Eyles ' 1985 study examines senses of place at the micro (or 

individual) level. It emphasises the need to listen to an individual's personal experience, 

to recognise that personal circumstances, such as age, gender, employment and stage in 

life, influence an individual ' s sense of place. 

By adopting a theoretical framework which is informed by both the works of Massey, a 

Marxist geographer, and Eyles, a social geographer, this research attempts to explore the 

concept of place at both a locale (macro) level and an individual (micro) level. The 

connection to macro level restructuring theory is vital in understanding how an 

individual's sense of place is influenced by the wider processes of economic 

restructuring. 

A research strategy combining different types of knowledge, in particular a statistical 

analysis of place with people' s stories, is also reflective of the 'new ' direction in 

planning proposed by Healy ( 1992), Forester ( 1989) and Sandercock ( 1998), whereby 

planning is viewed as a communicative and interpretative process . This research draws 

on both reason and people' s stories to provide an enriched account of Waitara in 1998 . 

It acknowledges that there is no one predefined way in which to understand how places 

are constructed and that the role of the planner is to listen and participate in respectful 

discussion, as well as to undertake processes of more formal technical analysis. 

2.4 Review of Economic Restructuring Theory 

Since the l 970's the term "restructuring" has become a frequently used word in the 

New Zealand vocabulary. By the mid 1980's, this term was frequently used to describe 

the once-only changes needed in the New Zealand economy to overcome our internal 

failings and make the country internationally competitive. "Restructuring", Le Heron 

and Pawson (1996, p5) wrote "was directed at 'restoring competitiveness', 

'reintroducing the free market' and 'giver greater investor autonomy'". It was justified 



by neo-classical and neo-liberal economic theory and analysis, which is essentially 

'placeless '. The social impacts of restructuring were often overlooked. 

It is beyond the scope of this study to explore in detail the context of those 'forces' 

36 

which contributed to the causes of the restructuring of the New Zealand economy since 

the 1970s. Rather, this research addresses the impacts of restructuring. A number of 

theorists, namely Massey and Meegan ( 1982), Massey ( 1984, 1995), Harvey ( 1996), 

Johnson (1989), Fagan (1989), Le Heron and Pawson ( 1996) and Johnston ( 1991 ) have 

addressed the impact of restructuring. Massey (1984) analysed the impacts of economic 

restructuring which has taken place in the UK since the l 960's in her publication Spatial 

Divisions of Labour. She proposed that we need to look at economic restructuring as the 

product of the differentiated and intersecting social relations of the economy. 

Restructuring, Massey went on to state, creates a "whole new set of relations between 

activities in different places, new spatial forms of social organisations, new dimensions 

of inequality and new relations of dominance and dependence" (1995, p3). 

Restructuring is not just about the loss of jobs, it is, according to Massey ( 1995, p4), 

about the "creation of a new space". Restructuring not only affects the nation 's 

economy, it also changes the social structure of the places in which we live. 

Restructuring is therefore viewed as an agent of change. 

Massey ( 1984, 1995) explored the major implications of the economic restructuring 

which has occurred in the UK since the l 960's on social structure and gender. Her 

analysis of social structure centred on the effects of restructuring on the British working 

class . While her analysis is not directly transferable to this research, there are a number 

of parallels that may be drawn between Massey' s analysis of the impact of restructuring 

on the social structure of the coalfield towns of South Wales, the North-East of England 

and Central Scotland, and the closure of the AFFCO plant at Waitara. Firstly, the towns 

outlined in Massey's study were all dominated by the coal mining industry. As with 

Waitara, they were single industry towns. Workers in the mines, as in the freezing works, 

forged strong work place bonds which were carried over into arenas of non-work 

activity, such as sporting teams and cultural groups. The closure of the mines and the 

freezing works not only affected the workers themselves, but, through workers ' 

involvement in social and cultural institutions, the wider community. These industries 

not only dominated the economic base of the town, but also its social structure. 



Secondly, both the mining and meat processing industries are male dominated, which 

has resulted in a lack of local paid employment for women. 

37 

In relation to gender, similar studies (carried out by McDowell, 1989, quoted in Women 

and Geography Study Group 1997, p 118-119) outlined how the "de-industriali sation, or 

the decline in employment in manufacturing in the UK has tended to mean the loss of 

jobs previously defined as male, while the growth of the service sector has been 

associated primarily with the increasing employment of women". However, McDowell 

warned that many of these new jobs have not only been lower paid than the (male) jobs 

lost, but are increasingly part time, short term and/or temporary. 

While the coal mining towns in Massey's (1995) and McDowell 's ( 1989) studies have 

had an influx of new service sector industries which provide employment for local 

women, the same cannot be said about Waitara. Waitara's crisis of redundancy is 

becoming a crisis of long-term unemployment, which affects both men and women. 

The dominance of the freezing works in Waitara restricted growth of other industry 

sectors. The closure of the freezing works has not led to growth of the town's service 

sector, simply because the town does not have a service sector of any significance. 

Another key theme in Massey's work is the relationship between the global and the 

local. The study of industry and production and thence location, Massey ( 1995, p 15) 

argued, "must be set in the context of broader social processes, both inside and outside 

the firm itself'. The decision to close the AFFCO meat processing plant at Waitara can 

therefore be viewed as a response to changes occurring in economic and political 

environments at both a national and international level. 

While Massey's work is useful in defining broad concepts, Australian geographers, 

including Fagan ( 1989) and Johnson (1989), warn of the dangers of applying it blindly 

to countries outside of the UK. Johnson ( 1989) criticises Massey for her ready use of 

the 'variable' of class, as represented by the British class system, in her analysis of the 

impacts of restructuring on social structures. On these grounds it is also questionable 

whether analysis based on the British class system is readily transferable in analysing 

changes occurring in New Zealand's social structure. For, as Fagan (1989, p67l) is 

careful to point out in relation to the application of Massey's work to the 



internationalisation of the Australian steel industry, "the generalisations about the 

restructured geographies cannot be parachuted simply onto the Australian industrial 

landscape". 

38 

Johnson' s analysis of the National Union of Mineworkers ' Strike of 1984-1985 also 

illustrated that an understanding of a place "involves uncovering the multivariate and 

inter-related nature of its culture" (Johnson 1991 , p 133). The arguments put forward by 

Johnson (1989, 1991) and Fagan (1989) support the need to adopt a restructuring model 

which provides a New Zealand context in order to fully understand the changes 

occurring in Waitara. 

Recent work by a group of New Zealand geographers (Le Heron and Pawson 1996) 

offers a geographic restructuring (GR) model which links the global effects of 

restructuring to the national and the local within a New Zealand context. A powerful 

element in the model is that it gives views both of external and internal structural change 

for the past decade in New Zealand. It offers an approach which may be used to 

comprehend more fully the influences at work in any context. The GR model 

emphasises six interrelated themes: 

• "Periods of restructuring are times of intensified change in a broader capitalist 
historical context. 

• Change in the organisations, industries and regions of a nation springs potentially 
from influences originating at all geographic scales. 

• Change is always a composite of the intersections of economic, cultural and 
environmental processes. 

• All processes are mediated by various kinds of regulatory arrangements prevailing 
over different territorial units . 

• The character of change in organisations, industries and regions comes from the 
particular mix and interactions of processes and regulatory structures operating within 
a nation. 

• The particular crisis conditions that lead to restructuring in each nation will differ" 
(Le Heron and Pawson 1996, p6). 

This model enables the restructuring which has occurred in New Zealand since the 

1970's to be viewed as a fusion of global, national and local influences. It acknowledges 

that "changes begin in places and impact on people in other places through processes 

operating at a variety of scales" (Le Heron and Pawson 1996, p6-7). 



39 

For capitalism, as well as promoting development and expansion, is also prone to 

periods of intensified restructuring or crises. Crises arise in capitalism when an investor 

finds it particularly difficult to generate adequate profits from production. These crises 

are an inherent feature of capitalism (Britton et al 1992, p6). Cloke and Goodwin (1992, 

quoted in Wilson 1995, p4 I 7) outline that the period since the 1970' s has been one of 

accelerated political and socio-economic change in advanced capitalist societies, due to 

the onset of global economic recession . 

2.6 Conclusion 

As planners we act on and with places . Planners must therefore be aware of both the 

wider forces that shape places and the unique characteristics of that place, including 

sensitivity to the residents ' senses of this character. For as geographers have shown, the 

character of a place is not only influenced by global or local forces but a unique 

combination of global, national and local forces which occur only at that location. 

The GR model is a basis for conceptualising place that allows explicitly for the external 

forces while also acknowledging the more unique and local forces that shape the places 

we plan for. It provides a basis for both understanding place and the planner's role an 

actor or agent in a particular place. 



40 

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 

3.1 Introduction 

This section outlines the methods used in this research . It aims to explore the "reflective" 

nature of the choice of research methodology and methods, for as Mc Lafferty ( 1995, 

p437) points out, 

"[t]he very acts of framing a research problem, collecting data, deciding on a set 
of methods , and interpreting or presenting findings are colored by our beliefs, 
theories, and experiences". 

Sarantakos (l 998, p32) defines a research methodology as "a model , which entails 

theoretical principles as well as a framework that provides guidelines about how research 

is done in the context of a particular paradigm". Research methods "refer to the tools or 

instruments employed by researchers to gather empirical evidence or to analyse data" 

(ibid) . The first part of this section will address the more substantive issue of the 

selection of a research methodology. The second part of this section will outline the 

research methods and techniques used. 

The literature on place and sense of place does not lend itself to one set of beliefs, values 

and techniques which calls for the adoption of a specific research methodology. This 

situation is acknowledged by Johnston ( 1991 , p69) who states that one of the major 

difficulties with much of the literature on regional geography - both the 'traditional' and 

the so-called 'new' - is that there is no obvious methodology or consistent methodology 

to systematically differentiate places . 

This view is supported by Klodawsky ( 1996, p 184) who, in her review of Massey's 

(1994) publication Space, Place and Gender, criticised Massey for the fact that she "does 

not provide the reader with many guideposts as to what would be an appropriate 

application of her arguments to a geographic study". Moss claimed that "research design 

as part of a geographer's methodological orientation is given little attention in the social 

geographic literature" ( 1994, p3 l ). 



41 

However, Massey and Allen ( 1984, p9) stated that in relation to understanding place, 

"the fundamental methodological question is how to keep a grip on the generality 
of events , the wider processes lying behind them, without losing sight of the 
individuality of the form of their occurrence. Pointing to general processes does 
not adequately explain what is happening at particular moments or in particular 
places". 

What is at issue, Massey and Allen (ibid) went on to explain " is the articulation of the 

general with the local (the particular) to produce qualitatively different outcomes in 

different localities". 

The methodological issue raised in this research is to address how an individual ' s sense 

of place is affected by the general processes of economic restructuring. 

3.2 An Interpretative Approach (Informed by Marxism and Feminism) 

This research is informed by a number of different philosophical approaches . 

A review of the literature on research methodology (Eyles and Smith 1988, Sarantakos 

( 1993, 1998) suggests that an adoption of an interpretative approach would promote an 

understanding of individuals' senses of place. Eyles and Smith ( 1988, p2) described the 

main task of interpretative geography as uncovering "the nature of the social worlds 

through an understanding of how people act in and give meaning to their own lives". 

Interpretative geography is "in sum concerned with the understanding and analysis of 

meanings in specific contexts"(ibid). Interpretative approaches "help focus attention on 

the study of specific locations". (Eyles and Smith 1988, p3). Interpretative research 

"helps to interpret and understand the actor's reasons for social action, the way they 

construct their lives and the meanings they attach to them, as well as to comprehend the 

social context of social action" (Sarantakos 1998, p38). 

lnterpretativists view reality as a set of subjective meanings which call for the adoption of 

qualitative methodologies (Sarantakos 1998, p60). Qualitative research is broadly 

defined by Sarantakos (1998, p45-46) "as everything that is not quantitative". One of 

the main characteristics of qualitative research is that it attempts to capture reality as it is 

seen and experienced by the respondents. It involves interaction with a small number of 



42 

respondents, who are chosen in a non-random manner. Information is generally gathered 

verbally. It aims to understand people, not measure them (ibid) . 

However, the adoption of an interpretative approach alone does not address Massey's 

methodological challenge to understand both general underlying causes, while at the 

same time appreciating the importance of the specific and unique. Marxist philosophies, 

such as those adopted in the writings of Massey ( 1984, 1989, 1991 and 1995) and Harvey 

( 1990 and 1996) stressed the importance of understanding the influences of the global 

accumulation of capital in the analysis of the impact on economic restructuring at a local 

level , Massey (1995, p289) explained: 

"Local uniqueness matters . Capitalist society, it is well recognised, develops 
unevenly. The implications are twofold. It is necessary to unearth common 
processes, the dynamic of capitalist society, beneath the unevenness, but it is also 
necessary to recognise, analyse and understand the complexity of unevenness 
itself. Spatial differentiation, geographical variety, is not just an outcome: it is 
integral to the reproduction of society and its dominant social relations". 

Massey urges researchers to look at the macro processes that are restructuring local 

political economies and focus on the change these macro processes are generating, 

whether they are linked to urban development schemes, constitution of place, or national 

government responses to recession-sensitive local economies. Marxist geographers stress 

the need to investigate the impacts of shifts, adjustments in the macro level on a place­

specific micro-diversity. They support the use of both quantitative methods to uncover 

macro processes and qualitative methods to understand the impacts on the micro level. 

In determining methodological choice recent feminist geographic literature (Staeheli and 

Lawson, 1995; Moss, 1994 and 1995; McLatterty, 1995; Mattingly and Falconcer-Al­

Hindi , 1995 and Rose 1997) has raised issues in relation to the need to carefully examine 

the collection and quality of data and to question what is being measured. Of particular 

relevance to this research is the stance taken by these writers that there is no 'objective 

truth' . 



43 

For as Moss (I 995 , p444) writes : 

"There is no presupposed vantage point in the search for truths in 
poststructuralist thought. Objectivity is not equated with a truth; rather, such 
thought permits the possibility of multiple truths. Care must be taken to assure 
that the subject is not split via choice of methods into an object separate from its 
subject. What multiple truths means for quantitative methods is that counting 
must be situated within a partial account of an indivisible subject/object" 

It is important therefore, where possible, to explicitly state the bias of both quantitative 

and qualitative data. In relation to quantitative data there is a need to recognise the 

limitations of empirical data. For as Mattingly and Falconcer-AI-Hindi ( 1995) write 

"[q]uantification brings with it some heavy baggage". In particular, they point to the 

need to be wary of the tendency to derive analyses of universal causality from 

inferential statistics . For there are many aspects of human experience not amenable to 

quantitative description and analysis. 

While Moss (1994) is careful to point out that there is nothing feminist about a method, 

feminists use of a method, in particular their insistence on making the position of the 

researcher known, is significant. Feminists, such as Linda McDowell ( 1992a, p409 

quoted in Rose 1997, p305), challenge researchers to "recognise and take account of 

our own position, as well as that of our research participants, and write this into our 

research practice". This process of acknowledging the role of the researcher is 

commonly referred to in feminist literature as reflectivity. A more detailed discussion 

on how reflectivity is incorporated into this research is outlined later in this chapter. 

The choice of research methodology in this research is therefore an interpretative 

approach which is informed by Marxist and feminist philosophies. Interpretative 

approaches support the use of qualitative methods to explore an individual's sense of 

place. Marxist philosophies support the use of a combination of both quantitative 

methods, such as an analysis of census data, and qualitative methods, such as in-depth 

interviews, to examine both general and unique processes which contribute to an 

individual ' s sense of place. Finally, feminist philosophies challenge the researcher to 

examine carefully the bias of both quantitative and qualitative data and its consequence 

for interpretation. In relation to qualitative data there is a need to acknowledge and 

state the position of the researcher, as this influences the way in which this study is 

conducted. 



44 

3.3 Role of Both Qualitative and Quantitative Methods 

The methodological issues raised in this research involve the need to address both the 

general processes of economic restructuring and the specific elements which contribute to 

an individual ' s sense of place. ln order to address both the 'general' and 'unique' 

processes there is a need to adopt both quantitative and qualitative methods . 

ln general , there are two parts to this research - a detailed 'macro ' level statistical phase, 

combined with a series of 'micro ' in-depth interviews . The quantitative-qualitative 

dualism is vital to understanding how an individual ' s sense of place is influenced by the 

wider processes of economic restructuring. Quantitative analysis provides a sense of 

where this research fits in socially, economically, politically and spatially. Qualitative 

methods document and expose an individual ' s sense of place, and enable research 

'subjects' to have a voice. 

The reliance on secondary quantitative data to explain the contours of differences, or the 

unevenness of the impact of restructuring in Waitara, compared to New Plymouth and 

total New Zealand population, is subject to two main limitations. Firstly, the ability of 

census data to show patterns of change is affected by the consistency of categorisation of 

the data across time frames and the type of questions included in census questionnaires . 

Secondly, while census data can plot job loss, which indicates the unevenness of the 

impact of global restructuring on Waitara over the last ten years, it cannot quantify 

individuals ' suffering and hardship. 

In contrast, the use of qualitative methods ( in-depth interviews) enables the researcher to 

explore aspects of human existence, such as an individual's feelings, thoughts and the 

meanings they attach to places, which are not amenable to quantitative description. ln 

this research, the use of qualitative research methods, in particular in-depth interviews, 

enriches the research by attempting to capture and describe how respondents feel about 

living in Waitara in 1998. 

The main limitation of qualitative methods relates to the lack of transferability of the 

research findings . This research is both temporally specific, as it relates to sense of place 



45 

as experienced by individuals in 1998, and spatially specific, as it relates only to 

Waitara. The inability to make generalisations from the qualitative aspects of this 

research leaves it open to the criticism of being limited to a 'case study'. However, to 

make this criticism would be a short-sighted dismissal of the aims and objectives of this 

research. Qualitative research offers insights and contributes to an understanding of 

place and the processes which contribute to the construction of places. 

Given the main aim of the research is to investigate how individuals' senses of place have 

been changed or altered by economic restructuring, it should be recognised that there is 

no 'standard experience' of living in a place at a particular time. To search for 

representativity in this study would be to limit analysis of 'sense of place' to a historical 

recording of social statistics. In tum, to focus only on the 'unique' (people's experiences 

of place) would also equally limit our understanding as to how processes, such as those 

described by statistics, influence an individual's daily existence. 

Figure Three: Research design and methodology 

Research -----+ Literature -----+ Interpretativ~ ; Summary and 
Question Review Research Findings 

+-- +--

Macro- Sense Macro Interviews 
Impact of of Place Factors analysed 
economic statistical by hand 
restructuring analysis according 

(situating to main 
Micro- Economic Waitara themes 
Describe Restructuring in general 
sense of context) 
place of Critical 
long-term Micro reflections 
Waitara Factors and 
residents In-depth conclusions 
in 1998 interviews 

(personal . ............. •- -· ... experiences) Synthesis 

. 
_J 

Note: The use of broken or dotted lines in Figure Three represents that the study was designed in such a 
way that the empirical research undertaken is continually (re)informing research questions and relevant 
literature. 



46 

Figure Three shows the overall design and methodology used in this research. It is the 

thoughtful integration of both qualitative and quantitative methods which enables this 

research to address both the general and unique forces which influence and impact on an 

individual 's sense of place. This practice of using multiple data collection methods is 

commonly referred to in research methodological texts as triangulation (Glesne and 

Peshkin 1992, Baxter et al 1997 and Sarantakos 1993, 1998). Glesne and Peshkin ( 1992, 

p24) claims that the "use of multiple-data-collection methods contributes to the 

trustworthiness of the data" and can "increase confidence in research findings" . 

3.4 Research Design and Methods 

3.4.1 General issues 

This section addresses the reasons, strengths and limitations of the research methods and 

techniques employed in this study. 

Selection criteria and sampling issues 

As the topic defined to a large extent the place where the research would be undertaken, 

the first substantive issue was to formulate some criteria to direct who would be included 

in the study. As previously stated, a review of the literature on place gave no indication 

as to who, and what number of respondents should be included in the qualitative part of 

this study. Time and resource constraints also signalled that the research would need to 

focus on a particular section of the Waitara population, rather than attempting to 

represent the entire population. 

Two main factors , ethnicity and length of residency, informed selection criteria for the 

qualitative section of the study. Participants would need to be European/ pakeha, and 

have lived in Waitara for the majority of the last twenty years. A review of literature on 

place, in particular Eyles 1985 study, indicated that length of residency and knowledge of 

events which had occurred in the past had a strong influence on an individual's current 

sense of place. A period of twenty years was chosen, as this would enable people to have 

experienced living in Waitara when it was relatively prosperous, as well as in its current 



47 

times of economic recession . It was also relatively easy from historical and census data 

to construct a brief sketch of the major changes in Waitara in the past twenty years in 

which to situate respondents ' stories. The decision to exclude ethnicity as a factor in this 

research is discussed below. 

Eyles ' s 1985 study also points to a number of other factors such as gender and age which 

can influence an individual's sense of place. An analysis of the composition of the 

Waitara population over the past ten years also indicated that age may be a significant 

factor in relation to an individual 's attachment to place. The initial sample was stratified 

in an attempt to allow for the influences of age and gender. Glesne and Peshkin ( l 992, 

p25) explained that in qualitative inquiry "[s]tratification means thinking in terms of 

important variables related to the problem". However, "the open nature of qualitative 

inquiry precludes the ability to know either all of the important selection criteria or the 

number of observation or interview sessions necessary to gather adequate data. The 

selection strategy evolves as the researcher collects data" (ibid) . 

A purposeful sampling technique was used to recruit the first five respondents. Baxter et 

al ( 1997, p5 l 3) described purposeful sampling as the search for "information-rich cases . 

Such respondents are at ease and talk freely with the researcher so that a great deal can be 

learned about the research question." These respondents were identified by informants 

who had lived in the Waitara community for a number of years . A snowballing sampling 

technique was also used, whereby respondents would often recommend other people who 

would meet the research criteria. 

Baxter et al (1997) pointed to the need to be mindful of self-selection bias when using 

snowball sampling techniques. Self-selection bias can also lead to a possible skewing of 

the sample characteristics . This is particularly relevant when interviewing retired people, 

who often recommended other older people to interview. In the current study retired 

people were easy to contact and had spare time, compared to respondents with young 

families . 

The first five interviews were all with people aged 60 years and over. There seemed to 

be a general consistency in their stories. To ensure all sub-groups of age and gender 

within the research setting (i.e. pakeha/ European people who had lived in Waitara for the 



48 

majority of the last 20 years) were given a voice, younger respondents were subsequently 

sought. Respondents were recruited until "redundancy" or "saturation" occurred, with no 

new themes or constructs emerging. 

In total 13 people were interviewed. The small sample size combined with the non­

random way in which respondents were selected limits the transferability of this research . 

However, the advantages of gaining willing participants, who presented information rich 

studies, outweighed the disadvantages and question of bias in such a small non-random 

sample. 

Reflexivity 

Feminist theory challenges the norm of objectivity that assumes that the subject and 

object of the research can be separated and that personal experiences are unscientific. 

Feminists emphasise the importance of reflexivity, the connections between researcher 

and subject, and the distinct perspectives of each (Harding, 1987, quoted in Mclafferty 

1995, p440). 

In particular, England (1994) argues that the researcher's positionality and biography 

directly affect fieldwork and that fieldwork is a dialogical process which is structured by 

the researcher and the participants. England asserts that in research inter-subjectivity and 

reflexivity play a central role. Reflexivity "is self critical sympathetic introspection and 

self-conscious analytical scrutiny of the self as researcher" (England, 1994, p82). The 

reflective ' (" of the researcher challenges the observational distance of neo-positivism and 

subverts the idea of the observer as an impersonal machine. 

The researcher cannot conveniently tuck away the personal behind the professional, 

because fieldwork is personal. A researcher, as England ( 1994, p85) points out, "is 

positioned by her/his gender, age, 'race' /ethn