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‘Sense of Place’ Discourses in Anti-fracking Struggles and Lessons for Degrowth

By: Javier Lloveras, Adam Marshall

What is the role of ‘sense of place’ discourses in anti-fracking struggles and can the degrowth movement learn anything from them? To understand the role of place in socio-ecological struggles it is important to move beyond the conventional view whereby places are reduced to physical locations. Instead, space becomes a place when actors ascribe physical locations with specific meanings, experiences, memories, emotions, and symbolic value. Human geographers refer to these socially constructed aspects of place as sense of place, which form the basis of collective (political) identities, cultures and practices.