![]() ![]() As already mentioned, place involves both territory and people. No single way is completely satisfactory everyone must draw artificial boundaries in order to describe the relationships between and among places. These relationships can be described and analyzed in many different ways. One of the most important aspects of time is the considerable inertia (or path dependence) in urban settings, economic specialization, socioeconomic composition, institutions, and other characteristics of places. The connection between Northam in 2001 and Northam in 1990 may be as important as the one between Northam in 2001 and Southam in 2001. In addition, places evolve over time, so connections across time are also important. The character of a place, its identity, and its people’s sense of rootedness are shaped by interactions within the place and with other places. Interpretation is complicated even more if we rely on statistical averages to measure livability, as we do frequently in practice. A change in an indicator might not even be relevant for most of the people who lived there at either time, if the composition of the population changed rapidly. Even if we agree on how to measure livability for people who lived in Northam in 1990, and then for people who lived there in 2001, the collection of people is different at the two times, and the changes we describe are not necessarily relevant for every person there in 1990 or in 2001. ![]() We may observe-in data or analysis-a fixed territory over time, but we are seldom observing a fixed collection of people. Like livability and sustainability, place is an ensemble concept.Ī definition of place that recognizes the importance of location or territory and people has implications for the interpretation of livabilityĪnd for the kind of data needed for place-based decision making. A place is distinguished by its people, markets, governments, and institutions, as much as it is by its physical landscape and natural resources, transportation systems (including streets and roads), buildings, and boundaries. One must avoid the temptation to think of place only as a location or a piece of territory, despite the fact that many data are collected and presented for a specific territory, especially territory delimited by political boundaries. They not only have a location, territorial domain, and natural environment, but also are social constructs, shaped by human behavior and interactions. However, it is difficult to measure what matters about places because their nature depends on both physical and social characteristics. The internal structure of places and the differences between places also matter greatly in terms of socioeconomic inequality. The individual characteristics of places are vital in determining quality of life. People live in places, move within and between places, and depend on the movement of goods to and from places. An understanding of place is fundamental to the concept of livability, including transportation-related aspects of livability. ![]()
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