Student Perceptions of Neighborhood Sense of Place Among Central European Neighborhoods

Abstract

Neighborhood sense of place characterizes how people create meaning from their experiences within neighborhoods. Differences in sense of place experiences may be due to individual characteristics, such as age and sex, and environmental and social neighborhood characteristics, such as the presence of greenspace or people hanging out along streets. Neighborhood sense of place is an important area of study because it can influence individual well-being and the degree to which people engage with neighborhood settings. During June 2017, UWEC students participated in a neighborhood sense of place assessment of five Central European neighborhoods as part of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Central European Travel Seminar (CETS) program. The purpose of this study is to examine similarities or differences among student perceptions of social and environmental characteristics of each neighborhood and the degree to which students preferred particular neighborhoods. In this study, we refer to sense of place as "the unique collection of qualities and characteristics… that provide meaning to a location".