Rethinking the Psychology of Place

David Canter, PhD (Psychology), PhD (Music Composition), is Emeritus Professor at the University of Liverpool, UK. He established the first graduate program in Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey, UK in 1973. He has published a number of related books, including Psychology for Architects, Environmental Interaction, Architectural Psychology, Designing for Therapeutic Environments, Football in its Place and Readings on the Psychology of Place. The 1977 Psychology of Place continues to garner thousands of citations. He is also internationally acclaimed for his work in Criminal Psychology, creating the field of Investigative Psychology, the origin of which is described in his award winning Criminal Shadows. The television series, combining his expertise in environmental psychology and investigative psychology, Mapping Murder, which he wrote and presented has been widely broadcast, giving rise to a popular book of the same name. In addition to his scholarly activities, radio and television broadcasts and popular blogs he has consulted with major architectural firms and blue-chip companies and provided evidence in court and to government enquiries.

David Canter’s 1977 Psychology of Place was one of the first comprehensive examinations of the psychological dimensions of places and place experiences. This new “rethinking” of the original work is striking and valuable because Canter illustrates how a better understanding of place and placemaking can provide a physical bulwark against social media, virtual reality, community dissolution, and a smothering placelessness. After reviewing the wide-ranging interdisciplinary research on place, he examines placemaking via architecture, urban design, and landscape restoration. His in-depth discussion is an excellent distillation of the academic and professional progress that place researchers have made over the last fifty years. The book is a compelling contribution to the expanding work on place identity, place attachment, and placemaking. Canter makes a plea “in praise of actual, real presence and all it implies.”David Seamon, Professor Emeritus of Environment-Behavior and Place Studies, Department of Architecture, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas USA; Editor, Environmental & Architectural PhenomenologyOur thoughts, emotions, and social interactions are invariably influenced by the physical contexts in which they occur. What made David Canter’s 1977 book so significant was its dual focus: while it aimed to identify the cognitive systems that enable individuals to interpret and navigate their surroundings, its deeper contribution lay in its exploration of the meaning of place —the idea that people and environments are inseparably connected. The unique value of environmental psychology lies in its effort to understand this dynamic relationship. This completely updated edition of The Psychology of Place incorporates five decades of research exploring how we understand different types of places from rooms and buildings through to the cities and landscapes, and considers the implications for both individuals and public policy. Today, we are better equipped than ever to understand why the psychology of place truly matters, and David’s book continues to offer vital insights into this important field.David Uzzell, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Psychology, University of Surrey,UK. Fellow of the British Psychological SocietyIn his latest book, David Canter reconstructs the ‘place’, theme of his 1977 book, in a coverage now vastly broadened. He shows that while place operates as various parts of speech, principally as a noun, but also as a verb, it is most fruitfully considered as a powerful, all-embracing concept. This extraordinary book broadens our understanding of "place" much further than Canter´s earlier writings on the subject, transcending various disciplines and a lifetime´s work. It represents many years of extensive, challenging research over more than half a century, drawing upon a vast realm of experience.David Stea, Distinguished Professor, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, andat University of Wisconsin, USA.

• List of Figures, List of Tables, Prologue, The Book Ahead, Introduction, Chapter 1: What Is a Place?, Chapter 2: Making Places Happen, Section I: Exploring Places, Chapter 3: Studying the Psychology of Places, Chapter 4: Active Engagement with Places, Chapter 5: Expanding Explorations of Place Experience, Section II: Buildings, Chapter 6: Home as the Archetypal Place, Chapter 7: How Architecture Works, Chapter 8: The Functions of Architecture, Chapter 9: The Grammar of Places, Chapter 10: Signifying Places, Chapter 11: How Buildings Mean, Chapter 12: Post-Modernism and Beyond, Section III: The City, Chapter 13: The City Street, Chapter 14: Maps in Minds, Chapter 15: Place Attachment and Involvement, Section IV: Landscape, Chapter 16: Approaches to Landscape: To Use or to Dwell, Chapter 17: Preferences for Landscapes, Chapter 18: The Enigma of Restoration, Conclusions, Chapter 19: A Psychology of Places, Epilogue, Appendix: Beyond Reductionism, Selected Bibliography on Place, Acknowledgments, Index.