Making sense of ‘place’: Reflections on pluralism and positionality in place research

• Place research has roots in several loosely related critiques of positivist epistemologies.
• Place offers a framework for comparing pluralistic positions on knowledge and meaning.
• Describes inherent, instrumental, sociocultural, and identity layers of place meaning.
• Norms for sensible place-making may be grounded in place as bios, ethnos, and demos.
• Understanding place requires access to both objective and subjective views of reality.

Drawing on critical pluralism and positionality, this essay offers a four-part framework for making sense of the manifold ways place has been studied and applied to landscape planning and management. The first element highlights how diverse intellectual origins behind place research have inhibited a trans-disciplinary understanding of place as an object of study in environmental planning and management. The second focuses on ontological pluralism as found in attempts to make sense of place meanings by (a) fleshing out four layers of place meaning that vary in terms of tangibility, commonality, and emotionality and (b) critiquing four methodological approaches to identifying place meanings. The third looks at making sense of place-making as a way to highlight ontological and epistemic pluralism in studies of the material and social-discursive practices that create, govern, and transform places. In particular it draws attention to the way place meanings, knowledge, and practices are always situated or positioned. The fourth highlights axiological or normative pluralism as reflected in various prescriptive notions of place-making as the outcome of deliberate efforts of people to try to shape, contest, and/or otherwise govern the landscape. These include place as bios, ethnos, and demos as normative ideals for prescribing what constitutes a good place and underscores the challenge of adjudicating across different conceptions of sensible places. This paper concludes by reiterating the ways that place research and practice can benefit from both a critical pluralist perspective and a heightened awareness of the diverse positionalities occupied by observers of and actors in the landscape.