Space appropriation and place attachment: University students create places

•Appropriation processes are ways of transforming “space” into “place”.•University students described activities near campus and in Paris as a whole.•In both, active travel and time spent in student activities predicted attachment.•These student activities-to-attachment relationships were mediated by appropriation.

“Appropriation” has been studied as a mechanism by which space is transformed into place. The present research tested two models of appropriation and place attachment among university students (n = 247), one in their university's neighborhood and the other in Paris as a whole. In both models, the relation between time spent in the setting and attachment to the setting was mediated by students' appropriating behaviors (the mean of three measures: exploration through route variety, exploration via diversity of destinations, and knowledge of landmarks). Results were complicated, with both models revealing combinations of full and partial mediation but both indicating that time alone was not related to attachment. Instead, appropriating behaviors were related to higher attachment. Both models support the idea that appropriation is a mechanism by which attachment develops, thereby encouraging additional research on this important and complex process.

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