Explaining the Determinants of “Place Attachment” at the Scales of the Neighborhood and the City and Analyzing its Generalizability, Case Study: Historical Neighborhood of Sorkhab, Tabriz

Three main components of a place form this construct: evaluations, activities, and physical attributes. Place attachment involves positively experienced bonds, sometimes occurring without awareness, that are developed over time from the behavioral, affective, and cognitive ties between individuals and groups and their socio-physical environment. Weakening of human- place transaction is related to globalization, place mobility and environmental problems, bond and attachment to place (General Psychology) and behavioral issues. A general model of neighborhood attachment undoubtedly requires analyzing person-environment transactions by considering a larger amount of neighborhoods, in order to control the effect of specific areas. The research method is a descriptive-adaptive survey based on the study of documents that has been recently published in the context of measurement of places attachment. At the same time, a preliminary study has been performed in order to further recognize the location of the target place as well as to analyze the physical and social issues of that place for sample selection. The sampling of residents has been done with the method of clustering in which one hundred people have been chosen. In this study, the dependent variables are the place attachment (cognitive and emotional aspects) and the scale of the location (region and city). The neighborhood attachment is embedded in the relationships between physical, cognitive, affective and behavioral aspects of people-residential environment transactions. The cognitive component of neighborhood attachment is multi-faceted, being related to architectural, social and functional features. The affective component of neighborhood attachment increases with a growth of pleasant and arousing places, and the decrease of gloomy places in the neighborhood and the behavioral aspect has to do with the possibility to find places for socialization and leisure activities. Understanding the relationship between place attachment and place identity and activity characteristics is useful for planners, urban designers in making livability the meaningful urban places. The main aim of this study was to analyze the relationships between people and their residential environment by construct of place, in order to get indications for neighborhood improvement coming from real experiences for residents. The few studies considered more than one type of place demonstrate which means that attitudes towards place and their predictors may differ depending on the place scale. The previous researches reported a curvilinear, U shaped, relationship between scale of place and strength of place attachment. Neighborhood tended to attract fewer emotions than home or city. This paper is trying to study the theories and the organized framework of “place attachment” model. It also presents the findings of new researches about socio-demographic factors that influence on place attachment, its relationship to identity and place dependence and models for evaluating assumptions. The results to measure the validity and generalizability of items and dimensions of “place attachment” model, provide identity and place dependence as two dimensions of place attachment that the model, in three forms (people, dimensions and areas) are different and in the items of dimensions are generalizable. More, the finding of tests conducted in the central neighborhood of Tabriz showed that residents of historical-central areas feel more attached to their neighborhood and this effect cannot generalize to the attachment to the city. We found that there is direct relationship between cognitive and emotional dimensions of attachment to the neighborhood. The social-meaning factors in neighborhood scale and physical factors in city scale are such factors that influence on the place attachment. In addition, the residents in this neighborhood are mainly from a medium-low class, and this probably affects the choice of the residential environment, their cognitions, affect, and activities. Applicable solutions of the place attachment model in the sample of residential regions, especially in the cultural and historical contexts, indicates that considering the indexes of cognitive aspect of the model, it requires to create memorable spaces and increase the knowledge of people about their region in order to increase the place attachment of people to their region. On the other hand, making the physical spaces legible, for example removal of unrelated functions, making sufficient lightening with the aim of increasing the sense of security, increasing the green spaces, decreasing the closeness and limited visibility (Pattern or scheme), as well as the preservation and restoration of historical and cultural value of neighborhoods, for example rehabilitation of the neighborhood center, restoration and improvement of gates, Sorkhab market, improvement single monuments to maintain their identity and making self-confidence (the results of attachment to place) in the residents of neighborhoods and historical neighborhoods are meaningful for their residents.