Exploring the Dimensions of Place Attachment to Event Venue Based on Grounded Theory: Case of International Horticultural Exposition 2011 Xi'an, China
Received date: 2011-10-09
Request revised date: 2012-03-29
Online published: 2012-07-20
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Place attachment is a hot topic in place study which is defined as an individual’s cognitive or emotional connection to a particular setting or milieu, which attracts a great concern of researchers in the field of human geography, urban sociology, community science, environmental psychology, and behavioral science. However, place attachment study is seldom related to event venue. A literature review shows that most researchers treated event as an attribute of event host community to study the place attachment between people and host community, but paid little attention to event venue itself. As an inductive research approach, grounded theory is appropriate for situations where no pre-existing theory exists, which indicates its usefulness for the exploratory study on place attachment in event venue. The primary purpose of this study is to document the meanings event-goers attach to a specific event venue. If those meanings are known, managers can more effectively plan for the management of venue deemed to be special by their constituents. As an exploratory research, the International Horticultural Exposition, 2011, Xi'an (Expo 2011 Xi'an, China) is taken as a case, and first-hand data are collected from observation and interviews. The task of observation and interviews is to find out what factors in venue significantly affect the cognition and emotion of event-goers. Interviewees were asked to respond to a series of instructions regarding the venue of Expo 2011 Xi'an, China. The instructions are as follows: 1) describing in a few sentences what the venue is like—for example, what the venue looks, sounds, smells, or feels like, important features presented, and so on; 2) describing the thoughts, feelings, memories, and associations that come to mind when they think about this venue; 3) why this venue is important or special to them. To ensure diversity in types of event-goers in levels of experience, a systematic sampling strategy is employed. On-site sampling is divided into six days (four week days and two weekend days) from June 5 through July 20, 2011. A total of 21 respondents provid key messages for theory construction. Then the attribute of event venue attachment is analyzed from aspects of behaviors, attitudes and emotions of event-goers. The dimensions of place attachment in event venue based on grounded theory are refined and summarized through three analytic procedures: open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. In open coding, the article extracts 68 native concepts in conceptual stage and forms 16 categories after categorization. The atudy establishes relationships among categories and forms four main categories in axial coding: person, society, place, and event (PSPE). Finally, a PSPE conceptual model of place attachment in event venue is contructed after selective coding. Person and society belong to human dimension. The perception object of people is a combination constituted by event and host community. Local factors and distinctiveness of event are integrated in the event venue. The article takes event dimension apart from place dimension, and further subdivides human dimension into person and society, which makes subjectivity and dominant nature of place attachment in event venue more clear and accurate.
Key words: place attachment; dimension; event venue; grounded theory; Expo 2011 Xi'an
DAI Guang-quan , LIANG Chun-ding . Exploring the Dimensions of Place Attachment to Event Venue Based on Grounded Theory: Case of International Horticultural Exposition 2011 Xi'an, China[J]. SCIENTIA GEOGRAPHICA SINICA, 2012 , 32(7) : 777 -783 . DOI: 10.13249/j.cnki.sgs.2012.07.777
Table 1 Sample of key respondents表1 重点调查对象样本情况 |
编 号 | 客源地 | 参与方式 | 职业 |
---|---|---|---|
YM1 | 陕西西安 | 同事结伴 | 公司职员 |
YM2 | 陕西西安 | 家人结伴 | 个体老板 |
MM1 | 湖南株洲 | 散客独行 | 个体老板 |
MF1、MF2、MM2 | 湖北武汉 | 单位跟团 | 事业单位 |
MF3 | 山西大同 | 朋友结伴 | 事业单位 |
YM3 | 陕西汉中 | 单位组团 | 事业单位 |
YM4、YM5、YF1、YF2、YF3、YF4 | 陕西渭南 | 同学结伴 | 高中学生 |
YF5 | 陕西西安 | 散客独行 | 公司职员 |
OF1、OF2、OM1 | 浙江杭州 | 散客跟团 | 退休人员 |
YM6、YM7、YM8 | 山东临沂 | 学校组团 | 大三学生 |
Table 2 Concepts and categories in open coding表2 开放性译码的概念与范畴 |
概念化 | 范畴化 | 概念化 | 范畴化 | 概念化 | 范畴化 | 概念化 | 范畴化 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
a1学习园艺 a2详细的介绍 a3前有未有的见识 a4开开眼界 | 1. 自我发展 (a1~a4) | b1炫耀 b2跟朋友一起 b3和情侣一块 b4把照片发网上 | 5. 社会交往 (b1~b4) | c1天气太热太晒 c2空气很好 c3这园子太大了 c4水没处理好 | 9. 自然环境 (c1~c4) | d10微缩景观 d11真的是傣族人? d12本国人表演 d13商业气氛太浓 | 13. 原真性 (d10~d13) |
a5有必要看一下 a6对人生有点意义 a7拍照留念 a8护照盖章回忆 | 2. 人生经历 (a5~a8) | b5带老爸老妈去 b6陪陪老婆 b7尽父亲的责任 | 6. 家庭责任 (b5~b7) | c5十三朝古都 c6文化底蕴 c7西安的新景点 c8西北的地方 | 10. 旅游意象 (c5~c8) | d14各个地方的 d15不打眼 d16特色 d17雷同 | 14. 独特性 (d14~d17) |
a9好奇好玩 a10休息放松 a11审美愉悦 a12爽快舒服 a13参与体验 | 3. 休闲娱乐 (a9~a13) | b8东道主 b9配合政府 b10做点贡献 b11陕西人 b12西安人 | 7. 公民责任 (b8~b12) | d1园林艺术 d2园艺展览 d3各种建筑 d4环保生态 d5奇花异草 | 11. 主题内容 (d1~d5) | d18演出活动 d19巡回表演 d20嘉年华 d21逛公园的感觉 | 15. 节日氛围 (d18~d21) |
a14很累很晒很渴 a15排队费时间 a16来一趟不容易 a17自家门口方便 a18方便再去 | 4. 阻碍因素 (a14~a18) | b13中国的盛会 b14世界的盛会 b15看看国家的文明程度 b16环保低碳 | 8. 社会参与 (b13~b16) | d6世界性的 d7盛会盛事 d8外国人不多 d9主要是陕西人 | 12. 规模影响 (d6~d9) | d22一点都不人性化 d23服务不够细腻 d24没有准备好 d25休息地方太少 d26咱们是绕圈达人 | 16. 基础服务 (d22~d26) |
Table 3 The main categories after axial coding表3 主轴译码后的主要范畴 |
范畴 | 主要范畴 | 范畴 | 主要范畴 |
---|---|---|---|
1. 自我发展 2. 人生经历 3. 休闲娱乐 4. 阻碍因素 | 个体 (1~4) | 9. 自然环境 10. 旅游意象 | 场所 (9~10) |
11. 主题内容 12. 规模影响 13. 原真性 14. 独特性 15. 节日氛围 16. 基础服务 | 节事 (11~16) | ||
5. 社会交往 6. 家庭责任 7. 公民责任 8. 社会参与 | 社会 (5~8) |
Fig. 1 PSPE (person, society, place and event) conceptual model of place attachment in event venue图1 节事场所依赖的PSPE概念模型 |
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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