Exploring sense of place in relation to urban facilities: evidence from Lisbon

Urban environments constitute the habitats in which an increasing number of people live. Place-making forms part of this living, occurring in the context of specific urban assemblages made up of facilities that serve different purposes. For example, Soho in London is characterized by entertainment facilities, while large parts of the Ruhr area in Germany are dominated by industrial features. In this article, we explore possible links between exposure to certain urban facilities and sense of place in Lisbon, Portugal. To do so, we use a web mapping-based survey that allows respondents to map and rate meaningful areas. These areas and their assessments are related to points of interest extracted from Google Places in a structural equation model using PLS-SEM. The results show that exposure to everyday urban facilities such as grocery shops is negatively correlated with place identity, while those that represent leisure locations are negatively correlated with place attachment. Both findings suggest that the temporal rhythm of exposure to certain features is an important factor. Methodologically, our study shows that scales differ between place concepts and their associated spatial footprints – an important finding for future studies. We end the article by offering conclusions and policy recommendations.