| Abstrakt: |
Attachment to place is believed to play a fundamental role in understanding residential mobility, however, there is still very little understanding of what attachment actually means, its dimensions, who is attached, and in what ways. This paper addresses each of these questions by analysing the results of a National Attachment Survey administered to 1001 people in New Zealand in 2005. The international literature on place attachment points to its multidimensionality. Collectively these are expressed in terms of attitudes (e.g. sentiment and satisfaction) and behaviour (formal and informal social networks). Based on the survey responses, principle components factor analysis is applied to retrieve five dimensions which are subsequently labelled sentiment, friends, relatives, participation in, and satisfaction with the community. Each of the five dimensions of attachment, are regressed on a suite of demographic variables revealing how different subpopulations are associated with different forms of attachment. Different characteristics of places were also found to invoke different dimensions of attachment, even after controlling for the characteristics of respondents. Both sets of results, for individuals and places, have important research and policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
