Experiencing place-change:A shared sense of loss after closure of village facilities

Rural communities often display strong emotions in response to closures of facilities and services. Research into explaining community responses hardly pays attention to the socio-psychological process of 'loss' of such local facilities, which occurs when place bonds are disrupted. This paper explores how a rural community makes sense of place-change by examining how residents interpret, evaluate and cope with local facility-decline. Three focus group discussions were conducted in Tzummarum, a village in the Netherlands, just after the closure of a local sports hall was announced. A theoretical framework for community coping-responses is used to interpret the empirical results. We find that while the closure of local facilities can result in a disruption of individual place bonds, there is a discernible shared sense of loss based on the social and symbolical meaning that certain facilities have for the village community. This sense of loss can help explain collective coping responses. However, this study found that collective action is only considered for local facilities that foster a sense of community, provided there is enough collective efficacy

Aversion to loss of place:The endowment effect for local facilities

Facility-decline is often met with community responses including protective behaviour. These reactions to place-change are preceded by the conscious and unconscious valuation of public places as communal assets and subsequent negative evaluation of closure. Previous studies show that closure of local facilities can be perceived as a loss to the community. However, a gap in place-based research in geography and environmental psychology is the lack of attention to psychological biases, such the endowment effect, that could influence in the perceived loss of facilities because people attach more value to something they are used to ‘having’. This paper uses insights from prospect theory as a reference point to theorise the socio-psychological process of dealing with place-change caused by the closure of local facilities. Analysis of a survey conducted in the Province of Fryslân, Netherlands, shows that positive subjective valuation of eight local facilities, as well as negative evaluation of closure, is influenced by the current availability and the social function of this facility in the neighbourhood. The results indicate that the endowment effect exists in the context of facility decline. This paper hopes to ignite a discussion, and to stimulate further research into the effect of psychological biases on place-based behaviour. Moreover, since previous studies show that a perceived sense of ownership and emotional and cognitive bonds can lead to endowment effects in other context, this study paves the way for research into the relationship between collective psychological ownership, place attachment, the endowment effect and overall aversion to loss of place.</p

Facility-smart:A serious game for questions relating to facilities and services in the living environment

'Facility-smart' is an analogue serious game for various issues relating to facility decline in rural and urban areas. It can be tailored to fit different cases, relating to different topics and geographical scales. It is designed as method for collaboration using a game board with various discussion elements around a topographical map of the specific case. Six to ten participants - real stakeholders with different interests - explore different future scenarios for merging, moving, maintaining, spreading or combining different facilities and services. It could be used for topics relating to health care, education, sports or even private facilities such as supermarkets