Unpacking Sense of Place and Place-making in Organization Studies: A Toolkit for Place-sensitive Research

There is increasing interest in organizational scholarship in the role of place. To support these developments, we offer a framework for place-sensitive research in organizational analysis. The notion of place refers to a unique location, endowed with a material from and a socially constructed set of meanings. In line with the phenomenology of place, our framework first distinguishes between two ontologies of place: place as experience-through which people develop a sense of place-and place as practice-through which people engage collectively to make places. Second, our framework distinguishes between three temporal orientations in relation to place: past, present, and future. We then draw from research in geography to reflect on two under-explored methodological toolkits to collect data on and analyze place as experience and place as practice in organization studies: walking interviews, and geographical videography.

Automated summary

This article provides a framework for place-sensitive research in organizational analysis, distinguishing between place as experience and place as practice. It also discusses three temporal orientations in relation to place and introduces walking interviews and geographical videography as methodological toolkits for data collection and analysis of place as experience and place as practice in organization studies.