Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience by Yi-Fu Tuan (review)

Books 251 socialbehavior is marked by esthetic factors rather than only by practical considerations. If he were to achieve this, then sociology would become the art of human interaction, a conception of sociology as an art form the author does not here imagine. Finally, Nisbet has not quite mastered his own prescription for an artistic sociology. In too many places the book reads summarily. glibly and banally, sometimes like the Durant’s Story of Civilization, sometimes like commercially published ‘crib notes for students to use for cheating at examinations (Canadians know these best as ‘Cole’s Notes’). Yet to use the art forms of landscape, portrait, panorama and diorama to present sociological thought and reports may appeal to many readers of books and be pedagogically appropriate for introductory courses in sociology.The book may even be read in these courses as a companion piece. say. to Peter Berger’s Invitation to Sociology (London: Allen Lane, The Penguin Press, 1970),if this is still being read. Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience. Yi-Fu Tuan. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minn., 1977. 235 pp. $12.95. Reviewed by N. N. Patricios* The title of this latest book from Tuan is stimulating and apt as lhany minds have endeavoured to sort out the characteristics of and differencesbetween space and place. The approach adopted is very interesting-that of the experiential perspective. From a promising start, however, I was somewhat let down in the end as I could not focus on precisely what Tuan’s terms ‘space’ and ‘place’ mean. Throughout this admittedly exploratory work, ‘space’ is expressed as freedom. openness, ability to move and something to be marked o f f and defended. Whereas ‘space’ is undifferentiated , ‘place’is taken as a definiteobject that provides a feeling of security and stability, to which felt value is attached and that isa source ofconfidence, dueto one feelingat home or at ease in a place, or that it is familiar and can be taken for granted. ‘Unknown space’ becomes ‘familiar place’, ‘abstract space’ becomes ‘concrete place’. ‘Space’,Tuan explains, is experienced relativeto the location of objects or of places and, abstractly, asa network of places. Place and objects thus seem to define ‘space’. Themajority ofchapters,more than half the book, deal mainly with ‘space’with somereferenceshere and there to place. There is an implicit continuum in these chapters, with ‘feelings’of space at oneend and ‘concepts’of spaceat the other. Feelingsincludea child‘s experienceof space and then how certain spatial divisions and values owe their existence and meaning to the human body anddistanceasderived from social relations. A further chapter is concerned with spaciousness and crowding as antithetical feelings. ‘Spatial ability’ is discussed by Tuan basically as a succession of movements, but, when conceptualized, this takes the form of orientation and navigation. Then followconcepts of ‘mythical space’ based essentially on cosmology. Tuan unfortunately underestimates the articulation of the occidental cosmological system founded on cardinal points in that he fails to recognize adequately the Greek and Roman contributions. Although ‘abstract or theoretical space’ and ‘pragmatic space’ areidentifiedas two types additional to ‘mythicalspace’,they are not discussed in detail. Also, if a range of spatial experience is promised, it is somewhat disappointing not to find any description of feelings about ‘outer space’ and ‘confined space’ such as in underwater capsules. An interesting chapter is that of ‘space creation and awareness’ in architecture, followed by a chapter in time in ‘experiential space’. Cosmogenic and human mythic time may not be only linear and one-directional, as Tuan believes, as is evident in beliefs of reincarnation. The few chapters on ‘place’ deal with intimate experience of place, attachment to homeland, the making of place and the question of time and place. It is clear that feelings play a predominant role in defining place while conceptualization is restricted to visibility in the making of place. While in the remainder of the book ‘place’is related to familiarity, sentiment and so on, it takes on a new definition in one chapter when conceivedas stable objects that catch our attention. There seems to be some difficulty in this conceptualization of ‘place’ as a highly visible symbol, unless one ignores the time factor...