Space and Place

Most of us have a sense of and curiosity about the places and spaces around us. Think, for example, of the place you call home. You are probably familiar enough with its streets and buildings and landscapes and with the people who inhabit these spaces, to make connections among them-you know how to “read” the place. There are many other places, however, where this is not the case. Most of you have had the experience of going somewhere new, where it is difficult to find your way around. You might have experienced the disorienting feeling of moving from one home or school to another. How did you find your way? How did the “strange” space become a familiar place?

This essay requires you to draw on your own experiences to understand two fundamental concepts in cultural geography, space and place. Geographers tend to use the term space in a much more abstract way than place – as a term that describes a two-dimensional location on a map. Place, on the other hand is a less dry term, one that is used to describe a location that has meaning. Your school campus, for example, may have been just an abstract space, yet now it is a place because you have filled it with your own meanings/experiences.

Drawing on your own experiences, select one particular space that for you has become a place. Then answer the following questions, responding to each as numbered below. Therefore, you will have three responses (free response essays on the AP Exam always have 2-4 sections.)

Identify what you knew about this space beforehand and how you knew this (for example, perhaps you looked the place up in an atlas or heard someone describe it.) Describe the process whereby that space became a place for you. Identify in what ways you learned how to “read” this place. In other words, how did you learn to see this particular location as a three-dimensional, meaningful place that is different from what you knew of it as a space. Do you have to live