Healing in places of decline: (re)imagining everyday landscapes in Hamilton, Ontario.
Ongoing interest in therapeutic landscapes has contributed noticeably to the development of a "post-medical geography of health" (Kearns, R.A., Professional Geographer 45 (1993) 139). Drawing on a variety of sources, including in-depth interviews and newspaper coverage from Hamilton, Canada, this paper explores the processes by which ordinary places are characterised as healthy or unhealthy, and investigates how health-affirming and health-denying places exist together in everyday life. We argue that it is possible for places to simultaneously hurt and heal, and that the therapeutic effect of place is largely contingent on individuals' physical and social locations. Further, we attempt to illustrate how these meanings are negotiated at a variety of different geographic scales.
Wakefield
Sarah
S
Department of Geography, University of Toronto, 5th Floor, Sidney Smith Hall, 100 St. George St., Toronto, Ont., Canada, M5S 3G3.
McMullan
Colin
C
D017753:Ecosystem; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D009864:Ontario; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012306:Risk; D012935:Social Justice; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014504:Urban Health