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Place, History, Memory: Thinking Time Within Place

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Communities, Neighborhoods, and Health

Part of the book series: Social Disparities in Health and Health Care ((SDHHC,volume 1))

Abstract

Flourishing interest in place as a critical mediator of human well-being has brought with it calls for researchers to move beyond understandings of place as simply “here” – local, fixed, bounded, and, frequently, ahistorical – to more fully engage the dynamics of place, over time and across spatial scales. A “relational” view of place (Cummins et al. 2007) conceptualizes it as process rather than entity – a fluid, dynamic field of constantly interacting elements, within and beyond itself. Inherent in this shift away from conventional, static notions of place is renewed interest in the role of time as a salient factor in place/health relationships. Cummins et al. (2007), for example, propose the development of research approaches that focus on not only “the life course of individuals, but also the social and economic trajectories of the places which they inhabit” (p. 1,832). Popay et al. (2003) have likewise argued for a more thorough-going focus on time, and specifically history, in research on place and health, particularly in relation to health disparities. This chapter, written from the vantage point of a scholar of place with historical training, rather than a health disparities researcher, attempts to add further dimensionality to these proposals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Work, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Susan P. Kemp (Associate Professor)

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  1. Susan P. Kemp
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Correspondence to Susan P. Kemp .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. Sociology, Duke University, Durham, 27708-0097, North Carolina, USA

    Linda M. Burton

  2. Dept. Anthropology, Penn State University, Carpenter Bldg. 409, University Park, 16802, Pennsylvania, USA

    Stephen A. Matthews

  3. , Department of Sociology, University of Washington, 211 Savery Hall, Seattle, 98195-3340, USA

    ManChui Leung

  4. Dept. Sociology, University of Washington, Raitt Hall 206A, Seattle, 98195-4322, Washington, USA

    Susan P. Kemp

  5. Dept. Sociology, University of Washington, Raitt Hall 206A, Seattle, 98195-4322, Washington, USA

    David T. Takeuchi

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Kemp, S.P. (2011). Place, History, Memory: Thinking Time Within Place. In: Burton, L., Matthews, S., Leung, M., Kemp, S., Takeuchi, D. (eds) Communities, Neighborhoods, and Health. Social Disparities in Health and Health Care, vol 1. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7482-2_1

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