Sandra K. Friday
In this unit, I have divided geography into two categories: that of
place
and that of
space
. The geography of
place
is simply an objective naming of things: lakes, rivers, oceans, parks, streets, buildings, mountain ranges, countries, deserts, and the like. The geography of
space
is defining or describing one's relationship to these objective things; it is a subjective consciousness of how people adapt to and live in these
places
. For example, I crisscross New Haven from one end to the other, shopping, keeping appointments, visiting people, eating in restaurants, going to plays, the library, etc. I could put all of these
places
on a map of New Haven, and simply say, "I know where these places are." But, if I describe my relationship to these places, then the map becomes subjective. These are familiar
spaces
: streets I travel, stores where I routinely buy clothes, food, and furniture, theaters where I regularly go to the movies or plays, the houses of friends where I socialize. Now they are more than objective
places
on a map; they are subjective
spaces
that I identify with my daily living.
Our subjective
spaces
are for many of us the
center of the world
. We don't know much, if anything about the geography beyond. The
places
that we may barely know about in other parts of the world are the
center of the world
for millions, even billions, of other people. One of my objectives is to expose students, through experience and observation, to what happens when people move from their (familiar) subjective
spaces,
to (objective) unfamiliar
places
that are someone else's (subjective) familiar
spaces
, the
center of the world
for someone else. Another aspect of space and place is that
space
, for the most part, is familiar enough that we know what to expect and
place
is unfamiliar and we simply do not know what to expect.