MONADNOCK INSTITUTE AT FRANKLIN PIERCE COLLEGE
RELEASES "PLACE CONNECTIONS" SURVEY REPORT
The Monadnock Institute of Nature, Place and Culture at Franklin Pierce College has released its comprehensive place connections survey report, summarizing data collected from 243 residents representing 28 communities in southern New Hampshire. Funded by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, this 41 item comprehensive questionnaire represents perhaps the most systematic attempt to date to investigate various aspects of the human relationship to place, from the vantage point of a specific geographic region. The survey of local residents may have implications in other regions of the country.
Asking questions which ranged from "When did you last walk in a nearby woods?", to "Do you make an effort to patronize locally-owned stores and restaurants?", this survey attempted to assess individual participation in civic life, knowledge of the local physical and cultural environment, and overall satisfaction with one's place of residence. The survey offered the following specific conclusions:
* Whether one lives in the nearby city of Keene or in one of the smaller surrounding towns makes a substantial statistical difference in one's orientation to place. Residents of the smaller communities score quite high in overall place connection, while Keene residents fall well below the mean.
* Homeowners prove to be consistently better connected to place than apartment dwellers. Additionally, individuals residing on extensive properties (i.e., larger than 5 acres), show considerably greater connectedness than those surrounded by lesser amounts of land.
* Respondents with fewer than twelve years of schooling fall far behind college graduates and advanced degree holders in place connection. The implications of this finding are not as obvious as they might seem, for a number of writers have argued that formal education tends to erode rather than strengthen bonds to a place.
* Income level appears to be a strong predictor of place connection. Individuals whose family income lies between $71,000 and $150,000 per year rank at the very top of the sample in overall connection.
* Young adults 18-29 placed last in the sample on the Human Aspects Index, which measures connections to people and community, but scored well on many Physical Aspects indicators. Seniors over 70, on the other hand, tend not to be vigorously engaged with the physical environment, and not that active in community affairs, either, but declare exceptionally high (1st overall) levels of Attachment and Satisfaction.
* Respondents who acknowledge watching over 4 hours of television daily appear in most respects virtually disconnected from their place.
* Women, who scored close to men on both the Physical and Human Aspects indices, reported a 14 percent higher level of overall Attachment and Satisfaction to their place compared to their male counterparts.
For the full text of the report, contact Gerald Burns, 603-899-4293, [email protected] or
John Harris, 603-899-4010, [email protected] directors of the Monadnock Institute at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, N.H.
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