Identity-of-place: A conceptual framework

Abstract

This article introduces the conceptual framework of identity-of-place, a perspective that reorients how we think about and with place. Rather than treating place as a static setting or a resource for human identity, identity-of-place conceptualizes it as a dynamic, entangled, and historically situated conjuncture of biotic, abiotic, and non-biotic elements. Developed through research in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, this approach attends to the situatedness and conjunctural specificity of place, engaging with new materialist, posthumanist, and feminist epistemologies. By de-centering the human and resisting fixed categorization, identity-of-place offers a supple and responsive mode of inquiry—attuned to complexity, contingency, and change. It provides a relational, ecocentric analysis sensitive to the multiplicity and specificity of place, while advocating for more responsive and decolonial approaches to knowledge-making.