Sense of Place in Child-Centered Museums

Charting Children’s Place Meanings

Abstract

This qualitative study is based on interviews about children’s sense of place that were conducted with 4–12-year-olds (N=60) in child-centered museum settings. Since sense of place has not been systematically investigated in child-oriented museums, the purpose of the present study was exploratory, aiming to chart place meanings and compare them with previous theoretical and empirical research on children’s place preferences. Responses showed that place meanings were rich in experience-based attributes and place features. The final discussion on the emergent underlying dimensions and on conditions that facilitate place bonding contributes to furthering conceptualizations of sense of place in child-centered museums.