Research On Residents’ Sense Of Place Surrounding High-tech Zones

The development of high-tech zones in China has made many achievements. At the same time, the space is reproduced and reconstructed, and geographical landscapes, industrial structure and population structure have changed greatly. These rapid changes would be a challenge for each group of high-tech zones. For the employees in the zone, they come to a whole new working environment and need to gradually percept, adapt and build their own social network. For the college students, their study and daily life are generally conducted on campus. So their social network is mainly built on campus. Meanwhile, they are also the witness to the high-tech development and beneficiaries because the cooperation between high-tech corporations and colleges would provide them with good training and learning opportunities. For local farmers, they have experienced all these changes, including the erosion of familiar rural landscapes, lifestyles, and social networks. Therefore, the original familiar place becomes strange for them. Although their living standard may have been improved in the process, their local memories, emotions may have been separated. It is likely to affect their identity for the high-tech zone, and lose their sense of belonging. So in the process of rapid development of the high-tech zone, the challenges for these three groups are likely to make it hard for them to form a sense of attachment. It will also make high-tech zones be short of required cohesion. Thereby the sustainable development of high-tech zone would be impeded. Base on it, this article analyzes factors that influence the sense of place in order to build a sense of belonging of these three groups.This article is divided into six chapters. The first chapter is introduction, mainly elaborating the topic background, related concepts, research significance and research methods and technical route. The second chapter is literature review about sense of place at home and abroad theoretically and practically. It makes the basis of existing research and the research direction clear in this paper. The third and fourth chapter is the theory part of this article, firstly analyzing the mechanism of the formation of sense of place, then interpreting the internal influence mechanism on the sense of place in the construction of the high-tech zone. And three hypothesizes are made about the forming mechanism of sense of place in high-tech zones.The fifth chapter is the empirical part. First of all, the selection of research objects and research plan are explained. And then the field researches are made in Zizhu National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone and Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park. Chapter6is the conclusion and the further research.This article argues that sense of place is the bond between people and place. And it is a kind of special relationship between people and place which is remolded by cultural and social characteristics. Constant interactions between people and place are also needed. Place would become a part of the individual identity construction over a long period of time to contact and experience. So it can bring a sense of security and belonging. On this basis, according to the Hammit’s research on sense of place, the forming process of sense of place includes three dimensions in this paper, which are place familiarity, place identity and place attachment. These three dimensions are shaped like a pyramid, from experience to emotional attachment, eventually to behavioral attachment. In the process of the construction of high-tech zone, landscape changes, social networks, the differences of earning expectations are the main influencing factors for all kinds of groups’ sense of place. These factors have an effect on various dimensions of sense of place. Eventually three hypothesizes are made about the forming mechanism of sense of place in high-tech zones. First, high-tech employees are most likely to build up sense of place for high-tech zones. Second, college students’ sense of place for high-tech zones is based on their sense of place for campus. Third, local farmers are difficult to build up the sense of place for high-tech zones. On the basis of theoretical research, this article mainly selected Zizhu National Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone and Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park as research objects. And the above assumptions are verified. We found that the high-tech employees do most likely to build up the sense of place for high-tech zones. College students’ sense of place for the high-tech zone is also based on their sense of place for campus, which needs to regard campus as a bridge. They would build up their sense of place for high-tech zones by participating in the "industry-university-institute" cooperation between high-tech zones and colleges. However, local farmers may not be difficult to build up their sense of place for high-tech zones. Their sense of place for the high-tech zones is based on their sense of community. And landscape changes, the change of the social network and earning expectations of different groups really affect the construction of sense of place of three groups, and the level of sense of place overall is low. And with the development of the high-tech zone, it would improve. Finally, some targeted suggestions are put forward to improve sense of place of three groups.