Community Cognitions, Attachment and Social Action
from Part II - Examples, Issues and Opportunities for Policy and Practice
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 May 2026
This chapter explores how elements of ‘sense of place’—place dependence, identity, and attachment—are essential for creating liveable, healthy communities. It discusses how community social interaction, cohesion (sense of community), and collective action enhance liveability. Addressing frequent shortcomings in defining and measuring ‘liveability’, the authors integrate recent geospatial population health research to establish connections between place, health, development, and policy. A framework linking community cognitions, attachment, and social action in response to environmental threats and disruptions is applied to brief case studies from Bulgaria and the United States illustrating varied community responses aimed at healthier, more liveable environments. Recommendations include leveraging liveability audits to evaluate local and regional impacts of disruptions, articulating threats to community identity and economic wellbeing, and embedding psychological conceptions of place into public-health and urban-planning assessments. This integrated, ecological approach aims to strengthen community responses and inform policy decisions supporting population health and wellbeing
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.