Place-based memories in everyday urban settings

What is it about?

This chapter explores how people’s senses and memories shape their relationships with the places they move through every day. Focusing on central Reykjavík, Iceland, it looks at how residents connect with the city’s historic landscape — not just its famous landmarks, but the ordinary streets, buildings, and back-yards that hold personal meaning.

Featured Image

Photo by Boris Hadjur on Unsplash

Photo by Boris Hadjur on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Using sensory ethnographic methods, the study examines how people experience, remember, and describe the city through their senses. These methods offer a way to listen to how memories surface in everyday encounters with familiar surroundings. The findings show that participants often revisited places through stories and recollections tied to specific sites in the city center. Together, these accounts reveal how the blending of memory, material environment, and sensory experience shapes people’s sense of belonging and attachment to the city.