Mahsa Bazrafshan

Last Name

Bazrafshan

First Name

Mahsa

ORCID

0000-0002-2322-7393

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Publications 1 - 4 of 4

How do rural landscapes support place attachment in refugees? Results from a photo elicitation
Bazrafshan, Mahsa; Grêt-Regamey, Adrienne; Kienast, Felix (2024)
Landscape Research
During the initial stages of migration, refugees spend much time in urban environments. With longer stays, rural landscapes become increasingly important. However, little is known how rural landscape supports place attachment and bridges the gap between individuals’ former home and the host location. To reduce this research gap, we asked refugees to travel through rural Switzerland, creating a photo reportage that was later analysed using photo-elicitation. To check the representativeness of individual assessments the photographs were shown to refugees’ peers and control groups in a quantitative survey. We found that refugees’ landscape experience and the contribution of this to place attachment can be highly individualistic, or it can be driven by culture-specific meanings. Accessibility to natural elements, e.g. water, forests is crucial to fostering place attachment. However, large patches of wild environments are perceived as unsafe, reducing individuals’ ability to form an attachment.
Greater place attachment to urban parks enhances relaxation: Examining affective and cognitive responses of locals and bi-cultural migrants to virtual park visits
Bazrafshan, Mahsa; Spielhofer, Reto; Wissen Hayek, Ulrike; et al. (2023)
Landscape and Urban Planning
This work is an experimental contribution to assessing the relationship between place attachment and well-being in urban parks in a mobility and migratory context. Using virtual park visits, we aimed at finding out whether place attachment and familiarity with parks are related to physiological responses, i.e. relaxation/arousal. The experimental study involved bi-cultural residents and locals who were invited to experience two comparable urban parks in an audio-visual laboratory. The virtual visit included a Persian Garden in Iran and a historic park in Switzerland. During the session, subjects’ affective responses were measured via skin conductance activity and a questionnaire was used to collect information on aspects of place attachment/identity and perceptual properties. Statistical analyses show that place attachment and familiarity with the cultural background of a park have a significant influence on the affective responses, particularly relaxation. In addition, we find some experimental evidence that measurable place attachment has developed among bi-cultural migrants in their new place of residence. Results fit well to theories of place attachment that are compiled in the article
Place attachment through interaction with urban parks: A cross-cultural study
Bazrafshan, Mahsa; Tabrizi, Alireza Mikaeili; Bauer, Nicole; et al. (2021)
Urban Forestry & Urban Greening
Globalization and mobile societies challenge large cities to provide not only basic services, such as water or housing, but also places where long-term residents and (forced) migrants are able to form bonds and attribute meanings. The question of what types of urban settings can foster place attachment through interaction has been poorly investigated. To address this research gap, a qualitative study was conducted in Iran to investigate how long-term residents (Persian) and bi-cultural migrants (Afghans who migrated to Iran and stayed there for more than 5 yrs) form bonds with urban parks. Participants were given a standardized round-trip of Persian gardens and a modern urban park. Theory-guided, problem-centered interviews were recorded and analyzed with directed qualitative content analysis. Considerable differences were found among both groups in terms of how people created attachments with the different places. For both user groups both park types enabled links to the place via practical and visual appreciation, social interactions, emotions and garden structure. In contrast to the modern park, the Persian gardens offered many more opportunities to link to the place via shared history, meanings and memories. These three prominent drivers of place identity offered long-term residents excellent means to establish a bond with that place. Shared history and meanings, however, rarely allowed bi-cultural migrants to become attached to the place; for this group, certain elements of Persian gardens triggered memories that enabled them to view the places of origin and relocation as interconnected locations capable of providing different, yet compatible experiences. As theory suggests, such access helps to reduce the disruption of moving to a new place. Our results help to empirically test and broaden current place attachment theories and encourage city planners to preserve and develop parks that satisfy more than the ‘place dependency needs’ of users.
Enhancing migrants' place attachment by experiencing green space
Bazrafshan, Mahsa (2023)

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Mahsa Bazrafshan

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