Workspace appropriation and attachment

• Author: Mariela Pavalache-Ilie
• Position: Transilvania University of Brasov
• Pages: 27-34

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series VII: Social Sciences • Law • Vol. 9 (58) No. 2 - 2016

WORKSPACE APPROPRIATION

AND ATTACHMENT

Mariela PAVALACHE-ILIE1

Abstract: This literature synthesis presents a short history of the evolution

of the concepts of space appropriation and place attachment, highlighting the

difficulty of their operationalisation from a cultural point of view. The next

subject brought into discussion is the relation between the affective

dimension of the connection between a person and the work place and the

behaviours which are prone to insure the proper functioning of

organizations, such as the organizational civism and the organizational

commitment.

Key words: space appropriation, place attachment, organization civic

behavior, organizational commitment.

1. Space appropriation, a multifaceted concept

The term of space appropriation has known an unequal development depending on the

age, country and culture where it was discussed, being obviously unequally used in the

language of social science (Pol, 1998). If in fields such as geography, sociology and

architecture the term was consecrated via a variety of meanings, in the fields of social and

environmental psychology, its definition came late. At this point we have to mention that

the pioneers of the latter two mentioned fields were English language speaking

researchers and in English the term ‘appropriation’ has lesser meaning that in the

Romance languages, in which a lot was written on topics related to geography, sociology

and architecture (Pol, 2000).

The origin of appropriation is identified by Graumann (1976) in the Marxist

anthropology, more precisely in the soviet anthropology at the beginning of the 20th

century. Marx sustained that man reproduces himself through the objects which he

designs (Bogdan & Mişcoiu, 2014); by acting upon the world and transforming it, the

man updates his potential. Seen from this perspective, appropriation is done on two

levels:

• Individual appropriation, through which every person, in view of his relationship to

the world, transforms the surrounding objects in goods which he considers to be his

own.

• Social appropriation, which, in non-democratic societies is transmitted from

generation to generation, at the level of each social class.

This second level is tackled by Vîgotski and later by Leontiev, who consider the

intellectual development to be rather the result of a social function, historically and

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, mariela.pavalache@unitbv.ro