Staeheli’s “Place” in Relation to the Wade King Recreation Center at WWU
In Staeheli’s article, entitled “Place,” she thoroughly describes every single way that place can be defined. She states that place is a physical location or site, a cultural or social location, a context, a location that is constructed over time, and a process. These different definitions of place all form very different thoughts of what place really is and makes you really wonder “what is place?”
I decided to take a little bit of a look into what the Wade King Recreation Center is as a place of the cultural and social aspects and as a process. The center as a social location essentially means taking a deeper look into the types of people that can be found in a certain place. For instance, Staeheli states that “In Western cities, for example, women were historically located within private places of the home, church, and neighborhood” (Staeheli). This shows how more “safe” type environments were where you would typically find a woman, showing how the places listed have a certain population. This connects to the rec center by the rec center having certain types of people that you will typically find there. There are mostly people who are more experienced in the art of working out, but there are also people who are trying to better themselves. You will not find people who don’t care about what they look like or their health, as the rec center is a place to change your health and weight for the most parts. It is a place of fun, but its main purpose is to change your life.
As for a process, this means that “…the conceptualization highlights the interaction between processes operating at different scales — from the macro-economy to the individual — into the processes of place” (Staeheli). To put it simply, this means that the person affects the place and the place affects the person. The rec center displays this thought of what a place means very clearly. As for the people being affected by the place, I think it is very obvious. The people go to the rec center to change themselves or to stay healthy, and the different options offered at the center affect the person’s workout plan and what they do. It also affects their bodies because if the rec center was not there, they would not have anywhere on campus to go to work out which could in the end drastically impact their health. The people affect the rec center by having an effect on the overall atmosphere. Without the people there, the center would be completely different. The types of people that are there, as I discussed in the previous paragraph, are there for a reason. If people who were not serious or took the center as a joke and were judgmental were there, the atmosphere would be so much different and would not feel as welcoming and accepting. This is probably one of the most important elements of the rec center.
Overall, the Wade King Rec Center embodies the different aspects of what a “place” truly is.
