Learning Where We Belong

Resource Summary

A fundamental human need throughout our lives is to belong. We form relationships to feel intimacy, safety and trust. We build a sense of
who we are through connections with friends, kin, and social clubs (Tajfel, 1982). Our neighborhoods and natural environments offer a sense of familiarity and rootedness. Belonging is a feeling of acceptance, inclusion, and connection, rooted in our fundamental human drives (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Maslow, 1943; Ryan & Deci, 2000). And it happens in places that are designed to support or hinder it.

Feeling connected with others or to our context helps us feel in place; that we belong there (Relph, 1976; Tuan, 1977). This contrasts with feeling detached, isolated and out of place, which leads to the uncomfortable feeling that we don’t belong. Moreover, if we constantly feel out of place, it creates obstacles for our learning and development –it is difficult to grow when stuck in a lonely malaise of disconnection and detachment (Bowlby, 1979). Places that ignore the social and emotional needs of their users risk becoming spaces where, at best people pass through but don’t form connections or, at worst, feel alienated and excluded (Canter, 1977; Oldenburg & Warner, 1993; Relph, 1976).

Download the PDF to continue reading.