family, friends, work, leisure activities and community identity. I accept that this distinction is not always easily drawn, but the key factor is that the first are (largely) unchangeable whereas the second can alter relatively quickly and easily. For instance, community characteristics can change due to redevelopment and population movement while family and friends may relocate thus changing the way in which a place is viewed. It can be argued that for most people ties of language, culture, religion and kinship are likely to be much stronger than those such as landscape, climate or the resource base of a location that are intrinsic to a place. They may become associated through a linking of people and place, and thus help to generate migration flows, but such structures are not immutable. For instance, someone may move to a location for reasons of employment in a resource-based sector of the economy, and in so doing they may develop a strong sense of identity as a coal miner or timber worker, but such associations are not primarily with a place but rather to an economy, and could easily be transferred to other locations with similar resources. Thus people may well be attracted to places with particular and similar economic structures but, it is argued, the association is not place-specific but, rather, is primarily generated by the occupational skills, needs and preferences of an individual worker. This theme can be explored further through an example drawn from one nineteenth-century diary. John James was born in Cornwall in 1822 and worked as a tin miner and mine manager. As the Cornish tin mining industry declined he was forced to seek work elsewhere (including overseas) and on several occasions recorded his unwillingness to leave his native Cornwall (or his desire to return). At one level this can be interpreted as a strong association with locality and place which influenced his willingness to move, and certainly factors intrinsic to his native Cornwall did play a part in his decision-making. For instance, towards the end of his life while living in Ireland he records that: ‘I think it is time for me to leave this strong Northern atmosphere. If my life be spared until the end of March next I hope to go to Cornwall and try the effect of a warmer climate and my native air’. Here we can suggest that it was
family, friends, work, leisure activities and community identity. I accept that this distinction is not always easily drawn, but the key factor is that the first are (largely) unchangeable whereas the second can alter relatively quickly and easily. For instance, community characteristics can change due to redevelopment and population movement while family and friends may relocate thus changing the way in which a place is viewed. It can be argued that for most people ties of language, culture, religion and kinship are likely to be much stronger than those such as landscape, climate or the resource base of a location that are intrinsic to a place. They may become associated through a linking of people and place, and thus help to generate migration flows, but such structures are not immutable. For instance, someone may move to a location for reasons of employment in a resource-based sector of the economy, and in so doing they may develop a strong sense of identity as a coal miner or timber worker, but such associations are not primarily with a place but rather to an economy, and could easily be transferred to other locations with similar resources. Thus people may well be attracted to places with particular and similar economic structures but, it is argued, the association is not place-specific but, rather, is primarily generated by the occupational skills, needs and preferences of an individual worker. This theme can be explored further through an example drawn from one nineteenth-century diary. John James was born in Cornwall in 1822 and worked as a tin miner and mine manager. As the Cornish tin mining industry declined he was forced to seek work elsewhere (including overseas) and on several occasions recorded his unwillingness to leave his native Cornwall (or his desire to return). At one level this can be interpreted as a strong association with locality and place which influenced his willingness to move, and certainly factors intrinsic to his native Cornwall did play a part in his decision-making. For instance, towards the end of his life while living in Ireland he records that: ‘I think it is time for me to leave this strong Northern atmosphere. If my life be spared until the end of March next I hope to go to Cornwall and try the effect of a warmer climate and my native air’. Here we can suggest that it was