The Flâneur in the wagon home on the hill: An exploration of precedent and place brand identity as social construct

Abstract

The case study plays out in a tiny coastal enclave when a landowner invites an acquaintance with a wagon home to temporarily locate the structure to their empty plot. Residents and landowners raise questions about the appropriateness and legal validity of such living arrangements and ultimately, for the authors, raises the question of community identity. The article explores the phenomenon of the flâneur as a persona, freedom camping, and of marginalisation in space and place through the lens of place brand identity. Considering the notion of place brand, the article explores the situation in the context of habitus and the historical sense of villagers about their enclosed or secluded environment, home, and sense of social belonging. The qualitative thematic analysis revealed three dominant themes namely the disturbance, or threat to habitus, place brand identity as delineated in the interactions of a messaging community group, and inclusion or exclusion of the precedent from the community. The theoretic argument that culminates in the positioning of the ideal social construct suggests that habitus positions the place brand beyond commonalities or variances in its physical features and social demography. The authors conclude that the unique blend of place brand identity and habitus can evolve and confirm itself continuously, with the potential to either facilitate the intersectionality, diversity, and inclusiveness of the place brand identity as the sum of its habitus, or risk is demise. Place brand identity is inextricably defined by its habitus, and direct challenges to social exclusion and the control of common narratives by actively promoting inclusive practices might then also point to a healthy place brand habitus.