Journal of Leisure Research

ISSN: 0022-2216 (Print) 2159-6417 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujlr20

Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception,

Attitudes and Values. By Yi-Fu Tuan

Brian F. Blake

To cite this article: Brian F. Blake (1974) Topophilia: A Study of Environmental Perception,
Attitudes and Values. By Yi-Fu Tuan, Journal of Leisure Research, 6:4, 323-325, DOI:
10.1080/00222216.1974.11970208

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00222216.1974.11970208

Published online: 13 Feb 2018.

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Book Reviews 323

useful for many disciplines. From the viewpoint of a therapeutic recreation

specialist, I can see this book having a great deal of value to therapeutic
recreators. It is concise and comprehensive and keeps to a nice middle ground
between being too elementary and too technical. The pictures and diagrams are
most useful in explaining techniques and equipment for the various activities and
exercises. The book is a good blend of the knowledge of therapeutic recreation,
adapted physical education and physical therapy.
There are, however, two seemingly minor-but perhaps they should be
called major-problems with it. They concern fostering of attitudes and
stereotypes in a subtle but nonetheless real manner. One is the constant use of
the word children in conjunction with the handicapped. The otherwise excellent
introduction has a tinge of patronization. People in general patronize the
disabled; some professionals do it all of the time and all of us do some of the
time. We patronize them by calling them "them," ~Y referring to all retardates as
children (or kids) and by writing books referring to children. The National
Association for Retarded Children has come around to changing "children" to
"citizens." Can we do less? Even the section on diabetes, which states that this
condition is most commmly found in women past middle life, goes on to talk
about children. There are two other unfortunate uses of words: titling the
introduction "Understanding the Physically Handicapped," and a sentence
which reads, "We all thrive on success ... and the handicapped individual needs
his successes, however minimal, recognized even more than you and I." This
may or may not be true, but is a cliche with an underlying suggestion that the
handicapped do not read professional literature, and by extension, no
professionals are· handicapped.
The second problem is a question: Are all the handicapped he, his and
him? Dr. Spock has changed all his gender pronouns to female. Can we at least
have a half and half mix?

ANNETTE LOGAN, Recreation Education, State University of New York at

Cortland.

TOPOPHILIA: A STUDY OF ENVIRONMENTAL

PERCEPTION, ATTITUDES AND VALUES. By Yi-Fu Tuan.
Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1974. 260 pp.

As indicated by the book's title, the author attempts to both describe

and identify the determinants of "topophilia." Defined broadly, topophilia is a
person's affective ties with his physical environment. The ties may be primarily
esthetic, varying from the fleeting pleasure one derives from a scenic view to the
equally fleeting sense of beauty that is suddenly revealed by that view. The
response may be tactile, as in a delight in the "feel" of crisp air or of cool water
from a mountain stream. More permanent, but perhaps more complex ties are
represented by feelings one has toward a particular place such as one's
hometown. Implicit in the author's use of this concept is the assumption that to
324 Journal of Leisure Research

understand our environmental problems we must emphasize the human

dimension rather than simply the physical condition of the landscape.
The author's coverage of topics is broad indeed. In the early chapters
Tuan introduces the reader to the dynamics of perception; both the physical
mechanisms of perception and a person's tendency to employ a wide range of
symbols in his perceptions are discussed. There follows an extensive analysis of
the manner in which a person's psychological and social environments influence
his response to the physical environment. The author concludes his work with
several chapters devoted to the city and the suburb as symbols and as foci of
particular styles of life. In each of these topic areas Tuan draws upon a wide
range of disciplines; input from anthropology, biology, geography, history,
philosophy and psychology are particularly prominent. By integrating these
various inputs the author is able to view each topic from several perspectives:
how the phenomenon has changed through history, how it varies among
cultures, how social groups within a culture differ in regard to it, and finally,
how an individual's own personal characteristics are related to that phenomenon.
Throughout the book the author tends to emphasize more abstract,
general principles rather than to concentrate upon in-depth analyses of clearly
delimited, concrete problems. More specifically, attention is focused primarily
upon three points: a person's use of symbols in his perceptions of the
environment, the distinction between the urban and the nonurban, and the
changes in a culture's basic values and perceptions over time.
At times a reader interested in the recreation field might wish for more
depth in the treatment of particular topics, such as the lure of wilderness areas in
our contemporary culture. At other times he might desire that less attention be
devoted to that area-the physical mechanisms of object perception, for
example. Yet, in defense of the author's approach, it might be said that to
obtain broad coverage of such a complex domain as topophilia an author
necessarily must both sacrifice some depth in the investigation of particular
facets of that domain and also include material that is quite familiar to certain
readers.
The reader will probably be delighted by Tuan's style of presentation.
Copious use is made of anecdotal examples and of graphic illustrations, while
jargon or technical terms specific to a given discipline are avoided. The ideas are
stated clearly and succintly. This writing style results in a highly readable
narrative, entertaining and informative to readers no matter what their
disciplinary backgrounds.
What value might this work have for recreation specialists? The material
might well be very useful in providing the reader with a conceptual overview of
the domains in which our field of recreation resides. The book, then, might give
us new slants or approaches to our own specific areas of interest. An allied point
is that the book might broaden the reader's thinking by introducing him to
relevant work being done in disciplines other than his own. The fairly long
bibliography provided by the author might be particularly helpful in this regard.
On the other hand, if a reader is interested in deriving specific hypotheses about
the nature or determinants of a specific facet of recreation, he may be
disappointed; the autl1or's level of analysis is typically too abstract for such a
derivation. Further, if the reader is looking for new research methodologies or
for practical guidance in managing or operating recreational programs, he would
Book Reviews 325

again be disappointed; almost no attention is given to research methods or to the

practical implications of the concepts presented.
On the whole, this reviewer found the book enjoyable and well worth
the investment of his time. Many other individuals in the field of recreation will
undoubtedly reach the same conclusions.

BRIAN F. BLAKE, Agricultural Economics, Purdue University.

TOURISM: PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES, PHILOSOPIDES. By

Robert W. Mcintosh. Colombus, Ohio: Grid, Inc., 1972. 268 pp.

Until the recent emergence of the so-called "energy crisis," the

continued growth of tourism seemed assured. Now, with gasoline and jet fuel in
short supply and tourist areas suffering from limited business, our attention is
acutely drawn to trying to understand tourism as an economic and social
phenomenon. It is in this context that I had both considerable interest and
disappointment in Robert Mcintosh's book.
In the preface, the author states that the book was written for college
and university courses on tourism, with the hope that it also "should provide
useful information" for others in the tourism business. The book has 11 chapters
with discussion questions and case problems (but no chapter summaries), and 13
"readings" are interspersed between chapters. In Part I Mcintosh provides a
summary of tourism's growth and considers some of the sociological and
psychological factors which motivate tourism. In Part II he lists and reviews the
function of tourism organizations and considers some of the economics of the
supply and development of a viable tourism industry. In Part III he focuses on
the measurement of tourism demand and the methods of increasing demand
through marketing.
Four themes provide the core of Mcintosh's orientation to tourism and
each views tourism in a particular way. The first theme views tourism as a way
for people to understand each other. The second views tourism as an important
means for economic development. The third views tourism as something which
can be marketed, and the fourth views tourism as an activity regulated and
promoted by a series of travel organizations. These perspectives on tourism are
informative; however, a text subtitled "Principles, Practices, Philosophies"
should provide a broader perspective in which ethnocentric, exploitive and
unorganized tourism also find a place.
The first theme that Mcintosh develops is that tourism is a way to
increase international understanding. Tourism is defined as "the business which
provides for the wants and needs of travelers," but the book is largely concerned
with the particular needs of tourists who seek enlightenment and international
understanding, or as Mcintosh calls it, "cultural tourism" -learning about others
through their arts, music, handicrafts, shopping areas, businesses, educational
systems, governmental processes and customs. Only passing attention is paid to
the type of tourist whose motives have lower esteem, and nowhere is "mass