Interviewing for Sense of Place

James “Pete” Shortridge laid the groundwork for the study of place meanings by meticulously drawing the connections between the historical perceptions of places and the attitudes, policies, and very real economic consequences resulting from those perceptions. In so doing, he gave much-needed credibility and practical significance to humanistic geography, especially the study of place perceptions, regional identity, and sense of place. Though he and his students continue to produce work along these lines, humanistic geography lacks a substantial body of research methods that might encourage more geographers to take the humanistic plunge. I assert that geographers need to seriously develop and test a body of robust qualitative methods for assessing what places mean to people, and toward that goal, I present in this essay interview techniques developed and refined during a study of sense of place on the American High Plains. I include specific examples and personal experience to help demystify the process of qualitative fieldwork and to provide future field workers with detailed guidelines.