Socio-demographic determinants of place attachment in Gauteng, South Africa, using partial proportional odds models

Determinants of place attachment have been extensively explored in the world now characterised by increased globalisation and mobility. Apart from some studies analysing attachment to place especially in ecotourism and for specific homogenous environments like botanical gardens, there is a gap regarding the analysis of place attachment and its determinants in spatially heterogeneous and emerging societies. In this paper, we aimed at determining factors predicting place attachment for a socio-economically and demographically diverse area, namely Gauteng province, South Africa, using partial proportional odds models. Socio-demographic variables were selected from existing data, and respondents’ satisfaction with the province, preference to stay and resultant sentiments on whether they would rather emigrate from the province were used as outcome variables. Results attest to the intricacy of socio-demographic factors affecting place attachment. For example, population group was a strong predictor of ‘preference to stay’. Other variables like age groups, gender, electricity availability, employment status, and education level had no influence on ‘preference to stay’ in Gauteng. Using the same interpretation, results also indicate that population group, gender, dwelling type, electricity availability, employment status and education levels were strong predictors of ‘satisfaction with area’. Only the elderly age group (65+) was a strong predictor of ‘satisfaction with area’. Dwelling type, born in Gauteng or emigrated, employment status and age (40+) were all strong predictors of whether respondents could emigrate or not, if given the chance. The findings from this paper present some of the socio-economic and demographic factors such as dwelling type, socio-economic status and ethnicity that governments need to take into consideration in policy, spatial planning and service delivery issues within their localities.