Using Photovoice Method to Explore the Female Freshmen’s Place Attachment on the Campus

University campus has a profound impact on the growth and development of college students. This study focuses on how female freshmen perceive the campus and build up the sentimental ties with their favorite places. Drawing on selected findings (participants' photographs, associated quotes and researchers' field notes), we provide an assessment of place sense of photovoice method for the purpose of place attachment on the campus. Female freshmen (n=54; aged 18-19 years) from different departments in Tongji University (Shanghai) were recruited purposively. Participants photographed perceived positive and negative places on the campus, reflecting on the meanings of photographs in individual and group interviews. Thematic and content analysis was conducted using natural language processing software, and the relevance of high frequency vocabulary and the correlation of key words were examined by Rost Content Mining. The work reported that built environment elements, type of activity, and emotional experience jointly build the female freshmen's perception of campus places. The place attachment comes from the fulfillment of activity demand related to place function and the emotional experience related to place cognition. Architecture, roads and its affiliated facilities, greening and landscape, public space, and atmosphere are key elements highly valued by the participants. These elements and the way of the combination are particularly important for creating place cognition and emotional experience. Furthermore, the study also conducted a nuclear density analysis of the shooting location based on GIS. The results show that frequent exposures to specific places may enrich the perception of the place, those places are more likely to cultivate place attachment than other places. The functionality of the place is intertwined with the emotional experience. Both active and passive exposure are premised on functional satisfaction. However, constructing a positive emotional experience in a place is more complicated, requiring campus management, meaning of the place, understanding of the way elements are organized, and grasping the diversity of activities. A strong learning atmosphere and rich social interaction activities help to generate a strong sense of place. It is also a means for female college students to obtain the sense of security and belongings .The emotional connection can promote the interaction of function, perception and cognition between people and place, and forming an organic and continuous virtuous circle. Finally, the introduction of Photovoice methods in this study demonstrated its superiority in place study, such as the effective improvement of the quality of public participation, the promotion of participants’ critical thinking, and the constructive suggestions. Meanwhile, it provides a new perspective of demand-responsive intervention to the practitioners, which shows a great potential of Photovoice method in the community renewal work and deepening public participation.