The analysis of place attachment has been increasing significantly during the last three decades (Altman & Low, 1992, Giuliani, 2003, Hernández, Hidalgo, Salazar-Laplace, Hess, 2007, Hummon, 1992, Lewicka, 2005; Manzo and Devine-Wright, 2014).

The attachment to the place can be defined as the emotional bond that is established towards a specific space, where the person feels safe and in which, therefore, he wants to remain (Altman & Low, 1992; Hidalgo & Hernández, 2001; Morgan , 2010). Although this is a simple definition, many authors have drawn attention in recent years about the terminological, conceptual and methodological ambiguity that has characterized the study of place attachment (Hernández, Hidalgo & Ruiz, 2014, Lewicka, 2011, Poortinga et al., 2017; Scannell and Gifford, 2014). Likewise, the procedures for evaluation of attachment have diversified extraordinarily. This fact hinders a consistent empirical advance in the field of study, so it is necessary to continue working on the conceptualization of attachment to the place.

This seminar summarizes several previous works aimed at improving our understanding of the attachment to the place and presents the results of the research we are currently doing based on the proposal of Scannell and Gifford (2010) that aims to develop an attachment theory through of three dimensions: person, place and processes. They try to answer in this way three questions: who gets attached, to what and how he manifests it. On the other hand, we will analyze if the attachment to the place can be classified in the three styles of attachment found in social attachment (safe, anxious and avoidant).