Identity and Public Space, The Case of Young Female

‘Place Identity’ refers to those aspects of personal identity, which form through experiencing places. This paper presents a transcendental phenomenology approach to the identity of place. Eight young women aged 23~35, were interviewed about their place attachment to two key shopping centers in Tehran: Vanak Square and Valiasr Crossroad. Four interviewees talked about Vanak Square, while four other interviewees described Valiasr Crossroad. They described these two places and explained why they were fond of frequenting them. Their responses were coded and their content was analyzed. Accordingly, some key ‘themes’ and subthemes were discovered, which describe five key dimensions of personal identity and public space. The main themes include: individual, social, thematic, conversational and exotic.