Pride of place in a religious context: an environmental psychology and sociology perspective

Pride of Place (PoP) is the positive emotion that people can have for the place they identify or associate themselves with. It is linked to one’s own place identity and attachment to one’s own place, whether at a local or broader geographical scale. Positive pride of where one comes from can elicit a series of behaviours that are of prosocial and caring character, a pride that is too extreme, however, can result in nationalism and antisocial behaviours (at least towards what is outside one’s own place). In this book chapter, the literature around the emotion of pride is reviewed, being it historically and religiously regarded as a vice, specifically in relationship to places within a religious context. Pride of Place and religion are discussed in relation to the affective, cognitive and conative aspect of people–place bonds.