The way people conceive of geographic places (either viscerally or instrumentally) and the way they connect to people (either in individualistic or collective terms) is important because it ultimately shapes how they go about making locational choices in their lives. These next two chapters expose two sets of values that people draw on to consider locational choices – values that orientate people to imagining place as positional or place as personal.

The instrumental- connectedness to place, and an individualised way of connecting to people, means that people value place in a positional sense – in other words, places are imagined as a rank ordering from ‘best’ to ‘worst’. When people judge places, they are also judging people and positioning themselves in terms of status and social standing. In deeply classed societies like the UK, these judgements on place will be more prolific and fine- grained, as people jostle for social status. This stands in stark contrast to when people are viscerally connected to place, and form collectivising relationships with people characterised by strong bonds – this group of people tend to value places in person-centred ways, which centres around ‘fitting in’, relationships and diasporic allegiances. These two values upon which locational choices are made have significant implications for how regional divisions are (re)produced – and more importantly, the solutions needed for them to be healed. In this chapter, the focus is on this orientation to valuing of place in a positional sense.