The second half of chapter two talks about mobility in relation to space. The idea is that mobile bodies combine in space and time to produce an existential "insideness". Places performed on a daily basis through people living their every day lives makes people feel apart of their space. It is through participating in these daily performances that we get to know a place and feel apart of it.
However, laws and rules pervade place causing a lack of complete control over your space. Such as parking rules or social rules. Place is made and remade on a daily basis.
Cronon's work shows us that places need to be understood throught the paths that lead in and out. Places need to be understood as sites that are connected to others around the world in constantly evolving networks which are social, culture and natural environment. Places are further tied into global flows of people, meaning, and things. Sometimes the mobility of people, objects and ideas undermine place productivity causing a placeslessness or "non-place."
Relph makes direct connection between inauthentic placelessness and mobility. He says that the mobility of American homeowners reduce the significance of home which plays an important role in growing problems of placelessness in the modern world. He claims another factor is modern travel and tourism which encourages a fascination with the machinery and paraphernalia of travel. For example, where someone goes is not as important as the style and the act of going.
Tuan says the businessman symbolizes disconnection of place with mobility. The businessman is always away from home and constantly surrounded by people but forms no sincere relationships.
I find it interesting the connections that is made between mobility and placelessness. I agree that constantly moving into several spaces can cause the places you go to have less significance forming a disconnection because you are not in one place long enough to build any concrete experiences. However, I believe that by traveling and coming into contact with several different spaces can build your idea of "place" that inturn can enhance you experience in a place that is known to you.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Genealogy of Place- Chpt. 15-33
In the beginning of chapter two the definition of what place is becomes defined. Place stands for both an object and a way of looking. There has always been a common sense notion that geography is simply a reflection of people's curiosity about the differences between parts of the Earth's surface. However, Tuan gives a more concrete definition of place through comparison with space. He develops a sense of space as an open arena for action and movement while place is about stopping and resting to become involved.
Place determines our experiences. How we react to a certain space has to do with past experiences and conceptions that we associate with a given place. Phenomology, developed by Brentano and Husserl, is the idea that we cannot be conscious without being conscious of something. Consciousness therefore constructs a relation between the self and the world and develops our conception of that world.
What I found particularly interesting was the Feminist's view of place, or more specificly home, and how it does not correspond to our every day association of how women are viewed in our society to perceive or identify with their home. The idea of a "fundamental place" is questioned by feminists. Home is often seen as a center of meaning and a field of care. However, feminist geographer Gillian Rose points out that many women do not share a rosy view of their home. Many do not see their homes as conflict-free, caring, and nurturing. They instead are faced with domestic violence or abuse in their home. Therefore, Rose argues, place does not have meaning that is natural and obvious but one that is created by some people with more power than others to define what is and is not appropriate. For example, today Chinatown is not simply a natural reflection of Chinese culture but the result of negotiations with those with the power to define it through media or the government. Chinatown is now seen as a tourist attraction. Place is indeed socially constructed.
To say a place is socially constructed is to say that it is not natural. It also says that human forces can "undo" its importance in the same way that humans place importance to a place. In other words, it is within human power to change a place's meaning. Our meaning of a place today comes from Western cultural values, which is produced by the media, politicians, and people who live there. The very essence of a place is a product of society.
Place determines our experiences. How we react to a certain space has to do with past experiences and conceptions that we associate with a given place. Phenomology, developed by Brentano and Husserl, is the idea that we cannot be conscious without being conscious of something. Consciousness therefore constructs a relation between the self and the world and develops our conception of that world.
What I found particularly interesting was the Feminist's view of place, or more specificly home, and how it does not correspond to our every day association of how women are viewed in our society to perceive or identify with their home. The idea of a "fundamental place" is questioned by feminists. Home is often seen as a center of meaning and a field of care. However, feminist geographer Gillian Rose points out that many women do not share a rosy view of their home. Many do not see their homes as conflict-free, caring, and nurturing. They instead are faced with domestic violence or abuse in their home. Therefore, Rose argues, place does not have meaning that is natural and obvious but one that is created by some people with more power than others to define what is and is not appropriate. For example, today Chinatown is not simply a natural reflection of Chinese culture but the result of negotiations with those with the power to define it through media or the government. Chinatown is now seen as a tourist attraction. Place is indeed socially constructed.
To say a place is socially constructed is to say that it is not natural. It also says that human forces can "undo" its importance in the same way that humans place importance to a place. In other words, it is within human power to change a place's meaning. Our meaning of a place today comes from Western cultural values, which is produced by the media, politicians, and people who live there. The very essence of a place is a product of society.
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Place- Working with Place
In chapter four Cresswell introduced the topics; research methods that have been used in the creation of meanings of place and the practices, or as he calls it "transgressions," that do not conform to expectations of place and therefore are thought of as "out of place."
In examining methods people have used in creating meaning to places, Cresswell used the examples of Pratt and Mhay in how people will construct their own identity to places even when they are relatively powerless. He then showed how memory can serve as a device of production of places. The materiality of a place means that memory is inscribed in landscape, forming a sorce of public memory. This permanent artifact of memory limits the possibility of memory fading and changing over time with each individual. Memory allows the ability of place to make the past come to life in the present. He also showed how people create place in large scales, through regions and nation-states. For example, Cresswell explained that the creation of a nation involves creation of "imagined communities" where people with nothing in common, as far as their day to day activities, believe themselves to be connected through the idea of a nation as a place and their "home."
What I found particularly interesting in this section was Cresswell's examination of how public memorials can be manipulated to serve a purpose that differ quite significantly from the actual individual memory formed through their experience. The government can focus on one aspect of history of an event inorder to take away from its severity or guide the public to view the event in a certain way. By disclosing information with reinforcements from school systems only teaching certain aspects of history in its curriculum can lead to a misled and ill-informed population that forms unaccurate views of their history. For example, Charlesworth examined Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland and how over time Auschwitz was portrayed solely as a place of facist aggression and not on the genocide of European Jews. It focused instead on the international aspect of victims in the concentration camp instead of the fact that they were Jewish. When the victims were mentioned it was hardly noted that they were Jewish. In this way memory acted to de-Judaize the concentration camp.
The second part of the chapter focused on how when people, things, or practices are seen as "out of place" they are often described as pollution or some form of dirt or displeasant thing. However, the use of place providing order leads to unintended consequence of place becoming an object of resistance to thaat order. Cresswell used gay, homeless and refugees as examples.
The differences between public acceptance and opinions of homosexual and heterosexual relationships was very interesting. Cresswell's argument against hetersexual justification for why homosexual open acts of affection should be done behind closed doors just as heterosexual intimatcies are expected to happen in the bedroom was particularly fascinating. He argued that heterosexuals display signs of afection all the time without people taking a second look, but when two gay men walk down the street holdng hands there is a public outcry. He stated that this is because heterosexuals take for granted the rights and freedoms that homosexuals and lesbians are denied everyday simply because public standards are against anything that is outside of the "norm." The term "coming out of the closet" locates a place that is viewed in society as somewhere that gives homosexuals a sense of safety and discomfort. Homosexuals lack of a secured and balanced place in society and their desire to achieve one is something that they have struggles with for years. It is interesting how homosexuals mere presence and seeming lack of place in society can cause seclusions between individuals to place and at the same time form an outlet for individuals to form thier own concept of where they belong.
In examining methods people have used in creating meaning to places, Cresswell used the examples of Pratt and Mhay in how people will construct their own identity to places even when they are relatively powerless. He then showed how memory can serve as a device of production of places. The materiality of a place means that memory is inscribed in landscape, forming a sorce of public memory. This permanent artifact of memory limits the possibility of memory fading and changing over time with each individual. Memory allows the ability of place to make the past come to life in the present. He also showed how people create place in large scales, through regions and nation-states. For example, Cresswell explained that the creation of a nation involves creation of "imagined communities" where people with nothing in common, as far as their day to day activities, believe themselves to be connected through the idea of a nation as a place and their "home."
What I found particularly interesting in this section was Cresswell's examination of how public memorials can be manipulated to serve a purpose that differ quite significantly from the actual individual memory formed through their experience. The government can focus on one aspect of history of an event inorder to take away from its severity or guide the public to view the event in a certain way. By disclosing information with reinforcements from school systems only teaching certain aspects of history in its curriculum can lead to a misled and ill-informed population that forms unaccurate views of their history. For example, Charlesworth examined Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland and how over time Auschwitz was portrayed solely as a place of facist aggression and not on the genocide of European Jews. It focused instead on the international aspect of victims in the concentration camp instead of the fact that they were Jewish. When the victims were mentioned it was hardly noted that they were Jewish. In this way memory acted to de-Judaize the concentration camp.
The second part of the chapter focused on how when people, things, or practices are seen as "out of place" they are often described as pollution or some form of dirt or displeasant thing. However, the use of place providing order leads to unintended consequence of place becoming an object of resistance to thaat order. Cresswell used gay, homeless and refugees as examples.
The differences between public acceptance and opinions of homosexual and heterosexual relationships was very interesting. Cresswell's argument against hetersexual justification for why homosexual open acts of affection should be done behind closed doors just as heterosexual intimatcies are expected to happen in the bedroom was particularly fascinating. He argued that heterosexuals display signs of afection all the time without people taking a second look, but when two gay men walk down the street holdng hands there is a public outcry. He stated that this is because heterosexuals take for granted the rights and freedoms that homosexuals and lesbians are denied everyday simply because public standards are against anything that is outside of the "norm." The term "coming out of the closet" locates a place that is viewed in society as somewhere that gives homosexuals a sense of safety and discomfort. Homosexuals lack of a secured and balanced place in society and their desire to achieve one is something that they have struggles with for years. It is interesting how homosexuals mere presence and seeming lack of place in society can cause seclusions between individuals to place and at the same time form an outlet for individuals to form thier own concept of where they belong.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Place
The word "place" is a common term that is used in our society. It can be used to address a location or signal ownership. When thinking about the word place I automatically think of home or somewhere dear to me.
Cresswell described certain aspects that make a space turn into a place. First, it must be somewhere where people have made significance to or are attached in some way. A place must also have some relationship to humans and the human capacity to produce and consume meaning. My relationship to my house and association with it to place shows this. My home is my own space where I can do whatever I want. I have marked my territory by placing certain items in my space that connect and represent me. By doing so, I am taking the space that was not originally mine and making it my own by placing meaning.
Naming is a way that space can be given meaning becoming a place. I thought Cresswell's example using colonists and natives an interesting way to describe how naming a place can be both constructed and subjective. While the colonists saw the open sea as simple vast empty space, the natives saw the sea as places associated with spirits and dangers. Since the natives had more meaning associated to the sea their journey in their canoe became a more significant experience. Place is not just a thing in the world but a way of understanding the world. For example, our connections between places and people builds our understanding on how the world functions. I believe that our culture also shapes how we interpret a place. For example, we can believe that places that are more rural have less educated people. Or that America is better than another nations because of its technological power. These misconceptions can also be infiltrated in the popular media. We must be careful that we do not make judgments about other places, especially if they are places that we have never visited.
Cresswell described certain aspects that make a space turn into a place. First, it must be somewhere where people have made significance to or are attached in some way. A place must also have some relationship to humans and the human capacity to produce and consume meaning. My relationship to my house and association with it to place shows this. My home is my own space where I can do whatever I want. I have marked my territory by placing certain items in my space that connect and represent me. By doing so, I am taking the space that was not originally mine and making it my own by placing meaning.
Naming is a way that space can be given meaning becoming a place. I thought Cresswell's example using colonists and natives an interesting way to describe how naming a place can be both constructed and subjective. While the colonists saw the open sea as simple vast empty space, the natives saw the sea as places associated with spirits and dangers. Since the natives had more meaning associated to the sea their journey in their canoe became a more significant experience. Place is not just a thing in the world but a way of understanding the world. For example, our connections between places and people builds our understanding on how the world functions. I believe that our culture also shapes how we interpret a place. For example, we can believe that places that are more rural have less educated people. Or that America is better than another nations because of its technological power. These misconceptions can also be infiltrated in the popular media. We must be careful that we do not make judgments about other places, especially if they are places that we have never visited.
I found the first article "Denotations, Connotations and Myths" particularly interesting because of its discussion of denotations and connotations effect on social codes. The denotation of a sign is its literal meaning that can be understood amongst people in a particular culture. Connotation is a emotional or philosophical association that we put with a sign. However, most semioticians argue that no real difference lies between denotation and connotation because we are constantly placing our own values and judgements on a sign. Signs and codes are generated by myths and are used to maintain these myths. They are used to make ideological and historical beliefs seem normal within a culture. From our experiences we interpret certain events and people in culture. Values are then reinforced in society causing us to view the world in a way that is specific to the culture that we live in. Myths can become both imposing and expose of our behavior. It is what you have grown up with and all that you know.
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