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.