A Global Sense of Place - Reading Notes PDF

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A Global Sense of Place [Doreen Massey]: Reading Notes Human Geography

Themes: -

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Key idea that due to money and therefore development the idea of distant places has become obsolete, and with this comes the idea that we are interconnected in more ways than we know from even our clothes that are made in a variety of places Uncertainty following the true meaning of place as are we losing our local sense of place and what it means to be ‘local’ (idea of homogenisation) “Time space compression refers to the movement and compression and its current acceleration” [‘movement of communication of space, to the stretching out of social relations’] Inequality in the time space compression, idea of power geometry and wealth as ‘the mobility of some groups can actively weaken other people’ “we need to ask in other words, whether our relative mobility and power over communication entrenches the spatial imprisonment of other groups” Question of locality and community broken up as can go abroad and find exact same replica of your local high street – have we changed how we think about places? Our need to name place and place as a concept comes with the indefinite consequence of insecurity and the need to implement boundaries [ reinforces us and them] Places just liked people have multiple identities Place is connections and collections of social and cultural dynamics from all over the globe = each places weave together differently

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Idea of forming a belief in concept of sense of place leads to reactionary responses that include nationalism and the hereafter antagonism of those outsiders to ‘our’ place = creation of ‘us’ and ‘them’ because of place Loss of locality and local sense of place as a result of high street effect and westernisation Influencers to time space compression and how others experience it relates back to likes of race and gender A lot more than money that influences our lived experiences of place [ see evidence on women] Time space compression hasn’t always been occurring, despite idea wealth doesn’t just drive it have to look at how other people experience it, different developments for different social groups and places = different experiences ‘Different social groups have distinct relationships – some people are in charge of it than others, some initiate flows, some don’t, some are trapped by it and some are on the receiving end of flows’ = idea of power geometry [ some are in charge of these flows etc] = difference in movement, communication and control and initiation Displacement of others ‘personal mobility increases when we use a car yet it reduces the financial viability of the public transport system and those who depend on it their mobility is reduced’ Issues arise by trying to subject place to community, as communities can exist outside of places in terms of political or religious communities

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Surveys have shown that women are restricted in an abundance of ways from physical violence to being ‘ogled’ at which makes them inherently feel ‘out of place’ = Birkett found that it is now more demanding for a woman to wander than ever before (interesting considering in light of feminist waves that suggest progression?) this comes as a result from racism, colonialism, changing gender relations and relative wealth = not just capital

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Favelas RIO, idea of imprisonment, produced music used in clubs all over the world, some of the greatest footballers, produced the samba and produced major music contributors yet although they have been MAJOR contributors to the time space compression essentially, they are imprisoned by it = idea of slavery in model?

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Place often understood as bounded; homogeneous; community; closed; safe… Cultivates insularity; nostalgia; reactionary But Massey wants to rethink place in age of globalisation Time-space compression (Harvey) (annihilation of space by time) Overcome space by lessening the time taken to move from A to B We can experience other parts of the globe in almost real time. The power geometry of time-space compression. Not everyone experiences time-space compression in the same way. Race and gender matter to the experience of time-space compression Mobility is key here; not everyone can move in the same way. Cf. Singaporean entrepreneur to Pitcairn islander. But also, places are a composite of ALL the relations that comprise it and these relations are not simply ‘local’

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Sense of place is not static, bound by social interactions which in themselves are not motionless Then it is underlined that places do not have boundaries, although sometimes it is necessary to separated places for studies, in terms of concepting place it is not necessary Places never have a fixed singular identity, each place has its own links to other places although they may the same they work in different ways, they are full of conflicts Despite the conflicts and difficulties in place, it doesn’t ever lose its own uniqueness...