Massey Opening Propositions PDF

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Massey. D. (2005) “Opening propositions” in For Space. London: Sage. Human Geography: Space Lecture 1 Reading Massey denotes that space boils down to three propositions- they are as follows: -

“Space as the product of interrelations; as constituted through interactions, from the immensity of the global to the intimately tiny” “Space as the sphere of the possibility of existence of multiplicity in the sense of contemporaneous plurality” “Space is always under construction” it is the product of “relations between relations which are necessarily embedded material practices which have to be carried out, it is always in the process of being made, it is never finished or never closed”

>goes onto state that thinking in the spatial can ‘shake up the manner in which certain political questions are formulated’ as well as altering political arguments - states that each one of her propositions connects the imagination between the spatial and the political - states that ‘space does not exist prior to identities and their relations’ argues then therefore identities, relations between them and their spatiality which is part of them are all co-constitutive - Mouffe (1993) argues that over time spatial identities can be reconceptualised in relational terms - suggests that if identities are constructed as a result of the relationships with make within and to space it poses then questions of geography of these relations of construction > then posing questions of politics and then our relationship to them - states that the proposition that suggests that space is always in process resonates with an increasingly vocal insistence within political discourses on the openness of the future - “for the future to be open, space must be open too” - Massey explores in this book the political implications of practising space differently - “There has been a long history of understanding of space as ‘the dead, the fixed’ in Foucault’s famous retrospection - Suggests that the space and place relations allow the social to be constructed -Idea build we can build our own representation of place by imaging what it’d be like through certain things > Massey draws on how she checks the weather every morning and when she was little would put her finger on the globe and pick a place = distant places becoming so near - Believes we adapt imaginations of space through a range of philosophical discourses - Believes also that space is articulated in social theory and in political engagements > specifically concerning globalisation and modernity - Coins the term ‘outwardlookingness’ which has recently started to become imbedded into space and place theory whether it be on self, on city or parts of planet which you work or live in = positivity and aliveness with the world beyond just ‘your space’...