Suchergebnisse

This editorial introduction discusses the problematic "demonology" of spatial analyses that attempt to understand the logic of the social in terms of subject-based origins. Taking the poststructuralist notion of decentered subjectivity to task, it uses the metaphor of exorcism to approach everyday life as a haunted space. Instead of identifying the true demons behind the voices rendering an account of everyday life, it shifts methodological attention to the incommensurable multiplicity of traces through which we map and narrate a hermeneutics of becoming.

AbstractMany people live in circumstances of environmental suffering: exposure to contaminated natural resources and toxic chemicals due to a history of accident or misuse. Environmental suffering is disproportionately experienced by politically, ethnically, and economically disadvantaged group members. An analysis rooted in the concept offalse consciousness(Gabel, 1975) suggests that environmental suffering narratives tend toward perspectival distortions. Although narratives from disadvantaged group members may contain defensive distortions, these are warranted by experiences of environmental suffering, and expert narratives also regularly contain distortions. Disadvantaged narratives of environmental suffering tend towardspatializingdistortions: emphasizing spatial aspects, objectifying people and agents, and fixating on a tragic past. Advantaged narratives of environmental suffering tend towardtemporalizingdistortions: emphasizing temporal aspects, refusing to clearly assign blame, and fixating on a "miraculous" future. We present a preliminary supporting study, using quantitative text analysis, of parallel environmental suffering narratives from community members, EPA officials, and other experts.

Where do the Americas begin, and where do they end? What is the relationship between the spatial constructions of «area» and «continent»? How were the Americas imagined by different actors in different historical periods, and how were these imaginations – as continent, nation, region – guided by changing agendas and priorities? This interdisciplinary volume addresses competing and conflicting configurations and narratives of spatialization in the context of globalization processes from the 19th century to the present.

Borders are constructs that shape our understandings of our societies, communities, and the world. Geospatial borders draw distinctions between neighborhoods and schools that are deemed 'worthy' and 'unworthy' of economic, social, and political investment. This paper employs the theoretical framework of 'discriminate biopower' to argue that geospatial borders produce a 'socio-political invisibility' linked to race and racial inequality. Through focus group discussions with kindergarten – grade eight educators in the Chicago metropolitan area of the United States, this paper provides evidence of how understandings of race are spatially applied by teachers. Findings suggest that teachers located and conflated individuals and racial groups with physical locations, demonstrating how spatial borders and the practice of bordering function as a biopolitical and segregationist way to understand race and power.

This article analyses the understudied film Song of China, mainly directed by Fei Mu, and argues that Confucian morality is spatialized and encapsulated in various chronotopes through the construction and movement of three types of ethical space (the space of propriety, the space of misconduct and the liminal space between good and evil), which enhances the aesthetic effect of conveying moral and political messages. The three main characters in the movie – the FATHER, the SON and the GRANDSON – each open up one of the three ethical spaces, and the spatial constructions interact or conflict with each other in the larger polarized spaces of country and city. Eventually, the temporospatial transmission of Confucian ethical values is achieved when the space of propriety is expanded from the individual to the whole society, the space of misconduct is closed up and the liminal space is transformed into the space of propriety. This ideal moral state has the political implication of promoting fascist militarization in the social context of the time. This analysis of ethical space and chronotopes sheds new light on the artistic technique employed in this silent film.

This article departs from accounts that either deify Indignant Squares as a model for 21st century political praxis or demonize them as apolitical/post-political crowd gatherings. By performing a closer ethnographic reading of the Indignants' protests at Athens' Syntagma Square, we depict the Indignant Squares as a consensual and deeply spatialized staging of dissent, which nevertheless harbours in its underbelly internally conflicting and often radically opposing political imaginaries. A closer reading of the organization, practice and discourses that evolved at Syntagma Square unearths the existence of not one, but two distinct Indignant Squares, both at Syntagma, each with its own topography (upper and lower square), and its own discursive and material practices. Although both squares staged dissent, they nevertheless generated different (opposing, even) political imaginaries. The 'upper square' often divulged nationalistic or xenophobic discourses; the 'lower square' centred around more organized efforts to stage inclusive politics of solidarity. The paper suggests that, rather than focusing on the homogenizing terms Indignants' movement/Indignant Squares we should instead be trying to develop a more nuanced theoretical understanding and a more finely grained empirical analysis of the discursive and spatial choreographies of these events. This, we argue, would allow us to go beyond either celebrating them as new political imaginaries, or condemning them as expressions of a post-political era. Talking of 'Indignant Squares' in the plural helps one explore in more grounded ways both the limitations and the possibilities that these events offer for opening up (or closing down) democratic politics.

An introduction to this compilation of papers (see related abstracts in IRPS No. 83) explains that the book is constructed around two major themes. The first organizing theme is social theory. The extent to which the rise of the globalization problematique represents the spatialization of social theory is explored throughout the book. This is in line with postmodern theory, which has privileged the spatial over the temporal mode of analysis. In this context, globalization represents an important shift in transmuting this temporality into a spatial framework. The second organizing theme is the concern with social change. Here, the question revolves around the sociocultural processes & forms of life that are emerging as the global begins to replace the nation-state as the decisive framework for social life. It is important to become attuned to the nuances of the process of globalization & to develop theories sensitive to the different power potentials of the different players participating in global struggles. 27 References. V. Rios

Introduction -- Theorizing Socio-Spatial Practices -- Research Design -- Humanitarian Patterns of the Camp: Order, Spacing and Protraction in Kyaka II -- Social Fabric: Refugees' Social Practices of Spatialization in Kyaka II -- Material Fabric: Refugees' Material Practices of Spatialization in Kyaka II -- Pulling the Strings: Refugees' Rearranging Practices in Kyaka II -- Conclusion.