| Spatialized Identities: The City as a Social Construct |
| Space is something that we move through and often take for granted. It is therefore not | Párr. 1 |
| surprising that some are sceptical about the idea that space is something more than an |
| ‘empty container’, since this notion seems to run against common sense. However, cities |
| provide many examples of the relationships between culture, space and power that help to |
| 5 | clarify what is meant by space as a ‘social construct’. For example, some people are |
| excluded from public spaces. In contemporary cities measures are taken to exclude certain |
| groups, including gangs of youths, drunks, the homeless and ‘deviants’ such as those who |
| appear to be mentally ill from ‘public’ spaces. The reason why such groups are excluded is |
| that they disrupt certain codes of behaviour: sobriety, cleanliness and so on. In many cases |
| 10 | it is the perception that these groups are likely to disrupt these codes of behaviour that is |
| important. |
| Spaces thus reinforce cultures because the patterns of behaviour expected within | Párr. 2 |
| them reflect particular cultural values. Segregation is therefore crucial to the creation of |
| landscape and space, creating what can be termed spaces of exclusion. Power is expressed |
| 15 | through the monopolization of spaces by some groups and the exclusion of certain weaker |
| groups to other spaces. However, these power relations are often taken for granted as a |
| ‘natural’ part of the routine of everyday life. This leads to cultural imperialism, whereby the |
| dominant power relations in society become ‘invisible’ while less powerful groups are |
| marked out as ‘other’. Cultural imperialism is quite common in discussions of ethnic |
| 20 | identities. The focus is frequently upon the distinctive characteristics of a minority ethnic |
| group and not upon the wider society or what ‘whiteness’ means, for example. |
| Space is therefore crucial to all the processes of identity formation, stereotype | Párr. 1 |
| construction, objectification and binary construction noted above. The term “spatialized |
| subjectivities” is often used to describe the processes leading to identity formation. And |
| 25 | again, cities have played a crucial part in the formation of such identities. Most notably, the |
| perception of the working classes as dirty, disease-ridden and dangerous was fostered by |
| the increased spatial separation of classes that came out with the early cities of the |
| Industrial Revolution. |
| Once again, we can see the sociospatial dialectic at work here. On the one hand, an | Párr. 2 |
| 30 | area of a city may serve as a social setting in which particular cultural values can be |
| expressed; on the other hand, the neighbourhood can serve to form and shape those |
| distinctive cultural values. However, it is crucial to remember at this point that the cultures |
| of the city do not emerge in these spaces in isolation. Not only are they defined in relation |
| to cultures in other areas but they also involve a hybrid mixing of various elements from |
| 35 | elsewhere. For example, even something as traditional as the (once?) staple fare of English |
| working-class culture ––fish and chips–– is a remarkable demonstration of cultural |
| hybridity. The English chip is a direct descendant of the pomme frite first introduced into |
| England by the Huguenots from France, while battered fried fish were brought by Russo- |
| European Jews. In fact, recent surveys show that Britain’s most popular dish is no longer |
| 40 | fish and chips but a ‘curry-style’ dish called chicken tikka massala, an entirely hybrid |
| concoction that has only a passing relationship to its assumed Indian heartland. Indeed, yet |
| another irony is that the popular ‘Indian’ cuisine of the United Kingdom is largely the |
| product of chefs from Bangladesh. The history of a particular space is therefore intimately |
| connected with events outside that space. |
| 45 | The socially constructed nature of space means that cities are, in a sense, texts that | Párr. 3 |
| are rewritten over time. The term scripting may therefore be used to describe this process |
| whereby we ‘produce’ or ‘construct’ cities through our representations. This does not mean |
| that they can be anything we choose to make them. Cities have obvious physical attributes |
| that constrain and influence how they can be represented but, nevertheless, these |
| 50 | representations are quite malleable. This is well illustrated by the changing representations |
| over time of the impoverished East End of London. In the nineteenth century the East End |
| was seen as a dangerous place but from the 1890s onwards, under the influence of many |
| factors – urban reform movements, the Labour Party, the church, state education, housing |
| redevelopment and representations in music halls – the East Enders became transformed |
| 55 | into cheerful, patriotic Cockneys. With the influx of ethnic minorities, especially from |
| Bangladesh, and the growth of Thatcherism in the 1980s, the area became an ‘imagined |
| community’ of self-reliant entrepreneurs. |
| Other examples of changing city images can be seen in the attempts by public | Párr. 4 |
| agencies to ‘rebrand’ cities and make them attractive to investors. In the United States in |
| 60 | particular, place promotion has become a multibillion-dollar industry as consultants and |
| public relations firms specialize in the packaging, advertising and selling of cities. |
| Processes of globalization have worn down some of these links between culture and |
| territory. The reason for this is that new technologies of mass media and |
| telecommunications have enabled transnational corporations to impose what Robins (1991) |
| 65 | terms an ‘abstract electronic space’ across pre-existing cultural forms. This is especially |
| noticeable in the film and music industries, whose stars are viewed simultaneously |
| throughout the world. Audiences are constructed around common shared experiences on a |
| global scale and culture is less dependent upon local forms of knowledge. |
| This process whereby local cultures are eroded by the processes of globalization is | Párr. 5 |
| 70 | sometimes called delocalization. However, many would argue that this tendency towards |
| homogenization of culture can be overstated. Indeed, we have recently seen a reaffirmation |
| of local forms of identity through various nationalist movements and distinctive cultural |
| expressions in spaces within cities – perhaps largely as a response to the perceived threat of |
| some external mass culture. |
| 75 | Culture, then, is not a preserve of elite groups in society; it is something that is all | Párr. 6 |
| around us in consumer goods, landscapes, buildings and places. Furthermore, it is not a |
| static thing but is a continually evolving and disputed realm that is alive in language and |
| everyday social practices. |
| 80 | Knox, P. & Pinch, S. (2010). Urban Social Geography: An Introduction. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. | |