‘We want to be there for everyone’: imagined spaces of encounter and the politics of place in a super-diverse neighbourhood

In the context of increasingly diverse urban populations in European cities, neighbourhood organizations are often seen as offering spaces of encounter that can foster a sense of belonging. As a result, they have formed an important element in urban policies on community identity and social cohesion. Yet everyday encounters in such micro-publics may not necessarily be experienced as positive, and these spaces themselves might become sites of contestation and exclusion. Through an ethnographic study in a super-diverse neighbourhood in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, this paper investigates how residents’ sense of belonging to the neighbourhood is informed by competing claims on a neighbourhood centre. Although envisioned as a collective space, contestations between different groups of residents over the centre as a functional and meaningful place illustrate how governing institutions shape informal politics of place through their own vision for the neighbourhood and their selective support of some initiatives over others.     

'As solid as the Rock'? Place, belonging and the local appropriation of imperial discourse in Gibraltar

Although imperialism is firmly on the geographical agenda at present, rarely does the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar feature, even though it is the only remaining formal colony in Europe. Seized in 1704, Gibraltar has come to stand as a symbol of British imperial resilience, a status encapsulated by the phrase 'as solid as the Rock'. The paper explores how such a place-based imperial discourse has served to marginalize the civilian population and yet, paradoxically, has been appropriated locally to articulate a distinctive sense of belonging. More generally, the paper considers how a surviving colony such as Gibraltar, with its apparently loyal population, complicates postcolonial categories, periodizations and assumptions.     

重返“物质”：新文化地理学视角下的消费研究及进展评述

随着物质地理研究的兴起,消费已成为新文化地理学关注的热点之一。本文回顾了物质地理和消费间的关系,并对物质消费品及其品牌生产的地方性与跨地方性、物质消费中的文化政治及身体实践等相关研究议题进行了评述。新文化地理学“重返物质”倡导下的消费研究,强调以物为线索的“行为-主体-物质”的复杂关系和日常实践,有力拓展了传统“人-地”关系中对“物”维度的关注。同时,这也为消费研究提供了地理学的新视角和新方法,有利于理解物质流动和消费背后的全球-地方关系、文化经济和文化政治。这一新兴交叉研究领域值得国内人文地理界关注和重视。     

亚文化消费空间场所依赖维度探索性研究——以大连市泡泡玛特门店为例

在后现代消费时代,文化逐渐成为城市消费空间建构的重要手段。其中亚文化以其有别于主流文化的文化特质,引导人们在消费空间中有着别样的空间实践,进而传递给人们独特的空间感知。本文借助场所依赖理论,以大连市 5 家泡泡玛特门店为例,通过开放式深入访谈和参与式观察等形式的实地调查收集资料,运用扎根理论对资料进行三级编码分析,获得一个由亚文化风格、文化审美、消费空间、休闲时间、社会交往五个维度组成的亚文化消费空间场所依赖理论模型。以期帮助人们更清晰的了解,具有不同身份认同的亚文化群体,在多样的文化消费模式下开展的空间实践过程,以及随之产生的空间情感联系。