Identity,contingency and the urban geography of 'race'

Traditional research in urban geography concerned with issues of 'race' has focused on a series of substantively important issues, yet with conceptual foundation inadequate to the task. Specifically, this body of work has employed outdated and theoretically limited conceptions of identity without sufficient consideration to the importance of historical and geographic contingency. I argue in this essay that topics of traditional concern to urban geography gain new relevance and importance when they are reconsidered and reworked from a social constructivist perspective that takes seriously the importance of identity and contingency. I illustrate my argument with discussions of two aspects of my current research agenda. First, I discuss how research on urban residential segregation gains considerably from a more sensitive encounter with multifaceted notions of identity that explicitly address geographic contingency. Second, I review recent empirical research on US mortgage-lending markets that demonstrates the geographic and class contingency of discrimination. The paper ends with a call for research that employs multiple methodologies.     

Social spaces of little people: The experiences of the Jamisons

Dwarfs, midgets, even freaks, are the terms that have been used to label little people. Little people are individuals who for genetic or hormonal reasons grow to a height of less than 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m). While little people face similar issues of access to those of other physically disabled groups, they live in spaces that are designed, both physically and socially, for people of 'average height'. In addition, little people face unique stigmas that are historically rooted in mythology, idealized body types, and the commodification of body difference for profit. This paper draws upon the spatial conception of Henri Lefebvre and the premise that social spaces are produced. Specifically, this paper offers the term, staturized space, to describe how the material environment produces relative stature in common representations of space. Furthermore, it identifies the ways in which dwarfism affects social relations as they are played out in spaces intended for average-height people. Finally, this study describes the ways little people's homes and meetings of the organization Little People of America are re-staturized spaces both physically and socially. The production of such alternative social spaces produces enabling and normative environments for little people. These issues are explored through in-depth interviews and participant observations with a married couple in which both individuals are little people. The case study of the Jamisons is part of a larger project which seeks to reveal aspects of the social spaces of a population that is difficult to access and frequently misunderstood. Geographers can benefit from the perspectives of little people by becoming increasingly sensitized to discourses of height and their material implications in the production of public and private spaces.     

The Reputation of the Slave Trader in Southern History and the Social Memory of the South

Proslavery propagandists developed a standard line on the domestic slave trade: the trade was of only marginal importance to the system of slavery, and the trader was an outcast. In recent decades, historians have recognised a strong propaganda element in this position but—even in recent specialist studies of the trade—the assumption has been that notions of paternalism must have caused owners to feel a measure of unease in dealing with the trader. The present study brings new evidence to dispute this assumption and suggests that traders found no difficulty in being accepted as respected citizens of the Old South. The essay points to two key elements in the proslavery position on the trade—first, the notion of the trader as outcast, and second the concept that black people were not capable of deep and lasting emotional suffering. The ‘trader as outcast’ operated at the level of propaganda and was not really believed: the concept of superficial black emotions operated at a deeper level and was internalised by owners. Notions about shallow black emotions allowed slaveholders to break up families and to deal comfortably with the trader while still maintaining a self‐image as benevolent paternalists.     

Challenging the ‘absent state’: Neoliberal extractivist governance and state effects in the northwest Peruvian Amazon

Natural resource extraction has been the base of Peruvian economic growth, notably since the neoliberalization of the economy in recent decades. Academic and media accounts portray Peru as an absent state – one of weak institutions to exert environmental control and guarantee citizens' rights – particularly in remote resource extraction areas. This article scrutinizes this idea of absence in the context of neoliberal extractivist governance, via the case of a mining conflict surrounding the creation of the Ichigkat Muja National Park (PNIM) in the Cordillera del Cóndor, in the northwest Peruvian Amazon. We argue that the state is not absent: it is the outcome of contested and re-negotiated relations, institutions, and ideologies. We posit that the goal of guaranteeing private investment shapes state agents' attitudes and interventions to address conflicts. Based on key informant interviews and the review of official social conflict reports, we examine two roles of the state: as a protector of rights and a provider of basic services. We find that, in this case, the regional government's recognition of citizens' rights appears ambiguous, and in general, the state's role as a provider of basic services is deployed to mitigate conflicts that affect significant extractive projects or involve intense social protest. Thus, the neoliberal project of the Peruvian state is mediated in complex relations, constituting a particular and evolving form of neo-extractivism, where social investment is functional to guarantee mining.     

Sustainable policy? A public debate about nature development in the Netherlands

This article makes, first, a general argument for ‘sustainable policies.’ This argument will build on the observation that modern societies, of all political guise, find it difficult to cope with the challenges and opportunities posed by science and technology. Classical models of democracy do not seem to be sufficiently equipped to guide the political process in our highly developed societies. Second, this paper will discuss constructivist views on the development of technology in relation to society, and explore possible implications for democratization of technological culture. And finally, the article will present a particular case of experimentation with one alternative form of democracy. This experimental addendum to the existing political repertoires in the Netherlands was a public debate about the issue of ‘nature development’ or ‘nature construction’—the making of new nature, for example by giving back some of the Dutch land to the water of the rivers Rhein and Maas.     

Naming,dedicating: street names and tradition

Naming is always dedicating, that is to say offering to the ancestors, inserting the person or the named object in a lineage of some sort. Only street names will be considered here because they have two characteristics of sociological relevance: they are chosen and they pertain to a social group in relation to which they are supposed to express some deep and ancient value. They can be studied from two different perspectives: the kind of action that is the naming of a street and the fact that street names express something of the social reality. Or, in other words, if naming is dedicating, when and how is it possible to shift from one tradition (to which the name refers) to another? A further question could be if street names express something of the social reality, does it imply that different types of social stratification are linked to different types of street names? Both questions will be examined here in reference to two different situations—Paris, France and Évora, Portugal.     

Social Relations and War Remembrance: Second World War Atrocities in Rural Tuscan Villages

This article addresses the issue of how long‐term memory of extreme conditions is socially transformed. It focuses on elements of the social structure and pre‐war habitus that might help understanding of the divided memory of massacres that were perpetrated by the Nazis in three rural Tuscan villages between 1943 and 1944. Within the “mnemonic communities”, discrepancies arise since some of the villagers paradoxically blame the partisans instead of the Nazis. An attempt is made to trace current representations of historical events in the framework of traditional social institutions and political life of these small villages in time of crisis. Battles over memory are seen as a twofold process—that is, as part of “internal”, intra‐village relations as well as a form of reaction toward the “external” world of which they feel victims. The article argues that long‐term memory of past political violence is strictly bound up with local power relations.     

Rock art and social geography in the Upper Paleolithic. Contribution to the socio-cultural function of the Roc-aux-Sorciers rock-shelter (Angles-sur-l’Anglin,France) from the viewpoint of its sculpted frieze

This article is about the contribution of rock art to current studies on the social geography of European Paleolithic populations. The socio-cultural function of the Roc-aux-Sorciers decorated and occupied rock-shelter is considered through its monumental sculpted frieze. This approach is based on the intended audience, analyzed through the perception of this rock art and the archaeological context of the associated occupations. The site is also considered with regard to the other local decorated sites dated to the Middle Magdalenian with which it shares strong similarities (La Marche, Les Fadets, Réseau Guy Martin).     

Increasing inequality in Chalcolithic Southeast Europe: the case of Durankulak

Economic measurement tools allow a quantification of social differences not only for modern societies, but also for prehistoric communities. The use of Gini indices and Lorenz curves for the much discussed Chalcolithic cemetery of Durankulak (Bulgaria) indicates an average increase in material items from 5000 cal BC onwards and a tendency of these items to be distributed somewhat more equally. Towards the end of the Chalcolithic sequence, however, strongly growing inequality was associated with lower average welfare. The steep increase in social inequality might be one of the main reasons for the collapse of Chalcolithic societies around 4100 cal BC in Durankulak, but also in other South East European regions.     

‘Footnote Policy’ and the Social Democratic Party’s Role in Shaping Danish EEC Positions, 1982–1986

The so-called footnote period in the 1980s is a controversial era in the history of Danish foreign policy. This article shows how footnote policy was not restricted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) area; rather, it reflected a wider parliamentary practice whereby footnotes and parliamentary resolutions were also used as strategies to impose Social Democratic preferences on the official European Economic Community (EEC) positions of the otherwise right-of-centre government. The article provides a nuanced analysis of the policy making in that period, arguing that the relative importance of different explanatory factors in the literature changed in the period 1982–1986. For instance, support is found for the transnational thesis that the Scandilux security-policy forum had some importance in determining the Social Democratic position, especially during negotiations on the Single European Act (SEA) in 1985. In other periods, short-term electoral concerns played a role, for instance in December 1985 and January 1986. However, the Social Democratic positions on the institutional questions in the 1982–1985 period were remarkably stable and could be interpreted as an attempt to maintain internal party cohesion.