Thirdspace

Thirdspace

Author: Edward W. Soja

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1996-11-06

Total Pages: 352

ISBN-13: 9781557866752

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Contemporary critical studies have recently experienced a significant spatial turn. In what may eventually be seen as one of the most important intellectual and political developments in the late twentieth century, scholars have begun to interpret space and the embracing spatiality of human life with the same critical insight and emphasis that has traditionally been given to time and history on the one hand, and social relations and society on the other. Thirdspace is both an enquiry into the origins and impact of the spatial turn and an attempt to expand the scope and practical relevance of how we think about space and such related concepts as place, location, landscape, architecture, environment, home, city, region, territory, and geography. The book's central argument is that spatial thinking, or what has been called the geographical or spatial imagination, has tended to be bicameral, or confined to two approaches. Spatiality is either seen as concrete material forms to be mapped, analyzed, and explained; or as mental constructs, ideas about and representations of space and its social significance. Edward Soja critically re-evaluates this dualism to create an alternative approach, one that comprehends both the material and mental dimensions of spatiality but also extends beyond them to new and different modes of spatial thinking. Thirdspace is composed as a sequence of intellectual and empirical journeys, beginning with a spatial biography of Henri Lefebvre and his adventurous conceptualization of social space as simultaneously perceived, conceived, and lived. The author draws on Lefebvre to describe a trialectics of spatiality that threads though all subsequent journeys, reappearing in many new forms in bell hooks evocative exploration of the margins as a space of radical openness; in post-modern spatial feminist interpretations of the interplay of race, class, and gender; in the postcolonial critique and the new cultural politics of difference and identity; in Michel Foucault's heterotopologies and trialectics of space, knowledge, and power; and in interpretative tours of the Citadel of downtown Los Angeles, the Exopolis of Orange County, and the Centrum of Amsterdam.


Postmodern Geographies

Postmodern Geographies

Author: Edward W. Soja

Publisher: Verso

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9780860919360

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Written by one of America's foremost geographers, Postmodern Geographies contests the tendency, still dominant in most social science, to reduce human geography to a reflective mirror, or, as Marx called it, an "unnecessary complication." Beginning with a powerful critique of historicism and its constraining effects on the geographical imagination, Edward Soja builds on the work of Foucault, Berger, Giddens, Berman, Jameson and, above all, Henri Lefebvre, to argue for a historical and geographical materialism, a radical rethinking of the dialectics of space, time and social being. Soja charts the respatialization of social theory from the still unfolding encounter between Western Marxism and modern geography, through the current debates on the emergence of a postfordist regime of "flexible accumulation." The postmodern geography of Los Angeles, exposed in a provocative pair of essays, serves as a model in his account of the contemporary struggle for control over the social production of space.


Communicating in the Third Space

Communicating in the Third Space

Author: Karin Ikas

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2008-10-05

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1135894205

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Communicating in the Third Space aims to clarify Homi K. Bhabha’s theory of the third space of enunciation by reconstructing its philosophical, sociological, geographical, and political meaning with attention to the special advantages and ambiguities that arise as it is applied in practical--as well as theoretical--contexts. The idea of "third space" conceives the encounter of two distinct and unequal social groups as taking place in a special third space of enunciation where culture is disseminated and displaced from the interacting groups, making way for the invention of a hybrid identity, whereby these two groups conceive themselves to partake in a common identity relating to shared space and common dialogue. The essays collected in Communicating in the Third Space--including a preface by Bhabha himself--brilliantly introduce readers to this exciting topic in Cultural and Post-Colonial theory and offers insightful elaboration and critique of the meaning and relevance of life in the "third space." With a preface by Homi K. Bhabha.


Making Space in the Works of James Joyce

Making Space in the Works of James Joyce

Author: Valerie Benejam

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2012-05-23

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 1136699589

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James Joyce’s preoccupation with space—be it urban, geographic, stellar, geometrical or optical—is a central and idiosyncratic feature of his work. In Making Space in the Works of James Joyce, some of the most esteemed scholars in Joyce studies have come together to evaluate the perception and mental construction of space, as it is evoked through Joyce’s writing. The aim is to bring together several recent trends of literary research and criticism to bear on the notion of space in its most concrete sense. The essays move dialectically out of an immediate focus on the phenomenological and intra-psychic, into broader and wider meditations on the social, urban and collective. As Joyce’s formal experiments appear the response to the difficulty of enunciating truly the experience of lived space, this eventually leads us to textual and linguistic space. The final contribution evokes the space with which Joyce worked daily, that of his manuscripts—or what he called "paperspace." With essays addressing all of Joyce's major works, this volume is a critical contribution to our understanding of modernism, as well as of the relationship between space, language, and literature.


Exploring LGBT Spaces and Communities

Exploring LGBT Spaces and Communities

Author: Eleanor Formby

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2017-06-27

Total Pages: 229

ISBN-13: 1317602412

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The phrase ‘LGBT community’ is often used by policy-makers, service providers, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people themselves, but what does it mean? What understandings and experiences does that term suggest, and ignore? Based on a UK-wide study funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, this book explores these questions from the perspectives of over 600 research participants. Examining ideas about community ‘ownership’; ‘difference’ and diversity; relational practices within and beyond physical spaces; imagined communities and belongings; the importance of ‘ritual’ spaces and symbols, and consequences for wellbeing, the book foregrounds the lived experience of LGBT people to offer a broad analysis of commonalities and divergences in relation to LGBT identities. Drawing on an interdisciplinary perspective grounded in international social science research, the book will appeal to students and scholars with interests in sexual and/or gender identities in the fields of community studies, cultural studies, gender studies, geography, leisure studies, politics, psychology, sexuality studies, social policy, social work, socio-legal studies, and sociology. The book also offers implications for practice, suitable for policy-maker, practitioner, and activist audiences, as well as those with a more personal interest.


The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory

The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory

Author: Teena Gabrielson

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2016-01-07

Total Pages: 689

ISBN-13: 0191508411

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Set at the intersection of political theory and environmental politics, yet with broad engagement across the environmental social sciences and humanities, The Oxford Handbook of Environmental Political Theory, defines, illustrates, and challenges the field of environmental political theory (EPT). Featuring contributions from distinguished political scientists working in this field, this volume addresses canonical theorists and contemporary environmental problems with a diversity of theoretical approaches. The initial volume focuses on EPT as a field of inquiry, engaging both traditions of political thought and the academy. In the second section, the handbook explores conceptualizations of nature and the environment, as well as the nature of political subjects, communities, and boundaries within our environments. A third section addresses the values that motivate environmental theorists—including justice, responsibility, rights, limits, and flourishing—and the potential conflicts that can emerge within, between, and against these ideals. The final section examines the primary structures that constrain or enable the achievement of environmental ends, as well as theorizations of environmental movements, citizenship, and the potential for on-going environmental action and change.


Reframing Her

Reframing Her

Author: Judith E. McKinlay

Publisher: Sheffield Phoenix Press

Published: 2004

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 9781905048007

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How does one read the story of Sarah and Hagar, or Jezebel and Rahab today, if one is a woman reader situated in a postcolonial society? This is the question undergirding this work, which considers a selection of biblical texts in which women have significant roles. Employing both a gender and a postcolonial lens, it asks sharp questions both of the interests embedded in the texts themselves and of their impact upon contemporary women readers. Whereas most postcolonial studies have been undertaken from the perspective of the colonized this work reads the texts from the position of a settler descendant, and is an attempt to engage with the disquietening and challenging questions that reading from such a location raises. Letters from early settler women in New Zealand, contemporary fiction, and personal reminiscence become tools for the task, complementing those traditionally employed in critical biblical readings.


Political Engagement Amongst Ethnic Minority Young People

Political Engagement Amongst Ethnic Minority Young People

Author: T. O ́Toole

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2013-09-26

Total Pages: 237

ISBN-13: 1137313315

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This book engages with debates on ethnic minority and Muslim young people showing, beyond apathy and violent political extremism, the diverse forms of political engagement in which young people engage.


Holiness on the Move: Mobility and Space in Byzantine Hagiography

Holiness on the Move: Mobility and Space in Byzantine Hagiography

Author: Mihail Mitrea

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-12-30

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1000833135

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Holiness on the Move: Mobility and Space in Byzantine Hagiography explores the literary, religious, and social functions of monastic mobility in Byzantine hagiography, touching on aspects of space, narrative, and identity. The ten chapters included in this volume highlight the multifaceted and rich nature of travel narratives, exploring topics such as authorship and audience, narrative structure and function, identity-making and practicalities of and discourse on travel. In terms of geographical span, the case studies cover Constantinople and its hinterland, Asia Minor, mainland Greece, Trebizond, the Balkans, and southern Italy and range chronologically from the end of the sixth to the fourteenth century. The contributions offer novel insights and perspectives on the importance of mobility in the literary construction of holiness in the Byzantine world and the wider medieval Mediterranean, the spatial dimension of sacred mobility, and the ways in which mobility is employed in the narrative construction of hagiographical texts. As such, the volume joins the burgeoning research on sacred mobilities and will interest students and scholars of Byzantine and medieval literature, religion, and history, as well as a wider readership with an interest in the study of space and mobility.


Local Citizenship in the Global Arena

Local Citizenship in the Global Arena

Author: Sally Findlow

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-11-03

Total Pages: 283

ISBN-13: 1317508599

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Local Citizenship in the Global Arena proposes a reconsideration of both citizenship and citizenship education, moving away equally from prevailing ‘global citizenship’ and ‘fundamental British values’ approaches towards a curriculum for education that is essentially about creating cosmopolitan, included and inclusive, politically-engaged citizens of communities local, national and global. Viewing education as both problem and solution, Findlow argues that today’s climate of rapid and unpredictable geopolitical and cultural re-scoping requires an approach to citizenship education that both reflects and shapes society, paying attention to relationships between the local and global aspects of political voice, equality and community. Drawing on a range of international examples, she explores the importance and possibilities of a form of education that instead of promoting divisive competition, educates about citizenship in its various forms, and encourages the sorts of open and radical thinking that can help young people cross ideological and physical borders and use their voice in line with their own, and others’, real, long-term interests. Successive chapters develop this argument by critically examining the key elements of citizenship discourses through the interrelated lenses of geopolitical change, nationalism, the competition fetish, critical pedagogy, multiculturalism, protest politics, feminism and ecology, and highlighting ways in which the situationally diverse lived realities of ‘citizenship’ have been mediated by different forms of education. The book draws attention to how we think of education’s place in a world of combined globalisation, localism, anti-state revolt and xenophobia. It will be of key interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of education, political science, philosophy, sociology, social policy, cultural studies and anthropology.