Cresswell- Reading 'A Global Sense of Place'

"The purpose of this chapter is to consider, in some depth, how place has been thought through in a key reading from the discipline." Cresswell uses three examples by different authors for this discussion of 'A Global Sense of Place'. David Harvey (From Space to Place and Back Again), Doreen Massey's (A Global Sense of Place),  and John May with his writing on Stoke Newington. Each piece is used to talk about different aspects of the place discussed and how that relates to the other readings and their ideas. "Harvey pits the idea of place...against what he calls the 'uncontrolled vectors of spatiality' " Harvey seems to be more interested in the political economy of place of place than the other authors. "It is this mobility of capital that many see as the prime force of globalization and the main reason for the perceived homogenization of places around the world." Next is Massey's essay "a response that hinges on a redefinition of place as an inclusive and progressive site of social life" Massey questions the dominant views and presents new ways of thinking. She also talks about boundaries. "Boundaries, she argues, simply make distinctions between 'them' and 'us' and therefore contribute to a reactionary politics." Lastly May's ethnographic research of Stoke Newington is presented to show the multiple ways in which people can view the same place. 

Cresswell- The Genealogy of Place - part II

The phenomenological geographer Seamon believed in the idea of place related to human mobility. The habitual movements we makes as individuals and the mobility of groups that give place a feeling. "A 'place-ballet' is an evocative metaphor for our experience of place. It suggests that places are performed on a daily basis through people living their everyday life." Moving along with idea of place performance Pred sees place as something always changing and progressing. "Place is what takes place ceaselessly, what contributes to history in a specific context through the creation and utilization of a physical setting" Examples are given that aid the idea of place relying on the action of agents performing repetitively in space. Discussed next was Soja's notion of the 'trialectics of spatiality'. Place divided into a group of three. " Firstspace is the term he uses to describe empirically measurable and mappable phenomena... Secondspace is conceived space - space which is subjective and imagined... Thirdspace is lived space and it interrupts a distinction between perceived space and spatial practices." In the second section, Place Openness and Change, the concept of connected place is touched upon. Cronen tells a narrative of a small Alaskan town, Kennecott and the ideas of connected place were analyzed. Connection between spaces that effects their growth as a place and the connections between the layers of history in a place. In the third section Cresswell looked at the erosion of place. Relph was concerned about the loss of the feeling of places due to modern communication and the ideas of tourism and easy mobility. "Relph connects various forms of increased mobility to what he calls 'mass culture' and mass values which again dilute authentic relations to place." Auge was then introduced with the idea of non-place "sites marked by their transience - the preponderance of mobility". The second half of this chapter ended with a summary concluding that place can be seen at (at least) three levels, a descriptive approach to place, a social constructionist approach to place, and a phenomenological approach to place.