Week 2 The Production of Space
Definitions:
a. Space: is freedom to move. It is always in direction relationship to place
b. Place: “calm centered of established values” which means that meaning is inscribed into space through experiences
Questions:
1. Tuan makes the claim in the introduction that she wants to detach the understandings of space from culture in order to posit a universal understanding of space (p.56). Can space be truly detached from culture if it derives its meaning from experience?
2. Tuan also discusses migration and overcrowding (60) in terms of push and pull factors. I am interested in seeing how space place operate in terms of conflicts amongst different migratory/ immigrant groups. For instance, post 195 migration saw a rise in the number of Latin American and Caribbean Americans arriving to the states, specifically major cities. It would be interesting to see how space and place operates across interracial and intrracial lines. What were the conflicts and resolutions between Black West Indian immigrants and African Americans in New York City?
3. Kristen Simonsen’s text deals with the body in Lefebvre’s work. Simonsen argues that Lefebvre is arguing/ or implicating the body in his discussion of space. However, I am interested in the type of body? She is arguing for a feminist perspective but does this feminist perspective take into account the ways in which race, class, sexuality, and gender changes how our theoretical and physical understandings of the body?