Benjamin Forest

Unraveling the Threads of History: Soviet–Era Monuments and Post–Soviet National Identity in Moscow

This article explores the formation of post–Soviet Russian national identity through a study of political struggles over key Soviet–era monuments and memorials in Moscow during the “critical juncture” in Russian history from 1991 through 1999. We draw on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Pierre Nora to explain how competition among political elites for control over the sites guided their transformation from symbols of the Soviet Union into symbols of Russia. By co–opting, contesting, ignoring, or removing certain types of monuments through both physical transformations and “commemorative maintenance,” Russian political elites engaged in a symbolic dialogue with each other and with the public in an attempt to gain prestige, legitimacy, and influence. We make this argument through case studies of four monument sites in Moscow: Victory Park (Park Pobedy), the Lenin Mausoleum, the former Exhibition of the Achievements of the National Economy (VDNKh), and the Park of Arts (Park Isskustv). In the article, we first discuss the role of symbolic capital in the transformation of national identity. Following an examination of the political struggles over places of memory in Moscow, we analyze the interplay between elite and popular uses of the monuments, exploring the extent to which popular “reading” of the sites limits the ability of elites to manipulate their meaning. We conclude by looking at the Russian case in comparative perspective and exploring the reasons behind the dearth of civic monuments in post–Soviet Russia.

West Hollywood as Symbol: The Significance of Place in the Construction of a Gay Identity

The 1984 municipal incorporation of West Hollywood, California offers an opportunity to explore two related themes: (1) the role of place in the creation of identity generally, and (2) the role of place in the creation of sexual identity in particular. Work on the second subject has largely concentrated on the political economy of gay territories, although there has been an ongoing concern with the symbolic importance of these places. Although these studies have provided valuable insights on these themes, they do not reflect the renewed concern in humanistic geography with the normative importance of place, and the study of morally valued ways of life. These latter topics provide alternative avenues into questions of identity. In the coverage of the incorporation campaign, the gay press presented an idealized image of the city. In defining a new gay identity, the gay press utilized the holistic quality of place to weave together the ‘natural’ and cultural elements of West Hollywood. This idealized ‘gay city’ united the places real and imagined physical attributes with social and personal characteristics of gay men. More simply, the qualities of the city itself expressed intellectual and moral virtues, such that characterizations of the city became part of a narrative defining the meaning of ‘gay’. This new gay male identity included seven elements: creativity, aesthetic sensibility, an orientation toward entertainment or consumption, progressiveness, responsibility, maturity, and centrality. The effort to create an identity centered on West Hollywood was relatively conservative in the sense that it was not a fundamental challenge to existing social and political systems. Rather, it reflected a strategy based on an ethnicity model, seeking to ‘demarginalize’ gays and to bring them closer to the symbolic ‘center’ of US society.

Post‐totalitarian national identity: public memory in Germany and Russia

Through a comparative analysis of Germany and Russia, this paper explores how participation in the memorialization process affects and reflects national identity formation in post‐totalitarian societies. These post‐totalitarian societies face the common problem of re‐presenting their national character as civic and democratic, in great part because their national identities were closely bound to oppressive regimes. Through a comparison of three memorial sites—Sachsenhausen concentration camp memorial in Germany, and Lubianka Square and the Park of Arts in Russia—we argue that even where dramatic reductions in state power and the opening of civil society have occurred, a simple elite–public dichotomy cannot adequately capture the nature of participation in the process of memory re‐formation. Rather, mutual interactions among multiple publics and elites, differing in kind and intensity across contexts, combine to form a complex pastiche of public memory that both interprets a nations past and suggests desirable models for its future. The domination of a ‘Western’ style of memorialization in former East Germany illustrates how even relatively open debates can lead to the exclusion of certain representations of the nation. Nonetheless, Germany has had comparatively vigorous public debates about memorializing its totalitarian periods. In contrast, Russian elite groups have typically circumvented or manipulated participation in the memorialization process, reflecting both a reluctance to deal with Russias totalitarian past and a emerging national identity less civic and democratic than in Germany.

Agent‐Based Simulation of Urban Residential Dynamics and Land Rent Change in a Gentrifying Area of Boston

Certain complex processes are most effectively modeled not on the macro-scale, but from the bottom-up, by simulating the decisions of individual entities, or agents. This study uses an agent-based modeling (ABM) approach to simulate residential dynamics in an area of Boston that has increasingly experienced gentrification in the past decades. The model is instantiated using basic empirical data and uses simple decision-making rules, differentiated into four classes, to simulate the process of residential dynamics. The model employs the consumption explanation of the cause of gentrification, which emphasizes the choices of individuals drawn to urban amenities, while testing the production explanation, which suggests that major investments from the public and private sphere attract and explain gentrification. Verification shows that the processes in the model work according to its construction, simulates complexity and emergent phenomena, and may be a valuable explanatory tool for understanding and learning about some processes underlying gentrification.

Mapping Democracy: Racial Identity and the Quandary of Political Representation

In a series of lawsuits during the 1990s, federal courts in the United States rejected congressional election districts that had both extremely irregular boundaries and nonwhite majorities. In particular, courts ruled that the shape of these districts–which they characterized as ‘bizarre’ and noncompact–demonstrated that states had unconstitutionally classified voters by race. These legal cases reflect a fundamental tension in American political culture between universalistic citizenship and particularistic racial identity. Universalistic concepts that embrace numeric political representation, geometric standards of shape, and the ‘liberal self ’ share an understanding of the individual as the basic unit of political representation and define this individual by the ability to make rational choices. In contrast, concepts of particularistic identity that emphasize the importance of ‘regional community representation,’ informal visual standards of shape, and place-based or regional attachments view communities as the basic unit of political representation, and believe that individual identity is primarily constituted by membership in communities. Although some participants in the redistricting litigation have advocated notions of community based on racial solidarity, federal courts have only recognized such claims to the extent that these communities are defined by regional attachments. This suggests that the importance of regional attachments remains firmly entrenched in the American political system, despite the ascendance of ‘placeless’ numeric representation. Notwithstanding the impassioned rhetoric on both sides, the effect of these cases is ambiguous for two reasons. First, the creation of nonwhite majority districts is a problematic strategy of political empowerment; second, the decisions do not directly address the underlying issues of segregation and racial inequality.

The legal (de)construction of geography: race and political community in supreme court redistricting decisions

This article examines the different conceptions of racial identity and ‘geography’ in two landmark Supreme Court decisions, Shaw v. Reno (1993) and Easley v. Cromartie (2001). Both decisions evaluated similar Congressional redistricting plans in North Carolina, but reached opposite conclusions. In Reno, the Court based its reasoning on the ‘objective’, ‘natural’ and ‘rational’ geography of North Carolina. Such geographic relationships create political communities and constrain the way in which state legislatures can draw electoral districts. In contrast, the Easley decision based its reasoning on voting behaviour, and makes an implicit appeal to deliberative democratic principles. From this perspective, political relationships create the geographic relationships defined by Congressional district boundaries. Where the Reno decision treats race as an arbitrary social distinction that the state should not use as the basis of political representation, the Easley opinion argues that the state can consider differences in racial voting behaviour during the redistricting process. More fundamentally, the Easley decision implies that racial identity is formed by deliberative political communities, rather than being an objective, static characteristic. This suggests that disputes over spatial relationships are critical to the construction of hegemonic racial identities, and that space is fundamental to the conception of racial difference.

The changing demographic legal, and technological contexts of political representation

Three developments have created challenges for political representation in the U.S. and particularly for the use of territorially based representation (election by district). First, the demographic complexity of the U.S. population has grown both in absolute terms and in terms of residential patterns. Second, legal developments since the 1960s have recognized an increasing number of groups as eligible for voting rights protection. Third, the growing technical capacities of computer technology, particularly Geographic Information Systems, have allowed political parties and other organizations to create election districts with increasingly precise political and demographic characteristics. Scholars have made considerable progress in measuring and evaluating the racial and partisan biases of districting plans, and some states have tried to use Geographic Information Systems technology to produce more representative districts. However, case studies of Texas and Arizona illustrate that such analytic and technical advances have not overcome the basic contradictions that underlie the American system of territorial political representation.

Hidden segregation? The limits of geographically based affirmative action

Abstract Recent legal and political decisions in the US have sharply limited the use of racial affirmative action, particularly in university admissions. In response, a number of states have turned to geographic diversity as a proxy for racial diversity. Under such plans, top ranking students in each high school are guaranteed admission to elite state universities. Using a formal model, a comprehensive data set on Texas high school students, and admissions figures from Texas A&M University, the article demonstrates that under such plans, racial diversity at the university level is dependent on racial segregation at the high school level. Indeed, without narrowing the gap between white and minority measures of achievement, the proportion of minorities admitted to university can only be increased by raising the level of segregation. The analysis suggests two conclusions: first, that despite the effort to use geographic criteria to achieve racial diversity, there may simply be no adequate proxy for racial identity other than racial identity. Second, such plans hide the political and social activities that maintain racial segregation, and treat segregation as a natural and inevitable condition that does not violate principles of legal equality.

From Religion to Ethnicity: The Identity of Immigrant and Second Generation Indian Jains in the United States

This study analyses the changing identity of immigrant and second generation Indian Jains. Using surveys and interviews in the United States and Mumbai, India, we find that Jains, a distinctive religious minority in India, acquire an ethnic identity of ‘Indian’ in the United States despite concerted efforts to maintain a religiously based identity. Social practices developed by Jains to maintain social cohesion after domestic migration within India actually aid in the creation of ethnic identity after transnational migration to the United States. The geographic context of these immigrants in the United States, including physical settlement patterns and interactions with non‐Jain Indian immigrants, also lead this group to express greater solidarity with ‘Indians’ than with ‘Jains’.

Confederate monuments and the problem of forgetting

Those advocating the removal of US Confederate monuments have generally relied on the claim that because the ideas these monuments represent (i.e. White supremacy) have no legitimate place in political discourse, the monuments should be removed from public space. While we share this normative position, experiences while teaching our interdisciplinary undergraduate course on Memory, Place, and Power forced us to interrogate our reflexive desire to ‘take ’em down’. We learned that as scholars and practitioners, we must not only better explain and defend the nature of the ‘forgetting’ that happens when we remove Confederate monuments but also put our discussion of their fate into a broader international context, one that embraces a range of alternatives beyond the stark choice of removal versus retention.