Katharyne Mitchell

Different Diasporas and the Hype of Hybridity

In a progressive attempt to find sites of resistance to dominant hegemonies of race and nation, many cultural theorists have begun to rely on notions of in-betweenness and ambivalence, and terms such as diaspora and hybridity, However, in much of this recent cultural criticism, these concepts have become increasingly disarticulated from history and political economy. The fetishization of these terms, and the general overuse of abstract spatial metaphors such as ‘third space’, can lead to theories and politics which neglect the everyday, grounded practices and economic relations in which social identities and narratives of race and nation unfold. Without denying the potential for resistance, it is argued in this paper that these abstract liminal spaces are easily appropriated by reactionary forces, and can be used for the purposes of capital accumulation quite as effectively as for the intervention in hegemonic narratives of race and nation.

Transnational Discourse: Bringing Geography Back In

The concept of transnationalism has become an important means of theorizing accelerated cross-border flows of commodities and people over the last two decades. Theorization has often been limited, however, through literal and homogenizing narratives of globalization processes “from above” or by poststructuralist readings emphasizing abstract spaces of movement and the margins of non-essentializing positions “from below.” This paper argues for a theoretical approach that reduces these limitations through geographical engagement with both transnational processes and discourses. Bringing geography back in on several different scales and forcing the contextualization of concepts of the hybrid and the marginal may make it possible to harness a more nuanced theorization of transnationalism to a more politically progressive agenda.

Neoliberal Governmentality in the European Union: Education, Training, and Technologies of Citizenship

In this paper I argue that increasingly neoliberal forms of governmentality are evident in the educational sector of the European Commission. This is especially the case vis-α-vis the institutional philosophy of how immigrants and second-generation ‘minorities’ should be best integrated into European society. Both the policies and the programs associated with education and training are becoming more oriented towards the formation of mobile, flexible, and self-governing European laborers and less oriented towards an institutionalized affirmation of personal development and individual or group ‘difference’. This represents a fairly substantive philosophical and practical transformation over the past five to ten years, with significant implications for conceptions of European citizenship, multiculturalism, and social belonging.

Geographies of identity: multiculturalism unplugged

Opposition to the relativistic, indeed ultimately solipsistic implications of epistemological insiderism; concern over the fragmenting, in certain respects disabling consequences of identity politics; resurgent interest in forms of civic commonality; rethinking of the modalities of and rationale for affirmative action, not only on the part of its longstanding critics on the right, but on the part of its longstanding defenders on the left – these and other developments suggest that, in some respects at least, the maximally differentialist moment may have passed. Brubaker (2003, 40–41)

Mapping Children's Politics: The Promise of Articulation and the Limits of Nonrepresentational Theory

Reflecting wider debates in the discipline, recent scholarship in childrens geographies has focused attention on the meanings of the political. While supportive of work that opens up new avenues for conceptualizing politics beyond the liberal rational subject, we provide a critique of research methods which delink politics from historical context and relations of power. Focusing on the use of nonrepresentational theory as a research methodology, the paper points to the limits of this approach for childrens political formation as well as for sustained scholarly collaboration. We argue instead for a politics of articulation, in the double sense of communication and connection. An empirical case study is used as an illustrative example.

MAPPING CHILDREN’S POLITICS: SPATIAL STORIES, DIALOGIC RELATIONS AND POLITICAL FORMATION

Abstract. This article confronts a persistent challenge in research on childrens geographies and politics: the difficulty of recognizing forms of political agency and practice that by definition fall outside of existing political theory. Children are effectively “always already” positioned outside most of the structures and ideals of modernist democratic theory, such as the public sphere and abstracted notions of communicative action or “rational” speech. Recent emphases on embodied tactics of everyday life have offered important ways to recognize childrens political agency and practice. However, we argue here that a focus on spatial practices and critical knowledge alone cannot capture the full range of childrens politics, and show how representational and dialogic practices remain a critical element of their politics in everyday life. Drawing on de Certeaus notion of spatial stories, and Bakhtins concept of dialogic relations, we argue that childrens representations and dialogues comprise a significant space of their political agency and formation, in which they can make and negotiate social meanings, subjectivities, and relationships. We develop these arguments with evidence from an after‐school activity programme we conducted with 10–13 year olds in Seattle, Washington, in which participants explored, mapped, wrote and spoke about the spaces and experiences of their everyday lives. Within these practices, children negotiate autonomy and self‐determination, and forward ideas, representations, and expressions of agreement or disagreement that are critical to their formation as political actors.

Monuments, Memorials, and the Politics of Memory

On September 11, 2001, two planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, causing the complete destruction of several acres of downtown property and the death of nearly 3,000 people. Was this a terrorist act aimed at human beings, at a pair of buildings, at a city, at a nation, or at a particular socioeconomic regime? How will this event be remembered? How will it be commemorated? Memorialized? Sanctified? Spectacularized? At what scale will memory reflect back on itself? In the aftermath of the attack, as the final debris was being cleared away, New York politicans, developers, architects, members of the public, and victim’s families engaged in profound debates over the ways in which this now symbolic space would be handled. The ensuing (and ongoing) struggle over the future of the space reflects the age-old struggle over the memorialization of the past, and its imbrication in a deep and often unnamed politics of collective memory. Exactly one year after the tragic occurrence in New York, the American president, George Bush, staged his own eye-catching event. On the anniversary of September 11, the Bush team of handlers set up three barges of enormous Musco lights around the base of the Statue of Liberty, and “blasted them upward to illuminate all 305 feet of America’s symbol of freedom” (Bumiller, 2003, p. A1). Bush then delivered his speech about American freedom, patriotism and national resilience from Ellis Island, with the statue in the backdrop, completely illuminated by the power of a type of lighting generally reserved for use in sports stadiums or rock concerts. This type of spectacular image-making was continued months later with Bush’s short flight and landing on the deck of the carrier Abraham Lincoln, as well as the staging of numerous speeches around the world. Said one ABC cameraman who covers events at the White House, “They seem to approach an

Visions of Vancouver: Ideology, Democracy, and the Future of Urban Development.

Urban landscapes cannot be understood solely by material or symbolic criteria, but only by a close examination of their various interlinkages. The production of ideological meanings concerning a citys identity, development, and future trajectory are both constitutive and reflective of material processes and desires. In this paper, I examine the economic and political context in which a vision of one citys future identity was promoted. I argue that a 1990 newspaper series concerning the future of Vancouver, British Columbia, can be read as an important thread within a broader tapestry of hegemonic formation—a formation profoundly interlinked with the entrenchment of a neo-liberal agenda in Canada. I also suggest that this effort to shape a hegemonic vision of the citys future draws on and helps to transform broader, common-sense understandings of Canadian democracy and of the role of citizens within a liberal welfare state.

Reworking democracy: contemporary immigration and community politics in vancouver's chinatown

Abstract This paper examines the political repercussions of large-scale immigration from Hong Kong on a pre-existing Chinese community in Vancouver, British Columbia. Through an examination of the context of these migration flows, and through a discussion of two case studies of political challenge and institutional transformation in Chinatown, the fieldwork reveals how internal political change and the reworking of the normative democratic values of Canadian society reflects not a linear movement of assimilation to the dominant values of the ‘modern’ nation state, but rather the historical context of a nonlinear transmigration network.

Another Politics Is Possible: Neogeographies, Visual Spatial Tactics, and Political Formation 1

Neogeography – the use of interactive online mapping technologies, often by laypersons or grassroots groups – continues its rapid growth, as do debates about its implications for spatial data and map quality, public spatial literacy, and the digital divide. Ongoing efforts to understand whether and how neogeography might enable the participation, influence, and agency of less powerful social actors require greater attention to theorizing neogeography politics. Existing work, tacitly or explicitly, tends to theorize these politics in ways that align with Michel de Certeau’s notion of “strategy” or its conceptual partner, “tactics.” We argue that a neogeography politics conceived as “strategy” has inherent limits and that the political significance of neogeography “tactics” is even more foundational than has been understood thus far. Recent work has shown neogeography to be a powerful site of political action or engagement, but our evidence suggests further that visual spatial tactics in neogeography are also key sites of political formation. Neogeography tactics are significant not just as a site of resistance or political action by less powerful actors but also as practices that contribute to the formation of political subjects, mobilized social groups, and shared knowledge. Recognizing neogeography as a site of political formation paves the way toward realizing its broader potential in the development and practice of a critical spatial citizenship. We develop these arguments from a three-year neogeography project conducted with young teens. Si la néogéographie – l’utilisation de technologies pour la cartographie interactive en ligne, souvent par des amateurs ou des groupes communautaires – poursuit sa croissance rapide, il en est de même des débats concernant ses répercussions sur les données spatiales et la qualité des cartes, la littératie spatiale publique et le fossé numérique. Il faudrait consacrer plus d’efforts et d’attention afin de mieux comprendre comment la néogéographie pourrait favoriser la participation, ainsi que l’effet et le rôle d’agents sociaux moins puissants, afin d’établir une théorie concernant les politiques de la néogéographie. Les travaux existants ont tendance, implicitement ou explicitement, à élaborer des théories sur ces politiques d’une manière qui s’harmonise avec la notion de « stratégie » de Michel de Certeau ou celle de son partenaire conceptuel, « tactique ». L’argument énoncé dans l’article est qu’une politique de la néogéographie conçue comme « stratégie » possède des limites inhérentes et que l’importance politique des « tactiques » néogéographiques serait encore plus essentielle que ce qu’on a cru jusqu’à présent. De récents travaux ont montré que la néogéographie peut devenir un moyen puissant d’action politique ou d’engagement, mais nos résultats suggèrent que les tactiques spatiales visuelles en néogéographie sont aussi des sites clésde formation politique. Les tactiques néogéographiques sont importantes non seulement comme site de résistance ou d’action politique par des agents moins puissants, mais aussi en tant que pratiques qui contribuent à la formation de sujets politiques, à la mobilisation de groupes sociaux et au partage des connaissances. Reconnaitre la néogéographie comme lieu de formation politique pourrait permettre de mieux comprendre son vaste potentiel pour le développement et les pratiques d’une citoyenneté spatiale essentielle. Ces arguments sont développés à partir d’un projet de néogéographie mené auprès de jeunes adolescents pendant trois ans.