This review surveys an emergent methodological trend in anthropological research that concerns the adaptation of long-standing modes of ethnographic practices to more complex objects of study. Ethnography moves from its conventional single-site location, contextualized by macro-constructions of a larger social order, such as the capitalist world system, to multiple sites of observation and participation that cross-cut dichotomies such as the “local” and the “global,” the “lifeworld” and the “system.” Resulting ethnographies are therefore both in and out of the world system. The anxieties to which this methodological shift gives rise are considered in terms of testing the limits of ethnography, attenuating the power of fieldwork, and losing the perspective of the subaltern. The emergence of multi-sited ethnography is located within new spheres of interdisciplinary work, including media studies, science and technology studies, and cultural studies broadly. Several “tracking” strategies that shape multi-site...

http://anthro.vancouver.wsu.edu/media/Course_files/anth-490-edward-h-hagen/marcus-1995-ethnography-in-of-the-world-system_the-emergence-of-multi-sited-ethnography.pdf

Ethnography in/of the World System: The Emergence of Multi-Sited Ethnography

It seems that a new paradigm is being formed within the social sciences, the ‘new mobilities’ paradigm. Some recent contributions to forming and stabilising this new paradigm include work from anthropology, cultural studies, geography, migration studies, science and technology studies, tourism and transport studies, and sociology. In this paper we draw out some characteristics, properties, and implications of this emergent paradigm, especially documenting some novel mobile theories and methods. We reflect on how far this paradigm has developed and thereby to extend and develop the ‘mobility turn’ within the social sciences.

/pdf/the-new-mobilities-paradigm-5es9cbvhdk.pdf

The new mobilities paradigm.

The World City Hypothesis

Sociological studies sensitive to the issue of place are rarely labeled thus, and at the same time there are far too many of them to fit in this review. It may be a good thing that this research is seldom gathered up as a “sociology of place,” for that could ghettoize the subject as something of interest only to geographers, architects, or environmental historians. The point of this review is to indicate that sociologists have a stake in place no matter what they analyze, or how: The works cited below emplace inequality, difference, power, politics, interaction, community, social movements, deviance, crime, life course, science, identity, memory, history. After a prologue of definitions and methodological ruminations, I ask: How do places come to be the way they are, and how do places matter for social practices and historical change?

A Space for Place in Sociology

Taking the position that “critical pedagogy” and “place-based education” are mutually supportive educational traditions, this author argues for a conscious synthesis that blends the two discourses into a critical pedagogy of place. An analysis of critical pedagogy is presented that emphasizes the spatial aspects of social experience. This examination also asserts the general absence of ecological thinking demonstrated in critical social analysis concerned exclusively with human relationships. Next, a discussion of ecological place-based education is offered. Finally, a critical pedagogy of place is defined. This pedagogy seeks the twin objectives of decolonization and “reinhabitation” through synthesizing critical and place-based approaches. A critical pedagogy of place challenges all educators to reflect on the relationship between the kind of education they pursue and the kind of places we inhabit and leave behind for future generations.

/pdf/the-best-of-both-worlds-a-critical-pedagogy-of-place-2iim3skjie.pdf

The Best of Both Worlds: A Critical Pedagogy of Place:

"Postmodern Geographies" stands as the cardinal broadcast and defence of theory s spatial turn. From the suppression of space in modern social science and the disciplinary aloofness of geography to the spatial returns of Foucault and Lefebvre and the construction of Marxist geographies alert to urbanization and global development, renowned geographer Edward W. Soja details the trajectory of this turn and lays out its key debates. An expanded critique of historicism and a refined grasp of materialist dialectics bolster Soja s attempt to introduce geography to postmodernity, animating a series of engagements with Heidegger, Giddens, Castells, and others. Two exploratory essays on the postfordist landscapes of Los Angeles complete the book, offering a glimpse of Soja s new geography carried into its highest register."

Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory

List of Illustrations. Acknowledgements. Introduction/Itinerary/Overture. Part I: Discovering Thirdspace: . 1. The Extraordinary Voyages of Henri Lefebvre. 2. The Trialectics of Spatiality. 3. Exploring the Spaces that Difference Makes: Notes on the Margins. 4. Increasing the Openness of Thirdspace. 5. Heterotopologies: Foucault and the Geohistory of Otherness. 6. Re--Presenting the Spatial Critique of Historicism. Part II: Inside and Outside Los Angeles: . 7. Remembrances: A Heterotopology of the Citadel--LA. 8. Inside Exopolis: Everyday Life in the Postmodern World. 9. The Stimulus of a Little Confusion: A Contemporary Comparison of Amsterdam and Los Angeles. Select Bibliography. Name Index. Subject Index.

https://www.e-publicacoes.uerj.br/index.php/geouerj/article/download/21768/15775

Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places

Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-And-Imagined Places

List of Illustrations. Preface. Acknowledgments. Part I: Remapping the Geohistory of Cityspace. . Introduction. 1. Putting Cities First. 2. The Second Urban Revolution. 3. The Third Urban Revolution: Modernity and Urban--Industrial Capitalism. 4. Metropolis in Crisis. 5. An Introduction to the Conurbation of Greater Los Angeles. Part II: Six Discourses on the Postmetropolis. . Introduction. 6. The Postfordist Industrial Metropolis: Restructuring the Geopolitical Economy of Urbanism. 7. Cosmopolis: The Globalization of Cityspace. 8. Exopolis: The Restructuring of Urban Form. 9. Fractal City: Metropolarities and the Restructured Social Mosaic. 10. The Carceral Archipelago: Governing Space in the Postmetropolis. 11. Simcities: Restructuring the Urban Imaginary. Part III: Lived Space: Rethinking 1992 in Los Angeles. 12. L. A. 1992: Overture to a Conclusion. 13. L. A. 1992: The Spaces of Representation. 14. Postcript: Critical Reflections on the Postmetropolis. Bibliography. Name Index. Subject Index.

Edward W. Soja

Papers

Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory

Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-Imagined Places

Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other Real-And-Imagined Places

Postmetropolis: Critical Studies of Cities and Regions

Seeking Spatial Justice