GPHY 229 (digital text notes and readings)

Added to the end of week 10

cultural artifacts and place

1. How do particular movies and novels reflect the places in which they’re created? And how do they construct new understandings of those places?

2. For instance, how is the recent proliferation of books about Scarborough shaped by that place, and how are these books re-shaping imaginaries of this neighbourhood? How does literary non-fiction change one’s perception of place, such as Elamin Abdelmahmound’s discussion of Kingston

space and social relations

1. How is space imbued with different social relations, and how do these spaces influence us and our relationships?

2. For instance, the domestic spheres/household in the Western world has long been naturalized as a space for women and devalued labour. Legal codes have helped construct this space as ‘private’, where the state has historically not entered. The COVID pandemic only compounded the ‘double duty’ that many working mothers were performing, as their work at home intensified

Radicalization of space

1. How do processes of racism and capitalism make particular land accessible to some people but dangerous or harmful to others?

2. Tennis and gold have long been sports associated with whiteness and privilege. Wimbledon, for instance, requires its tournament players to wear white, while advertisers targets golf’s Matsters tournament audiences for expensive watches and cars. Most of the players at the highest levels in these sports are white. The huge success of the Williams sisters and Tiger woods in a way shattered these conceptions, but also helped reinforce them- these athletes have all met with different kinds of racism and discrimination on the tennis court and golf course. They have been perceived as bodies ‘out of place’ because of the racialized understanding of space that shape their respective sports.

Geographical imaginaries

1. How do out imaginings of place have material effects on how these cities/regions/countries are managed and governed?

2. In this class we’ll consider how Orientalist discourses have long created understanding of the ‘Orient’, far east, and Middle eats, through films like Indiana Jones and Wonder Women. But we’ll also look at how new geographic imaginaries arise through artistic production- such as radical imaginings of ‘Africa’ through Black Panther’s Wakanda

Digital geographies

1. How is our engagement with different spaces increasingly mediated by the digital, but how is this digital also always material and embodies?

2. We live in a world where we constantly engage with and rely on digital media to navigate space. From ordering food through Uber Eats, to finding a local book stores via Google Maps, to out phones tracking our GPS location- our worlds and travels through spaces are at once both digital and physical. What are the ramifications of these emerging digital spaces and networks for new forms of surveillance, but also for different kinds of human connections in a precarious world?

social relations

are the connections between people. Our focus on social relations can range in scale from relations between two people, to relations between nations and socially constructed races.

patriarchy

 which creates particular modes of relating between genders, with the ‘female’ gender often devalued

Capitalism

which creates relationships of exploitation between those who own the means of production/land/finance and those who don’t – those who labour or who rent

colonialism

which operates through significant violence against and dispossession of Indigenous peoples, and constructs racial differences between people as the basis for treating some as less-than-human

ableism

which structures the environment - including the learning environment! - to privilege particular physical, mental, and emotional capacities, producing disability in those not ‘abled

heteronormativity

which privileges sexual relationships between a cis-gendered man and cis-gendered woman and assumes a nuclear family structure

what is geography

1. Geographers define geography in varied ways, but most emphasize the importance of space.

2. Like historians focus on time, geographers analyze how and why space matters in shaping processes such as nation-building.

3. Social and cultural geography examines how space shapes social relations, culture, identity, kinship, land, and social divisions.

1. Space and place have specific meanings in geography that require careful definition.

1. Although traditionally understudied, outer space is increasingly becoming a focus of human geography.

2. Growing attention to astronomical space is driven by commercial space travel, billionaire-led ventures, plans for Mars colonization, and the dangers of space debris

material relations

We rely on orbiting satellites for many of our contemporary communications, whether we are aware of it or not

spirituality

Many cosmologies, religions, and spiritualities have belief systems that incorporate the sky in some way

cultural materials

Many of us read and watch science fiction or have a passing familiarity with films about astronauts and asteroids.

daily practice

When you spend a night camping and stop to look at all the stars in the sky, or appreciate the warmth from the sun on a cold winter day, you are enacting a relationship with space

a social geographers we may ask

1. What kinds of social relations shape outer or astronomical space?

2. How has our understanding of outer space been produced through various cultural forms like novels, television shows, photographs, music?

3. How does the spatial metaphor of ‘outer’ space affect our relationship to this place?

4. And how does this space, in turn, shape our understanding of ourselves, our land, and the futures we conceive for this planet?

socio-spatial positionality

1. Socio-spatial positionality refers to how a person’s social identity and spatial location within systems of power shape their experiences and understanding of the world.

1. The concept builds on feminist theories of social positionality, which emphasize that knowledge is situated and shaped by factors like gender, race, class, ability, and sexuality.

2. Geographers extend this idea by highlighting the role of space itself (not outer space, but social and geographic space) in shaping positionality.

3. Eric Sheppard’s influential 2002 work outlines four key components of socio-spatial positionality, showing how space and power together shape knowledge and experience.

positionality is

1. Positionality is relational: A person’s possibilities and perspectives are shaped by their position in relation to others, not in isolation.

2. Positionality is power-laden: Some positions carry more influence than others, meaning knowledge is always situated and claims of pure objectivity reinforce power.

3. Positionality is enacted: Social relations and power structures are continually reproduced through everyday practices, but they can also change over time.

4. Positionality is spatial: The creation of spaces and connections between places produces unequal experiences, knowledges, and forms of power.

what does this have todo with outer space

1. Hannah Hunter and Elizabeth Nelson argue that a person’s positionality shapes how they understand orbital space as a “place.”

2. They use a camera lens metaphor: people interpret space through different lenses (e.g., colonialism, capitalism, environmentalism, anthropology), which shape how orbital space is understood and engaged with.

1. Socio-spatial positionality—formed by education, dominant ideologies, lived experiences of privilege/oppression, and professional training—determines which lenses people use to see and interpret space.

1. Mi’kmaq astronomer Neilson highlights that non-Western perspectives may not view space exploration as inherently pro-human or ethical, showing that positionality affects how space exploration is understood and practiced.

2. Physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein extends this argument by drawing on Indigenous cosmologies, rejecting the idea that Mars (or Earth) is “owned” by humans.

3. She emphasizes relational ethics, suggesting Mars should be treated as kin, requiring a different, more respectful way of relating to space.

4. Although not Indigenous, Prescod-Weinstein’s Black, Jewish, anti-colonial positionality enables her to ethically engage with Indigenous ways of knowing without claiming them, shaping her vision of ethical space exploration.

military and legal issues

1. Modern militaries depend heavily on satellites.

2. Anti-satellite missile tests (ASATs) destroy satellites and create dangerous space debris.

3. Scholars such as Michael Byers argue the UN should ban ASAT testing to reduce these risks.

Indigenous sovereignty and decolonization

1. Dr. David Uahikeaikaleiʻohu Maile, a Kanaka Maoli scholar, links space exploration to settler colonialism and genocide on Earth.

2. He has been involved in resisting the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) on Mauna Kea, a sacred Kanaka Maoli site built on stolen land.

3. Maile argues that addressing space colonialism requires decolonization on Earth, especially Land Back for Kanaka Maoli.

capitalism and gendered questions

1. Space exploration is often framed through capitalist ambitions and global prestige.

2. Mauna Kea is scientifically valuable and already hosts 13 telescopes, leading to international plans for the TMT.

3. Many Kanaka Maoli oppose further development, viewing Mauna Kea as a sacred ancestor rather than a resource.

4. Ongoing blockades and public support (including from figures like Jason Momoa) highlight the conflict between scientific expansion and Indigenous rights

Adam Mann (is mars ours)

1. Should Mars and other planets be exploited for human use or protected

2. What ethical responsibilities do human have when expanding into space?

3. Maan reflects on Kin Stanly Robinsons Red Mars trilogy, which explores

   1. Terraforming mars

   2. Political conflict over altering a planet that existed untouched for billions of years

   3. Whether humans have the right to reshape another world

   4. The novel raises the idea that Mars might deserve preservation, not domination

   5. Indigenous scholar Hilding Neilson (Mi’kmaq) argues:

      1. Space exploration ignores non-Western perspectives

      2. Mars is treated as land free for taking, repeating colonial mindsets

   6. Astronomy has historically ignored Indigenous concerns:

      1. Telescopes built on sacred lands (Mauna Kea, Mt. Graham, Kitt Peak)

   7. Mann reflects on his own past dismissal of these concerns

   8. Ethical space exploration requires listening to marginalized voices

   9. Astronomy has historically ignored Indigenous concerns:

      1. Telescopes built on sacred lands (Mauna Kea, Mt. Graham, Kitt Peak)

   10. Mann reflects on his own past dismissal of these concerns

   11. Ethical space exploration requires listening to marginalized voices

cultural artifacts

1. Music can sometimes seem placeless. We are able to stream almost anything we want, anytime, from anywhere across the globe. Music comes from somewhere, it arises in particular places, moments, due to a range of social relations and processes that are happening at that given space-time

2. We can think of novels, films, or paintings in a similar way. All are cultural artifacts that are a function of place, but are also involved in place-making

3. Cultural artifacts = are elements of material culture that reveal important aspects of the societies, places, and communities that produce them

4. Cultural sociologists and anthropologists will often conduct a content analysis of cultural artifacts in order to understand racism or sexism that are embedded within these materials, because these materials reflect broader dynamics of the society in which they are produced.

5. As geographers we are particularly interested in how cultural artifacts

   1. Are a function of a particular context and place

   2. Are themselves place making -- they help give meaning to a pace

examples of cultural artifacts

1. Prince (Prince Rogers Nelson) a singer that was prominent in a n umber of cities for his music, vital to the sound of geography

2. Rashad Shabazz a black geographer who writes and thinks about place, music, and black geographies. How music is inherently spatial. When listening to him we can immerse ourselves in soundscape that was nurtured by unique historical economies, migrations, and patterns of social interaction.

Rashad Shabazz (Prince and Place)

1. Performing in downtown Minneapolis on First Avenue, where there was no seating the crowd was on their feet. In the crowed there was the executives from Warner Bros. If the song was good then it was guaranteed for a film titles Dreams.

2. Cities Native son performing for his Ballet studio which was strapped for cash

3. Purple Rain

4. The concert was pivotal not for pop culture but for what it reveals about Prince and his hometown, the extension of geography of music.

5. Nothing musical happens in a placeless vacuum, no physical space in vacuums either

6. Listening to him we can immerse ourselves in a soundscape that was nurtured by unique historical economies migrations, and patterns of social interaction

7. Musical geographies are shaped by social forces such as racism, class inequality, sexuality, migration, habitation, and displacement

8. Show in First Avenue was a fundraiser for the dance studio and the price per ticket was 25$

9. Instruements, rhythms, harmonies, and melodies came from New England, Scandinavia, and Germany, as well as Mississippi and Louisiana

10. Many names for thr only waterfall on the Mississippi River (Kakabika, Kichi-Kakabika, Minirara, O-Wa-Mni, Owahmenah)

11. Few people of colour in Mississippi but their music traveled

12. "A superb triumph"

13. Compulsory music education from first grade through high school put the tools of sophisticated music-making into public hands

14. Place where Black musicians could live

15. The rich but problematic character of the city's segregated musical landscape was absorbed into the inheritances of his musical family

16. The band rehearsed and recorded in the suburbs, at a former pet-supply storage facility they called the Warehouse

17. Artwork involving music, choreography, storytelling, and filmmaking, the project required a new level of collaboration

18. The warehouse was used to record was also secluded (revolution)

19.  Until Prince began performing at First Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, only national Black acts had been invited

space and place

• Geography centers on space (social, cultural, economic, physical), though it’s often used without a clear definition.

• Space is socially constructed, shaped by power, culture, and beliefs—not neutral.

• There is no single definition of space; it varies across geographers.

• Doreen Massey viewed space as relational, dynamic, and shaped by social processes.

• Her ideas were influenced by her upbringing in Manchester, a city shaped by industrial capitalism, labour struggles, and later neoliberal reforms.

• Massey critiqued economic determinism, emphasizing intersections of class, gender, race, and place.

• A key figure in feminist and human geography, she authored Space, Place and Gender (1994) and Spatial Divisions of Labour (1984).

• She remains a foundational scholar in understanding space as socially produced.

what is place

• Place is the specific set of social relations that occur simultaneously in a particular location (e.g., a street, neighbourhood, city, region).

• Less abstract than space; it shows how social relations are lived and experienced in concrete locations.

• A place is produced through the coming together of local and global relations.

place vs space

• Space = simultaneity of social relations in general.

• Place = how those relations are articulated in a specific locale.

• Example: London as a place shaped by imperial, economic, and cultural power.

Globalization and place

• Globalization does not erase places.

• Instead, places are reshaped by global social relations (capital, culture, migration, technology).

• Places remain meaningful, but their meanings and material forms change.

time-space compression

• The feeling that time is “overcoming” space due to faster communication, travel, and capital flows.

• Examples:

  • Instant messaging across the globe

  • High-speed air travel

• Often described as the “annihilation of space by time.”

socio-spatial positonality matters

• Not everyone experiences time-space compression equally.

• Experiences differ based on power, class, history, and colonial relations.

• What feels like progress for some has long been disruption or violence for others (e.g., colonization).

uneven experiences

• Some experience increased mobility and speed.

• Others experience isolation, restriction, or being left behind (e.g., Pacific Islands losing shipping routes).

Power geometry

• Control over mobility and connection is unequal.

• Some groups are forced to move (e.g., refugees) without control over outcomes.

• Time-space compression is relational: speed for some depends on constraint for others.

places as global and relational

• Places are shaped by connections across multiple scales (local, regional, national, global).

• Example: Kilburn High Street, London

  • Shaped by immigration, imperial history, global culture, and local everyday life.

  • Global processes change what is seen, eaten, and experienced—but Kilburn remains a place

key characteristics of space

1. Dynamic

   • Places are processes, not fixed entities.

   • They change over time.

2. Specific

   • Each place is a unique mix of histories and social relations.

3. Multiple

   • No single identity or community defines a place.

   • Multiple socio-spatial positionalities coexist, sometimes in conflict.

4. Unbounded

   • Places are not enclosed or sealed off.

   • They are connected to wider worlds and networks.

Kingston place

• Kingston is:

  • Unique: shaped by specific histories and social relations.

  • Dynamic: continually changing.

  • Multiple: home to diverse and sometimes conflicting communities.

  • Global: connected to regional, national, and global processes.

• Projects like Stones Kingston highlight alternative histories and diverse perspectives (Indigenous, Black, queer, immigrant communities)

Doreen Massey (A global sense of place)

• Doreen Massey challenges the idea that place is bounded, fixed, and homogeneous.

• Instead, she argues place is dynamic and shaped by globalization, including flows of people, capital, and ideas.

• Place is a “meeting point” of social relations that stretch across space and time.

• A “global sense of place” sees places as open, relational, and constantly changing, with no single identity.

• Power and inequality shape how different groups experience and influence place.

• Places contain multiple identities and histories, often contested.

• Massey critiques defensive localism, which tries to close places off and exclude others.

• She promotes a progressive politics of place that embraces diversity and global interconnectedness.

• Example: London reflects diverse influences from migration and global networks.

• Key idea: Place is not fixed—it is continuously produced through global social relations.

what is geographical imagination

• Refers to how we understand space, place, nature, and landscape and their role in shaping life.

• Defined by The Dictionary of Human Geography as:

  • A sensitivity to the significance of place and space in the constitution of life on Earth.

• Historically linked to:

  • Creative production (art, painting, literature).

• Expanded by David Harvey (1980s) to emphasize:

  • How individuals understand space/place in their own biographies.

  • How space affects social relations, interactions, and institutions.

• Geographical imagination:

  • Draws on social sciences (political economy, cultural studies, social theory).

  • Is shaped by personal experience and systems of power (capitalism, academia, settler colonialism).

power and diversity of geographical imaginations

• People imagine the same place differently.

• These imaginations are:

  • Personal and emotional

  • Structurally shaped by power relations

• Geographical imaginations:

  • Do not simply reflect reality

  • Actively produce dominant (hegemonic) understandings

  • Have real material effects on places and people

• Two key dimensions explored:

  1. Discourses about place

  2. Diversity of geographical imaginations

discourse key concepts

• Draws on Foucault and Gramsci.

• Developed accessibly by Stuart Hall.

• Discourse:

  • Systems of representation that produce meaning.

  • Include language and practices.

  • Shape how knowledge is formed and how people act.

• Hall’s definition:

  • A group of statements that produce knowledge about a topic at a particular historical moment.

• Discourses:

  • Are historically specific

  • Include rules about what can be said

  • Shape conduct and behavior

discursive formations

• Discourses consist of:

  • Statements

  • Rules

  • Subjects

  • Authority & expertise

  • Practices

  • Contextual specificity

• Example: COVID-19 in Canada

  • Multiple discourses exist at different scales:

    • National media and government

    • Universities

    • Families and everyday life

  • Discourses legitimize:

    • Individual responsibility over collective/state responsibility

    • Moralizing anti-vaxxers

    • Personal purchase of test kits

• Power is produced through discourse.

• Where discourse exists:

  • There is also counter-discourse and resistance.

orientalism and geography

• Analyzed most famously by Edward Said.

• Orientalism:

  • A Western discourse about “the Orient” (India, Egypt, Middle East).

  • Produced through academic texts, art, travel writing, media.

• Key definition (Said):

  • A “distribution of geopolitical awareness” across cultural and scholarly texts.

• Orientalism:

  • Homogenizes and stereotypes Eastern societies

  • Is produced through Western socio-spatial positionality

  • Constructs both the “Orient” and the “Occident”

material effects of orientalism

• Not just ideas—has real effects:

  • Colonial rule

  • Military interventions

  • Bureaucracies

  • Cultural dominance

• Orientalism is:

  • Relational (East defined in opposition to West)

  • Supported by political, intellectual, cultural, and moral power

• Helps legitimate Western dominance and self-identity.

orientalism in pop culture

• Hollywood as a powerful site producing dominant geographical imaginaries.

• Examples:

  • Aladdin (1992):

    • Exoticism

    • Patriarchy

    • Sexualization

    • Americanized heroes

  • Indiana Jones, similar 80s–90s films

• Dune (2021):

  • Debate over Orientalism

  • Film removes Middle Eastern influences and actors

• Representation is not inherently bad:

  • The issue is who tells the story, how, and with what power.

Kai Cheng (The Chinese transexuals guide)

• Cheongsam = cultural garment traditionally associated with Chinese femininity.

• The main issue isn’t the garment itself, but how it is imagined by others.

• In mainstream culture, the cheongsam is:

  • Linked with Chinese womanhood

  • Seen through stereotypes (e.g., exotic, traditional, sexualized)

• Because of these dominant imaginations:

  • The cheongsam becomes symbolically loaded

  • It carries meanings that don’t reflect lived complexity

• For Thom personally:

  • Wearing the cheongsam becomes complicated because:

    • It’s socially tied to ideas about gender and culture

    • It reduces identity to caricatured meanings

• The cheongsam’s cultural symbolism:

  • Frames Chinese femininity in limiting, often eroticized ways

  • Erases the actual diversity of Chinese and trans experiences

• Thom argues:

  • Mainstream imaginings distort who is seen and how they are seen

  • This affects how a person feels in their own body and culture

• Overall point:

  • Cultural symbols like the cheongsam are not neutral

  • They carry discursive power

  • They influence how identities are understood by others and by oneself

contextual specificity of orientalism

• Discourses are:

  • Produced in specific historical moments

  • Shaped by place

  • Not fixed — they change over time

• Orientalism must be understood as:

  • Historically and geographically contextual

  • Taking different forms in different places and eras

From Orientalism to Islamophobia

• Islamophobia has roots in Orientalist discourse

• Orientalism historically framed “the East” as:

  • Monolithic

  • Backward

  • Uncivilized

  • Violent

• Contemporary Islamophobia:

  • Can be understood as a transformed Orientalism

  • Strips away romantic exoticism

  • Replaces it with flattened, fear-based narratives of terror

• Rise of Islamophobia:

  • Emerged strongly in the 1990s post–Cold War

  • Intensified after September 11, 2001

• Effects:

  • Muslims racialized as a homogeneous group

  • Increased stereotyping, discrimination, and violence

Geography of Islamophobic Discourse

• Islamophobia operates differently across places

• Produces place-specific geographical imaginaries

• Relational logic:

  • “Orient” constructed as dangerous/backward

  • “Occident” constructed as modern, tolerant, civilized

Islamophobia in Canada

• Shaped heavily by:

  • War on Terror discourse

• Produces:

  • A negative geographical imaginary of the Middle East

  • A positive imaginary of Canada as:

    • Tolerant

    • Multicultural

    • Morally superior

• Reflects Said’s Orient/Occident relational dynamic

Historical Roots of Canadian Racialization

• Canada founded as:

  • A white settler colonial state

  • Built through Indigenous land dispossession

• Early immigration policy explicitly racist:

  • Chinese Immigration Act (1885)

  • Continuous Passage Requirement (1908)

  • Immigration Act (1910)

• Mid-20th century shift:

  • Overt racism became less acceptable

  • Labour needs encouraged racialized immigration

  • Racial hierarchies persisted in new forms

Multiculturalism and National Identity

• 1971 Multiculturalism Policy (Pierre Trudeau):

  • Framed racialized people as “cultures”

  • Maintained English/French founding identity

• According to Sunera Thobani:

  • Multiculturalism:

    • Reconfigured race as culture

    • Produced “manageable” difference

    • Preserved whiteness as the national core

• Effect:

  • Canada imagines itself as tolerant because it “includes” Others

  • Racialized people remain positioned as outside the core nation

Islamophobia within Canadian Multiculturalism

• Muslims often positioned as:

  • Cultural outsiders

  • Subjects requiring assimilation

• Islamophobic discourse constructs key subjects:

  • The oppressed Muslim woman

  • The violent or terrorist Muslim man

  • The white Western saviour

  • The “good” immigrant who adopts Canadian values

Dana Olwan (Media, policy and honour crimes)

Core Arguments

1. Honour Crimes as Social Discourse

• Honour-based violence is presented in mainstream discourse as:

  • Dangerous

  • Culturally foreign

  • Linked to immigration and failure to assimilate to Western ideals of gender equality.

2. “Imported Problem” Narrative

• Honour crimes are framed as imported cultural practices rather than part of broader patterns of violence against women.

• This framing positions racialized communities as inherently backward and at odds with Canadian values.

3. Linking Violence to Cultural Otherness

• Honour crimes are tied to cultural and religious differences rather than to structural conditions that contribute to gender violence more widely.

• The discourse emphasizes cultural explanations over social and structural causes of gender-based violence.

Key Discursive Effects

4. Reinforcement of Stereotypes

• Media and official narratives often:

  • Spotlight immigrant communities

  • Associate honour crimes with Islam, South Asian or Middle Eastern identities

  • Promote a clash-of-cultures trope that positions Canada as modern and gender-equal by contrast.

5. Exclusionary National Logic

• Honour crime discourse contributes to the idea that:

  • Canada’s national identity is tolerant and progressive

  • Those who “fail to adopt” Canadian norms are outsiders who must be monitored or controlled.

Implications

6. Islamophobia and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

• Honour crimes become a way to:

  • Justify racialized surveillance

  • Support restrictive policies

  • Bolster Islamophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric.

7. Gender Violence Misframed

• By focusing on cultural explanations, discourse:

  • Diverts attention from structural inequalities

  • Downplays gendered violence that occurs across all communities.

Spatializing Orientalism

• Orientalism emerged in Western institutions and has changed historically.

• It helps construct “progressive,” “liberal” national identities (e.g., Canada, multiculturalism).

• Orientalism has geographic specificity: it constructs ideas about places, even imagined ones.

• Geographers must consider:

  • Where and how discourses about places arise

  • What they say about those places

  • Their material effects in the real world

  • How discourses travel and transform over time

• Similar Othering processes exist beyond “the East,” including discourses about Africa, slums, and favelas.

Discourses of Africa

• No single equivalent to Edward Said’s Orientalism exists for Africa.

• Scholars have still examined how Africa has been constructed through Western discourse.

• Valentin-Yves Mudimbe – The Invention of Africa (1988):

  • Analyzes European representations of Africa (15th–18th centuries).

  • Shows how Africans were Othered as exotic yet assimilated into European aesthetics.

  • These representations influenced racial classification systems (e.g., Linnaeus’s four “races”).

• Primitivism:

  • Positions non-Western people as backward.

  • Reinforces the West as civilized and enlightened.

• Popular culture (e.g., Do They Know It’s Christmas?) reinforces simplified, stereotypical images of Africa

Discourses of the “Slum”

• “Slum” is widely disliked due to negative, deficit-based meanings.

• UN definition frames slums by what they lack:

  • Durable housing

  • Sufficient living space

  • Clean water

  • Sanitation

  • Secure tenure

• These definitions shape dominant imaginaries in:

  • Media

  • Films

  • Charity campaigns

• Slum discourse:

  • Homogenizes residents

  • Constructs them as backward and lacking

  • Functions as a primitivizing discourse

• New dominant image: the entrepreneurial slum resident (e.g., Slumdog Millionaire).

• Even “positive” stereotypes can:

  • Flatten lived experiences

  • Justify withdrawal of structural support

  • Remain a single story

Favela Imaginaries (Rio de Janeiro)

• “Favela” often translated as “slum,” but residents often reject this.

• Some prefer “comunidade” to emphasize social ties.

• Favelas are highly diverse, not uniform:

  • Mostly durable brick housing

  • Many have infrastructure (roads, water)

  • Homes grow through autoconstruction

  • Most have toilets

  • Many have land rights through regularization programs

• Favela stigma:

  • Seen as backward and “other” compared to the formal city (asfalto)

  • Residents may hide addresses due to discrimination

• Famous images reinforce sharp divides between rich and poor.

State Responses to Favelas

• Government approaches have shifted between:

  • Demolition and removal

  • In-situ upgrading

  • Relocation to state housing

• Minha Casa, Minha Vida program:

  • Often failed due to:

    • Distance from original communities

    • Lack of services (schools, healthcare)

    • Restrictive housing regulations

  • Many residents prefer staying in favelas.

The “Violent” Favela

• Favelas are strongly associated with drug trafficking.

• Contributing factors:

  • Open borders and arms/drug flows

  • Neoliberalism and unemployment

  • Police corruption

  • Political involvement in narco-factions

• Popular media reinforces violent imagery (e.g., City of God, Tropa de Elite).

• Discursive association of favelas with criminality:

  • Legitimizes extreme police violence

  • Results in disproportionate killings of racialized youth

• Violence is real, but reducing favelas to violence has deadly consequences.

 

• Favelas are also framed as:

  • Exotic

  • Tropical

  • Cultural (music, dance)

• Global exposure:

  • Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Care About Us

  • Mega-events (Olympics, World Cup)

• State promoted favela tourism by militarizing areas to appear “safe.”

• Tourism often increased violence for residents.

• Favela tourism includes:

  • Guided tours

  • Cultural branding

  • Global circulation of favela imagery

Favela Tourism (Bianca Freire-Medeiros)

• Favela as a global brand circulated through:

  • Films, documentaries

  • Restaurants, clubs, galleries worldwide

• Tourism does not show the full complexity of favela life.

• Favela tourism is not simply a “poor people zoo,” but it remains shaped by global power relations.

The Favela as Tourist Object

• Favelas are also framed as:

  • Exotic

  • Tropical

  • Cultural (music, dance)

• Global exposure:

  • Michael Jackson’s They Don’t Care About Us

  • Mega-events (Olympics, World Cup)

• State promoted favela tourism by militarizing areas to appear “safe.”

• Tourism often increased violence for residents.

• Favela tourism includes:

  • Guided tours

  • Cultural branding

  • Global circulation of favela imagery

Favela Tourism (Bianca Freire-Medeiros)

• Favela as a global brand circulated through:

  • Films, documentaries

  • Restaurants, clubs, galleries worldwide

• Tourism does not show the full complexity of favela life.

• Favela tourism is not simply a “poor people zoo,” but it remains shaped by global power relations.

• Tourists seek an imagined “authentic favela” shaped by prior discourses.

The favela and its touristic Transits

• Focuses on how favelas (informal settlements) in Rio de Janeiro have become tourist destinations, particularly Rocinha, which attracts thousands of visitors monthly.

• Part of a broader project examining the conversion of poverty into a tourist commodity in global cities.

• Describes “reality tours”—tourist experiences that promote encounters with everyday life in the favela, marketed as authentic and immersive.

• Shows how the favela has been represented and circulated globally (e.g., through film like City of God), helping shape its image as a tourist “trademark.”

• Tourism in Rocinha began informally in the 1990s and became more institutionalized by the 2000s, with multiple tour operators and diverse services.

• Local government has even promoted favela tourism in other communities, showing a shift in urban visibility politics, though negative stereotypes of violence persist.

• Tour operators often claim tourism challenges violent stereotypes and benefits residents, but economic benefits for locals are limited and often controlled by outside agencies.

• The article highlights ethical debates around poverty tourism, including issues of exploitation, representation, and who benefits from these tours.

• Freire‑Medeiros calls for nuanced study of favela tourism, understanding it as a complex social practice, not simply moralized as good or bad.

Re-Imagining the “Slum”

• Previous discussions focused on how places (e.g., favelas) are framed as:

  • Backward

  • Primitive

  • Violent

  • Exotic and tropical (especially for tourism)

• These representations are partial and reductive.

Everyday Life in Favelas

• Favela residents:

  • Are highly heterogeneous (mixed income classes)

  • Mostly avoid involvement in the narcotrade

  • Are focused on survival, family, and community life

• Violence shapes life but does not define it.

• Similar to Black neighbourhoods like Minneapolis, favelas’ socio-spatial positions foster rich cultural production.

Favela Cultural Production

• Favelas have produced influential music, dance, and art.

• Brazilian funk and passinho:

  • Created in favelas

  • Express daily life, hopes, fears, and dreams

  • Constantly evolving and modernizing

  • Draw from global influences (blues, soul, R&B) and local traditions

• Passinho roots:

  • Capoeira (linked to slavery)

  • Samba

Cultural Marginalization & Power

• Funk and passinho are often denigrated by elites because they are:

  • Black/Afro-Brazilian

  • Perceived as threatening the white elite status quo

• In some cases, these art forms are viewed as politically dangerous or mobilizing.

Global Circulation of Favela Culture

• Passinho gained global attention during the 2014 FIFA World Cup (Coca-Cola commercial).

• This exposure reflects:

  • Cultural commodification

  • National pride in favela-origin culture

• Tension exists between visibility and exploitation

Community-Led Cultural Representation

• Many favela residents want outsiders to see:

  • Life beyond poverty and violence

• Example: Circulando Festival (Complexo do Alemão):

  • Annual arts and culture festival

  • Features local musicians, artists, muralists, dancers

  • Celebrates community creativity and identity

• Capoeira remains a key cultural practice.

Favela Artists & National Impact

• Favelas have produced some of Brazil’s most important artists.

• Elza Soares:

  • Internationally recognized singer

  • Began in samba, later embraced Afro-futurist themes

  • Album Mulher do Fim do Mundo (2015) addressed major social issues

  • Celebrated as a transformative cultural figure

Resistance Through Alternate Imaginaries

• The course emphasizes:

  • How power shapes dominant spatial imaginaries

  • How people resist through alternative narratives

• A key form of resistance: Afrofuturism

Afrofuturism (Key Concept)

• A cultural and artistic movement focused on:

  • Liberation from oppressive structures (e.g., colonialism)

  • Reimagining African and African-diasporic pasts, presents, and futures

• Officially named in 1993, but practiced long before.

• Notable figure: Octavia Butler.

Core Elements of Afrofuturism

• Redefines gender roles (centers women and trans people)

• Blends traditional African culture with futuristic technology

• Created by and centered on Black people

• Critiques real-world power structures by imagining alternatives

Afrofuturism in Popular Culture

• Janelle Monáe:

  • Major contemporary Afrofuturist artist

  • Collaborated with Prince

• Afrofuturism requires:

  • Celebration of Black culture

  • More than just Black representation in futuristic settings

Black Panther as Afrofuturism

• Black Panther (2018) is a prominent example.

• Wakanda:

  • Combines tradition and advanced technology

  • Challenges Eurocentric binaries of “modern vs. traditional”

• Key themes to analyze:

  • Gender roles and power

  • Representation of Africa

  • Isolationism and global responsibility

  • Relationship between Wakanda and Oakland, California

• Some critics argue the film does not go far enough in dismantling stereotypes.

Black Panther (film )

• Setting: The fictional African nation of Wakanda, technologically advanced and rich in the rare metal vibranium, but hidden from the world.

• Plot: T’Challa becomes king of Wakanda after his father’s death, facing challenges to his leadership and the nation’s future.

• Villain: Erik “Killmonger” Stevens, a U.S.-born Wakandan exile, challenges T’Challa’s claim and wants to use Wakanda’s resources to empower oppressed Black communities globally.

• Themes:

  • Leadership and responsibility – balancing tradition with progress.

  • Identity and diaspora – exploring the tension between homeland and exile.

  • Cultural heritage vs. global engagement – Wakanda must decide whether to remain isolated or help the wider world.

  • Social justice and oppression – Killmonger’s radical approach highlights systemic inequalities and historical trauma.

• Technology and tradition: Wakanda blends advanced tech with Indigenous culture and rituals.

• Supporting characters: Shuri (tech genius sister), Nakia (spy/activist), Okoye (warrior leader), and the Dora Milaje (all-female guard).

• Resolution: T’Challa defeats Killmonger, chooses to share Wakanda’s resources and knowledge with the world, signaling a new vision for global cooperation.

• Cultural impact: Celebrates Black excellence, Afrofuturism, and African heritage, and sparks global conversations about representation, identity, and empowerment

migration and mobility

• Mobility: Movement between places, temporary (commuting, travel) or permanent.

• Migration: A long-distance move that changes one’s place of residence, across different scales (neighbourhoods, countries).

• Migration can be:

  • Voluntary (pull factors like jobs or opportunities)

  • Forced (push factors like war, poverty, environmental disasters)

• Refugees cross international borders for safety; Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are forced to move within their own country.

• Many current refugee crises exist globally (e.g., Middle East/North Africa/Europe), with high death tolls during migration journeys.

• Climate change is increasingly forcing people to move, but these are socio-natural disasters, shaped by political, economic, and social forces—not just nature.

migration, power, and the nation state

• Drawing on Doreen Massey, mobility is uneven: not everyone controls when, how, or why they move.

• Canada has relied on migration for economic growth but has also:

  • Forced Indigenous relocations

  • Used temporary foreign labour

• Immigration enforcement (e.g., in the U.S.) highlights the violence of borders and state power.

• The course emphasizes social and cultural dimensions of migration: how migrants make homes and stay connected to places they’ve left.

Diaspora

• Diaspora: The spatial dispersion of a people from their homeland, usually shaped by forced displacement.

• According to Paul Gilroy, diaspora is:

  • Rooted in violence (slavery, genocide, indenture)

  • Defined by memory, loss, and ongoing connection

  • Less about territory and more about belonging and remembrance

• Diaspora challenges the idea that identity = nation-state.

the African diaspora

• Formed through both forced and voluntary movements, especially the transatlantic slave trade (10–12 million people).

• Most enslaved Africans were taken to Latin America and the Caribbean.

• The African diaspora is central to North American social and cultural life.

• Scholars emphasize diaspora as both:

  • Spatial dispersion

  • Cultural identity and shared experience (violence, resistance, belonging)

Diasporic culture and identity

• Diasporic identity involves:

  • Psychological and symbolic “returns” to a homeland

  • Cultural connections rather than literal movement

• Example: Black Panther and the Wakanda salute as symbolic returns to Africa.

• Diasporic identities are actively produced, not fixed.

cultural practices and the African diaspora

• Music, religion, and philosophy reflect African ethnic origins (e.g., Kongo, Yoruba).

• Congo Square (New Orleans) is a key example where African traditions helped shape jazz.

• African spiritual traditions influenced religions like Vodou, Santería, and Candomblé.

• These practices show how culture emerges through movement, hybridity, and resistance

diasporic citizenship and belonging

• Diasporic citizenship: People belong to multiple places at once through transnational connections.

• Identity is shaped by flows of people, culture, memory, and technology.

• People can feel connected to homelands even without returning.

Caribbean diaspora in Toronto

• Caribbean identity in Toronto is shaped through movement and connection, not just the Caribbean region.

• Alissa Trotz shows how bus tours between Toronto and New York:

  • Create spaces of Caribbean social life

  • Are maintained through emotional and cultural labour (often by Afro-Caribbean women)

• Caribbeanness is produced on the bus, in Toronto, and across borders.

diaspora and music

• Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic describes a hybrid cultural space linking Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas, and Europe.

• Music (jazz, hip hop) emerges from histories of violence and resistance.

• Toronto is a key site for Caribbean-diasporic hip hop.

• Kardinal Offishall exemplifies Caribbean-Canadian identity through music, language, and urban culture.

Trotz (Bustling across the Canada and US border

In this article, Alissa Trotz examines how Caribbean people—especially women—move routinely across the Canada–US border in ways that challenge traditional ideas about migration and diaspora. Rather than seeing movement only as travel between a homeland and a destination, she argues that many Caribbean migrants engage in regular, everyday travel between cities like Toronto and New York that creates new social, cultural, and spatial connections across North America.

Key points:

• Most studies of transnational migration focus on the relationship between a person’s home country and their new country, often portraying movement as a one‑time shift from “away” to “settlement.” Trotz calls this a home‑away dyad and criticizes it as too narrow for understanding real patterns of mobility.

• She uses the example of Caribbean women who travel regularly between Toronto and New York—not just to visit the Caribbean—to show that diasporic life involves multiple places and circuits rather than a simple origin–destination route.

• These movements are often gendered and routinized: women play a central role in maintaining family, community, and cultural networks across borders. Their travel connects people and places in ways that remap Caribbean identity beyond the region itself.

• By focusing on repeated, everyday crossings and the social lives people build through these travels, Trotz highlights how Caribbean culture and identity are produced in situ across sites of migration—not just in a distant homeland.

Overall argument:

Trotz proposes that diasporic identity cannot be fully understood through the usual “home vs. away” framework. Instead, we should look at how social and cultural life is created across multiple places, including in the everyday transnational movements of people—especially women—within diaspora communities.

David Chariandy’s Brother

• Brother explores the Caribbean and Black/African diaspora in Scarborough, following two brothers and their mother.

• The novel highlights:

  • Economic hardship and police brutality as shared conditions of the Black diaspora

  • The role of music and cultural practices in diasporic life

  • The creation of multiple, complex identities and senses of belonging

• The book captures a key diasporic feeling: being “in between” places, never fully at home in one location.

Diasporic Identity & Belonging

• Scholars like Stuart Hall, Paul Gilroy, and Carole Boyce Davies argue that diaspora often involves:

  • Feeling out of place in both one’s current home and ancestral homeland

  • Or, alternatively, feeling at home in multiple places at once

• Belonging in diaspora is fluid, contradictory, and spatially shaped.

Social & Cultural Life of the Caribbean Diaspora

• The novel emphasizes the economic realities of diaspora, such as long commutes for low-wage work and their impact on family life.

• Food plays an important role as a cultural connector to the Caribbean.

• This connects to other works (e.g., Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez), where restaurants and food help produce Caribbean identity and give meaning to places like Scarborough

Hybridity & mimicry

Postcolonial ideas explaining how diasporic identities blend cultures and adapt to dominant norms.

Diasporic wound:

The emotional and psychological impact of displacement and fractured belonging.

Abdelmahmoud (Son of Elsewhere)

1. Arrival and the Shock of Identity Change

• Abdelmahmoud was 12 years old when his family emigrated from Sudan to Canada. Upon arrival at the airport, he realizes that his identity has been fundamentally redefined: he is now “Black” in Canada, something that did not shape his sense of self in Sudan.

• In Khartoum, racial identity was different — he was raised mainly as Arab, and “Blackness” had different social meanings tied to Sudan’s own internal racial dynamics.

2. The Experience of Race and Belonging in Kingston

• Moving to Kingston, a predominantly white city, was a startling cultural and social shift. Abdelmahmoud describes having to learn what it meant to be Black in Canada — a learning process with no guidance or instruction manual.

• A cousin gives him hip‑hop CDs and tells him that while he may not be surrounded by many Black people, music might help him connect to that community, signaling how pop culture becomes part of his navigation of identity.

3. Between Cultures and Identities

• Throughout this chapter, Abdelmahmoud reflects on the internal conflict of occupying multiple identities. He experiments with fitting in — even adopting a different name (“Stan”) in school — in an attempt to feel more accepted.

• His identity becomes a negotiation between who he was in Sudan, who he is expected to be in Canada, and the parts of himself he resists or embraces.

4. The Concept of “Elsewhere”

• The title Son of Elsewhere emerges here as more than a clever metaphor: it captures the feeling of living between places — not fully here nor fully there. Abdelmahmoud’s sense of self exists in this “elsewhere,” shaped by migration, racial perception, cultural expectation, and memory.

5. Broader Themes Introduced

• The chapter sets up major themes of the book:

  • The complexity of Blackness in different contexts

  • The impact of colonial histories and socio‑racial assumptions

  • How identity is shaped by movement and place, not fixed or singular

• Abdelmahmoud uses personal narrative, cultural reference points (music, pop culture), and observations about everyday life to show how identity formation is an ongoing, spatially embedded process.

Borders Shape Everyday Life

• Affect food supply chains, vaccine access, migration, and family connections.

• Example: 2021 trucker convoy linked to vaccine mandates and border politics.

• Example: Patel family died crossing Canada–US border → shows the violence of borders.

• Raises key questions:

  • Why are migrants called “illegal”?

  • Why do people risk death to cross borders?

  • How do borders become life-threatening?

Borders as a Social Production

• Borders are not natural or inevitable — they are historically created.

• Linked to the rise of the modern nation-state (Treaty of Westphalia, 1648).

• Designed to enforce sovereignty (state control over territory).

• Reinforced through:

  • Maps

  • Legal systems

  • International institutions

  • Cultural narratives

Borders & Indigenous Nations

• Nation-state borders cut across Indigenous territories.

• Canadian sovereignty overrides Indigenous sovereignty (even on unceded land).

• Indigenous territories often have fluid, overlapping boundaries.

• Borders disrupt nation-to-nation relationships.

 Borders as Structural (Power Systems)

• Borders are not just walls or lines — they are systems of control.

• Part of racial capitalism, imperialism, and global inequality.

• Semi-permeable:

  • Capital and elites move easily.

  • Low-wage workers and refugees face restrictions.

• Used to:

  • Keep wages low

  • Control labour flows

  • Restrict “undesirable” migrants

 Borders, COVID-19 & Inequality

• Borders remained open for economic purposes (e.g., migrant farm workers).

• Temporary agricultural workers faced unsafe COVID conditions.

• Travel bans (e.g., Omicron & South Africa) revealed racialized border decisions.

• Global South countries shared viral data but had limited vaccine access.

• Canada:

  • Ordered excess vaccines.

  • Protected pharmaceutical intellectual property.

• Borders reinforce global vaccine inequality

Borders Are Shifting & Mobile

• Borders are not fixed lines.

• Increasingly:

  • Externalized (moved offshore)

  • Diffuse

  • Technological

“Smart” & Biometric Borders

• Borders now use:

  • Biometric data

  • Surveillance technologies

  • Digital databases

• Borders move inward — into migrants’ bodies.

• Migration increasingly securitized.

• Borders are mobile, flexible, and embedded in global surveillance systems.

Mountz (“The Enforcement Archipelago: Detention, Haunting, and Asylum on Islands”)

• Externalized borders: Countries stop asylum seekers before arrival to avoid legal obligations.

• Detention archipelago: Remote islands (e.g., Christmas Island, Lampedusa, Vancouver Island) act as isolated but connected detention sites.

• Mobile borders: Borders extend beyond territory into visa systems, offshore processing, and surveillance.

• Haunting: Past colonial/military histories of islands shape current detention practices and hidden migrant experiences.

• Sovereignty & biopolitics: States control who enters and who qualifies, managing migrants’ lives in legally ambiguous spaces.

• Securitization: Migration is treated as a security issue, using surveillance and biometrics.

• Strategic space: Isolation makes detention less visible and easier to control.

Broader Implications

• Border control is expanding, costly, and often privatized.

• Humanitarian language can mask harsh realities.

• Asylum seekers are kept in in-between spaces, limiting rights and protections.