Week 2: Constructing Social Identity

Social Differentiation

The process by which social groups and individuals are distinguished and categorized based on various factors, leading to the formation of social hierarchies and inequalities. Not just about how these differences are interperated and used to create social hierarchies, but understanding how these categories intersect and influence eachother creating systems of oppression.

Personal Identity

Who an individual believes themselves to be.

Social Identity

What society perceives an individual to be.

Place

An area of space that is intentionally bounded and imbued with meaning by humans. Massey highlights its shaped by people’s interactions and the networks they create. Anderson - place is space imbued with meaning

Space

A neutral, abstract area before it is given meaning by human activity.

Social Relations

The interactions and networks that shape the uniqueness of a place.

Multidimensionality

The concept that individuals do not experience social categories in isolation from other identities.(Ruddick). The experience of gender, for example, is shaped by race and class, and vice versa.

Intersectionality

A framework examining how multiple social identities intersect to shape experiences of oppression.

Norm/al - Author?

(Audre Lorde) Qualities assumed to be characteristic of dominant identity groups against which subordinate groups is found lacking . Men are assumed to be rational, a quality our society values, while women are assumed to be too overly emotional

Time-Space Compression

A concept associated with globalization that suggests the increased speed of movement and communication across space. Time and space are no longer seperate entities

Global Sense of Place

The understanding that places are connected to the world shaped by the flow of people, ideas, and goods, challenging the notion that they are isolated and unchanging.

Key Points of Massey’s Global Sense of Place

Places are constantly always changing bc of migration, trade. Global and local forces work together to shape a place’s idenetity. Everything is connected, what happens in one place can affect another. Places have many identites, is not defined by one thing or group, people see places differently. Power matters, Not everyone benefits equally from global connections.

Politics of Scale

The recognition that geographic scales are socially constructed and influenced by various actors and processes. Fundamental on how we conceive and produce space, structural forces like capitalism and globalization reshape the scale at which actions occur, producing uneven development 

Power Geometry

The idea that not all groups experience time-space compression equally, with some benefiting and having more control from it more than others. Race, gender, and socioeconomic status are all crucial into shaping how an individual experiences time-space compression