Week 2: Constructing Social Identity
Social Differentiation
Social differentiation refers to 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. Social differentiation is not simply about acknowledging differences but about how these differences are interpreted and used to create social hierarchies, leading to unequal access to resources, opportunities, and power. It's about understanding how these categories intersect and influence each other, creating complex and interlocking systems of oppression. (Ruddick). The experience of gender, for example, is shaped by race and class, and vice versa.
Personal Identity versus Social Identity
Who do I believe myself to be? (Personal)
What does the world say I am? (social)
Identification is a process of social differentiation.
Space/Place
Place refers to something humans create. We create a place when we take an area of space, intentionally bound it, and make rules to control what happens in it. (Sack)
Place is space imbued with meaning (Anderson)
Space is a neutral, abstract area.
Place becomes meaningful when people leave "traces" (physical marks, cultural imprints, or emotional connections), either intentionally or unintentionally. These traces define the boundaries and character of the place. (Anderson)
Social Relations:
Massey highlights that a place’s uniqueness isn’t based on its history but on how social relationships come together in that specific location. It’s shaped by people’s interactions and the networks they create.
Multidimensionality
We do not experience one social category in isolation from all the others which we belong to.
Race/Gender/ Class as interlocking systems of differentiation
Intersectionality is a kind of multidimensionality in which particular identities amplify the experiences of a subordinate group
We will all at some point occupy a social identity that is a dominant group
Norm/al (Audre Lorde)
Qualities that are assumed to be held by these identity groups against which the subordinate group is found lacking
Ex; Men are assumed to be rational, a quality our society values, while women are assumed to be too overly emotional
Time-space compression
Assiocated with globalization and advancements of technology. The increased speed of movement and communicant across space.
Concept suggest that time and space are no longer considered to be separate entities
Time-space compression is not experienced uniformly by all and there is a power geometry associated with it; certain groups befenitting and having more control from it more
Race, gender, and socioecnomicn status are all crucial into shaping how an individual experiences time-space compression
Global Sense of Place or Globalization as a ( Time-space compression)
A sense of shrinking of distances through the dramatic reduction in the time taken, either physically or representationality to cross them
“For different social groups and different individuals, are placed in very distinct ways in relations to these flows and interconnections
About power in relation to the flows and momvements
Global Sense of Space: Massey shows that places (and people) are relational. Which basically means that their identities are shaped in relation to other places, and to history. The processes that differentiate places from each other are economic, social, and environmental. These economic, social, and environmental processes happen at different scales, and have results that shape concrete, experiential and ideological aspects of a place’s identity
Doreen Massey’s Global Sense of Place (Simplified)
Massey’s idea of a global sense of place explains how places are connected to the world and shaped by the flow of people, ideas, and goods. It challenges the idea that places are isolated and unchanging and instead shows how they are dynamic, constantly evolving, and influenced by both local and global factors.
Key Points:
Places Are Always Changing:
Places aren’t fixed or stuck in time. They change because of things like migration, trade, and cultural exchange. Their "borders" are not hard lines—they’re open to outside influences.
Global and Local Forces Work Together:
A place’s identity isn’t just about its local culture or history. Global events, like economic changes or international migration, also shape it.
Everything Is Connected:
Places are part of a bigger global web. What happens in one place can affect another. For example, a factory shutting down in Canada might be because of jobs moving overseas.
Places Have Many Identities:
A place isn’t defined by just one thing or one group of people. Different groups may experience or see a place differently based on their background, culture, or history.
Power Matters:
Not everyone benefits equally from global connections. Wealthy or privileged groups might have more freedom to move or influence a place, while others, like poorer or marginalized communities, might feel stuck or left out.
The Question of Scale
Recently the essentialized nature of geographic scales has shifted to the idea that scale is socially constructed
Geographic sales such as local, regional, etc are important in social, economic, political processes
Neil smith says scale is suggested, produced, and transformed by different actors and processes varying with form and meaning.
Politics of scale are fundamental on how we conceive and produce space, structural forces like capitalism and globalization reshape the scale at which actions occur producing uneven development
Overlooking this can limit geographical analysis since it fails to appreciate how spatial processes
Key Takeaways
In the same way that there are processes in sorting people into social identities, space is also differentiated into places with identities. It is space + identity that geographers call the place
Similar to social identity, what gives a place its specificity is not one isolated aspect: a place is the composite of overlapping processes (Massey)