An introduction to ‘A Global sense of Place’ by Doreen Massey
A global sense of place can provide us with an understanding of the social trends and developments that have occurred in recent years. One may wonder however, how ‘a global sense of place’ is achieved. Today individuals in society spend more time than ever before travelling to and from extensive parts of the world. Through the medium of technology one can agree that distant places seem nearer. Agreeing with Massey, this can be shown from the various products available globally today.
Elements which make up a global sense of place are discussed in depth as the reading continues. Among these concepts is the theory of how a place cannot be defined physically by boundaries. Place, Massey argues should be viewed as a conceptualization with borders themselves. The modern day phenomenon which Massey goes on to explore, known as ‘time-space compression’ enables the reader to comprehend the developments in the modern era where technology quickly out dates itself and the effect such technology has on our lives by enabling us to comprehend a global sense of place. It is also fair to say Massey offers an insight into how race and gender can restrict an individual’s mobility. The theory of the power of geometry in time-space compression, relating to the power and flow of movement equips the reader with the idea that social groups move differently. This is evident as not everyone is at the same social level and it is those who deal with technology on a regular basis benefit from time-space compression. As Massey goes on to demonstrate, it is not conflict which sets a place apart but also as she puts it, it is a ‘long internalised history’ that gives place a uniqueness (pp.8) .These elements are examined further in the reading by Massey to compose the larger image of what a global sense of place means for individuals.
The reading by Massey further investigates these combined key elements and tries to establish an understanding of how a global sense of place is achieved. These elements allow room for critical engagement from the reader as they formulate their own opinions on whether these elements help our understanding of what this era is about regarding place in relation to the individual.
Massey, D. (1994) A Global Sense of Place from Space, Place and Gender, Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press, pp.8. Sinead Mullins 112347971
Time-Space Compression
What is ‘time-space compression’ one might ask? As a geographer in this post-modern world, it vital we use linking terms to create meaning. To answer this fundamental question I will use the link of relationships. I would define ‘time-space compression’ as the relationship between space and time. Or even take Massey’s (1994) example of ‘… speeding up, and spreading out.’
I like to think of ‘time-space compression’, by using a simple example from my childhood. I believe it simplifies the complex dimensions of the term. Using the sun as a source of energy, its rays stretch out and hit the earth, each location sees, and maybe feels the sun, but no two locations receive the same heat. This can be applied to the theories of globalization, and time-space compression. Barriers still exist to prevent places from ‘speeding up, and spreading out’ as quickly as others. And like the example of the sun, without the energy coming from one extremely powerful source (e.g. globalized world economy / the sun) the global south remains trapped by barriers, preventing the creation of one ‘global village’.
‘Time-space compression’ is a term that has been frequently used in our everyday language for a number of decades. However, I put forward the argument that it is becoming more and more relevant than ever before. Nowadays, a person who is thousands of miles away can be seen and heard in an instant. The physical distance is squashed by technological advancements in the past decade.
Although Massey (2012) argues that ‘time-space compression… is left curiously unexamined’, I disagree, I believe it is a term that has been unravelled on many occasions. Even though somewhat outdated, Harvey (2000) presented the theory that ‘… an intense phase of time-space compression that has had a disorienting and disruptive impact upon political-economic practices, the balance of class power; as well as upon cultural and social life.’
Bibliography
Massey, D. (2012) Power-geometry and a progressive sense of place. Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change London :Routledge
Massey, D. (1994) A Global Sence of Place – From Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Harvey, D. (2000) Time Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition. The Global Transformation Reader Ailish Murphy 112312366
Places do not have single unique identities
Firstly, let’s start off by defining “place”. Place is simply a term used to describe a location and its characteristics. Relph defines place as being “merely a synonym for location, or a unique ensemble of nature and culture”, but is place really unique? Massey begins by talking about the increase in the number of local communities breaking up and how this contributes to places not having single, unique identities. This is true because as a result of local communities separating, many cultural differences can be seen in just one place, leading to no one place being distinctive from somewhere else. Let’s use different types of restaurants as an example to illustrate this; when you go into most towns in Ireland you will see both Chinese and Indian restaurants. This illustrates that unique places, just showing the culture of that place, do not exist as other nationalities bring their culture with them.
Massey talks about how communities can exist without being in the same place, for example all the major religions do not have all of their followers in the one place. This shows how no one place is distinctive from another as each location has many different faiths living there and each faith illustrates their beliefs in different ways, for example in just one place there could be many different places of worship. Massey also says that people are often rooted in many different places. This is the final point which will be used to show that places are not individual as the more people who are rooted in a particular place, the more cultures that are evident in that place, making it not unique. In order for a place to be unique, just one culture – for example one religious group or one nationality – would have to live in that place as if more than one culture lives in the same place, it will not be unique because the different cultural practices will be evident in that place.
Bibliography:
Cresswell T., (2009) Place, ElsevierDirect, accessed 31 October 2013, <http://www.elsevierdirect.com/brochures/hugy/SampleContent/Place.pdf>
Massey D., (1994) A Global Sense of Place. In Space, Place and Gender. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.
Relph E., (2008) Place and Placeness. In Key Texts in Human Geography. (Hubbard P., Kitchen R. & Vallentine G., eds), Sage, London, pp. 43-51. Katie McKay 112417258
Places do not have boundaries
A boundary according to the Oxford dictionary is “a line which marks the limits of an area; a dividing line.” From my reading of A Global Sense of Place by Doreen Massey, my views are cemented that places do not have boundaries. Boundaries, I believe, are rigid structures which are well defined. They are properly outlined and have specific contours. Countries and counties have a specific boundary outline but there is little difference between the populations living in Cork as opposed to those living directly across the boundary lines living in Kerry. The world today is a melting pot where many cultures are interlinked and blended together. I believe that it is impossible to isolate a specific area by a boundary when so many unique entities make up a region.
Kilburn High Road is an area which was discussed by Massey in her reading. An area once solely associated with the Irish, now has seen an influx of the Indian community in recent years. Ireland was seen as predominately a single cultured nation. As stated by John Waters being Irish consists of being white, heterosexual and Catholic. Today Ireland is a country which has no boundaries. It is a multicultural country which I believe has “let down its barriers” and embraced diversity. According to Brijesh Sharma, he believes that “if there were no boundaries there would be lesser number of human loss and suffrage”. The amount of lives lost in India and Pakistan over the fight for Kashmir due to that specific geographical boundary is an atrocity. If geographical boundaries ceased to exist there would be numerous advantages. Racism would be at an all-time low as people would begin to embrace the beliefs and values of one another. Barriers such as race and language would not be seen as a negative and the knowledge of individuals would increase enormously. Division and discrimination would reduce because there would be no boundary “to separate the citizens of the world”.
Physical boundaries in the world are easily defined but on further examination it is evident that places do not have boundaries. Places are made up of many different cultural differences and that is what makes a place unique.
References
Brijesh Sharma, H. A. a. g., 2012. SBL and DPS student discussion forum. [Online]
Available at: http://sbldpsthoughts.weebly.com/1/post/2012/11/if-geographical-boundaries-were-blurred-would-the-world-be-a-better-place-to-live-in.html
[Accessed 1 November 2013].
Massey, D., 1994. A Global Sense of Place. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Ella O’Brien
Absolutely not static
Given the increase of flows between places, due to time and space compression, Massey propose a reflection of this trend in our understanding of space. Massey argues for an understanding of space as relational space rather than mathematical space. Place, as a concept, should be considered a fluid, heterogeneous and outward-looking space. Relations to other places is the defining factor rather than the geographical definitions.
As our previous discussion on the text by Jackson showed, flows between places are mobile and transient. Therefore, places should no longer be understood and static and fixed entities but rather as dynamic spaces.
One criticism of A Global Sense of Place could be that Massey erases the geographical aspect of place too much. In this minimalistic sense of place, everything is reduced to meetings of flow in a location. A counter-argument could be that the relations of space in a certain place will be affected by its history and environment. As an example, port cities have the opportunity to have certain economic flows that mainland cities do not.
An argument for Massey is that the reconfiguration of our understanding of place can be beneficial to marginalized groups. Nationalistic parties are often using the introspective and static idea of space that Massey criticizes as a cornerstone for oppression of minorities. Ideas of national identity closely tied to uniqueness of place is excluding immigrants. This also highlights the political nature of our understanding of words. From a post-structuralist point-of-view there is no objective understanding of space. By writing this article, Massey is contesting the current use of place and proposing another politically loaded understanding of the term. Massey’s understanding of place is influenced by values such as diversity, multi-ethnicity and extroversion.
Massey however does not state how this theoretical understanding of space should translate into more pragmatic academic research and one can only speculate whether this appeal to changing an academic notion of place can translate into a more general understanding of place as an extroverted space of flows.
Conclusion
As we have stated in this reading we have come across some interesting points and subjects. We went through four things which were ‘time-space compression’, how ‘places do not have single, unique identities’, also ‘places do not have boundaries’ and ‘absolute not static’.
I think you can find that if you look at the subject by itself, it contradicts with the rest of it. The thing is you have to look at it as a whole. Going through this we have looked at what Harvey (2000) has to say about time-space compression, the definition that Relph has for place, also a definition from the Oxford dictionary telling us what boundary means. Not to forget this is our reaction to the Massey’s reading and therefore we looked at few of her articles.
When we talk about time-space compression we can easily say that our technology is genuinely annihilated distance. To put it better way I will repeat previous words spoken. ‘Nowadays, a person who is thousands of miles away can be seen and heard in an instant.’ Next topic we talked about was ‘places do not have single, unique identities’. When we looked at this we took an example of how places are not unique. We talked about religion, cultures and nationalities being in one place making it without uniqueness. Without looking at other factors affecting place. As we looked at places not having boundaries we concluded that place is unique and that most places do not have boundaries. Places are made up of many different cultural differences and that is what makes a place unique as well as that you have to look at where all these cultures and differences are being put in as this shows what they are like in different situations, showing us different interactions. Place is a hard subject to look at. Place is the same yet it is different.
This all comes together as time-space compression allows for faster movement of things. With no boundaries everything can move anywhere. Allowing to mix everything together and start something new.
112352666 Alexandra Koppová
socialgeographyucc 