Geographies of Resistance

330 Pages·2013·6.822 MB·English

by  Keith, Michael;Pile, Steven

GEOGRAPHIES
o
F RES I STAN C E
Edited by
STEVE PILE and
MICHAEL KEITH
Routledge
Tayior &. Francis Group
New York London
FirstpublishedbyLawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Publishers
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Reprinted2009byRoutledge
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Editorialmatter© 1997StevePileandMichaelKeith
Individualcontributions©1997respectivecontributor
Collection©1997Routledge
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GEOGRAPHIES OF
RESISTANCE
Radical geographers have always been interested in the social bases of
injustice. They have produced finely tuned and insistent critical theories of
the geographies ofpower. Less attention, however, has been paid to notions
of resistance. Geographies of Resistance not only introduces new under
standings of resistance, it also presents radical reinterpretations of the
relationships betweenpoliticalidentites,politicalspacesandradicalpolitics.
Too often, political activism has been seen as the direct outcome of
opposition to the things that the powerful do. Too often, the terrain of
politicalstrugglehas beenthoughtofas beingconstitutedbypractices ofthe
dominant. Geographies of resistance challenge any sense that political
struggles can be understood solely in terms ofthe practices and institutions
of those in power. In this collection, the contributors show that political
identitiesandpoliticalactionstakeplaceongroundsotherthanthosedefined
onlythroughtheeffectsofthepowerful.
By bringing a geographical imagination to bear on understandings of
resistance, thecontributors gatheredhereareableto openup otherspaces of
political practice, to explore how radical political identities are formed and
acted out, and to show that resistance involves not only heroic struggles or
grand gestures of opposition, but often everyday battles for survival and
commonplace struggles for empowerment. Moreover, thinking through
geographiesofresistanceshowspreciselythatresistanceseekstooccupynew
spaces,tocreatenewgeographies, tomakeitsownplaceonthemap.
Bringingtogethersomeofthemostradicalvoices, bothnewandestablished,
Geographies ofResistance questions received notions ofresistance. Present
ingawiderangeofdetailedcasestudies,theauthorsofferclearlyfocusedand
path breaking theoretical positions and a wide range of international
empirical examples, which will surprise and transform common under
standings ofthegeographiesofresistance.
Contributors: Michael Brown, Michael Dear, Shlomo Hasson, Jane M.
Jacobs, Michael Keith, Lawrence Knopp, Lisa Law, Donald S. Moore, Steve
Pile,GillianRose,PaulRoutledge,DavidSlater,NigelThrift,MichaelWatts.
Steve Pile is Lecturer in the Faculty of Social Sciences, Open University;
Michael Keith is Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Goldsmiths College,
UniversityofLondon.
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CONTENTS
Listoffiguresandtables Vll
Listofcontributors IX
Preface xi
1 INTRODUCTION
Opposition,politicalidentitiesandspacesofresistance 1
StevePile
2 BLACKGOLD,WHITEHEAT
Stateviolence,localresistanceandthenational
questioninNigeria 33
MichaelWatts
)
3 ASPATIALITYOFRESISTANCES
TheoryandpracticeinNepal'sRevolutionof1990 68
PaulRoutledge
4 REMAPPINGRESISTANCE
'Groundforstruggle'andthepoliticsofplace 87
DonaldS. Moore
5 DANCINGONTHEBAR
Sex,moneyandtheuneasypoliticsofthirdspace 107
LisaLaw
6 THESTILLPOINT
Resistance, expressiveembodimentanddance 124
NigelThrift
7 RADICALPOLITICSOUTOFPLACE?
ThecuriouscaseofACTUPVancouver 152
MichaelBrown
CONTENT S I vi
8 RINGS, CIRCLESANDPERVERTEDJUSTICE
GayjudgesandmoralpanicincontemporaryScotland 168
LawrenceKnopp
9 PERFORMINGINOPERATIVECOMMUNITY
Thespaceandtheresistanceofsomecommunityartsprojects 184
GillianRose
10 RESISTINGRECONCILIATION
Thesecretgeographiesof(post)colonialAustralia 203
Jane M.Jacobs
11 IDENTITY,AUTHENTICITYANDMEMORY
INPLACE-TIME 219
MichaelDear
12 LOCALCULTURESANDURBANPROTESTS 236
ShlomoHasson
13 SPATIALPOLITICS/SOCIALMOVEMENTS
Questionsof(b)ordersandresistance"inglobaltimes 258
DavidSlater
14 CONCLUSION
A changingspaceandatimeforchange 277
MichaelKeith
Bibliography 287
Index 309
FIGURES AND TABLES
FIGURES
2.1 Thegeographyofoil,OgoniandMaitatsine 35
2.2 Nigerianannualoilproductionandprices(BonnyLight),
1966-1996 39
2.3 LocationofOgonilandandShelloilfields 51
2.4 EthnicgeographyofEasternNigeria(Rivers,Delta,Imo,Abia,
Cross-RiverandAkwa-IbomStates) 51
7.1 ACTUPVancouverprotests 157
8.1 Gaythreattojustice 169
8.2 Ididhavegayfling 170
TABLES
2.1 OilcompaniesholdingNigerianconcessions, 1969and 1993 39
2.2 Reasonsfortheneglectoftheoilproducingareas
inRiversState 53
2.3 SpillageofcrudeoilinNigeria, 1972-1979 54
8.1 Chronologyofevents 171
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CONTRIBUTORS
MichaelBrownis alectureringeographyattheUniversityofCanterburyin
Christchurch, New Zealand. His research interests centre onurbanpolitical
andculturalgeographies.
Michael Dear is Director of the Southern California Studies Center and
Professor of Geography and Urban Planning at the University ofSouthern
California. HeisfoundingeditorofthejournalSocietyandSpace.
Shlomo Hasson is Professor of Geography at the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. He is the author of Urban SocialMovements inJerusalem (1993)
and co-author of Neighbourhood Organizations and the Welfare State
(1994). Heiscurrentlywritingonissuesofidentityandterritory.
Jane M. Jacobs is alecturer in the Department of Geography and Environ
mental Studies at the University ofMelbourne. She is the author ofEdge of
Empire:Postcolonialismandthe City(1996).Hercurrentresearchisfocusing
on'postcolonialracism' incontemporaryAustralia.
Michael Keith works in the Centre for Urban and Community Research at
Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is currently researching the
relationshipbetweennarrativesofthecityandforms ofracialisedpoliticsand
identity that characterise contemporary inner-city London. He is author of
Lore andDisorder: Policing Multi-racist Britain (1993) and the co-editor of
Hollow Promises: RhetoricandRealityin the Inner City (1991);Racism, the
CityandtheState (1992)andPlaceandthePoliticsofIdentity(1993).
Lawrence Knopp is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of
Geography and Director of the Center for Community and Regional
Research at the University ofMinnesota-Duluth. His research interests are
broad but have tended to coalesce around que~tionsofsocial power as they
relate to thespatialityofsexuality, genderandclass. Currentlyheisworking
on abook examining gay male cultural identities andpolitics in the US, UK
andAustralia.
Lisa Law recently completed her doctorate in human geography at the
Australian National University. Her doctorate focuses on how the increas
inglyglobaldiscourses ofHIV/AIDSpreventionconstructthe'community'