4:30 PMDiscussant:Tim Cresswell - Royal Holloway, University of London
Discussant(s): Tim Cresswell - Royal Holloway, University of London Session Description: Geographers have long been interested in the ways places are represented as well as how particular places encapsulate, communicate, and shape cultural and spatial identities. Only limited attention has been given to place inscriptions (example graffiti, blogs, signscapes, memory, etc.) and the role these play in either reproducing stereotypes or challenging dominant images of places or group identities. Landscapes are constantly 'written' and inscribed with meanings. These meanings can be read or interpreted as signs or texts about the particular values, identities, beliefs, and practices evocative of a particular era, landscape, place, or space. Place inscriptions - whether on a wall, in a building, in cyberspace, or even through a memory connection – do not appear out of nowhere. Both the acts of writing and reading place are historically, culturally, and politically contingent. Place inscriptions can uncover the contested nature of places as well as the various geographies of power and identity that shape these places. The session showcases a variety of papers focusing on place inscriptions and identity politics. Through varied, case studies these papers show how particular places (whether physical or digital) become sites for the (re)production and (re)shaping of particular identities through the scripting and marking of landscapes.
