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cultural geography (ethnicity (defintion: group of people with common…
cultural geography
ethnicity
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Canadian god't has historically been interested in ethnic ancestry (a exercise in cataloguing people), but not focus on how people define their own ethnic identities.
• Many neighbourhoods in Canadian cities defined by their pluralism !multiethnic neighbourhoods
• Traditional notion: an ethnic “Village” – e.g., Little Italy, Chinatown
The use of public space contributes to how groups articulate ethnicity & how other social groups understand these differences
(ex. Religious institutions, and commercial areas)
Ethnic economies:
- Niche: occupations or forms of self-employment that are used by members of an ethnic group for economic survival
- enclave economy: integrated set of niche activities
forms self-contained economic system
weak ties to dominant economy
businesses owned by one ethnic group
encourages labour market segmentation
a typology of neighbourhoods:
- isolated host communities (80%)
- non-isolated host communities (50% - 80%)
- assimilation-pluralism communities (30%- 50%)
- mixed minority enclaves (70% of population is minority groups)
- polarized enclaves (one minority group at least twice as large as any other minority population)
- ghetto (>60% of the population is one minority group in such an area, and 30% of relevant group lives in such an area)
racism
visible minorities (13 categories in Canada): non-aboriginal individuals who are non-white in skin colour or non-Caucasian in race
"race" and power" racial definitions almost always defined and imposed by a powerful social group on other groups
Defining ‘race’
• ‘Race’ is a very controversial marker of human difference, usually based on biological distinctions or physical criteria such as skin colour, hair colour
racism as ideology:
- biological definitions are problematic
- attributes social, economic and behavioural characteristics of individuals to a racial classification system
- social and psychological characteristics are causally correlated to physiological markers
Racism relies on ideas, attitudes and dispositions, norms
and rules, linguistic, literary and artistic expressions, architectural forms and media representations, as well as the practices of institutions and individuals (ex. Vancouver's Chinatown)
ideology and place
Place is produced by practice (actions) that relies on ideological beliefs of what is the appropriate thing to do/act (ie. ideologies give actions meaning, giving places meanings)
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ideology is not steady or fixed in a certain place, and place can have multiple meanings based on the social positioning of the "reader"
gendered landscapes:
- the ideology of gender are represented, reinforce, naturalized in landscapes (ex. monuments often depict men)
History
- pre-industrial city: work was rarely separated from residence.
- in the 19th century, the increased separation of home and work; the role of midd-class women shifted to becoming the managers of the home and the family; social isolation of women (lived in very private spaces) to maintain virtue
language
fact:
- 7000 existed 400 years ago; 6000 now
- 96% world population speak only 4% of world's language
language and geography
- diffusion of language from a single point of origin
- strong relationship between culture and language
- divisions between people because of language
language and nationalism (nationalism is political expression of a nationhood):
- consciousness of belonging to a nation
- can be source of conflict because boundaries of a language regions rarely defined clearly
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measure of language:
- mother tongue: may not be language use in everyday life; indicator of cultural affiliation
- home language
- other Language Spoken Regularly at Home
- language spoken at work
- knowledge of official languages
culture
what is culture:
- is shared set of meanings that are reflected by the material and symbolic practices of everyday life (includes: values, beliefs, religions....)
- interacts with social, political, economic and historical processes
- is dynamic (ex. tattooing)
- implicates the tangible and intangible (symbolic and spiritual; i.e.. ideas, music...) qualities of place
categories:
- folk culture: homogenous belief systems, traditional, simple lifestyle.
- popular culture: practices and meaning systems of large heterogenous groups; changes in relation to commercial products.
cultural geography
new cultural geography
- Origins in Britain, not US
- Draw some inspiration from social geography & concerns around poverty, gender inequality, racial segregation, impact of deindustrialization and countless rounds of economic growth & recession
- Emphasis on need for geography to investigate: The structure of experience in a changing world
landscape studies (as component of traditional cultural geography:
- new cultural geography: more interest in interpretation of the symbolic aspects of landscape (i.e. ideology)
- landscape studies emphasis on relationship between culture and landscape as outcome of class, gender...
- social contestation is a focal point of the work