Social Construction Identity

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WEEK 1: INTRODUCING HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES
Social construction
The relationship between social construction and identity was brought up to discussion in week one. Questions were constantly being asked though out the tutorial and lecture, these questions were asking about my identity. Who are you? How do you define yourself? Where are you from? What are your interests? These questions when answered described who I am and what I am about. It defined my personal identity in a nutshell. Social construction refers to the way we create meaning through social interactions with others (Cloke et al 2010, p. 939). In the tutorial discussion we spoke about how social construction creates our identity to some extent, relating social construction as some sort …show more content…

Acknowledging the relationship between area and people. The concept explains how space is socially constructed and experienced, rather than being an innate backdrop to social life (Cloke et al 2010, p. 940). A reflection of spatiality also includes the effects spaces have on these places and the power associated with this. Cloke et al (2010) explores how space can become infused with certain social and cultural values and assumptions. These values and assumptions drive ideas about which identities and behaviors we might deem to be appropriate and comfortable in those spaces. The discussion in class this week included a university as an example of spatiality. The identity of a university student is acknowledged ‘smart’, intellectual’, ‘rich’ and ‘successful’. A university is assumed socially as a difficult process because of the values of discipline that are in play, but a university without students is meaningless and a student without a university is not a student. The power balance between two are quite symbiotic, they rely so much on each other to the point that even their names mean nothing without the …show more content…

We acknowledged the concept of self as body, person, and identity in relation to constraints of society. The concept of other is the way we make a perception of others based on our own beliefs. Then these concepts were separated into two concepts which explain the way we base our assumptions or perceive others. Reflexivity is a process which creates opportunity for us to be able to reflex on what we know, how we came to know it and how we interact with others. The motive of this concept is too able to reflect and change aspects of ourselves and the structures that make up society in the light of these reflections. (Cloke et al 2010, p. 937). Reflexivity is the idea of acknowledging that I am a white, young, middleclass male and grew up with a very family orientated background. It is harder for me to reflect on particular situations because others have a very different experience than I do. Cloke et al (2010) explains that reflexivity has become one of the most significant tools in human geography. To reflect on the self in relation to space and society has been seen as key, to open up new kinds of human geographies that relate to individuals closely. In particular, reflexivity has been used by feminist in their respective political projects to persuade human geography to reflect something other than a

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