The everyday spaces of our lives express and reinforce certain understandings of
different aspects of identity such as race, class, gender, age, etc. The special construct of spaces
tell us, both discreetly and indiscreetly, what types of people and activities are welcome, and
what types are not. Spaces are habitually designed with the purpose of eliciting a certain kind
of behavior from people. By looking at the build environment as well as the everyday practices
of spaces, we can interpret them. This paper will document a “mini-ethnography” of Marshall
street in Syracuse, New York (Winders, 2011). It will look at how the built environment of
Marshall Street, as well as people’s daily practices at this site, produce a consumer space,
exploring the relationship between the built environment and the utilization of the space.
Furthermore, it will examine how these two components encourage consumerism and
discourage non-consumerism. Lastly, this paper will argue the understandings of class that are
embodies in and reinforced through this space (Winders, 2011).
Walking along Marshall Street it is clear from observing both the physical design of the
space and the activity it embodies that this is a space of consumption. There are some very
explicit indicators of the physical layout that target consumption. For instance the street
is plastered with advertisement for consumption from the lampposts to the signs on the
sidewalks. There is advertisement for the Marshall Street businesses on the street on the
sidewalk signs, advertisement for various Syracuse sites such as the local bowling alley on the
streetlight signs, as well as many advertisements for Syracuse University. This is the more
obvious ...
... middle of paper ...
...hall Street it is clear that the everyday spaces of our lives
influence us in ways that we do not consciously perceive. The physical design of a space
influences what we do in that space, and perhaps just as importantly, what we do not do. The
design of Marshall Street encourages consumerism. Seemingly insignificant design features
such as parking or benches play a part in how people “negotiate” spaces (Winders, 2011). The
physical design, as well as the activity it helps to instill, express and strengthen in us powerful
ideas of different aspects of identity, such as class. However, the physical design of a site is not
the sole producer of space. The activity of its occupants plays an equal part. The two
determinants influence each other and the product is a space.
Works Cited
Winders, Jamie. 26 October 2011. “Economic Geographies, I”. GEO 171.
and personal identity; identity is what makes someone, but identity can also be seen as
Although the concept of identity is recurrent in our daily lives, it has interpreted in various ways.
There are two important areas in this research- territoriality and use of personal space, all while each have an important bearing on the kinds of messages we send as we use space. Standing at least three feet apart from someone is a norm for personal space.
Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them are. The most interesting point about identity is that some people know what they want and who they are, while it takes forever for others to figure out the factors mentioned before. Many of the individuals analyzed in this essay are confused about the different possible roles or positions they can adopt, and that’s exactly the reason they look for some professional help.
Frank Lloyd Wright is widely known and is considered to be America’s greatest architect. He is considered, in the eyes of many, to be the most consequential American architect of the 20th century. “Strongly individualistic, flamboyant, and arrogant, Wright designed and built more than four hundred structures that reflect his architectural genius. Directly and indirectly, he heavily influenced twentieth century architecture with his diverse use of geometry in his designs” (Eisenman).
...hey have entered the house, and then keeps it as you pass through the disappearing walls, pivoting doors, retractable stairs, and floating floors. It incorporates architecture, interior architecture and furniture design to create a total design that can be modified for different occupants. It truly is functional space.
Furthermore, identity comes from how people choose to comprehend and perceive their own self. The elements of identity are limitless because you can choose to be whoever you want to be, despite the opinions of others. Thus, one’s identity tends to be unique, in a sense, compared to other
Some of the strengths of the social identity theory are that; throughout the years it has supported many empirical studies, it has also demonstrated the social categorization in intergroup behaviors, allowed us to differentiate between social and personal identities and has provide explanations for other areas of psychology (conformity). A weaknesses of the Social identity theory is that its application is restricted in the sense that it has very low ecological validity. Another weakness is that SIT favors situational factors rather than dispositional is not supported by evidence. The social Identity theory can be used to how to explain how we form our social and personal identities in the terms of in and out groups. SIT can also be used to explain why there is conflict between humans and different societies.
As a result of social classification, the individual's recognition of himself as a member of certain groups affects the identity. According to SIT, there are two different types of identity, namely social and personal identity (Ashforth and Mael, 1989). The social identity includes the meanings and feelings of values that come from the groups in which the individual is included as a result of the social classification, while the physical attributes that distinguish the person from the other group members include characteristics such as individual experiences (Ashforth and Mael, 1989).
What is identity? Identity is an unbound formation which is created by racial construction and gender construction within an individual’s society even though it is often seen as a controlled piece of oneself. In Dr. Beverly Daniel Tatum’s piece, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’, Tatum asserts that identity is formed by “individual characteristics, family dynamics, historical factors, and social and political contexts” (Tatum 105). Tatum’s piece, “The Complexity of Identity: ‘Who Am I?’” creates a better understanding of how major obstacles such as racism and sexism shape our self identity.
As stated by Rockquemore (1998), identity is defined as a self-understanding that positions and describes a person; in social terms it establishes the what and the where for a person. This not only places individuals in a position where they can understand themselves and others but also where they can assess themselves relative to others. Thus, an individual can’t have a fulfilled identity without others who authenticate that identity. This bec...
Identity is an abstract, multifaceted concept, which plays of an essential role in intercultural communication interactions, because of globalization and diversity around the world. In this paper I will describe the basic types of identity, such as human, social, and personal.
Everyday experience tells us that different actions need different environments to take place in a satisfactory way. This fact is of course taken into consideration by current theory of planning and architecture, but so far the problem has been treated in a too abstract way. ‘Taking place’ is usually understood in a quantitative, functional sense with implications such as spatial distribution and dimensioning. But inter-human functions are not similar everywhere, they take place in very different ways and demand places with different properties, in accordance with different cultural traditions and different environmental conditions.
In Tuan’s reading, space is not simply an isolated aspect in our life, more often it is significant in terms of connections to the wider world and people. He suggested that space can be affected by the factors existed in the society, which directly influences the atmosphere of the space, relatively, our cognition to the spaciousness and crowding is also affected by it. Space and spacious itself is impersonal, it will only become something more when we implanted our own value and
There are multiple definitions of identity, more theorists have intense debates of what is the real basis of describing it. One of those is Judith Butler who belies that identity is ontological fiction and defined sex as performativity (Hekman,2000). To classify, identity starts by defining sex and gender, which are both formations of identifying a person. Additionally, Sex was acquired from birth with “biological and physiological characteristics that define men and women” (World Health Organization, 2016). For example, male and female have different reproductive organs on the emphasis that women give birth and men do not. Moreover, the impression of having different features, man or woman comes with the completion of gestures, roles and