first ever blog
Wednesday, October 29, 2003
The class on Thursday got me thinking about globalization a little differently. Globalization is such a huge concept. In all societies there are good and bad points that affect the people. In a global society the same is true. In all the classes I have been to I have learnt about the problems with globalization. I spent a lot of time studying how countries in a position of power use globalization as a way to dominate. I have always thought of the word as a euphemism. After the class on Thursday I began to see it slightly differently. It seems to me that capitalism is being played out on a bigger stage now. Tied to capitalism there will always be domination, exploitation and poverty. But along with the Capitalism is the progress in a scientific sense and the global village that is communication around the world. There are great things that could come from increased communication around the world. Then we have to ask ourselves who is doing the communication. Generally most people in the developed countries have access to the internet. In the LDC that is quite different, generally it is only the privileged that have that kind of access. So once again it is the poorest that get left out of the loop. They seem to be voiceless even on something that is considered universal in the west. I think the idea of scapes sounds interesting. I also think that it makes the ideas sound separate, on different plains. The scapes however are all connected and interactive with each other. What happens on the political impacts on the technological and both affect community and human relations. I’m seeing the scapes horizontally when in fact I think they are three dimensional.
Wednesday, October 22, 2003
This was suppose to be a link to the madonna inn tour. The inn is mentioned in the readings. The themed room are like those of the West edmonton mall. Each room is a different world (kind of). Not at all the linear decor of most places
This a summary of the most intestesting part of the West Edmonton Mall reading.The west edmonton mall (WEM) has been described as “a tangible manifestation of the relations of production and dominant ideologies.”p5
the center lacks a community identity it is based on mass tourism, consumption, and sensationalistic media. The mall is a play space in which our modern day rationality does not apply.“One begins to feel as if one were in a story which switches from place to place and ranges across centuries in a kind of spatiotemporal haze.”(5)
The mall bring the center to the peripheries i.e. Europe to Edmonton, tourists to Canada. This destroys the geographical barriers. The replication is offered instead of the original, to abolish the need for the original. The WEM destroys the cultural sense of collective identity, and the relationship between the community and the individual
The community is harnessed for consumption and the mall hides this stark reality.
“The flattening of new real commodities against fake historical settings betrays nonchalance for authenticity, despite the accuracy of the reconstructions” (10).
The idea that I like best is that because the area is fanatasy there is no norms as to what it should be like. Fake and real, church and commerce anything seems to go.
Wednesday, October 08, 2003
The idea of the spatialization of culture to me seems obvious. There always seems to be a particular place attached specifically to every culture. I know that culture is a discourse but it seems that local is part of the discourse. We travel to experience different cultures. One country may have a culture, a state/province can have a culture a city can have a culture all of them can be completely unique. One thing that has been eating up North American space is the consumer cultures. I think that the large box stores are an example of that. There was a new Loblaws that was built in my area at south keys. The walk through it seemed to spell consumerism. Now after a couple of years I gotten used to it. The store isn’t any ordinary grocery store, this thing has everything wine to baby clothes photo labs. The mall is huge and it represents the consumer culture that we live in.
Tuesday, October 07, 2003
This blog is about the sea side resort of Brighton. It seems to me that there is a similarity to the historical Brighton and the Modern day Las Vegas. There is the same allure to the gaudy and risqué person of the place. Brighton is also a place were the royalty could blend in. There are many stars (which are like the modern day monarchy) that are in Las Vegas. It to seems to draw the idle rich and the opportunist hope to make some money of them. There is no historical connection to the health in Las Vegas like there is in Brighton. There is how ever a draw to a notion that all your problems will be solved in Las Vegas. People go there in hopes of winning big. How many movies are there about Las Vegas where the main Character only has to get there to solve his/her problems. There is also the sexual aspect about it. All the Las Vegas dancers in their scanty costume everything is over the top. There is the whole dip into the underworld with the whole city being situated in the middle of the desert. The highway scenes in Fear in loathing in Las Vegas are among the scariest. That also brings me the drug and mafia culture that Las Vegas is notorious for. There are so many movies out there about Las Vegas it seems like there are countless narratives about going to, being in, and leave the city. It is the city where both glamour and tacky meet and mingle. That is why I see it as a good comparison to Brighton
here is a cool link
http://www.ci.las-vegas.nv.us/
I can't seem to turn this into a link.
This blog is about the sea side resort of Brighton. It seems to me that there is a similarity to the historical Brighton and the Modern day Las Vegas. There is the same allure to the gaudy and risqué person of the place. Brighton is also a place were the royalty could blend in. There are many stars (which are like the modern day monarchy) that are in Las Vegas. It to seems to draw the idle rich and the opportunist hope to make some money of them. There is no historical connection to the health in Las Vegas like there is in Brighton. There is how ever a draw to a notion that all your problems will be solved in Las Vegas. People go there in hopes of winning big. How many movies are there about Las Vegas where the main Character only has to get there to solve his/her problems. There is also the sexual aspect about it. All the Las Vegas dancers in their scanty costume everything is over the top. There is the whole dip into the underworld with the whole city being situated in the middle of the desert. The highway scenes in Fear in loathing in Las Vegas are among the scariest. That also brings me the drug and mafia culture that Las Vegas is notorious for. There are so many movies out there about Las Vegas it seems like there are countless narratives about going to, being in, and leave the city. It is the city where both glamour and tacky meet and mingle. That is why I see it as a good comparison to Brighton.
here is a cool cite
Wednesday, October 01, 2003
Amanda Wiens stu # 281415
The first thing that I wanted to mention about the “Magical Urbanism” piece was the point made about the problematic nature of the word “Hispanic” or “Latino”. I think after reading the article I still don’t have a solid idea about what these two words are suppose to mean. I couldn’t tell you their differences either. I think that this problem with language ties in really nicely to the “Culture Spoken Here” article. The word culture is all encompassing and very broad. The word Hispanic as well has a sort of all encompassing aspect. connotating a language ,a race, a culture and country, but none of these specifically. I am currently taking a course entitled women, the state, and everyday life in the Middle East. In this class we have spent a lot of time discussing the problematic nature of the term Middle East. “Middle East” is a blanket term for a bunch of countries that on closer look are really different. The common theme to all of the above words is the lack of agreement and consistency in their daily usage. Language only works if we all use the words with a common meaning in mind. It is when the meanings are not agreed upon and used consistently that misunderstanding occurs. As well the terms Hispanic, Latino, and Middle Eastern all seem to be ways of categorizing people. With these three term comes a whole string of images many of which are not always appropriate to the context in which the terms are used.
Another thing that I found really interesting were the Transnational suburbs. This is a concept that I had never heard of before this article. Last week we discussed an article that I didn’t read (I read the other one) and one of the main themes that came out in the discussion at least is the notion of the lonesome city. The notion that in a city although the people are all jammed in with each other there is actually little emotional connection. The instance of the majority of a village all living together in one building in Los Angeles seems like a logical way of combating the loneliness. If a whole community is so close knit that they will immigrate together it makes me question my own relationship with my community. Why is it that I feel no need to talk to my neighbor? Is it a difference between the city born and the village born? Or is it cultural? May the next class will lend some incite.
