Parochialism – a defence
TL;DR: This article argued that the local, its cultures and its solidarities are a moral starting point and a locus of ecological concern in all human societies and at all moments of history.
Abstract: I present a defence of parochialism against the claims of cosmopolitanism and in the context of debates about the relational accounts of place. Against normative claims that local attachments and territorial sense of belonging lead to exclusion and cultural atrophy, the paper suggests that the local, its cultures and its solidarities are a moral starting point and a locus of ecological concern in all human societies and at all moments of history. I explore this idea by reference to art and literature, especially poetry. This analysis suggests that local identities should be understood contextually; there is no necessary relation between local forms of identity and practices of exclusion. The paper shows how the virtue of parochialism is expressed in art with a universal appeal. I conclude, therefore, that we need more detailed studies of real local identities, which avoid a presumption of disdain.
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TL;DR: In this article, the material frames of daily life are constituted and represented through social practices, not as separate elements but in relation to each other, and they then become fundamental to the exploration of political, economic and ecological alternatives to contemporary life.
Abstract: This book engages with the politics of social and environmental justice, and seeks new ways to think about the future of urbanization in the twenty-first century. It establishes foundational concepts for understanding how space, time, place and nature the material frames of daily life are constituted and represented through social practices, not as separate elements but in relation to each other. It describes how geographical differences are produced, and shows how they then become fundamental to the exploration of political, economic and ecological alternatives to contemporary life.
1,246 citations
201 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the relationship between empathy and sustainability is mediated by place and identity that constrain and shape empathy's role in pro-environmental sustainability behaviour, and a new model explores interactions between place, identity and empathy for sustainability.
Abstract: Sustainability science recognises the need to fully incorporate cultural and emotional dimensions of environmental change to understand how societies deal with and shape anticipated transformations, unforeseen risks and increasing uncertainties. The relationship between empathy and sustainability represents a key advance in understanding underpinning human-environment relations. We assert that lack of empathy for nature and for others limits motivations to conserve the environment and enhance sustainability. Critically, the relationship between empathy and sustainability is mediated by place and identity that constrain and shape empathy’s role in pro-environmental sustainability behaviour. We review emerging evidence across disciplines and suggest a new model exploring interactions between place, identity and empathy for sustainability. There are emerging innovative methodological approaches to observe, measure and potentially stimulate empathy for sustainability.
135 citations
Cites background from "Parochialism – a defence"
...The frontiers of research in this area include questions on whether and how place-related identities offer possibilities for engendering radical social transformation (Escobar, 2001; Tomaney, 2013; Murphy and Smith, 2013) and the mechanisms by which loss of place is invoked to resist change....
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...…to encourage people to feel empathy towards those living at a physical distance from them has usually involved encouraging a sense of cosmopolitanism that comes accompanied with a scepticism for the effects of local belonging and support for the loosening of local bonds (see Tomaney, 2013)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine how a focus on the local opens up new avenues of enquiry in urban governance, arguing that the local state, and more broadly the logic of the local, remains divorced from accounts of urban governance.
Abstract: The local state, and more broadly the logic of the local, remains divorced from accounts of urban governance. Addressing this omission, this article examines how a focus on the local opens up new avenues of enquiry in urban governance. It first discusses the interactions of the ‘urban’ and the ‘local’, analysing the significance of both to an understanding of neoliberalism in action. It then evaluates the opportunities and challenges that emerge from the multiple interplays of the ‘local’ and the ‘urban’, setting out five focal points for the exploration of the local: understandings of ‘crisis’; politics, meaning and affect; agency and regulatory intermediaries; the turn to practice; and place and comparison. The article concludes by calling for the study of local practices, in ways that recognise the multiple logics at play in different conjunctures, and the spaces such ambiguities and ‘messiness’ open up for different forms of situated agency.
131 citations
References
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Book•
01 Jan 1945
TL;DR: Carman as discussed by the authors described the body as an object and Mechanistic Physiology, and the experience of the body and classical psychology as a Sexed being, as well as the Synthesis of One's Own Body and Motility.
Abstract: Foreword, Taylor Carman Introduction, Claude Lefort Preface Introduction: Classical Prejudices and the Return to Phenomena I. Sensation II. Association and the Projection of Memories III. Attention and Judgment IV. The Phenomenal Field Part 1: The Body 1. The Body as an Object and Mechanistic Physiology 2. The Experience of the Body and Classical Psychology 3. The Spatiality of the One's Own Body and Motility 4. The Synthesis of One's Own Body 5. The Body as a Sexed Being 6. Speech and the Body as Expression Part 2: The Perceived World 7. Sensing 8. Space 9. The Thing and the Natural World 10. Others and the Human World Part 3: Being-For-Itself and Being-In-The-World 11. The Cogito 12. Temporality 13. Freedom Original Bibliography Bibliography of English Translations cited Additional Work Cited Index
9,938 citations
5,182 citations
"Parochialism – a defence" refers background in this paper
...Phenomenological insights stress how our relationship with place determines our identity as human beings (Heidegger, 1891 [1934], 1971; Merleau-Ponty, 1962), so that: it is not merely human identity that is tied to place or locality, but the very possibility of being the sort of creature that can…...
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Book•
01 Jan 1976
4,224 citations
"Parochialism – a defence" refers background in this paper
...Places are directly experienced phenomena of the lived-world and hence are full with meanings, with real objects, ongoing activities and intensions (Relph, 1976: 141)....
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Book•
01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: In this article, the Dialectics of Discourse are used to describe the relationship between social and environmental change, and a Cautionary Tale on Internal Relations is presented. But it does not address the effect of environmental change on social relations.
Abstract: Thoughts for a Prologue. Introduction. Part I: Orientations. 1. Militant Particularism and Global Ambition. 2. Dialectics. 3. A Cautionary Tale on Internal Relations. 4. The Dialectics of Discourse. 5. Historical Agency and the Loci of Social Change. Part II: The Nature of Environment. Prologue. 6. The Domination of Nature and its Discontents. 7. Valuing Nature. 8. The Dialectics of Social and Environmental Change. Part III: Space, Time and Place. Prologue. 9. The Social Construction of Space and Time. 10. The Currency of Space-Time. 11. From Space to Place and Back Again. Part IV: Justice, Difference and Politics. Prologue. 12. Class Relations, Social Justice and the Political Geography of Difference. 13. The Environment of Justice. 14. Possible Urban Worlds. Thoughts for an Epilogue. Bibliography. Index.
3,220 citations
TL;DR: This assumed isomorphism of space, place, and culture results in some significant problems. as mentioned in this paper argues that differences between cultures come about not from their isolation from each other, but because of their connections with each other.
Abstract: This assumed isomorphism of space, place, and
culture results in some significant problems. First,
there is the issue of those who inhabit the border,
what Gloria Anzaldua calls the “narrow strip along
steep edges” of national boundaries. The fiction ofconclusion that a focus on people who live in the borders between dominant societies or nations (and here
borders is also a metaphor for people who identify, culturally, with more than one group) makes clear the fact
that differences between cultures come about not because of their isolation from each other, but because
of their connections with each other. Such a conclusion also suggests that along with difference comes the
hierarchies of power. Culture is not only a concept that expresses difference between peoples, but also a
concept that masks the uneven power relations between peoples, and these uneven power relations can
only exist through connection, rather than isolation.
2,870 citations
"Parochialism – a defence" refers background in this paper
...…and McLeod, 2004: 448) and ‘the process whereby a space achieves a distinct identity as a place’, albeit a place understood as ‘an imagined state or moral location’ (Gupta and Ferguson, 1992: 8, 10; see also Entrikin, 1999), rather than simply as a physically or administratively bounded territory....
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