Reputational geographies and urban social cohesion

Abstract

This article adds to recent literature in migration studies on the importance of place and space by drawing on extended interviews with residents in the Alum Rock area of East Birmingham. Our central theme is the exploration of reputational geographies; the symbolic and material boundaries drawn around places as indicators of social status, sites of memories, and repositories of affect that can have profound socio-economic as well as emotional consequences for city residents. We argue that research and policy addressing urban social diversity must display a greater sensitivity to the deeply felt affiliations to, and memories of, local settings expressed by our respondents. We conclude that contemporary debates about multiculturalism and urban social cohesion require greater attention to the particularities of place and local identity

‘It's like being in Tattooville’: An ethnographic study of territorial stigma and health in a post-industrial town in the North East of England

“…For instance, stigma created through ''defensive othering'' in Stockton-on-Tees was not only associated with class or with the local area, but also with ethnicity (Keene and Padilla 2010), particularly when participants discussed the Town Centre. This resulted in 'symbolic and material boundaries' (Parker andKarner, 2010: 1452) being formed, which can then lead to social isolation and a withdraw from collective life that has a negative effect upon health and wellbeing (Keene and Padilla 2014). In seeking to tackle place-based stigma and its capacity to both negatively impact on health and reinforce social inequalities (Keene and Padilla, 2014) the importance of challenging popular discourses around stigmatized places promoted in political rhetoric (Hancock and Mooney 2013) and mass media representation is key.…”

Funny Looks: British Pakistanis' experiences after 7 July 2005

“…Popular perceptions of localities are the modality through which ethnicity is lived and Islamophobia and racism are experienced. Places are contexts where diverse processes intersect and are lived in different ways (Parker and Karner, 2010). We found a very strong affirmation of the quality of local life in Beeston, Hyde Park and Dewsbury.…”

“…Beeston, Dewsbury and Hyde Park amongst other places developed strongly negative reputational geographies after the 7/7 bombings (Parker and Karner, 2010). Media and political discourses constructed the places as dysfunctional and creating the 7/7 bombers (Seidler, 2007).…”

“…The pathologisation of particular places and communities (Parker and Karner, 2010) has and cultural practices of British Pakistani communities were identified as the source of these problems in public policy discourse (Bagguley and Hussain, 2008: 159-73). These concerns intensified as part of the government's counter terrorism policy (Brighton 2007;Husband and Alam, 2011;McGhee 2008), and have dominated public discourse about Muslims so that there is now a constant media pressure to uncover 'what is really happening' in Muslim communities (Werbner 2009: 40).…”

‘The best borough in the country for cohesion!’: managing place and multiculture in local government

“…Now I've no doubt that in the Peterboroughs of this world... they sit in the pubs and they worry about all these East Europeans flooding in, picking all our tomatoes or carrots, or in Dagenham, they think that this is the final straw, Ford closes down, and nobody cares about us, and now they're dumping all these foreigners on us, and so on... but I think that that's an atypical perspective for London. Now I've no idea whether it's (Parker and Karner 2010). This is not simply a regional geography of antagonism between, as Massey (2007, p.116) puts it, 'London' and 'the Rest of the UK'; rather it is based on relations between local units of governance, around which ideas of responsibility, shared belonging, and history have grown (or are sought).…”