Socio-spatial Contexts Research Articles

The potentials and perils of prosocial power: Transnational social entrepreneurship dynamics in vulnerable places

Social entrepreneurs can be powerful change agents for alleviating the suffering of the disadvantaged. However, their prosocial motivation and behavior frequently result in detrimental impacts on those they intend to support, especially when their operations span different socio-spatial contexts. We conducted a multiple comparative case study among 12 transnational social entrepreneurs of foreign, domestic non-indigenous, and local indigenous origin, who are seeking to improve the livelihoods of indigenous communities in rural Ecuador. We introduce the concept of prosocial power to social entrepreneurship research and demonstrate how it can work as a double-edged sword in the hands of transnationally embedded social entrepreneurs who operate in vulnerable places. Context-bound variations in social distance, bi-directional learning, reflexive impact measurement, and socio-spatial dominance were identified as being decisive for prosocial power to lead to positive or negative impacts on disadvantaged others.

Associations between socio-spatially different urban areas and knowledge, attitudes, practices and antibiotic use: A cross-sectional study in the Ruhr Metropolis, Germany.

Inappropriate and excessive antibiotic use fuels the development of antibiotic resistance. Determinants of antibiotic use, including knowledge and attitudes, are manifold and vary on different spatial scales. The objective of this study was to examine the associations between socio-spatially diverse urban areas and knowledge, attitudes, practices and antibiotic use within a metropolitan city. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in the general population in socio-spatially different areas in Dortmund, Germany, in February and March 2020. Three urban areas were chosen to represent diverse socio-spatial contexts (socio-spatially disadvantaged: A, intermediate: B, socio-spatially disadvantaged: C). Participants were selected via simple random sampling. The questionnaire comprised knowledge and attitude statements and questions around antibiotic use and handling practices. Differences between the areas were examined by estimating odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals by multiple logistic regression. Overall, 158 participants were included. Participants of Area C showed the lowest proportions of correct knowledge statements, indicated more often attitudes contrary to common recommendations, lower risk awareness and reported more often antibiotic use (C: 40.8%; A: 32.7%; B: 26.5%) and potential mishandling practices (C: 30.4%; A: 9.6%; B: 17.3%). The multiple logistic regression confirmed these differences. Around 42.3% (C), 33.3% (A) and 20.0% (B) of the diseases mentioned for which an antibiotic was used are mainly caused by viral pathogens. A common misconception across all areas was the perception of antibiotic resistance as an individual rather than a universal issue. This study reveals distinct differences between socio-spatially diverse urban areas within a metropolitan city, regarding knowledge, attitudes and practices around antibiotics and ABR. Our findings confirm that enhanced efforts are required to better inform the population about the adequate use and handling of antibiotics. This study emphasizes the need for future interventions to be tailored to the specific local socio-economic context.

Temporal enclosures and the social production of inescapable futures for coal mining in Colombia

The creation of spatial enclosures is a well-developed subject in the study of extractive industries. Less attention has been given to the control of time and the future within these socio-spatial contexts. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, we followed two controversial projects aimed at expanding the biggest open-pit coal mine in Colombia, both of which implied diverting watercourses to extract coal from beneath their riverbed. We describe corporate strategies that give rise to what we call temporal enclosures, the process by which mining companies aim to restrict imaginable outcomes to those that favour them, producing the sense of a manageable and inescapable future in which forthcoming activities are presented as both inevitable and desirable. The temporal enclosure is configured discursively in practices of building engineered landscapes, refashioning relations between the mine and the people, and intensifying the language and practices of nurturing and caring for humans and non-humans around the operation area. However, in the context of increasing pressure regarding the consequences of extractive industries, the dispute over alternative futures becomes a highly relevant political site. We argue that this temporal dimension is interlinked with spatial, political, and economic dynamics around extractive industries and that understanding how temporal enclosures are produced and resisted is essential for envisioning sustainable alternatives.

Analysis of the Critical Discourse and Adversaries

Discourse analysis is a branch of study that encompasses a variety of varied, primarily qualitative methods to the investigation of the interactions that exist between language in use and the social environment. Language is often viewed by researchers in the subject as a sort of social practice that has an impact on the social world and vice versa. Many contemporary kinds of discourse analysis have been overtly or indirectly informed by Michel Foucault's theories of power, knowledge, and discourse, which are discussed below. As a result of Foucault's work, there has been an increased interest in investigating the role that language plays in the formation and maintenance of certain knowledge and the maintenance of inequitable power relations. In order to undertake discourse analyses, human geographers often draw on one of three major schools of discourse analysis: Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA), critical discourse analysis (CDA), or Gramscian techniques. There are several theoretical and methodological distinctions between these approaches. While different approaches have different strengths and weaknesses, they all provide researchers with an effective means of investigating and exposing semiotic features of power relations in specific sociospatial contexts. While there are no set procedures for these techniques, researchers have recognized certain essential investigative strategies that can be used to inform the performance of any type of discourse analysis project. These strategies are included below. A brief history of Critical Discourse Analysis is offered, along with a full examination of the numerous criticisms levied at CDA and its practitioners over the previous two decades, both by scholars working within the "critical" paradigm and by other critical critics. Reader response and integration of contextual aspects are discussed, as well as a range of objections directed at the underlying premises and analytical technique. Additionally, there is discussion of contentious issues, such as the negative focus of much CDA work and CDA's developing standing as a "intellectual orthodoxy" They highlight the major criticisms that have emerged from this overview and provide some ways to overcome these shortcomings.

Perceived Consequences of Extended Social Isolation on Mental Well-Being: Narratives from Indonesian University Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Despite several recent studies reporting on young people’s well-being during COVID-19, few large-scale qualitative studies have been carried out that capture the experiences of young people from low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) undergoing extended social restrictions. The challenges faced by young people from LMICs during COVID-19 are likely to be amplified by their countries’ large populations, resource constraints, lack of access to health care, living conditions, socio-spatial contexts, and the pandemic’s ramifications for communities. This study explored how youths perceived their well-being after being isolated for one-and-a-half years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative narrative research was employed as a method of inquiry. One-hundred and sixty-six university students in Jakarta, Indonesia, between the ages of 17 and 22 wrote reflective online essays on the consequences of extended pandemic isolation on their mental health. This data collection strategy offered an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon through the narratives of those who experienced it. Seven themes expressing the youths’ perceived well-being were identified through inductive reflective thematic analysis: (1) the anguish of loneliness and estrangement; (2) a state of “brokenness” resulting from emotional agony and distress; (3) frustration, confusion, and anger; (4) the experience of conflicting emotions; (5) uncertainty about both the present and future; (6) a sense of purpose and fulfillment; and (7) turning to faith. The findings provide important insights into Indonesian youths’ well-being following extended social restrictions following the outbreak. Their collective experiences can be used to inform policy and practice regarding the nature of support mechanisms required both during and following the pandemic, and in the future if such a situation were to occur again.

Learning in the Counterspace of Not School

This article considers the way that intergenerational familial settings have functioned as counterspaces where deficit narratives are challenged and youth identities are affirmed. These counterspaces support minoritized young people in particular as they learn in socio-spatial and cultural historical contexts, especially during the pandemic. We set out to consider this: What does family as counterspace contribute to our understanding of what it means to make learning more human? With a focus on the strengths of learning (rather than learning loss) during the pandemic and the power of intergenerational testimony and collective witnessing to foster this learning, the writers–ourselves intergenerational as PhD, early-career, mid-career, and late-career scholars–each contribute a story to reflect on that question.

Integration as Making Place

ABSTRACT In this paper, we provide a new approach to defining and operationalizing integration as “making place.” We distinguish between making place for – a process of accommodation – and making place with – a process of co-production. We emphasize the potential of making place with as an alternative to top-down definitions of integration, and show this in practice through our research with migrants and migrant-supporting organizations in the Republic of Ireland. We conclude that making place with offers new insights into integration as processual, relational and practice-based, thus enhancing our understanding of migration and migrant experiences across diverse socio-spatial contexts.

AN EFFORT TO DEFINE REGIONAL INEQUALITIES IN THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

Abstract Differences in the theoretical and methodological frameworks for the definition and measurement of regional inequality in the contemporary world interfere in the way we understand the varying regional dynamics within each country and affect the development of public policy. In the present study, we discuss recent topics that contemplate regional inequality at the intra-national scale, based on a bibliographical analysis that contemplates the contributions of several authors. The central problem addressed in this paper is the differences and relationships between socioeconomic and regional inequalities. We aim to contribute to the recent research that focuses on the analysis of the dynamics of regional inequality in different sociospatial contexts, in particular, the identification of the determinants of regional inequality and development, and the institutions that most influence these processes, in order to problematize the role of public policy in regional dynamics. We conclude that regional inequality is caused and affected by a complex and interrelated set of elements, at different spatial scales and in different forms. While each country presents its own set of determinants, they are in part related to broader processes, which are present at a global scale. A spatial, multidimensional and multiscale approach will thus be necessary to overcome regional inequalities.

Sexual harassment on transit: a global, comparative examination

This article examines the incidence of an omnipresent but underreported crime in transit environments: sexual harassment. More specifically, it presents the findings of a global comparative study that surveyed 11,710 college students from 18 cities in six different continents, to inquire about their victimization experiences with verbal, physical, and non-verbal/non-physical sexual harassment in transit environments. The study finds that sexual harassment is a common occurrence in all cities but how, where, and to what extent it happens is quite specific to the particular socio-spatial contexts. Certain individual characteristics of students and environmental characteristics of the transit setting can increase the risk of harassment. Different types of sexual harassment are more likely to happen in certain transit settings than others. While female students are disproportionately affected, some male students also report experiences of victimization. The study concludes with a discussion of multi-pronged responses to harassment.

The regeneration of military brownfields in Serbia: Moving towards deliberative planning practice?

This paper investigates the regeneration process of military brownfields in Serbia through the lens of a deliberative planning approach. The topic is important for Serbia as a proto-democratic society where brownfield regeneration follows market rules, thus neglecting the interests of other actors. However, military brownfields are considered an exception in this regard as the starting point for their revitalisation is agreement between public institutions – the Ministry of Defence and municipalities. This, however, does not mean that the regeneration process runs smoothly. Considering this issue from the perspective of theory, the paper examines the starting assumptions of deliberative planning to highlight the role of the moderator in the public deliberation procedure. An empirical in-depth case study illustrates the regeneration of the Army Club in Vršac, Serbia, based on collaboration among various national bodies (ministries), local authorities, local entrepreneurs, and other agencies that facilitate the process. Using analysis of the institutional framework, findings of desk research, and interviews with key informants, the paper contributes to an understanding of the limits and potentials of deliberative practice for regeneration of military brownfields. More importantly, it outlines a theoretically informed and empirically tested mechanism to tackle the critical issues, elements, and steps discovered by an exploration of the process. The lessons prove valid not only for Serbia, but also for similar socio-spatial contexts.

ÍNDICE DE VULNERABILIDADE SOCIAL À DESASTRES NATURAIS PARA ÁREAS URBANAS

Apresenta-se uma aplicação do Social Vulnerability Index – SoVI®, com o interesse de contribuir com o estudo geográfico da vulnerabilidade social à desastres naturais em áreas urbanas. Para exemplificação utilizou-se dados do censo demográfico por setores censitários urbanos da cidade de Santos, na Zona Costeira Paulista. Foram detectadas nove componentes que explicam 75,6% da variância da vulnerabilidade em Santos. A primeira componente é a desigualdade social, racial e gênero, e uma vez que, as jovens, alfabetizadas, portadoras da cor parda e residentes em domicílios improvisados sem rendimento, são o grupo populacional mais vulnerável. Valores altos de SoVI® foram observados nos setores norte da cidade, que compreende a zona portuária, o centro e as áreas de aglomerados subnormais. Os menores índices estão distribuídos, no setor sul da cidade, especialmente na orla praiana. Em Santos, a espacialização do SoVI® apresenta-se como um subproduto de eventos históricos e contextos sócioespaciais que explicam como os processos de urbanização (precária e segregada) incorporaram diferentes níveis de vulnerabilidade social com privações de direitos à cidade e à justiça social. Assim, o SoVI® é estratégia interessante para o estudo dos riscos e desastre, desde que os processos metodológicos de elaboração sejam claros e substanciados teoricamente

Re-thinking society: How can sociological theories help us understand global and cross-border social contexts?

Globalization and cross-border studies have changed the ways in which sociological theorists think about space. Rather than viewing society as integrated, placing individual and collective actors in clearly bounded spaces nested within each other, this article combines several differentiation theories of society as a first step towards achieving an abstract language that can account for a plurality of comprehensive social contexts, thus relating actors to socio-spatial contexts in various ways. Starting with Simmel, the article discusses how some social contexts, such as the state, use the territory to gain exclusivity, whereas other social contexts are non-territorial in nature. Further types combine social and spatial differentiation. The article expands on Simmel’s socio-spatial forms with the help of newer systems theories proposed by Luhmann and Walby and Bourdieu’s field theory. The article provides cross-border and transnational studies with a comprehensive typology of socio-spatial forms. The argument contributes to global studies by considering a plurality of content-differentiated globalization logics and by clarifying the relationship between macro-social contexts and actors. In organizations, networks and professions, content differentiation, spatial segmentation and actors’ contestation intertwine.

Women's changing productive practices, gender relations and identities in fishing through a critical feminisation perspective

Abstract In recent years there has been increased academic and policy attention to the important contributions of women in fishing families, communities and industries. Whilst it is important to make visible these contributions, there has been little attention to how women's different and changing roles and practices are associated with (un)changed gender relations shaping, and being shaped by, women's (fishing) identities in different ways. To attend to this gap, the paper reviews and critically re-interprets literature on women's changing practices in fishing. The review is conceptually framed by drawing on – and going beyond – the feminisation approach developed in research on agriculture – incorporating key criticisms of the feminisation concept from other research fields. By reviewing and re-interpreting the literature on women in fishing through this critical feminisation approach, the intention is to examine how women's productive practices are associated with particular and changing gender relations and identities. In doing so, the paper identifies gaps in research and suggests avenues for future empirical, theoretical and methodological research on women in fishing. In terms of future directions for empirical research, the paper suggests there is a need for more research on women's practices going under the labels of ‘progressive’ and ‘reconstitutive’ feminisation. Further, and more importantly, the paper proposes new directions for future research focusing on women's subjectivities and identities as well as their working conditions. The paper also argues there is a need for relational approaches as well as more in-depth and emplaced empirical research on women's messy everyday lives to gain understandings of women's lives ‘in their own right’ in varying socio-spatial contexts.

The Socio-Spatial Contexts of HIV Risk for People Who Inject Drugs in Public Spaces in Nigeria

This article explores the socio-spatial factors shaping HIV risk for people who inject in public settings in Nigeria. It draws on thematic coding and analysis of qualitative interview accounts of people who inject drugs (PWID) in public spaces ( n = 29) recruited via snowball sampling. Drug injecting took place in diverse spaces (“bunks,” uncompleted buildings, motor parks, and night life environments) that enabled PWID to conceal illicit drug use in public settings. Public injecting resulted from intersecting socio-structural factors, including housing instability, resource constraints, and marginalized forms of drug use. Conversely, the practice was preferred as a beneficial and socially meaningful experience. Although PWID recognized the risks associated with public injecting and enacted risk reduction practices (e.g., using sterile syringes, rinsing syringes), risk reduction was undermined by socio-spatial factors including social discrimination, lack of essential amenities to enable safe injecting, poor access to sterile injecting equipment, and fear of disclosure and police arrests. These factors reproduced an environment of pervasive risk that compromised risk reduction and fostered risky practices such as rushing injection and sharing injecting equipment. There exists a need to create enabling environments for health by enabling access to secure accommodation, implementing safe injecting environment interventions, and exercising discretion in policing to enable access to essential harm reduction services for PWID.

The mark of the mask: queer neo-ethnographies and double consciousness in post-apartheid South Africa

ABSTRACTThis paper traces how two queer South African visual activists, Zanele Muholi and Kelebogile Ntladi, explore representations of gender identity and queer existence in their recent photographic work. Through the lens of “queer neo-ethnography,” it argues that their images oppose established codes and conventions of traditional portraiture and social documentary photography to explore the Du Boisian “double consciousness” of the queer participants who feature in their images and the complex socio-spatial and political contexts in which the images are taken. Muholi and Ntladi have turned the camera on themselves and their communities to engage with questions of black queer subjectivity in post-apartheid South Africa and, in so doing, have highlighted the disjuncture between South Africa’s liberal constitution and the homophobia, violence, and oppression which affects the queer community’s daily lived reality. Muholi’s work, in particular, underscores both the possibilities and the limitations of photography in its ability to represent black queer subjectivity.

Resilience and transformation in times of economic crisis: The persistence of community in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area

ABSTRACTThe economic and financial crisis that hit various European countries, including Portugal, has caused a series of social effects and reactions that have been studied using a number of different conceptual approaches. The article looks at two types in particular: those which analyze populations’ levels of resilience regarding proximity and community relations; and those which address collective action movements and practices that seek to transform society. The main goal is to consider the fact that these distinct practices coexist in the same territories, suggesting that they should therefore not be analyzed separately. The other objective is to determine what sociological variables and socio-spatial contexts are key to these different types of practices. The study was based on the territory formed by the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (AML) and entailed a survey of 1,500 of its residents. The data indicate a persistence of proximity and community relations, mainly among residents of rural areas.

"We have a roof over our head, but we have to eat too:" Exploring shifting foodscapes from homelessness into Housing First in Kingston, Ontario.

People facing extended periods of homelessness exhibit a remarkable degree of agency and resilience in procuring food. The literature on foodscapes considers the sociospatial contexts of food procurement, finding that what happens within and along the way to sites of food acquisition and consumption are important considerations in fully understanding and realizing food security. This study explores the shift in foodscapes of people who are transitioning from homelessness into scattered-site independent housing via a municipal Housing First program and considers implications for health and wellbeing. Our mixed-method approach included observational research at 11 local food providers and drop-in centres that provided context for semi-structured interviews with 10 Housing First clients in Kingston, Ontario between November 2016 and March 2017. The findings confirm that the provision of stable housing makes it possible for people to store, prepare, and consume food at home. An increased ability to have control over when, where, and what is eaten had a positive impact on people's sense of health and wellbeing. However, other effective markers of wellbeing were enacted along people's everyday routines and activities that had negative impacts. Interviewees remained heavily dependent on charitable food programs, including increased use of foodbanks. Others reported increasing detachment and social isolation from previously established food routines. Finally, the structured transition perpetuated a circuit of dependence and marginalization that fell short of contributing to improved food security as well as health and wellbeing. Understanding the relational geography of foodscape transitions is critical to the design of effective Housing First programs. Addressing the root causes of homelessness and poverty requires investments in comprehensive housing strategies including adequate social assistance and community supports that take a sociospatially holistic approach to wellbeing.

Contexts of children’s well-being. Integrating urban development by the municipal smallscale monitoring instrument UWE

This article presents results of a pilot-study, which developed a monitoring-instrument for measuring well-being of children and young people in a municipal permanent observation and as evaluation tool. Integrated urban development faces the challenge to absorb negative consequences at the development of children by residential and educational segregation. At the same time, in cities there is a lack of systematic available small-scale data about children in the middle years. The instrument uses human resources as necessary potential for society and measures areas of children’s development strongly linked to well-being and the influence by the socio-spatial contexts: family, school and living environment. A simultaneous testing of these contexts allows options of intervention, which can be used resource-specific.

Chronotopic dilemmas: Space–time in consumer movements of the Greek crisis

This paper explores the spatio-temporal dimensions of consumer activism during the Greek crisis. Existing work has provided valuable insights into the figure of the political consumer and the socio-spatial contexts in which consumer activism is enacted. The paper presents original six-year ethnographic work that extends current knowledge through exploring how the spatial and temporal dimensions of consumer activism are unsettled and reconfigured during an acute economic crisis. It builds on the concept of chronotopic dilemmas to illustrate the ideological tensions and contradictions between old and new spatio-temporal logics and practices. In doing so, the current study complements prior research focused on how distinct cultural and institutional settings mediate discourses and actions of consumer activism, by highlighting their inherently spatio-temporal (chronotopic) nature.

Diverse pathways—common phenomena: comparing transitions of urban rainwater harvesting systems in Stockholm, Berlin and Barcelona

Urban rainwater management is the terrain of varied initiatives that challenge existing drainage systems. The initiatives that this article refers to as Urban Rainwater Harvesting (URH), promise a more sustainable urban water approach; however, they remain isolated “niche” projects. The article aims to investigate challenges and opportunities for mainstreaming alternative URHs as sociotechnical systems (STS). It identifies six analytical categories: context, actors, instruments, processes/dynamics, outputs and impacts as a framework for the analyses of URH projects in Stockholm, Berlin and Barcelona. Despite the diversity of socio-spatial contexts, driving forces, purposes, instruments used, technical designs and scale of URH projects, relevant factors for a breakthrough of these systems are discussed. Even though URHs have not yet become a common component of rainwater management in any of the cities, context-specific combinations of these factors are found to be essential if these systems are to become complementary options for the sustainable management of rainwater in cities.