1.4. Teorías de la subutilización
1.4.5. Teoría del subempleo
In the conclusion we summarise and extend the two key questions posed through this research. First we address the extent to which familiarity and participation in the public realm informs place attachment.
Our research found that local outdoor places have a specific role to play in fostering individual experiences of attachment in superdiverse neighbourhoods, and in the settlement processes of migrant groups. This is closely related to the qualities of visual permeability, layers of social representation and the ambiguity by which places can be perceived and experienced. We recognise the importance of social engagement and acts of cultural creativity which allows the strange to become familiar; both reflecting and reshaping notions of individual and
community identities over time. The findings support an understanding of place attachment as one which can be strengthened rather than weakened by recognition of transnational links, in particular by the ‘placing’ of activities, memories and social dynamics within the local (Ehrkamp, 2005).
The data gathered indicated how perceptions of place influenced a sense of belonging and community for new migrants to the UK. Most of our participants had lived in Sheffield for over five years, and their recordings revealed a depth of knowledge about their neighbourhood. The research project positioned us, as researchers, as ‘strangers’ in the experienced landscapes of our participants; a situation that empowered their position as experts with local knowledge and place- specific skills. The ‘openness’ of the research method meant that the focus and scope of these voices were those of the research participants, reducing the impact
of the researcher / observer as far as possible. Through the recording process participants revealed emotional responses and explorations of the urban landscape that encompassed physical, social and cultural dimensions of place.
The experiential context of neighbourhood frames perceptions of the new country for migrants as something permeable or impenetrable, legible or disorientating. Feeling secure and confident in the new local environment is an important step to identifying oneself as an ‘insider’, and the visual accessibility of social
information afforded by being outdoors is utilised by recently arrived migrants as part of this process. The foundation of tacit knowledge is strengthened when residents are able to relate to social networks in the area, and to see diversity of representation in the built environment. National identities, as a Pakistani, a Kurd or a Jamaican, undergo a continual process of change that is directly linked to immersion in a cosmopolitan environment. Notions of belonging with those still living ‘back home’ are gradually altered through socialisation in this UK context. It is possible to identify Sandercock’s ‘many ways of belonging’ and our research supports her assertion of the enduring importance of place attachment despite the increasing deterritorialisation of community identities (Sandercock, 2003, p.134).
Secondly, we critique the relationship between transnational identities and engagement with different urban localities.
We considered how first generation migrants experience and interpret the
landscape around them from the cultural perspectives of their personal history of migration. Ingold’s premise is that people continually learn from the environment in which they live, and this leads to new ways of understanding the world and behaving as a part of it. This has provided a useful framework for exploring the temporal relationships between people and place (Ingold, 2000). Our research points to the significance of the visibility of activity in outdoor locations as a form of social accessibility. Breadth of social contacts is encouraged and sustained by the observation and participation in verbal and non-verbal interactions (Alexander et al. 2007; Young, 1990). Utilising Ingold’s understanding of taskscape (2000, p.195) we suggest that experiences of community, belonging and identification within a neighbourhood can occur before the development of personal
relationships across ethnic groups. Individuals develop a sense of affiliation with place when familiar strangers are gradually recognised as neighbours. The visibility of neighbours has implications for performance of roles within located communities, providing opportunities to glimpse other ways of living. The viewing of neighbours in semi-private and public spaces is partially enabled through day to day interactions facilitated by shared gender, class and religious identities (Bondi and Rose, 2003; Acker, 2000).
In attending to everyday practices and mobilities, our paper touches on common themes within transnational urbanism of how people demonstrate within the public gaze their acceptability to specific cultural norms (often defined within their ethnic or religious community) (Skeggs, 1997). It is beyond the scope of this research to offer generalisations of gendered and religious identities, but our findings support readings of the urban environment as offering a widening of horizons and
increased opportunities, as well as continuing or exasperating constraints for some (Bondi and Rose, 2003; Wilson, 2001). Movement through the city, to give
distance from a place where one is known, can be important as an opportunity to experience place with less prescribed social interactions, and to explore and expand notions of identity without fear of social sanction. We suggest that such spaces for cultural exploration and detachment offer a fluidity of interactions where it is possible for individuals and groups to engage with broader contexts of community and belonging.
We argue that the representational aspects of place both reflect and shape transnational identities, and highlight a spatial form of relational and contextual ‘positioning’ (Dwyer, 2000). By addressing the specific experience of first generation migrants, we arrive at deeper understandings of the multiplicity of imaginations and layered meanings of landscapes (Massey, 2005). As Armstrong (2004) suggests: ‘here’ and ‘there’ are experienced though the senses and in tangible qualities of place and time. Developing of affective bonds, both between individuals and between individuals and places, can be important in giving located dimensions to identities which are often in flux. It is through this bodily
engagement with specific streets, benches, views and trees, that first generation migrants can recognise connections between different aspects of their life
histories. In Khaled’s movements through the city, Shireen’s discussion of scarf- wearing and street locations, and Thelma’s pride at local community landmarks, it is possible to trace how meanings and symbolic characteristics of landscapes can reflect dimensions of personal identity, and also support a local scale of belonging that bridges notions of divided communities. Within a research field where studies often focus on groups with a shared ethnic heritage, the approach of articulating disparate voices describing a shared neighbourhood offers a fresh perspective on previous research regarding ethnically diverse neighbourhoods.
The distinction of this research is in defining a scale of familiarity - the experience of local landscapes and the social dimensions of these - as important in the
establishment of place attachment. Experiential qualities of place are often represented by ambiguity, with people feeling both attracted and dislocated from specific environments. Temporal qualities are one way in which these
contradictions are reconciled, both by people moving themselves and in the changing nature of public places through hours, months and years. These
engagements are not unique to first generation migrants, but may be heightened by comparisons and ongoing links with countries of origin. As suggested in the title of this paper: flexibility of meanings of place, as well as flexibility of places visited, can be important to first generation migrants. The urban environment has a dual role to play in providing both a growing sense of familiarity and in providing diverse opportunities for a process of change: rootedness and transformation.
FOOTNOTES
1. We define neighbourhood as a geographic territory commonly identified by a place name, and recognise that the boundaries will be perceived differently among residents and authorities. Though focused on the ward of Burngreave, our
fieldwork included experiences of places outside the formal boundaries of this area.
2. Participant consent was specifically gained for these clips, for the website, and for printed material.
3. Each participant was met at least twice before fieldwork commenced. 4. One of the limitations of the research method was the difficulty in including
perspectives from migrants with poor verbal English, or who did not feel
confident learning new technologies, in particular the elder Pakistani community in the area. We addressed this in part by conducting one individual interview (female) and two group interviews (male) with this resident group.
5. We note some variations to this general categorisation. Some outdoor places tend to have more intentional visiting and less chance of incidental encounter, for example allotments or adventure playgrounds. Some indoor areas have high physical and visible permeability, for example, shopping malls may include people lingering and passing through for different reasons.
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Publication 4
Rishbeth, C. and Powell, M. (2013) Place Attachment and Memory: Landscapes of