Essay #4-Keitris Weathersbe-The Influence of New York City as a 'Place'
The Influence of New York City as a ?Place?
There are several factors to take into consideration when describing the most populous city in the United States, New York City (Wikipedia, ?New York City?). The physical infrastructures, cultural and economical influences, its people, are some of the obvious aspects which make up the city. In spite of its many characteristics, national and global influences are often overlooked when describing this or any other place. What makes a place, a place? As described by Doreen Massey, an idea of ?place? is a location without conceptualized boundaries (Massey, 1993, p. 67). Massey also claims that ?places do not have single, unique ?identities?: they are full of internal differences and conflicts? (1993, p. 67). This idea holds true when discussing the city of New York. Of course, New York City has territorial borders, established by the state and federal government some years ago. In terms of the city as a ?imagined community,? New York City is barrier-less and borderless. This ?place? does not have ?single, unique ?identities? but is comprised of several identities which makes the city itself so unique. The cultural and economic influences from the Caribbean, Latin America, Italy, and other parts of the world have granted New York City with a ?counter-flow? of influences. As globalization has its impact on New York?with the movement of people from across the globe to this location?the city is reflecting ideas of diversity and cultural metropolis on the rest of the world.
The five dimensions of global cultural flow, as outlined by Arjun Appadurai, help to categorize the functions of New York City. More specifically, ?ethnoscapes? ?constitute the shifting world in which we live: tourists, immigrants, refugees, exiles, guestworkers, and other moving groups...,? all of which make up the city of New York (Appadurai, 1990, p. 297). In regards to ?mediascapes,? for example, the New York Times produces and disseminates news daily. The New York Times, once known as a local newspaper available to the residents of New York City, has now become of publication for the masses. The point can be supported by Appadurai clam that newspapers, magazines, etcetera, ?are now available to a growing number of private and public interests throughout the world? (1990, p. 299). In the early years of the New York Times, its local readers had the privilege of witnessing, firsthand, the news in which they read, because the coverage was local. Now, with the New York Times focusing its coverage on other parts of the nation and world, local residents may not have an effective reading experience of publication or see the news as relative to their lives. This reflects Appadurai?s point that ?the lines between the ?realistic? and the fictional landscapes they see are blurred, so that the further away these audiences are from the direct experiences of metropolitan life, the more likely they are to construct ?imagined worlds?? (Appadurai, 1990, p. 299). This is where Appadurai?s idea of ?imagined communities? and Massey?s idea of ?place? collide.
?New York City is a global economic center, with its business, finance, trading, law, and media organizations influential worldwide? (The Role of Metro Areas?, 2006). New York City can be seen as a physical place, with territorial boundaries, yet with an abundant flow of global influences?counter-flows of culture.
References
1. Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global economy. Public Culture, 2(2), p295-310.
2. Massey, Doreen. (1993). ?Power-geometry and a Progressive Sense of Place.? Ch. 4 in Bird, John, et al. (editors), Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change. London: Routledge. Pp. 59-69. Electronic reserve: http//www.lib.ncsu.edu/eresdocs/files/h5217.pdf.
3. The Role of Metro Areas in the U.S. Economy. (2006). The Unites States Conferences of Mayors. p. 1-107. Retrieved on June 14, 2007, http://www.usmayors.org/74thWinterMeeting/metroeconreport_January2006.pdf
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City
Posted at
11:00AM Jun 15, 2007
by WEATHERSBE, KEITRIS in General |
Friday Jun 15, 2007
I personally have seen these blendings of boundaries in New York. While maps of the city show certain places with defined areas such as China Town and Little Italy, these spaces are not always as they appear. As a regular visitor to New York I have seen that what is labeled as Little Italy is primarily filled with those of Asian decent. This is because the boundary of what is labeled as Chinatown is constantly moving outwards. The different neighborhoods or 'spaces' of New York are constantly meshing and blending. It seems these neighborhoods are constantly creating more and more imagined communities. It will be interesting to see how much these neighborhoods have changed as far as predominant culture within the next 20 years.
Posted by Claire de Lespinois on June 15, 2007 at 11:42 AM EDT #
New York is probably one of the best examples to use when speaking on the subject of ethnoscapes. I have visited New York before and it is a melting pot of individuals from different cultures, and individuals whom carry different beliefs. The amazing thing about this culturing melting pot is that everyone gets along. New York has been a culturing melting pot for so long that the initial approving or disapproving feelings that natives New Yorkers had about immigrants bringing their culture in has long faded away. It may do future researchers justice to study the history of New York in terms of immigration and mixing of cultures to better understand what the rest of the United States, or the world, may be experiencing soon.
Posted by J preston on June 15, 2007 at 01:16 PM EDT #