Page 40 - Cultural Studies A Practical Introduction

24 Place, Space, and Geography

local “ poor white trash ” countryside or New London. It is simply a part of
the structure of things or a feature of the way society operates that differ-
ences of economic power register as geographic differences.

Student Exercise

You all live in different, quite varied places, so it would be hard if
not impossible to come up with a single suggestion for a practical
exercise you might perform based on the ideas of Cultural Geography.
Look around where you live and try to find some aspect of the

built environment that interests you or that strikes you as an espe-
cially good example of a distinct social place, building, or landscape.
Malls are always fun to analyze, but in addition to the usual
“ reading ” of the building and the activities that take place within,
you might investigate what the effect of the building of the mall had
on local shopping habits and previous shopping areas. Where I live,
the building of the Crystal Mall outside New London in 1984 had a
very negative effect on the downtown of the city. Local merchants
could no longer compete with the department store chains such as
Macys that could buy in bulk for lower prices and in turn sell for
lower prices to customers. New London is now a ghost town, and
the mall is a thriving commercial center.
But less obvious examples are available. Where I live as well, it ’ s

possible to analyze the changing cultural significance of the country-
side around the new Pequot mega - casino, which was built on a
reservation that was initially chosen by whites because the land had
so little value: it was a swamp. But now the new casino stands in the
middle of North Stonington, a charming, bucolic town with pas-
tures, woods, and farms.
Finally, urban change is always interesting to consider. I work in
Philadelphia, a largely African American city. But its real estate,
especially the areas where blacks live, is becoming increasingly valu-
able, and white real estate developers are “ gentrifying ” the black
areas, buying dilapidated houses and refurbishing them for sale to

the wealthy. Gentrification changes the landscape. How and why the
change occurs indicate something about those changing it. Are there
similar changes happening near you, and how do you read or inter-
pret them?