Politics of belonging in the construction of landscapes: Place-making, boundary-drawing and exclusion

Cultural Geographies

Volumn 13, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 421-443

  Trudeau, Daniel ^a  

^a MACALESTER COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

LANDSCAPE PLANNING; POLITICS;

MINNESOTA; NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

ANIMALIA;

EID: 33746124884     PISSN: 14744740     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1191/1474474006eu366oa     Document Type: Article

References (127)

1. T. Cresswell, In place/out of place: geography, ideology, and transgression (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1996);
2. D. Sibley, Geographies of exclusion: society and difference in the West (New York, Routledge, 1996);
3. D. Newman and A. Paasi, 'Fences and neighbours in the postmodern world: boundary narratives in political geography', Progress in human geography 22 (1998), pp. 186-207;
4. O. Valins, 'Stubborn identities and the construction of socio-spatial boundaries: ultra-orthodox Jews living in contemporary Britain', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 28 (2003), pp. 158-75.
5. D. Cosgrove, 'Prospect, perspective and evolution of the landscape idea', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 10 (1985), pp. 45-62;
6. D. Cosgrove, Social formation and symbolic landscape (Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1998).
7. K. Olwig, 'Recovering the substantive nature of landscape', Annals of the Association of American Geographers 83 (1996), pp. 630-53;
8. K. Olwig, 'Representation and alienation in the political land-scape', Cultural geographies 12 (2005), pp. 19-40.
9. H. Lefebvre, The production of space, trans. D. Nicholson-Smith (Oxford, Blackwell, 1991);
10. D. Mitchell, The lie of the land: migrant workers and the California landscape (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1996);
11. E. McCann, 'The cultural politics of local economic development: meaning-making, place-making, and the urban policy process', Geoforum 33 (2002), pp. 385-98.
12. E. McCann, 'Where do you draw the line? Landscape, texts and the politics of planning', Environment and planning D: society and space 15 (1997), pp. 641-61;
13. R. Schein,'The place of landscape: a conceptual framework for interpreting an American scene', Annals of the Association of American Geographers 87 (1997), pp. 660-80;
14. K. Mitchell, 'Conflicting geographies of democracy and the public sphere in Vancouver BC', Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 22 (1997), pp. 162-79.
15. For a parallel discussion of how urban and architectural codes are used to structure physical space and regulate social activity, see K. Falconer Al-Hindi and C. Staddon, 'The hidden histories and geographies of neotraditional town planning: the case of Seaside, Florida', Environment and planning D: society and space: 15 (1997), pp. 349-72.
16. E. McCann, 'Race, protest, and public space: contextualizing Lefebvre in the U.S. city', Antipode, 31 (1999) pp. 163-184.
17. C. Silver, 'The racial origins of zoning in American cities', in J. Thomas and M. Ritzdorf, eds, Urban planning and the African-American community: in the shadows (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage, 1997), pp. 23-42.
18. For an example of how definitions of 'family' in zoning ordinances affect racial segregation at the neighbourhood level, see Y. Rabin, 'The persistence of racial isolation: the role of government action and inaction', in Thomas and Ritzdorf, Urban planning and the African-American community, pp. 93-108.
19. D. Mitchell, 'The annihilation of space by law: the roots and implications of anti-homeless laws in the United States', Antipode 29 (1997), pp. 303-35.
20. Rose, following Latour, also explains how the planner's land-use map is a visual device that that makes objective and stable certain assemblages of meanings that are otherwise subjective and ephemeral. The land-use map is also an important instrument in delineating the boundaries of abstract space and making them operational on the ground in the landscape. For further discussion of how land-use maps are used in making governable spaces, see N. Rose, Powers of freedom: reframing political thought (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1999).
21. Sibley, Geographies of exclusion;
22. Cresswell, In placelout of place.
23. J. Crowley, 'The politics of belonging: some theoretical considerations', in A. Geddes and A. Favell, eds, The politics of belonging: migrants and minorities in contemporary Europe (Aldershot, Ashgate, 1999), pp. 15-41;
24. S. Castles and A. Davidson, Citizenship and migration (London, Routledge, 2000).
25. Newman and Paasi, 'Fences and neighbours'.
26. C. Nagel, 'Constructing difference and sameness: the politics of assimilation in London's Arab communities', Ethnic and racial studies 25 (2002), pp. 258-87;
27. J. Perea, 'Introduction', in J. Perea, ed., Immigrants out! Ihe new nativism and the anti-immigrant impulse in the United States (New York, New York University Press, 1997), pp. 1-12.
28. A. Wondrak, 'Seen any wildlife? Community conflict and a struggle for the soul of Estes Park, Colorado', Cultural geographies 9 (2002), pp. 68-94;
29. C. Philo, 'Animals, geography, and the city: notes on inclusions and exclusions', in J. Wolch and J. Emel, eds, Animal geographies: place, politics, and identity in the nature-culture borderlands (London, Verso, 1998), pp. 51-71.
30. Wondrak, 'Seen any wildlife?';
31. Philo, 'Animals, geography, and the city';
32. K. Anderson, 'A walk on the wild side: a critical geography of domestication', Progress in human geography 21 (1997), pp. 463-85;
33. J. Wolch, 'Anima urbis', Progress in human geography 26 (2002), pp. 721-42;
34. G. Elder, J. Wolch and J. Emel, 'Le pratique sauvage: race, place, and the human-animal divide', in Wolch and Emel, Animal geographies, pp. 72-90.
35. Philo, 'Animals, geography, and the city'.
36. ibid. p. 60.
37. Elder et al., 'Le pratique sauvage';
38. M. Griffith, J. Wolch and U. Lassiter, 'Animal practices and the racialization of Filipinas in Los Angeles', Society and animals 10 (2002), pp. 221-48.
39. Elder et al., 'Lepratique sauvage'.
40. Sibley, Geographies of exclusion.
41. The Hmong are an ethnic group native to Laos who primarily lived in remote and hilly areas of the country. During the 1960s and into the 1970s, they received material support from the US to fight communist forces in Laos and Vietnam. When it became clear that the US would not commit additional resources to fighting the war in Vietnam, the Hmong were left without support and faced retaliation from the communist Pathet Lao regime. In the twilight of the US involvement in the war in Vietnam, many Hmong fled from Laos across the Mekong River into Thailand. The US government recognized the Hmong as political refugees, and the first Hmong people came to the United States in 1975. For further information on the history of Hmong people, see K. Quincy, Hmong: history of a people (Cheney, Eastern Washington University Press, 1995);
42. S. Chan, ed., Hmong means free (Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1994);
43. I. Miyares, The Hmong refugee experience in the United States (New York, Garland, 1998).
44. 2000 Census of population: Summary File 3 (US Census).
45. For more information about shamanism, or Ua Dab, in Hmong practice, see the online story 'Ua Dab, the Hmong religion' at Minnesota Public Radio: http://news.mpr.org/features/200108/27_goetzk_Shaman/sidebar.shtml
46. Hugo Zoning Ordinance, ch. 320, Comprehensive land-use regulations, Article IV, Section 1045, http://www.ci.hugo.mn.us/Zoning_Ord/TOC.htm
47. 'Hugo prohibits custom animal slaughter', Star Tribune (Minneapolis, 6 June 2000), p. 1B;
48. Videotape of Hugo City Council meeting (HCCM), 15 May 2000 (Hugo City Council, 14669 Fitzgerald Avenue North, Hugo, MN 55038; HCCM 5 June 2000).
49. Washington County Historical Society, 'Community histories: Hugo' (2005): http://wchsmn.org/research/communities
50. 2000 Census of population: Summary File 3.
51. 'Hmong, neighbors ponder Hugo zoning', Pioneer Press (St Paul, 31 Mar. 2000), p. 1B.
52. 'Slaughterhouse dispute', Star Tribune (Minneapolis, 19 Mar. 2000), p. 1B
53. 'State shuts Hmong slaughterhouse in Hugo', Associated Press State and local wire (Minneapolis, 8 May 2000), p. 1B.
54. 'Slaughterhouse fire damages buildings, spirit', Star Tribune (23 Feb. 2000), p. 1B.
55. Hmong Minnesota in Ramsey County (St Paul, Hmong Studies Internet Resource Center 2002): http://store3.yimg.com/I/ hmongstudies_17649_109665;
56. Asians in Minnesota (Minnesota Planning State Demographic Center) 2002, p. 5;
57. 2000 Census of population: Summary File 3.
58. Ibid.
59. 'Hugo sorts out flap over slaughterhouse', Pioneer Press (22 Jan. 2000), p. 8A.
60. J. Lemonine, 'Shamanism in the context of Hmong resettlement', in G. Hendricks, B. Downing and A. Deinard, eds, The Hmong in transition (New York, Center for Migration Studies, 1986), pp. 337-48;
61. X. Thao, 'Hmong perception of illness and traditional ways of healing', in Hendricks et al., The Hmong in transition, pp. 365-78.
62. 'Slaughterhouse dispute', Star Tribune, p. 1B.
63. 'Hmong-run slaughterhouse angers neighbors', Pioneer Press (5 Jan. 2000), p. 1A.
64. Ibid.
65. 'State shuts Hmong slaughterhouse in Hugo', Associated Press (8 May 2000);
66. 'Meat plant comes down to cultural, zoning issue', Pioneer Press (16 May 2000), p. 2D.
67. Speaking for themselves: a survey of Hispanic, Hmong, Russian, and Somali immigrants in Minneapolis-St. Paul (St Paul, Wilder Foundation, 2000).
68. 'State shuts Hmong slaughterhouse in Hugo'.
69. 'Hugo prohibits custom animal slaughter', Star & Tribune (6 June 2000), p. 1B.
70. 'Hugo sorts out flap over slaughterhouse'.
71. L. Gouveia and D. Stull, Latino immigrants, meatpacking, and rural communities: a case study of Lexington, Nebraska (East Lansing, Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, 1997), p. 1.
72. K. Fennelly and H. Leitner, How the food processing industry is diversifying rural Minnesota, (East Lansing, Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University, 2002), pp. 1 - 12;
73. E. Schlosser, Fast food nation: the dark side of the all-American meal (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 2001).
74. Gouveia and Stoll, Latino immigrants, p. 14.
75. C. Conte, 'Strangers on the prairie', Governing magazine 15 (Jan. 2002), pp. 29-33.
76. S. Bloom, Postville: a clash of cultures in beartland America (San Diego, CA, Harcourt, 2000).
77. 'Hugo prohibits custom animal slaughter'.
78. 'Hmong-run slaughterhouse angers neighbours'.
79. 'Hmong, neighbors ponder Hugo zoning'.
80. HCCM 15 May 2000.
81. Letters to the editor, Pioneer Press (24 May 2000), p. 14A. The full text of this letter reads: 'Hugo is a lovely city. It's the kind of town you would raise your family in and be all the better for. The impact a slaughterhouse is having on the small town can be felt in the hearts of the Minnesotans that hear the stories of what is going on in that small farming community. The neighbors who can distinguish the cries of animals dying - that is heart wrenching. Perhaps that is because we have a more developed sense of understanding, and our compassions reach far beyond humanity. Maybe it's not that easily understood because our religion does not condone cruelty, nor does it require the sacrifice of any animal. While we cannot tamper with one's right to choose religion and its practice, we can require that immigrants be prepared to abide by our laws, and come to terms with the fact that some things just cannot be done here regardless of religion.'
82. Letters to the editor, Pioneer Press (20 May 2000), p. 13A. The full text of this letter reads: 'Such inhuman treatment of any animal should not be permitted in a civilized society. if these immigrants want to become United States citizens, they must leave those barbaric customs behind. As of now, they are certainly not an asset to the United States ... Their barbaric customs and rituals must be left back in their Asian countries. Torturing animals such as this is inexcusable and should not be condoned in any way as a religious ritual. if they want so badly to become American citizens, they should live in a respectable way that honors the country to which they came. Shame on all these Asian barbarians.'
83. 'Vigil for Hugo slaughterhouse animals to take place on state capitol steps', Defending Farm Animals, Inc., News Release, 27 Apr. 2000, www.defendingfarmanimals.org, PO Box 17224, Minneapolis, 55417.
84. Although one council member did express hope that 'the Hmong could treat the animals better': HCCM 15 May 2000.
85. 'City wants to shut down Hmong-operated slaughterhouse', Associated Press State and Local Wire (5 Jan. 2000).
86. 'Hugo sorts out flap over slaughterhouse'.
87. 'Hmong, neighbors ponder Hugo zoning'.
88. 'Slaughterhouse dispute'.
89. 'Hmong-run slaughterhouse angers neighbors'.
90. 'Hugo sorts out flap over slaughterhouse'.
91. 'Hugo prohibits custom animal slaughter'.
92. 'Hugo sorts out flap over slaughterhouse'.
93. Ibid.
94. Ibid.
95. 'Hmong, neighbors ponder Hugo zoning'.
96. 'Hugo prohibits custom annual slaughter'.
97. HCCM, 15 May 2000.
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid.
100. HCCM, 5 June 2000.
101. Ibid.
102. HCCM, 15 May 2000.
103. Videotape of Hugo City Council meeting, 15 May 2000.
104. Cresswell, In place/out of place, p. 22.
105. Ibid.
106. Valins, 'Stubborn identities'.
107. C. Gallaher, 'Identity politics and the religious right: hiding hate in the landscape', Antipode 29 (1997), p. 262.
108. Olwig, 'Recovering the substantive nature of landscape'.
109. R. Wilton, 'The construction of difference: space and psyche in the landscapes of exclusion', Geoforum 29 (1998), pp. 173-85;
110. H. Van Houton and T. Van Naerssen, 'Bordering, ordering, and othering', Tijdscbrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 93 (2002), pp. 125-36.
111. Nagel, 'Constructing difference and sameness'.
112. There is a parallel here to Gallaher's writing on the conservative politics of Liberty University, which she argues hides a hatred of difference in the constructed landscape of the university by proscribing undesirable characteristics associated with unwelcome groups, such as homosexuals and radical feminists. In this way, Gallaher argues, a fundamentalist Christian identity is legitimated politically and spatially in the landscape of Liberty University such that potentially disruptive challenges to that identity can be removed through accepted means of discipline and exclusion. For further discussion, see Gallaher, 'Identity politics'.
113. L. Chavez, 'Immigration reform and nativism: the nationalist response to the transnational challenge', in Perea, Immigrants out!, pp. 61-77;
114. J. Feagin, 'Old poison in new bottles: the deep roots of modern nativism', in Perea, Immigrants out!, pp. 13-43.
115. D. Sibley, 'The problematic nature of exclusion', Geoforum 29 (1998), p. 120;
116. Sibley, Geographies of exclusion; D. Sibley, 'Survey 13: the purification of space', Environment and planning D: society and space 6 (1988), pp. 409 - 21.
117. D. Sibley, 'Survey 13: the purification of space', Environment and planning D: society and space 6 (1988). pp. 409-21.
118. Mitchell, Lie of the land, p. 2. Mitchell writes that landscapes are at once 'patently obvious and terribly mystified'. They are obvious in the sense that they readily communicate a whole scene in which certain material and discursive boundaries are constructed and seem stable, where particular power relations are evident and yet uncontested, and where a particular arrangement of values, aesthetics, and behavior are considered normal. Yet landscapes are mystified because it is in no way obvious how these aspects of the land have come to be decided and constructed as they are deployed. Because the material landscape and all of the discursive content it represents are presented as natural and often static, the origin and ephemera of its particular representations are never readily apparent.
119. Schein, 'The place of landscape: a conceptual framework for interpreting an American scene'.
120. Cosgrove, Social formation,
121. Cresswell, In place/out of place.
122. McCann, 'The cultural politics of local economic development: meaning-making, place-making, and the urban policy process'.
123. See e.g. D. Massey, 'A place called home?', New Formations 17 (1992), pp. 3-15;
124. A. Pred, Place, practice and structure (Totowa, NJ, Barnes & Noble, 1986);
125. J. Duncan and N. Duncan, 'Culture unbound', Environment and planning A 36 (2004), pp. 391-403.
126. D. Massey, Space, place, and gender (Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1994), p. 5.
127. Duncan and Duncan, 'Culture unbound'.