Femi Adekunle - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Femi Adekunle
Working with Vulnerable Children, Young People and Families, 2020
Children's Geographies, 2013
Negative Neighbourhood Reputation and Place Attachment, 2017
This doctoral dissertation is based around exploring the issue of youth belonging and territorial... more This doctoral dissertation is based around exploring the issue of youth belonging and territoriality in various areas of London taken from the perspective of my work as a volunteer Youth Worker, as a policy researcher at the Runnymede Trust and an academic. It looks at developing an understanding of the motivation of young people who-point blank-refused to go into areas that neighboured and mirrored their own. It explores how young people react both positively and negatively to the part of the city that they call home and how they relate and conceptualise other areas that they are unfamiliar with. It seeks to find out why certain young people are happy to remain within their locale and actively resist others from coming into theirs. I call this phenomenon 'youth territoriality' and it presents itself as a complex and emotional issue for young people. In developing a framework, I ask how this spatial identity is (re)constructed and (re)constituted in relation to not just itself but other prominent state and social discourses. My doctorate seeks to answer, variously: how do you young people understand and experience territory and belonging? How does belonging and territory offset encounters with fear and marginalisation? More importantly, how can it be refigured by young people and local authorities? By dividing the question into two case sites-the first focusing more generally on territoriality's prevalence and the other focusing more specifically on its workings-it explores the major theoretical and methodological problems in analysing the situation. It thereby discovers how, when and where particular forms of belonging matter and how this links individuals to wider social structures creating an "ease with oneself and one's surroundings" (May, 2011). Theoretically, it examines how spatial imaginaries are created and represented; how intergenerational tensions are evoked and details the shifting social construction of ethnicity. Methodologically it uses new technology to map and capture transitional aspects of urban encounters and aspects of route and routine. Indeed, drawing upon a mixed-method approach this paper highlights how the use of mobility as a distanciated and spatial variable around which concepts of belonging can cohere to create an individual and collective identity. Using participatory GIS, focus groups, surveys and interviews, it illustrates the complexity of belonging by emphasizing different linkages between space, place and identity. It also shows how membership of institutions creates a local daily reproduced discourse through countless practices, expressions and institutional structures. This is meant as a statement of how 'territorial belonging' fits into a narrative of a self-defined state of adulthood that underlines the challenge, difficulty and intricacy of identity for young people.
There is evidence that points to a possible politicisation of consumption in Brazil, similar to w... more There is evidence that points to a possible politicisation of consumption in Brazil, similar to what has been occurring in other countries. In this process, consumption attitudes, behaviors, and practices are perceived and used as a way of participation and political action. Theories of pos-materialism and hypotheses of mistrust in relation to political institutions have been used as an explanation for this phenomenon. However, little is known about the use of these actions by young adults in Brazil. To explore this question we developed a quantitative survey to analyze the perceptions, interests, forms of engagement, personal and institutional trust, and political practices, including political consumption, of 457 brazilian young adults. Respondents were aged 16 to 25, lived in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and were part of the three highest economic classes in the country – A, B, and C. The results obtained show that, in Brazil, involvement in activities of political...
Sociology, 2012
aims to make explicit the evaluative assumptions behind each of them. The third chapter, ‘Varieti... more aims to make explicit the evaluative assumptions behind each of them. The third chapter, ‘Varieties of situations’, explores how the magnitude of cultural hybridity and speed of the process is not uniform and linear but, rather, discontinuous and fragmented. There are particular historical moments in which cultural encounters somehow ‘intensify’. Waves of aggressive religious, economic and political colonialism have inevitably generated forms of unwanted, violent and painful mixing. But this does not mean that the contact of culture cannot happen in different forms, at different speeds and articulated by more ‘neutral’ power dynamics. Cultural pluralism and religious tolerance in Spain under Islamic domination, or the capacity of Hinduism to peacefully absorb deities from other religious traditions are examples of other ways to articulate cultural encounters. The following chapter, ‘Varieties of responses’, investigates in more detail the different ways in which people have reacted to hybridization and mixing; for example, the voracious love for everything Chinese or Oriental in European art and design history. Other decades have seen Italian or French culture as the epitome of fashionability. Nevertheless, as the chapter explains, not all encounters were enthusiastically welcomed. Hybridity, seen as a form of corruption and contamination, has sometimes led to the ruthless cultural and physical obliteration of tradition and people. The total repudiation of everything Jewish during the Nazi regime is surely one of the most systematic forms of symbolic and material annihilation of difference. The last chapter, ‘Varieties of outcomes’, imagines future scenarios of cultural hybridity. The author firmly believes that over centuries the process of cultural mixing and the frequency of encounters have rapidly increased. Therefore Burke unequivocally rejects a future whereby self-contained cultures develop and flourish totally independent from each other. Burke does not, however, embrace any easy hypothesis about our near future and neither is the idea of cultural homogenization fully embraced. The ‘Coca-Cola effect’ or ‘Americanization’ of world culture is surely one aspect of our present. But it must be understood in conjunction with, or counterbalanced by, forms of resistance, appropriation and heterogenization of world culture. The book’s easy and discursive style makes it accessible to the widest readership without losing out on complexity and intellectual rigour. It is a pity though that it feels only sketched out in parts. It often titillates the reader’s curiosity rather than fully quenching their thirst. Yet, in its brevity it is a refreshing summary of different and complex issues that deserve scrutiny in their own right and it outlines plenty of possible avenues for further research. Somebody should buy it as Christmas present for Nick Griffin (the leader of the British National Party) even if I doubt he would enjoy it as I did!
Intelligence for a Multi-ethnic Britain Runnymede is the UK's leading independent thinktank on ra... more Intelligence for a Multi-ethnic Britain Runnymede is the UK's leading independent thinktank on race equality and race relations. Through highquality research and thought leadership, we: Open access. Some rights reserved.
Space, Place and Environment, 2015
Working with Vulnerable Children, Young People and Families, 2020
Children's Geographies, 2013
Negative Neighbourhood Reputation and Place Attachment, 2017
This doctoral dissertation is based around exploring the issue of youth belonging and territorial... more This doctoral dissertation is based around exploring the issue of youth belonging and territoriality in various areas of London taken from the perspective of my work as a volunteer Youth Worker, as a policy researcher at the Runnymede Trust and an academic. It looks at developing an understanding of the motivation of young people who-point blank-refused to go into areas that neighboured and mirrored their own. It explores how young people react both positively and negatively to the part of the city that they call home and how they relate and conceptualise other areas that they are unfamiliar with. It seeks to find out why certain young people are happy to remain within their locale and actively resist others from coming into theirs. I call this phenomenon 'youth territoriality' and it presents itself as a complex and emotional issue for young people. In developing a framework, I ask how this spatial identity is (re)constructed and (re)constituted in relation to not just itself but other prominent state and social discourses. My doctorate seeks to answer, variously: how do you young people understand and experience territory and belonging? How does belonging and territory offset encounters with fear and marginalisation? More importantly, how can it be refigured by young people and local authorities? By dividing the question into two case sites-the first focusing more generally on territoriality's prevalence and the other focusing more specifically on its workings-it explores the major theoretical and methodological problems in analysing the situation. It thereby discovers how, when and where particular forms of belonging matter and how this links individuals to wider social structures creating an "ease with oneself and one's surroundings" (May, 2011). Theoretically, it examines how spatial imaginaries are created and represented; how intergenerational tensions are evoked and details the shifting social construction of ethnicity. Methodologically it uses new technology to map and capture transitional aspects of urban encounters and aspects of route and routine. Indeed, drawing upon a mixed-method approach this paper highlights how the use of mobility as a distanciated and spatial variable around which concepts of belonging can cohere to create an individual and collective identity. Using participatory GIS, focus groups, surveys and interviews, it illustrates the complexity of belonging by emphasizing different linkages between space, place and identity. It also shows how membership of institutions creates a local daily reproduced discourse through countless practices, expressions and institutional structures. This is meant as a statement of how 'territorial belonging' fits into a narrative of a self-defined state of adulthood that underlines the challenge, difficulty and intricacy of identity for young people.
There is evidence that points to a possible politicisation of consumption in Brazil, similar to w... more There is evidence that points to a possible politicisation of consumption in Brazil, similar to what has been occurring in other countries. In this process, consumption attitudes, behaviors, and practices are perceived and used as a way of participation and political action. Theories of pos-materialism and hypotheses of mistrust in relation to political institutions have been used as an explanation for this phenomenon. However, little is known about the use of these actions by young adults in Brazil. To explore this question we developed a quantitative survey to analyze the perceptions, interests, forms of engagement, personal and institutional trust, and political practices, including political consumption, of 457 brazilian young adults. Respondents were aged 16 to 25, lived in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, and were part of the three highest economic classes in the country – A, B, and C. The results obtained show that, in Brazil, involvement in activities of political...
Sociology, 2012
aims to make explicit the evaluative assumptions behind each of them. The third chapter, ‘Varieti... more aims to make explicit the evaluative assumptions behind each of them. The third chapter, ‘Varieties of situations’, explores how the magnitude of cultural hybridity and speed of the process is not uniform and linear but, rather, discontinuous and fragmented. There are particular historical moments in which cultural encounters somehow ‘intensify’. Waves of aggressive religious, economic and political colonialism have inevitably generated forms of unwanted, violent and painful mixing. But this does not mean that the contact of culture cannot happen in different forms, at different speeds and articulated by more ‘neutral’ power dynamics. Cultural pluralism and religious tolerance in Spain under Islamic domination, or the capacity of Hinduism to peacefully absorb deities from other religious traditions are examples of other ways to articulate cultural encounters. The following chapter, ‘Varieties of responses’, investigates in more detail the different ways in which people have reacted to hybridization and mixing; for example, the voracious love for everything Chinese or Oriental in European art and design history. Other decades have seen Italian or French culture as the epitome of fashionability. Nevertheless, as the chapter explains, not all encounters were enthusiastically welcomed. Hybridity, seen as a form of corruption and contamination, has sometimes led to the ruthless cultural and physical obliteration of tradition and people. The total repudiation of everything Jewish during the Nazi regime is surely one of the most systematic forms of symbolic and material annihilation of difference. The last chapter, ‘Varieties of outcomes’, imagines future scenarios of cultural hybridity. The author firmly believes that over centuries the process of cultural mixing and the frequency of encounters have rapidly increased. Therefore Burke unequivocally rejects a future whereby self-contained cultures develop and flourish totally independent from each other. Burke does not, however, embrace any easy hypothesis about our near future and neither is the idea of cultural homogenization fully embraced. The ‘Coca-Cola effect’ or ‘Americanization’ of world culture is surely one aspect of our present. But it must be understood in conjunction with, or counterbalanced by, forms of resistance, appropriation and heterogenization of world culture. The book’s easy and discursive style makes it accessible to the widest readership without losing out on complexity and intellectual rigour. It is a pity though that it feels only sketched out in parts. It often titillates the reader’s curiosity rather than fully quenching their thirst. Yet, in its brevity it is a refreshing summary of different and complex issues that deserve scrutiny in their own right and it outlines plenty of possible avenues for further research. Somebody should buy it as Christmas present for Nick Griffin (the leader of the British National Party) even if I doubt he would enjoy it as I did!
Intelligence for a Multi-ethnic Britain Runnymede is the UK's leading independent thinktank on ra... more Intelligence for a Multi-ethnic Britain Runnymede is the UK's leading independent thinktank on race equality and race relations. Through highquality research and thought leadership, we: Open access. Some rights reserved.
Space, Place and Environment, 2015