Sophie Watson - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Sophie Watson
Social & Cultural Geography, 2017
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About the book: In three thematically organised sections, Spaces of Democracy uses a critical geo... more About the book: In three thematically organised sections, Spaces of Democracy uses a critical geographical imagination (informed by thinking on space, place, and scale) to interrogate the latest work in democratic theory. Key ideas and concepts discussed include globalization and transnationalism; representation; citizenship; liberalism; the city and public space; and the media.
Across the world the rates of growth, global interconnectedness and environmental impacts of citi... more Across the world the rates of growth, global interconnectedness and environmental impacts of cities raise serious questions about the relevance and effectiveness of urban government and planning in any one city-region. Indeed, these trends do present enormous challenges that cannot be tackled by city governments and planning departments acting independently or in isolation. However, urban processes operate at a range of scales and the "urban" itself still represents a critical arena of politics and planning, a nexus of multiscalar processes. These, for example, link local government policies of recycling or infrastructure maintenance with wider questions of social and environmental sustainability at the transnational scale. In all this the question of who, or what influences, govern the city is still an important one.
Urban Policy and Research, 2000
... Sophie Watson is Professor of Urban Cultures at the University of East London. ... tally ill ... more ... Sophie Watson is Professor of Urban Cultures at the University of East London. ... tally ill persons, and of newer characters, such as 'welfare mums', young families left behind by deindustrialisation and restructuring, tenants evicted by gentrifi-cation, runaway teenagers, migrants ...
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2005
In this paper I explore discourses and resistances mobilized around the construction of an Orthod... more In this paper I explore discourses and resistances mobilized around the construction of an Orthodox Jewish symbolic and material concrete space, the ‘eruv’, in two localities (one in the United Kingdom, one in the USA) where it has been at the center of heated debate and contestation. Conflicts around the reordering and redefining of this public space expose some of the limits of living with difference and normative versions of multiculturalism in the city. Through a detailed examination of two case studies in the United Kingdom and the United States I conclude that the multicultural city necessitates a recognition of symbolic as well as material spaces—and the interconnections between these—and that the notion of public space warrants interrogation as to how it is imagined, read, and experienced in multiple ways.
City, 1996
These three accounts of Australian maritime sites of urban development illustrate major problems ... more These three accounts of Australian maritime sites of urban development illustrate major problems of interpretation and action. Is there, as Sophie Watson and Peter Murphy argue, ‘no one representation that can make sense of the complex whole named Sydney'? Or does John Pilger demonstrate one particular representation, apolitical economic one, that makes sense not only of Sydney but also of
Social & Cultural Geography, 2017
For guidance on citations see FAQs.
About the book: In three thematically organised sections, Spaces of Democracy uses a critical geo... more About the book: In three thematically organised sections, Spaces of Democracy uses a critical geographical imagination (informed by thinking on space, place, and scale) to interrogate the latest work in democratic theory. Key ideas and concepts discussed include globalization and transnationalism; representation; citizenship; liberalism; the city and public space; and the media.
Across the world the rates of growth, global interconnectedness and environmental impacts of citi... more Across the world the rates of growth, global interconnectedness and environmental impacts of cities raise serious questions about the relevance and effectiveness of urban government and planning in any one city-region. Indeed, these trends do present enormous challenges that cannot be tackled by city governments and planning departments acting independently or in isolation. However, urban processes operate at a range of scales and the "urban" itself still represents a critical arena of politics and planning, a nexus of multiscalar processes. These, for example, link local government policies of recycling or infrastructure maintenance with wider questions of social and environmental sustainability at the transnational scale. In all this the question of who, or what influences, govern the city is still an important one.
Urban Policy and Research, 2000
... Sophie Watson is Professor of Urban Cultures at the University of East London. ... tally ill ... more ... Sophie Watson is Professor of Urban Cultures at the University of East London. ... tally ill persons, and of newer characters, such as 'welfare mums', young families left behind by deindustrialisation and restructuring, tenants evicted by gentrifi-cation, runaway teenagers, migrants ...
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2005
In this paper I explore discourses and resistances mobilized around the construction of an Orthod... more In this paper I explore discourses and resistances mobilized around the construction of an Orthodox Jewish symbolic and material concrete space, the ‘eruv’, in two localities (one in the United Kingdom, one in the USA) where it has been at the center of heated debate and contestation. Conflicts around the reordering and redefining of this public space expose some of the limits of living with difference and normative versions of multiculturalism in the city. Through a detailed examination of two case studies in the United Kingdom and the United States I conclude that the multicultural city necessitates a recognition of symbolic as well as material spaces—and the interconnections between these—and that the notion of public space warrants interrogation as to how it is imagined, read, and experienced in multiple ways.
City, 1996
These three accounts of Australian maritime sites of urban development illustrate major problems ... more These three accounts of Australian maritime sites of urban development illustrate major problems of interpretation and action. Is there, as Sophie Watson and Peter Murphy argue, ‘no one representation that can make sense of the complex whole named Sydney'? Or does John Pilger demonstrate one particular representation, apolitical economic one, that makes sense not only of Sydney but also of