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Papers by Richard Van Deusen

Political Geography, 2004

Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more ... more Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more crucial time. In a world where processes of globalization increasingly underwrite the idea of culture, with ''security'' as its nom-de-plume, Marston forces us to consider the importance of culture to state construction and maintenance. Her incisive critique renders the work of state theorists who lack critical or substantial engagements with culture somewhat a-geographical. Political geography, Marston contends, can help unlock the relationship of cultural politics with the state, but that in order to do so, it must reach beyond notions of nationalism and citizenship as the sole spheres of cultural interactions with the state. After all, how can we account for the recent creation of a Department of Homeland Security in the United States, marking a dramatic shift to the right in domestic state policy, without taking into account questions of culture raised by words like ''homeland'' and ''security?'' Is it just nationalist fervor defining and defending the contours of citizenship? Marston would seem to answer ''no'', if we follow her presentation of a difficult, problematic relationship between culture and the state correctly, because statecentered concepts like nationalism and citizenship lack deep engagement with theorizations of culture. At the same time, she grounds the importance for social researchers in using a diverse palette of methodologies based in empirical work to reveal the multiple and complex natures of state-culture interactions. My first reactions to her paper oscillated between two poles: I was convinced by her arguments 5 PII of original article 50962-6298(03)00150-1.

Political Geography, 2004

Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more ... more Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more crucial time. In a world where processes of globalization increasingly underwrite the idea of culture, with ''security'' as its nom-de-plume, Marston forces us to consider the importance of culture to state construction and maintenance. Her incisive critique renders the work of state theorists who lack critical or substantial engagements with culture somewhat a-geographical. Political geography, Marston contends, can help unlock the relationship of cultural politics with the state, but that in order to do so, it must reach beyond notions of nationalism and citizenship as the sole spheres of cultural interactions with the state. After all, how can we account for the recent creation of a Department of Homeland Security in the United States, marking a dramatic shift to the right in domestic state policy, without taking into account questions of culture raised by words like ''homeland'' and ''security?'' Is it just nationalist fervor defining and defending the contours of citizenship? Marston would seem to answer ''no'', if we follow her presentation of a difficult, problematic relationship between culture and the state correctly, because statecentered concepts like nationalism and citizenship lack deep engagement with theorizations of culture. At the same time, she grounds the importance for social researchers in using a diverse palette of methodologies based in empirical work to reveal the multiple and complex natures of state-culture interactions. My first reactions to her paper oscillated between two poles: I was convinced by her arguments 5 PII of original article 50962-6298(03)00150-1.

Rights to the City. International Geographical Union, …, 2005

Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2006

Rights to the City. International Geographical Union, …, Jan 1, 2005

Much of the literature on public space focuses on how people use it, or are excluded from it, and... more Much of the literature on public space focuses on how people use it, or are excluded from it, and even on how it is part of certain economic modes of production, but almost never on how urban designers situate lbemselves within those modes and therefore bow they mediate contending relationships in actual public space designs. I propose to problematize the liminal position the urban designer holds between the public and their clients, by examining the design process, the ooo ceptualizations of public space by design ers, and the financial and political relation ships they cultivate. I analyze these aspects of public space production through a study of a recently re-designed public space in Syracuse, NY. orkin, M., 1992, Variations on a

Case: Downsview Park Toronto. Munich: Prestel Verlag, Jan 1, 2001

Political Geography, Jan 1, 2004


Urban designers and their design process remain largely outside the literature on public space. E... more Urban designers and their design process remain largely outside the literature on public space. Either designers are cast as simple tools of capitalist social relations, producing exclusionary public spaces, or they figure as entrepreneurs that complement economic renewal schemes through beautification measures that bring business and jobs to the city. This paper analyzes both of these arguments, through an ethnographic analysis of the urban design process behind the redevelopment of a public square in Syracuse, NY. I argue that aesthetic considerations most often derive from economic and political pressures, pressures that draw upon the social contexts of urban designers within an international division of labor and their relationship to class struggle. Because public space serves such an important role in political and social life, its status as a product of urban design should therefore act as a crucial component in any discussion of rights to the city.

Book Reviews by Richard Van Deusen

Arguing that there has been a continued silence on gender in the contemporary social science lite... more Arguing that there has been a continued silence on gender in the contemporary social science literature on US immigration, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo sets out to address this with her edited volume of essays on`sex, gender, power, privilege, and sexual discrimination' (p. 3). Gender and U.S. Immigration comprises ®ve parts and endeavours a sweeping review of the various immigrant groups in the US and the issues confronting them.

Political Geography, 2004

Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more ... more Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more crucial time. In a world where processes of globalization increasingly underwrite the idea of culture, with ''security'' as its nom-de-plume, Marston forces us to consider the importance of culture to state construction and maintenance. Her incisive critique renders the work of state theorists who lack critical or substantial engagements with culture somewhat a-geographical. Political geography, Marston contends, can help unlock the relationship of cultural politics with the state, but that in order to do so, it must reach beyond notions of nationalism and citizenship as the sole spheres of cultural interactions with the state. After all, how can we account for the recent creation of a Department of Homeland Security in the United States, marking a dramatic shift to the right in domestic state policy, without taking into account questions of culture raised by words like ''homeland'' and ''security?'' Is it just nationalist fervor defining and defending the contours of citizenship? Marston would seem to answer ''no'', if we follow her presentation of a difficult, problematic relationship between culture and the state correctly, because statecentered concepts like nationalism and citizenship lack deep engagement with theorizations of culture. At the same time, she grounds the importance for social researchers in using a diverse palette of methodologies based in empirical work to reveal the multiple and complex natures of state-culture interactions. My first reactions to her paper oscillated between two poles: I was convinced by her arguments 5 PII of original article 50962-6298(03)00150-1.

Political Geography, 2004

Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more ... more Sallie Marston's paper on the relationship of culture to the state could not have come at a more crucial time. In a world where processes of globalization increasingly underwrite the idea of culture, with ''security'' as its nom-de-plume, Marston forces us to consider the importance of culture to state construction and maintenance. Her incisive critique renders the work of state theorists who lack critical or substantial engagements with culture somewhat a-geographical. Political geography, Marston contends, can help unlock the relationship of cultural politics with the state, but that in order to do so, it must reach beyond notions of nationalism and citizenship as the sole spheres of cultural interactions with the state. After all, how can we account for the recent creation of a Department of Homeland Security in the United States, marking a dramatic shift to the right in domestic state policy, without taking into account questions of culture raised by words like ''homeland'' and ''security?'' Is it just nationalist fervor defining and defending the contours of citizenship? Marston would seem to answer ''no'', if we follow her presentation of a difficult, problematic relationship between culture and the state correctly, because statecentered concepts like nationalism and citizenship lack deep engagement with theorizations of culture. At the same time, she grounds the importance for social researchers in using a diverse palette of methodologies based in empirical work to reveal the multiple and complex natures of state-culture interactions. My first reactions to her paper oscillated between two poles: I was convinced by her arguments 5 PII of original article 50962-6298(03)00150-1.

Rights to the City. International Geographical Union, …, 2005

Encyclopedia of Human Geography, 2006

Rights to the City. International Geographical Union, …, Jan 1, 2005

Much of the literature on public space focuses on how people use it, or are excluded from it, and... more Much of the literature on public space focuses on how people use it, or are excluded from it, and even on how it is part of certain economic modes of production, but almost never on how urban designers situate lbemselves within those modes and therefore bow they mediate contending relationships in actual public space designs. I propose to problematize the liminal position the urban designer holds between the public and their clients, by examining the design process, the ooo ceptualizations of public space by design ers, and the financial and political relation ships they cultivate. I analyze these aspects of public space production through a study of a recently re-designed public space in Syracuse, NY. orkin, M., 1992, Variations on a

Case: Downsview Park Toronto. Munich: Prestel Verlag, Jan 1, 2001

Political Geography, Jan 1, 2004


Urban designers and their design process remain largely outside the literature on public space. E... more Urban designers and their design process remain largely outside the literature on public space. Either designers are cast as simple tools of capitalist social relations, producing exclusionary public spaces, or they figure as entrepreneurs that complement economic renewal schemes through beautification measures that bring business and jobs to the city. This paper analyzes both of these arguments, through an ethnographic analysis of the urban design process behind the redevelopment of a public square in Syracuse, NY. I argue that aesthetic considerations most often derive from economic and political pressures, pressures that draw upon the social contexts of urban designers within an international division of labor and their relationship to class struggle. Because public space serves such an important role in political and social life, its status as a product of urban design should therefore act as a crucial component in any discussion of rights to the city.

Arguing that there has been a continued silence on gender in the contemporary social science lite... more Arguing that there has been a continued silence on gender in the contemporary social science literature on US immigration, Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo sets out to address this with her edited volume of essays on`sex, gender, power, privilege, and sexual discrimination' (p. 3). Gender and U.S. Immigration comprises ®ve parts and endeavours a sweeping review of the various immigrant groups in the US and the issues confronting them.