Barbara Ellen Smith – The Politics of Place (4/5/11) from CSAS on Vimeo.
In the contemporary era of ruthless deracination termed “globalization,” place-related symbols, demands, and affinities are becoming countervailing sources of resistance. Never self-evident, never “given,” place is coming alive as a potent force in the hands of those who understand its critical, democratic, and collective potentials, and are able to harness its emotive and symbolic powers for progressive political organizing. This lecture engages the politics of place to interrogate the contradictory possibilities of place-attachment in the contemporary U.S. South and to illuminate the theoretical meanings of place as a political resource. What understandings of place contribute to divergent political agendas (e.g., the “southern way of life” vs. progressive global connections)? What are the limitations and insights of these varying perspectives?
Professor Smith is a professor of Sociology and the Director of Women’s & Gender Studies at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.