On the contested nature of place: ‘Figuera’s Well’, ‘The Hole of Shame’ and the ideological struggle over public space in Barcelona

Abstract

This paper explores some of the discursive practices through which the place meanings are formulated, warranted and, above all, contested. Drawing particularly on the work of the social psychologist Michael Billig, we present a rhetorical analysis of newspaper reports and interview accounts about the 'development' of a contested public space in Barcelona, known locally both as Figuera's Well and the Hole of Shame. This analysis explores a number of rhetorically opposed constructions of the nature, purpose and appropriate beneficiaries of this place, whose implications are discussed both within the context of local power struggles and within the context of wider ideological struggles over the nature of public spaces in Barcelona. We argue that a rhetorical perspective reveals how practices of attributing meaning and value to places is often more conflict-ridden, action-oriented, and politically-charged than is implied by much research in environmental psychology. Relatedly, we argue that environmental psychologists need to complement a 'weak' conception of the role of conflict in the formation of public space (focused on subjective differences in environmental tastes, preferences and values) with a 'strong' conception of the role of conflict (focused on ideological struggles over access, equality and inclusion).

Occupied by design: evaluating performative tactics for more sustainable shared city space in private-led regeneration projects

“…It aligns with arguments that where development is top-down or seen as counter to local visions, "[s]trong spatial conflicts" can develop, based on the "struggles [with issues] of inequality […and] collective resistance to processes of gentrification, discrimination and exclusion" [11]. While the scope of these global questions goes beyond the present paper, its findings are relevant to debates about urban practice and wider decisionmaking processes in dynamic city contexts.…”

The role of (de-)essentialisation within siting conflicts: An interdisciplinary approach

“…At a first stage, the two teams developed together, both through email contact and face-to-face meetings, a common coding scheme, based on the principles of Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006), developed mainly in a bottom-up way, based on the data. This first stage allowed us to organise the data so that a second, more fine-grained discursive rhetorical analysis (see Billig, 1991;Di Masso et al, 2011), could then be performed. This analysis, based on a socio-constructionist, discursive methodological approach to the data, examines language not as a neutral 'container' of meanings but instead as an active means of constructing reality -or, as Dixon & Durrheim (2004) highlight while describing a discursive approach to textual analysis "this methodological approach…”

“…As suggested before, social science research on people's responses to energy technologies has been advocating the need to take into account place attachments and identities (e.g., Devine-Wright, 2009;Swofford & Slattery 2010;Haggett, 2011;Fresque-Baxter & Armitage, 2012), following research from social and environmental psychology on that (e.g., Carrus et al, 2014;DevineWright, 2009;Lewicka, 2005). However, while doing so, that research has often adopted an individual and socio-cognitive perspective (see also Di Masso et al, 2011;Williams, 2013) and neglected that people-place relations are shaped by different and competing representations, claims, and power relations, within and between local communities and individuals. In other words, it has not often critically reflected on and embodied the idea that place attachments and identities are not 'there', but are instead a socially constructed 'way of seeing' (Jones, 1991;Nogué & Vicente, 2004), and also "rhetorical constructions invoked as people seek to influence social relations and policies" (Wallwork & Dixon, 2004, p.35; see also Reicher et al, 1993).…”

Revisiting the appropriation of space in metropolitan river corridors

“…Third, it makes the territorial and embodied dimensions of place-bonding clearer. And fourth, it encourages a clearer understanding of the potential conflict provoked by different uses and transformations of space (Di Masso, Dixon, & Pol, 2011; see also Hay, 1998, on conflicts with indigenous people having spiritual bonds with places). To be sure, very few studies have attempted an integrative conceptualisation such as this one (see Scannell and Gifford's (2010a) 'tripartite model of place attachment ', and Pinheiro (2013) as suggesting exceptions).…”