Toward an understanding of the spatiality of urban poverty: the urban poor as spatial actors

Abstract

The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of empirical research on the role of space in group life at the same time scholars have lamented the under-theorization of space in sociology. In particular, mainstream poverty researchers have conceptualized space as a neutral backdrop against which action unfolds and viewed poor people's agency as passive and unreflexive. This article attempts to move beyond this space-as-container ontology and provide a more coherent view of how theorizing space and spatial issues can help us understand the actions of the urban poor. At the core of the paper is an attempt to theorize agency as a spatial phenomenon - with spatial attributes and spatial influences - and offer empirical insight into how different spatial meanings can enable or constrain particular forms of social action and behavior. My intent is to contribute to an understanding of the urban poor as spatial actors. I argue that the importance of space lies in understanding it as an object of political struggle, a constitutive component of human agency, and a facilitator as well as constraint upon action. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003.

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