Bright Sided Questions

Chapter 1

Referring to previous text, when Ehrenreich learns of all the possible changes she would go through, how did she feel in relation to place?

     According to Ehrenreich, what are the benefits of having cancer?

Chapter 2

With the many changes America is undergoing, how can someone overcome the challenges of positive thinking?

When we think of positive thinking and how it’s the gateway to our success, is it also a sense of “false” hope?

Chapter 3

Ehrenreich discusses the origin of New Thought, which birthed the theory that illness could be overcome by your mind. Although, this theory did not work infectious diseases it did on the other hand with invalidism, which is brought on by stress. Do you believe this to be true?

 Is being optimistic falsify the reality of living in the real world?

Bright-Sided Questions

1. The author hints that the Hurricane Katrina was not unanticipated, nor the September 11th attacks, but due to American "optimism" the signs were ignored. Should there be an extent to positive thinking? Does it cause more harm than good?

2. We tend to think of the USA as the greatest nation. Militarily yes, but we are behind in healthcare, technology, and even education. Has positive thinking masked the true identity of America?   

3. Ehrenreich believes that cancer has become a "right of passage, not a "tragedy to rail against." Do you agree that the views on the severity of cancer has changed?

4. Do you think a positive attitude has the ability to cure diseases?

5. People who think negative are not the only ones who die of cancer; "positive thinkers" do too. Can we really argue that positivity has an effect on disease? What determines if the person is cured or not?

6. From personal experience, do you think laughter and happiness has an effect on the body?

7. Is something as serious as survival influenced by something as simple as your attitude?

Bright-Sided Questions

How do you accurately measure happiness if everyone’s view of happiness is different?

What factors make America, The land of dreams, number 23 in Happiness?

Chapter 1:
Do you think laughter and humor can really boost ones immune system?
Is the medical field responsible for breast cancer due to the lack of research on drugs prescribed  to women to prevent heart disease?

Chapter 2:
Do you think Arlie Hochschild study can be proven correct about people being emotionally depleted by the requirement of being constantly cheerful?

Is all news negative? Can the news be perceived differently in peoples minds?

Chapter 3 :
Is overly rapid expansion and change really the cause of invalidism, is invalidism even real?

Is it even possible for pessimistic people to purge all the negative people from their lives to become positive if it is in their nature to be negative?

Bright Sided Discussion Questions

Intro
1. What do you think that Ehrenreich means by dissecting the idea of Americans as positive thinkers?
2. What could the concept of Americans as positive thinkers have to do with the place concepts discussed in our previous readings?
Chapter 1
3. Do you think her portrayal of individuals with cancer in America provides a good first chapter for her work, or should such a drastic and contrasting topic be placed later in the book?
4. Why do you think Americans wish to focus on positive thinking, even when it comes to situations like cancer?
Chapter 2
5. The term magical thinking is thrown around often - do you think that magical thinking and positive thinking should be classified as different terms or the same term?
6. Can you think of any examples of Magical Thinking that you have experienced in your everyday life?
Chapter 3
7. Ehrenrich's analysis of the origins of America's optimistic side displays the slow corruption and disillusionment that America has been undergoing for years. Do you believe that this is on purpose or has been occurring inadvertently?
8. What causes besides the ones listed can you think would inspire America's sense of false optimism?

Pictures I have collected

I am just beginning to collect pictures for the project but I thave come across some interesting things.  One picture in particular is of Angelina Jolie.  She was at an awards ceremony and stuck her leg out from the dress.  It should have been  a provocative pose but it only showed how malnurished she is.  Interestingly, Heidi Klum struck the same pose and she looks sexy and healthy.  It would be interesting to see how people perceive both women in today's pop culture

blog 2

Genealogy of Place

This chapter discusses how place can exists and can change according to many different things. One thing that struck me in this chapter was place as home. The book says "The home is an intimate space where experience is particularly intense." to me home is where i have made most of my memories good and bad. But iv'e never really thought about what home meant to me until i read this chapter.

"In the modern World, Relph argues that we are surrounded by a general condition of creeping placelessness marked by an inability to have authentic relationships to place because the new placelessness  does not allow people to become existential insiders." I liked this quote because it made me think alot. after this the book goes on to say how Relph sees American homeowners moving every three years and therefore weakening place. It reminded me how i have moved multiple times in my life and while the building i was in changes the people im around do not. I tie my family to home more than the house itself.

blog 1

2. How is place defined?  How does narrative shape our understanding and experiences in place?  What are the implications as “undifferentiated space becomes place” (Cresswell 8)?  How is landscape and place shaped by fiction and visual arts?  What does it mean to “inhabit” place?

3. What does a study of place in America reveal? About what or whom?

According to the book "place is a word that seems to speak for itself."  Place can be geographical or a memory or an experience. It can be a house or a room or just where you are. Undifferentiated space becomes place when we begin to associate a space with experience or experiences. We make landscape from things we hear and things we see in media and art and from talking with people. To inhabit place we make that space our own. We begin to associate certain things in the place to represent who we are as a person. The book uses the example of a student decorating a dorm room. 

The study of place in america reveals that peoples places in america different to many people. Each person might see there place as something different. America is also unique to because of how large it is and because of how many different cultures inhabit it. Because of this many people will see place differently and therefore view America in a different light.

Review of Culturalpolitics.net

I think that culturalpolitics.net is a great website and will be beneficial in expanding our views and engaging more in class. This website incorporates many aspects that pertain to cultural politics. Clicking around, the most interesting part was the Popular Culture page. On this page, it lists many different forms or popular culture and issues. This website is very useful when looking for research or news on any issue. The cultural theory link takes you to different theories on cultural theory and is very interesting. I believe this site is very useful, and contains good information and resources beneficial to understanding cultural politics. I was impressed with this website because of how much information it contains. While reading the social movements and culture page, I learned about many movements like the anti-Nuclear movement, the art activism, and labor movements that I did not know anything about before.

In Chapter 2 of Place the book focuses on how geography directly relates to place. It shows us that there are a lot of different views about how place can coincide with geography, but it is evidently clear that geography is very important to where place is. When we talk about geography we instantly think that the location, region or area is what we would call our place. As Cresswell tell us it is not just the location, but how the location shapes our culture that makes up place. Another thing that chapter two talks about is the importance of politics involved in how place relates to geography. Creswell mentioned that Chinatown was not just defined by culture alone, but more or less in how it was a failure of epic proportions when you talk about the drug problems, prostitution, and gambling. This is an example of how the government can persuade the public to believe things are bad verses good. Another example of media portraying images in order to get people to follow is the war we are in now. The new only shows the worst, never the in between and the good things that happen which gives people a bad opinion about everything going on without getting the full representation.

The genealogy of place begins the element of people's geographical inquiry. The place will take begin based on what people experience and that differs from person to person. Therefore the perspective of places expands. Just as in the Cresswell's chapter 2, there are many different perspectives of coming to a conclusion of defining a place and these perspectives have depended on the people's experiences.

The different perspectives have brought many researchers to conclude important factors that define place in the world. For example, some include that place involves the level of dwelling of humans connection with he natural world. While others have concluded that universal thinking can leave out how differences places relate to person to person. Then, within those differences there are purposes throughout regions that influence the the change or motive of change.

I thought at the end of the chapter of how researchers have concluded that "place should not be thought of in terms of stasis and boundedness but are instead the product of processes that extend well beyond the confines of a particular place" was a great ending to understand a universal idea that place's definition is limitless.

Haltunen Speech/ Genealogy of Place

Reading Haltunens speech and Cresswells Genealogy of Place, how we as people define place will always be different. Place can be as small as the corner of a room or as large as the earth itself: that the earth is our place in the universe is a simple fact of observation to homesick astronauts.( Tuan 1974a )  Growing  up I remember watching the Wizard of Oz, and as Dorothy goes through her journey that leads her to her place of home she is reminded of her Ant Em and Uncle. Also learning more about herself on the way.

Place can also lead to a sense of placelessness.  Halttunen recalls the disaster of Hurricane Katrina leaving hundreds dead and thousands homeless. I can only guess the atmosphere in the dome, sense of abandonment, anger, fear. A middle-aged woman at a Baton Rouge shelter said, when the first truckload of supplies arrived, “It makes you feel like a person again, not a displaced person”—voicing her fear that to be placeless was to forfeit humanity. (Halttunen 6) As a society, no one should feel like this. Of course amongst other issues in this world this is minor problem as some would say unfortunately will never change. Yi-Fu Tuan developed the idea of Topophilia, meaning a bond between people and place.

Which in all summarizes what we have been talking about since day one what we know or do or see on a daily basis is our sense of place. Our sense of belonging.

Blog #2 The Genealogy of Place

In Cresswell's Place, Chapter 2 discusses geology in its relation to place. He gives the reader an insight into how the idea of place and its interest evolved over time. "Relph...in his book Place and Placelessness, [was] surpris[ed] that very little attempt had been made to actually define place and distinguish it from its sister concepts of region and area. Place remained a largely common sense idea." (Cresswell 18)  In other words, it wasn't until the 1970's ( that the idea of place was researched, and considered as having significance in relation to geography and human life.

Cresswell also includes the different aspects of geographers and philosophers who define place differently. Yi-fu Tuan argues that we define place through our perception and experience, and Relph describes place as more than just a location, but a dwelling that is also spiritual and philosophical.

David Harvey argues that place is moreso socially constructed, meaning that place is widely human/society influenced by giving that place meaning and materiality. On the other hand, J.E. Malpas and Robert Sack, though they do believe places are a result of society and culture, they also believe that geography or "what is already there" produces the idea of place. "Malpas and sack are arguing that humans cannot construct anything without being first in place." (32).

After reading the chapter, though I do agree with aspects of both arguments, I find myself agreeing more with the ideas of Harvey in that people or society gives significance to place. Yes geography/land is there, but we are the ones that make a place meaningful and of significance by building stores, homes, restaurants, parks, etc.

Blog #1 Place

Essential questions 2 and 3

2) How is Place defined?

“Place” has many different meanings and is also used in many different contexts. In “Place, a Short Introduction” place is defined in most basic terms, as space or location that has been made meaningful to a person. Place is also “not just a thing in the world, but a way of understanding the world.” (pg. 11)

What are the conclusions that can be drawn as “undifferentiated space becomes place”?

Implications that can be drawn is that space becomes a place, and it would be hard to define either without using both terms together. Also, space is made into a place when people put their own “touches” and make it their own and a somewhere they enjoy. For example, a few of the community gardens built and planted by the Puerto Rican community replicate buildings that resemble their home. They also drape flags and symbols that is a direct reflection of their country or what they love. Tuan states “What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value” (8)

How is landscape and place shaped by fiction and visual arts?
Place is something that you are “in” while landscape is more visual and often something you look at from a distance.

What does it mean to “inhabit” a place? Inhabit means to live or dwell in a place, but more related to the book; t means to make space into a place, or make something into your own.

3) What does a study of place in America reveal? About what or whom?

A study of place reveals understanding about the world and also people and where they’ve come from. “But place is also a way of seeing…We see attachments and connections between people and place. We see worlds of meaning and experience.” (11)

Blog #2

Chapter 2 of Place focuses on how geography relates to place. There are many different viewpoints when it comes to how place correlates to geography but there is no doubt that place is important to geography. The terms, region and place are interchangeable when it comes to speaking about geography. A regional geographer’s job is to be able to,”…describe a place/region in great detail, starting with the bedrock, soil type and climate and ending with culture,” according to Cresswell (16). Particular things in a region define a culture, ultimately making it a place, as stated in chapter 1, is defined as a “meaningful location” (7).

Politics also plays an important role in how place relates to geography. Cresswell touches on how ‘Chinatown’ was not merely a place that defines a particular culture, but how it was also a place that was defined as a moral failure with all the opium dens, gambling and prostitution (28). It was portrayed in the negative light because the people in power have the power to define a place (media and government) (29). It is scary to think how much power the media and the government has.  

The meaning of place

Space is what makes up areas of place. All someone needs to turn space into place is meaning. Your hometown is a 'place' to you, however it is really lots of areas of space that were giving meaning and forming a larger area of place. This place is somewhere you feel comfortable and have memories, both  good and bad. Cresswell answers what makes a place by saying " they are all spaces which people have made meaningful. They are all spaces people are all attached to in one way or another. This is the most straightforward and common definition of place - a meaningful location". Any space you giving meaning will be transformed into place.

Haulttunen Speech Blog #2

Haulttunen and Cresswell share very similar concerns with regards to 'place.'  Places are reflections of histories and culture of people.  Places have depth and they tell a story for all of those that inhabit them.  However, our places are being threatened by those who have the power to change places and as a result are being eroded and replaced by superficial things that have no meaning.  According to Cresswell Chinatown was not simply a natural reflection of Chinese culture but the result of negotiation with those in power to define place" (Cresswell p.29).  If this is the case then one must wonder are their any true places left?  If I have the power I can make any place in any image I see fit.  However, when you think about it this has always been apart of our history.  European colonialism in Africa is a good example of a place being replaced/ eroded by a way of life that is non reflective of their own.  Africans were pushed out of their native lands and forced to adapt to the Europeans way of life because the Europeans were the ones who had the power.  If you have the power to stand your ground then you can keep your ground.