Places and Their Pasts

Author(s): Doreen Massey

Source: History Workshop Journal, No. 39 (Spring, 1995), pp. 182-192
Published by: Oxford University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4289361
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 'Skysignsof thetimes'fromPunch1899.

Places and Their Pasts

by Doreen Massey
In a tellingparagraphwhichhas givenme muchpausefor thought,Herbert
Schiller asks, in an article in Intermedia:'what is national identity?'The
replyhe producesis that 'Thereis no totallysatisfyingdefinition.It is much
easier to recognise its absence. A KentuckyFried Chicken in Paris, for
example, surelydoes not qualifyas partof the Frenchnationalidentity.A
McDonald'soutlet in Kyotohardlyexpressesthe Japaneseethos'.1lWhathe
is pointingto, possiblyinadvertently,is a felt dislocationbetween the past
andthe presentof a place.
In dailylife, in politics,in battlesoverdevelopmentandconservation,we
often operatein wayswhichmobilisethis kindof view of place. Arrivingin
Paris,say, on the firstdayof a much-neededholidaywe finallyreachthe kind
of cafe we are lookingfor - the smell of Gauloises,the taste of good coffee
and croissants- 'ah', we sighwithsatisfaction,'thisis the realFrance'.(We
hadn'tfelt this in the airport;we had avoidedthe hamburgerjoints.) On the
othersideof the continent,in whatusedto be Yugoslavia,Serbsclaimwhole
stretchesof whatis todayclearlymulticulturalcountryon the basisthatit is -
really - Serbia. Or again, in London'sdocklands'the local community',
itself a term with a multiplicityof interpretations,fightsoff new develop-
ments singing 'this land is our land' in the face of the London Docklands
Development Corporation2but shoutingalso 'this is a whiteworking-class
area'in the teeth of a growingpopulationwhichhails,at somedistance,from
Asia. Differentas these examplesare in termsof theirpoliticalimportand
practicaleffect, they are all callingupon a particularway of conceptualising
'place'.

History WorkshopJournal Issue 39 ?CHistory Workshop Journall1995

 Placesand TheirPasts 183

One aspectof this is a deeply essentialistand internalistway of thinking

abouta placeandits character.ThisIsle of Dogs is essentiallywhiteworking
class; this land is uniquelySerbian.Influences,'invasions',developments,
from'outside',areto be resisted.The KentuckyFriedChickenis American,
not French;the new people in the CouncilflatsarefromBanglaDesh. What
such constructionsfail to realise, or to admit, is that places are always
alreadyhybrid.The 'reallocal character'of Docklandscould not be as it is
without the deep imbrication of that area into a nineteenth-century
internationaldivisionof labourand patternof trade and all the influences
whichthat brought.(The recentbattleshave not reallybeen aboutthe local
versusthe global, as much as about how this local area shouldbe inserted
into the currentinternationaldivisionof labour.)The 'realFrance'whichwe
breathe in at the cafe, and into which as Schillersays a KentuckyFried
Chickenseems sucha dislocatingintrusion,is itselfcomposedof influences,
contacts and connectionswhich, over time, have settled into each other,
mouldedeach other, producedsomethingnew. . . but whichwe now think
of as old, as established. .. the essentialFrance.Thenew 'intrusions'areno
more fromoutside, nor more 'out of place', thanwere in theirtime manyof
the componentsof the currently-accepted 'characterof the place'.
There are two pointswhichI wantto drawout of these illustrations.The
firstis thatplaces,in fact, arealwaysconstructedout of articulationsof social
relations(tradingconnections,the unequallinksof colonialism,thoughtsof
home) which are not only internalto that locale but which link them to
elsewhere. Their 'local uniqueness'is always alreadya productof wider
contacts; the local is always alreadya productin part of 'global' forces,
whereglobalin this contextrefersnot necessarilyto the planetaryscale, but
to the geographicalbeyond, the world beyond the place itself.3 For the
purposesof the argumenthere, I shouldlike to take thatpoint as given. But
there is a second point whichis raisedby these variousillustrations.All of
them indicate a feeling that there is or has been some kind of disruption
betweenthe past of these placesand at least some elementsof theirpresent
or theirpotentialfuture.Indeed, in all these cases 'the past'is seen in some
sense to embody the real characterof the place. It is from this kind of
thinkingthatwe findourselves,probablyall the whileknowingthatthe term
evokes a million unfortunate implications, talking of other places as
'unspoilt'(by whichwe usuallymean: it is as we have imaginedit to have
been in some distantpast).
These kinds of (implicitly or explicitly) internalist and essentialist
constructionsof the characterof places, then, not only fail to recognisethe
long historyof interconnectednesswith elsewhere(the historyof the global
constructionof the local), they also presupposea particularrelationship
betweenthe assumedidentityof a place andits history.

The past of places

One possibleresponseto this kindof view of placeis to interpretanykindof
184 HistoryWorkshop
Journal

positive affective attitudeto a particulararea as being inevitablyimbued

with nostalgia and thus, almost equally inevitably, a hindrance to a
progressivepolitics.ThusDavidHarveyexpressesextremescepticismabout
anythingwhich he dubs 'local' (that is to say not global, which in his
terminologyhas more the implicationof 'universal')as a basis for the
constructionof a radicalpolitics. And one reasonfor this scepticismis the
necessity of such local struggles' reliance on 'tradition'(why so-called
'global'strugglesdo not also have to rely on such foundationshe does not
say). Thus: 'the assertionof any place-boundidentityhas to rest at some
point on the motivationalpowerof tradition'.4Now, it is certainlytrue that
many place-based struggles, and struggles about places, such as the
defensivestrugglesin Docklands,do often fall into the trapsimpliedby such
claims. They do indeed become place-boundratherthan place-based(and
Harvey'suse only of the formertermimpliesthattheyinevitablymust).And
traditionmay well become a hindranceto progressivechange. A singular
sense of the past, and its relationto the present, become assumed,closed
down as areasof contestationor debate.
Yet 'tradition'need not be thoughtof in thisway. On the one hand,andas
hintedabove, it need not be place-bound.The pre-Kentucky-Fried-Chicken
'real France'is itself formedout of a long historyof interconnectionswith
the beyond. (Globalisationin the widersense of the globalconstructionof
the local is by no meansnew. Whatis differentaboutthe currentphaseis its
intensityand - perhapseven more pertinently- the fact that this time the
directionof the flowsis different,the FirstWorldand its identityare being
moreobviouslychallenged.)
On the other hand, traditionsdo not only exist in the past. They are
activelybuilt in the present also. The concept of traditionwhich sees in it
onlynostalgiaunderstandsit as somethingalreadycompletedwhichcannow
only be maintainedor lost. It is somethingfrom which we feel ourselves
inexorably,inevitably,distant. Talkingof places as 'unspoilt'evokes just
this notion. So do many aspects of place-conservation,which are all too
often attemptsto freeze a (particularview of a) placeat a (selected)moment
in time. And, to returnto our openingexamples,even thatinnocentfeeling
in the Parisiancafe of a dislocationbetweenpastandpresent,thatsomehow
coffee is Frenchbut KentuckyFried Chickenis not, is at least potentially
fallinginto thatnotionof traditionas somethingwhichis almostinevitablyin
the past andto be lost.
Paul Gilroy's The Black Atlantic (1993) presents an interpretationof
somethingwhichmightbe calledtradition(he dubsit 'the changingsame')
butwhichoverturnsthese staticandboundednotions.Here, in blackculture
on both sides of the ocean, is a 'tradition'which is internally varied,
constantlybeing built, moulded,addedto, andwhichdependsfor this, and
for its strengthand vitality,not on an inward-lookingself-preservationbut
preciselyon the dynamismwhichcomesfrominterconnection.
Thereis, moreover,a furtherissue arisingfromthe fact thatthe pastof a
 Placesand TheirPasts 185

place is as open to a multiplicityof readingsas is the present.Moreover,the

claimsand counter-claimsabout the presentcharacterof a place dependin
almost all cases on particular,rival, interpretationsof its past. A small
example may help to illustratethis point'.5In 1993, there was a flurryof
disputeover a proposeddevelopmentin a smallareain the Wye Valley on
the bordersof Englandand Wales.The proposalwas to turnan existingset
of buildingsinto a 'traditionalfarm'wherelocal products,includingcrafts,
would be sold, and where there would be a restaurantand car park. This
schemewould, it was arguedby its proponents,serve as a touristattraction
and bringin a sourceof income. The proposqlarousedconsiderable,high-
profile, opposition.The opposition,perhapsunusuallyin such cases, came
in majorpartfrom newcomersto the area:professionalpeople in the arts,
the media, and suchlikewho, presumably,had migratedhere from other
parts of the country.Their oppositionto the developmentcentredon the
argumentthatit was 'inappropriate',a termwhichimpliedagreementon the
natureof the place. Theirview of the place, conditionedand manifestedin
their decisionto move there, was clothed in quotationsfromWordsworth.
For them the place offereda romanticassociationwithnatureandwhatwas
termed'seclusion':one of themcalledthe place 'an areawhichfor centuries
has been soughtfor its seclusion'.6(One immediateline of enquirymightbe
to ask: seclusionfrom what/whom?Seclusion,presumably,from the very
worldsfromwhichthe incomeswhichenablethemto retreatto thisplaceare
drawn.)Thisview of the place was greetedwith a mixtureof angerandwry
amusementby those localpeople who supportedthe scheme.Forthem, the
placewaswherethey hadalwayslivedand, crucially,wherethey madetheir
living, largelyfromfarming.'Nature'was the physicalbasisfor agricultural
activity. 'Seclusion'probablyjust meant long distancesto suppliersand
markets.Forthemthiswas a placeof work, andthishasbeen its historytoo.
As one of the proposersof the developmentremarked,'theyquotedWords-
worthwhenonce the Wye Valleywas highly-industrialized with ironworks,
charcoalworks,all sortsof things.It's now a majortouristarea . .7
Whatwe have here are two differentinterpretationsof the identityof a
place, each clearlybasedon the differentsocio-geographicalpositionof the
groupswhichpromotethem. Moreover,each of these contestinginterpre-
tationsdependson the mobilisationof a particularreadingof the area'spast.
(Justhow different,indeedcontradictory,these readingsareis indicatedby
the fact that farmingand farmers- the economic activity and the daily,
yearlyroundof labourin the area- are completelyerasedin the protestors'
interpretation.The latterarecitedas havingcampaignedpartiallyto remove
farm work even from the present, with a scheme to prevent tractorsand
noisymachinesbeingoperatedfor two dayseachweek!) And these conflict-
ing interpretationsof the past, servingto legitimatea particularunderstand-
ing of the present,areput to use in a battleoverwhatis to come. Whatareat
issue arecompetinghistoriesof the present,wieldedas argumentsoverwhat
shouldbe the future.
186 HistoryWorkshopJournal

Both of these historiesof the past, moreover, are constructedso as to

confirmthe views and convictionsof the present. It is this which enables
them to warrantthe buildingof particularfutures.It is indeed a formof the
'inventionof tradition'discussedby suchauthorsas BenedictAndersonand
Eric Hobsbawm;what is evident here, however, is that such inventionfor
the purpose of establishingthe nature and coherence of a place is by no
meansconfinedto the level of the nationstate. It is the kindof structureof
argument in play in the working-classdefence of London's docklands
againstthe buildingof CanaryWharf,in the whiteworking-classdefenceof
the same areaagainstnew, ethnicminority,neighbours,as well as in claims
for a greaterSerbia.It is, of course,a wayof relatingpastandpresent(and-
implicitlyor explicitly- argumentsaboutpotentialfutures)whichhas been
widely and thoroughly criticised. However, I want to argue here that
debatesover how to thinkthe relationshipbetweenpast, presentandfuture
can help us to reinvigoratethe way in whichwe conceptualisegeographical
places. Put briefly, it helps us to think of them as temporaland not just
spatial:as set in time as well as space.
Places,then, on the argumentso far, canbe understoodas articulationsof
social relationshipssome of whichwill be to the beyond (the global), and
these globalrelationshipsas muchas the internalrelationshipsof an areawill
influenceits character,its 'identity'.Moreover, this constitutionthrough
interconnectionwith other places is not somethingwhichis new (with our
newly-appreciatedglobalisation,with foreign food on the High Street, or
'immigrants'in the neighbourhood);it hasbeen as trueof the pastas it is true
of today (althoughclearlythe intensity,depth and directionof connections
andinfluencesall changeover time). The identityof a place is thusnot to be
seen as inevitablyto be destroyedby new importations.On this alternative
readingthatidentityis always,andalwayshasbeen, in processof formation:
it is in a senseforeverunachieved.(This,of course,does not meanthatsome
thingsare not more 'absorbed'or incorporatedinto the place than others,
norconverselythatsome 'foreign'importshavenot hadmoreinfluencethan
others. Nor, more importantlyfrom a politicalpoint of view, does it mean
that no distinctionscan be made, no judgementsor politicalstancestaken,
on what might be the interpretationof the past or the most preferred
directionsfor the future. These are issues which will be addressedlater.)
Whatis importantto note for now, however,is thatmuchwill dependon the
natureof the links made, in the constructionof notions of the identity of
place, betweenpast, presentandfuture.The identityof placesis verymuch
boundup with the historieswhichare told of them, how those historiesare
told, andwhichhistoryturnsout to be dominant.

The construction of the present of places

The past is presentin placesin a varietyof ways.
It is present materially. Patrick Wright has described a building on
Hackney High Street.8Originallybuilt as an entertainmentpalace, 'with
 Placesand TheirPasts 187

exotic domes thrown in for orientalisteffect', it subsequentlybecame a

cinema,to be convertedby the 1980sinto a Turkishmosqueandcommunity
centre. For the older white working class of the area the place is an
ex-cinema, a physicalreminderof days when the High Street used to be
different,whentherewere propershopsanda dominant,settled, long-local
community(or so the memoryruns).
Or the past may be presentin resonance,whetheractuallyfromthe past
or reinserted as a self-consciousbuilding-inof 'local character'.Words,
language, names, can be importanthere. The significanceof naming in
London Docklandsis notable. Is the area Docklands,Millwall,the Isle of
Dogs or the Venice of the North? For self-consciouslong-timelocals the
names of streets have been used to evoke a romanceof its working-class
past: all pubsand football, hardworkand community.The use of the same
street names today, and the carefulnamingand renamingof warehouses-
converted-into-apartments is also an attemptto evoke a connectionwith a
past, equally romanticisedbut this time in a different version. In his
considerationsof the worlds that were nineteenth-centuryParis, Walter
Benjaminwrites that the only thing that remainsof the increasinglyrapid
successionof perceptualworldsis their names: 'The forces of perversion
work deep within these names, which is why we maintaina world in the
names of old streets'.9And the past may be present in the unembodied
memoriesof people, and in the consciousandunconsciousconstructionsof
the historiesof the place.
The past, then, helps make the present.But it is a two-wayprocess.For
all these presencesof the past are multi-vocal.The buildingwith orientalist
effects on Hackney High Street may for some recall days of strong local
community.But what ambiguitydo the 'exotic domes' produce in those
fromthatvery'Orient',the Turkishcommunityamongothers,who nowlive
in this place? Thoughtsof a history of somewhereelse entirely?Distant
images of some village on the Anatolian plateau? Or possibly an under-
standingthatthatHackneylocalcommunitybuiltits self-assurednessin part
preciselyin relationto other places, on the basis of storiesof other places,
andon theirinterpretationof the identityof those places?The streetnames
of Docklands, equally, evoke different meanings and can be used to
differenteffect, when embeddedin differenthistories.It is not just that a
worldis 'maintained'in the namesof old streets.It is also that a (historical)
worldis created.If the pasttransformsthe present,helpstherebyto makeit,
so too does the presentmakethe past. All of whichis reallya way of saying
that in tryingto understandthe identityof placeswe cannot- or, perhaps,
shouldnot - separatespacefromtime, or geographyfromhistory.
When presentedwith the name of a place what form does the concept
takein yourmind?Manchester?Germany?Hackney?Mostoften, I believe,
when asked to think of places we thinkof them mainlyin spatialterms. If
pushed, we might indicatethem on a map. It is there;it covers thatarea.
After all, placesarepartof the basicsubject-matterof geography.We know,
188 HistoryWorkshopJournal

or we ought to know, that they are difficultto demarcate.Where do 'the

Home Counties'begin and end? Couldyou drawa line aroundthe Scottish
Lowlands?Where, exactly, is 'Europe'?In some cases the frontiersare
deliberatelymaintained.The boundariesof nation-statesare held in place
by political power, legal agreement, physical force. They cut across a
million social interactions.They are one of the many ways we have of
ordering,andof subjectingto power-relations,the incrediblecomplexityof
socialspace.
But, moreimportantly,whatI wantto considerhere is the waysin which
places also stretch throughtime. Places as depicted on maps are places
caughtin a moment;they are slices throughtime. Yet, not only does that
particulararticulationof socialrelationswhichwe areat the momentnaming
as thatplacehavea history(as we haveseen, it is the productof the historical
accumulationandcombinationof numerouslayersof sucharticulationsover
time) but also anyclaimto establishthe identityof thatplace dependsupon
presentinga particularreadingof that history.The competingclaimsabout
the 'essential nature' of the Wye Valley were competingclaims not just
about its presentbut about its history.The differenceslay in the interpre-
tation of that history. The claims made by some for the essentially
working-classnature of London's docklands depend not only upon a
particularreadingof that area'spastbut also on a particulardemarcationof
it: a longer period of history, for example, would have taken in other
dramaticchanges,not least that when the docks were firstconstructedand
an area of agriculturalland and settlementswas built over in the physical
manifestationof a new articulationof socialrelations- whena communityof
dockerswas created.
These kinds of dispute, then, involve a contestationof claims each of
whichis tryingto stabilise,and to establishas dominant,the meaning,not
just of a particularplace-on-a-mapas a slice throughtime, but of whatI call
an 'envelope of space-time'.10 The interpretationof Docklandsas working
class, or of the Wye Valley as secluded, depends not just on a particular
characterisation of a placeas it is nowbuton a demarcationof, anda reading
of, the historicallychangingform of that (always externally-connected)
nexus of social relations. The invention of tradition is here about the
invention of the coherence of a place, about definingand namingit as a
'place'at all. It is for thisreasonthatit maybe usefulto thinkof places,not as
areas on maps, but as constantlyshiftingarticulationsof social relations
throughtime; and to think of particularattemptsto characterisethem as
attempts to define, and claim coherence and a particularmeaning for,
specificenvelopesof space-time.
It might be easiest to illustratethis notion of places in space-timeby
takingas an exampleone of the apparentlymost self-evidentof places:the
nation state. Quite apart, for the moment, from the constantstrugglesto
define, and to make cohere, theirinternalcharacters,what are they simply
in terms of boundedspaces?Think of Poland, of Paraguay,or anotherof
 Placesand TheirPasts 189

today'snation states. They once did not exist; duringtheir existence their
boundarieshave frequentlyshifted;and maybe one day in the tuturethey
will not exist again.The boundariesof nationstatesare temporary,shifting
phenomenawhich enclose, not simply 'spaces', but relativelyephemeral
envelopesof space-time.The boundaries,andthe namingof the space-time
within them, are the reflectionsof power, and their existence has effects.
Withinthemthere is an activeattemptto 'makeplaces'.
The local confrontationover the establishmentof a touristattractionin
the Wye Valleyinvolvedsimilar,thoughless formal,attemptsto establishas
dominant competing readings of a particularenvelope of space-timeto
which that name - the Wye Valley - could be attached.
And currentlybefore us there lies a question of place-definitionwhich
bringstogetherall these considerations.The issue is the identityof a place
called 'Europe'.This is a projectwhichrepresentsan attemptto impose a
boundarywheretherehasfor longbeen a lackof distinction,or a limitwhich
has shifted or been debated. (I was taught at school that Europe 'really'
stretchedeast to the Urals, andthat 'Africa'only 'really'begansouthof the
Sahara.) To call the current Economic Union 'Europe' is therefore to
appropriatea name with a historyof a muchwider resonance.It is also to
claim a name for a place whose boundarieswill shiftin the future,as other
countriesjoin, or even leave, its membership.But moreinterestingthanthe
delimitationof its boundariesarethe attemptsto definethe characterof this
place. All of the attempts depend on a reading of both history and
geography: what is at issue here is space-time. And each attempt at
identity-definitiondepends on a particularreadingof that history. More-
over, those claims for European identity which look set to become the
dominant ones generally evoke a continuous and singular history, an
uninterruptedprogressto the present,andit is by andlargean internalone.
They seek the European characterwithin, denying its constant external
connections:the fact of the constructionof the local characterof Europe
throughits constantassociationwiththe global,whetherinvasionsfromthe
vast opennesses of the East in the distantpast, the initial connectionsof
mercantilismand imperialism(from the ChinaSeas to North Africato the
Caribbean),or the physicalpresenceof 'ethnicminorities'withinits borders
now. If the 'outside world' is recognised at all in this approach to
place-definitionit is through negative counterposition(this place is not
Islamic, not part of the Muslim world), rather than through positive
interrelation.
In many politicalstruggles,writ large or small, and in many aspectsof
daily life, the issue of the identificationand characterisationof places is a
significantcomponent.It is important,therefore,to recognisethe process
for what it is. First, it involvestime as well as space, and their inseparable
connection. Second, the characterisationof both spatial and temporal
aspects can take a varietyof particularforms. And third, whicheverview
comes to be dominant,andby whatevermeansits hegemonyis assured,the
190 HistoryWorkshopJournal

particularcharacterisationof thatenvelopeof space-time,thatplace, which

it proposes is only maintainedby the exercise of power relationsin some
form. The identity of places, indeed the very identificationof places as
particularplaces, is always in that sense temporary,uncertain, and in
process.

Concludingthoughts
The description, definition and identificationof a place is thus always
inevitably an intervention not only into geography but also, at least
implicitly,into the (re)tellingof the historicalconstitutionof the present.It
is another move in the continuing struggle over the delineation and
characterisationof space-time.
On what terms, then, can it be done responsibly?Some elements of a
possible 'progressive'characterisationof place have been suggested,both
here and elsewhere.Thus, it has been argued,the localism/parochialism of
many characterisationsof place can be avoided, or at least reduced or
interrupted,by recognisingalways the global constructionof the local.
Moreover, these links with the rest of the world must be characterisedas
positive, active, interconnections(as in Europe's active relation with its
Empires, for instance, and the contributionto its identity which those
interconnectionsprovided)ratherthan as a relationof negative,exclusivist
counterposition(as in 'Europeis not Islamic').Whatis at issuehere, then, is
relocatingthis place in a positive relationto a wider space-timeand thus
recharacterising it by redrawingits connections.
But what of the temporaldimension?What of the relation between a
place's present and its past? This essay began with perceiveddisjunctures
between past and present. Later examplesfocused on competingtales of
continuity.All depended, implicitlyor explicitly, on notions of seamless
historiesandon similarnotionsof tradition.And one strategyis certainlyto
installour own versionof these stories,of these relationshipsbetween past
and present, whichcan lay an alternativebasis for a (different)future:the
strategyof writinga radicalhistory.Thus, to write as I did earlierthat 'the
new intrusionsareno morefromoutside,normoreout of placethanwerein
their time many of the componentsof the currently-acceptedcharacterof
the place' does not mean that any new future for a place, any proposed
development, is equally acceptable, that no positions can be taken, no
politicaljudgementsmade. And conceivingthe place as a radicalenvelope
of space-timeis an importantmeansof arguingsuchcases.
And yet . . . it is important to be aware that such histories may still
depend upon the same notion of tradition,on an assumptionof continuity
betweenpast andpresent,wherethe only realformof changeresidesin the
tragedyof loss. Some of the claimsof docklandscommunities,thatthis land
was their land and the place somehow intrinsicallyworking class, went
precisely down this road. They evoked an essentialist, and ultimately
untenable,view of the natureof place.
 Placesand TheirPasts 191

There are some currentwriters,perhapsmost notablyFredricJameson,

who have interpretedthe currentperiod (usuallycharacterisedas 'post-
modern') as one in which all sense of narrative, all lines of continuity
betweenpastandpresent,havebrokendown.1 ForJamesonthe currentera
is characterisedby a rootless, and for him alternately terrifying and
intoxicating,senseof simultaneity/instantaneity.
It couldbe seen as a kindof
extreme version of Benjamin'smonadic moment of the present, blasted
from the homogenous continuity of history, the difference being that
Benjamin'sconcept is meant to functionas providingthe possibilityof a
radical politics, while Jameson's instantaneityis interpreted rather as
provokingthe deathof the political.ThusHomi Bhabhaseems to be setting
out alternatives:

Unlike the deadhandof historythattells the beadsof sequentialtimelike

a rosary, seeking to establish serial causal connections, we are now
confrontedwith what Walter Benjamin describesas the blastingof a
monadicmomentfromthe homogenouscourseof history'establishinga
conceptionof the presentas the "timeof the now"'.12

Yet are these the only alternativesfor a history of place: an essentialist

continuityor a breakingof the relationaltogether?Do we haveto choose, in
the terms in which this is usually presented, between temporalityand
spatiality?Perhapsthe answer lies in insistingon both, but on forging a
differentrelationbetweenthem. Perhapsa really'radical'historyof a place
wouldbe one whichdid not tryto presenteithersimpletemporalcontinuity
or only spatial simultaneitywith no sense of historicaldepth. A way of
understandingwhich,in the end, did not try to seal a place up into one neat
and tidy 'envelopeof space-time'but whichrecognisedthatwhat has come
together, in this place, now, is a conjunctionof many historiesand many
spaces.

NOTES

1 HerbertI. Schiller'Fast food, fast cars, fast politicalrhetoric',Intermedia,vol. 20,

nos4-5 (August-September1992),p. 21.
2 GillianRose, 'Placeandidentity:a sense of place'in DoreenMasseyandPatJess(eds)
A place in the world? place, culture and globalization, (Oxford University Press in association
withthe OpenUniversity,forthcoming).
3 Doreen Massey,'Power-geometryand a progressivesense of place'in Jon Birdet al.,
(eds) Mapping the futures: local cultures, global change (Routledge, London, 1993) pp. 59-69;
DoreenMassey,Space,placeandgender(Oxford,PolityPress,1994).
4 DavidHarvey,Theconditionof postmodernity(Oxford,Blackwell,1989),p. 303.
5 Thiscaseis examinedin moredetailin PatJessandDoreenMassey,'Thecontestationof
place', in Doreen Massey and Pat Jess (eds) A place in the world? Place, culture and
globalization(OxfordUniversityPressin associationwiththe OpenUniversity,forthcoming).
6 PeterDunn, 'Valleyfolk dividedover "farmfor tourists"',TheIndependent,7 August
1993.
192 HistoryWorkshopJournal

7 Ibid.
8 PatrickWright,On livingin an old country:thenationalpast in contemporary
Britain,
(London,Verso, 1985).
9 Derek Gregory,Geographical imaginations(Oxford,Blackwell,1994),p. 245.
10 PatJessandDoreen Massey,'Thecontestationof place'.
11 FredricJameson, Postmodernismor, the culturallogic of late capitalism(London,
Verso, 1991).
12 HomiBhabha,Thelocationof culture(London,Routledge,1994),p. 4.

RUSKIN COLLEGE, OXFORD

MA IN HISTORY,
HISTORIOGRAPHYAND PUBLICHISTORY
Intheautumnof 1995,Ruskinwill startan in-servicepostgraduate degreeinthe
writingandteaching,stagingandfilming,of history.Thecourse- whichis part-
time,oneafternoonandeveninga week- is intendedespeciallyforschoolteachers
andmuseumstaffs, who are in the front-lineof contemporary battlesoverthe
representation
ofthe past.Thecourseis also intended
to appealto peopleworking
on conservation
andretrievalprojects,in "rescue"archaeologyandintownscape
andcountryside A leavenof peopleengagedin filmorphotography
interpretation.
wouldhelpto keepthevisualto the fore- one of themainobjectsof the course.
Tutors:HildaKean and RaphaelSamuel(Convenors;memorywork;ways of seeing);Stephen
Yeo (the languageof history);Peter Gathercole(materialcultureand archaeology);optionson
colonialand post-colonialhistory;women'shistory;labourhistory.Moderator:
CarolynSteedman,
WarwickUniversity.External examiner: Sally Alexander,Universityof East London.
Fees ?1,250 p.a.
Final date for applications for Oct 1995 is May Ist 1995. Application form and more
detaikd information about the course from 'HistoryMA', Ruskin CoUlege,WaltonStreet,
Oxford, OX) 2HE