Culture, Space and Power Research Theme
The Culture, Space and Power theme conducts theoretical and empirical research into the spatial politics of cultural practices in a range of historical and geographical settings. Research has strong interdisciplinary links (with history, anthropology, art, performance studies and political science), has close synergies with research on the geographies of biosciences in the Health, Place and Society theme and on migration and social justice in the Economy, Development and Social Justice theme, and is often collaborative, both amongst colleagues and with a range of organizations beyond the academy.
The theme includes three Philip Leverhulme Prize winners (Alison Blunt, Miles Ogborn, and Simon Reid-Henry). The theme’s distinctive research is shaping international debates on:
Global geographies of knowledge and practice, where work has demonstrated the significance of oral communication to the power relations of knowledge production and empire in the early modern Atlantic world (Miles Ogborn); developed novel biographical approaches to globalization and global politics (Miles Ogborn, Simon Reid-Henry); on the national and transnational ethical, legal and social implications of developments in biotechnology and the life sciences and the public understanding of the cultures of scientific practice (Bronwyn Parry); on the formation and spatial articulation of modern scientific (eg biotechnological) and political (such as security) forms of discourse and practice, including research on humanitarianism (Simon Reid-Henry); and on counter-mappings of globalisation and resistance by art-activists (David Pinder).
Home and relatedness, including work on the geographies of global and national relatedness and difference in human population genetics (Catherine Nash); work with the Museum of London assessing the value of domestic archaeology in understanding everyday life in Victorian London (Alastair Owens); on the home as a site of popular historical knowledge and practice (Catherine Nash, Alastair Owens and Alison Blunt); on Diaspora and Diasporic Cities (Alison Blunt); and on historical and contemporary relationships between childhood, home and the wider world (Alison Blunt, Miles Ogborn, and Alastair Owens).
Urban cultural politics, with work on cities as sites of possibility through investigations of utopianism, experimental urbanism, mobility and artistic spatial practices (David Pinder); new forms of dwelling in the city, particularly in settlement houses (Alison Blunt); and knowledge transfer projects on gender and the built environment through the London Women and Planning Forum and UrbanBuzz funded research with Women’s Design Service (Alison Blunt).
Members of the theme work closely with Queen Mary’s City Centre and the Centre for Studies of Home.