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Making sense of place: unravelling the geographical

palimpsest of Barcelona

David Simm (Bath Spa University) and

Alan Marvell (University of Gloucestershire)

Tuesday 17th February 2015 Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of British Geographers University of South Wales

Structure of the talk

1. Place as palimpsest

2. Introducing Barcelona

3. Background to the modules and fieldtrips

4. Methodology – quotes and videos

5. Preconceptions of the visitor

6. Case study 1: Barri Gòtic

7. Case study 2: El Raval

8. Deciphering the palimpsest and gaining a sense of place

9. Gaining the most out of your fieldtrip

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Place as a palimpsest

Palimpsest

“A piece of … manuscript on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for other writing.” (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, 1990)

Place as a palimpsest:

A multi-faceted landscape which exhibits multiple identities that may vary temporally, spatially and individually.

(Sampson and Goodrich, 2009)

Layers of geography, history, culture and politics.

The importance of place:

“Place is … a way of seeing, knowing and understanding the world. When we look at the world as a world of places we see different things. We see attachments and connections between people and place” (Cresswell, 2004, p. 11)

Encountering ‘place’

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What gives a ‘place’ it’s identity?

• “The human capacity to produce and consume meaning” (Agnew, 1987 in Cresswell, 2004: 7)

• “When we look at the world as a world of places we see different things. We see attachments and connections between people and place. We see worlds of meaning and experience.” (Cresswell, 2004: 11)

• Space is distinguished from space based on experience: “What begins as undifferentiated space becomes place as we get to know it better and endow it with value.” (Tuan, 1977: 6)

Introducing Barcelona

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Why Barcelona?

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Background to the modules

• International Fieldwork – Barcelona, Spain

• Optional module (year 2 UoG and year 3 BSU)

• Geography and Tourism/Events Management undergraduates

• Lectures and workshops before fieldtrip

• 5-6 day s fieldtrip : 1.5 days staff-led, 1 day reconnaissance, 2 days student-led

• 25 students, 5 groups of 4-5 students

• Group pre-placement project proposal

• Group field presentation and activity

• Field notebook and self-reflective essay

• Essay: ‘Transformation of Barcelona’

So why students? Methodology

Aims and objectives

• To study students’ experiences of student-led field teaching

• To identify the ways in which students engage with the field environment

Methodology

• Daily reflective question set

• End-of-fieldtrip reflective essay

• Post-fieldtrip questionnaire

• Module evaluation

Findings

• Students’ learning experiences as revealed by diaries, questionnaires and video

• Evaluate the extent to which students engage with, and make sense of, place

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Introducing the case studies

Preconceptions and experiences of the visitor

• “Wrongly, I now appreciate, I started to form my first impressions … early on during the bus ride from the airport. How disappointing – just like any other European city.”

• “The little alleys [and] buildings were typical of what I had expected but was slightly annoyed by the fact they were now home to some tacky tourist shops and bars.”

• “My guide book … appeared to ‘rank’ sites around the city in order of importance, forcing a particular impression on a generic tourist, but I’m glad we saw a mix [of place] … and not just [what] we ‘had’ to see.”

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Preconceptions and experiences of the visitor

Preconceptions and experiences of the visitor

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Preconceptions and experiences of the visitor

Case study 1: Barri Gòtic

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Barri Gòtic – day and night

Case study 1: Barri Gòtic

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Case study 2: El Raval – geography and history

Geography and history of El Raval

Central:

• Rambla del Raval

• El Gat sculpture

• Barcelo hotel

Northern:

• Central university campus

• Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA)

• Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona (CCCB)

Western:

• Immigrants, ethnic minorities

Southern:

• Barri Xines, waterfront

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El Raval urban regeneration: 1. Creation of new spaces

El Raval urban regeneration: 2. New public facilities 3. Tourist commercialism 4. Tourist routes defined with signposting 5. Re-signification of vernacular historic landscape (Degan, 2003)

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El Raval urban regeneration: 6. public land marks highlighting difference

El Raval urban regeneration: 7. Creation of ‘designer heritage aesthetic’ (Degan, 2003)

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El Raval urban regeneration: Past social depravations need ‘cleansing’ (Ealham, 2005) ‘Sanitisation’ and ‘homogenisation’ (Degan, 2003)

Case study 2: El Raval – students’ experiences

• “The north of El Raval, on the other hand I felt at ease, … the bars are full of students. However, we came across some saying no tourists allowed! - Unwelcoming, but I think it’s good in a way.”

• “I sensed hostility towards us and windows were shut as we walked past and took notes.”

• “I felt a heightened level of hostility … our group were heard discussing together by a local in their residence who peered over the balcony and abruptly slammed closed their window. This made me slightly edgy.”

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Students’ definitions: Gaining a sense of ‘place’

– “A sense of place is created by a number of things such as amenities, historical influences, cultural aspects, community, atmosphere, and others … I would define place as the atmosphere and feeling a location provides through the influences it celebrates and draws upon.”

– “Place … represents an area which has social meaning. This sense of meaning that people have differentiates space from place, and include social, economic and environmental issues.”

– “It is more than just a geographical space, it evokes emotions and feelings, ‘place’ provides an understanding of the people who use an area and for what purpose.”

– “I cannot stress the importance of people in defining a sense of place … their lives, legacies, cultures, languages and beliefs … are all stories that they leave behind.”

Students’ definitions of place – awareness of Self

– “In situ, students experienced a unique, multi-sensory experience of a place … From this experience, I can say active participation in situ is something that cannot be simulated easily in the classroom.”

– “It is clear that different people can have very different feelings towards a place, and although each ‘space’ may appear the same for everyone, each ‘place’ can be very different.”

– Emotional interaction with environment: “When participating in a field activity … I found myself becoming far more involved and emotionally attached than I would in a lecture.”

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Getting the most out of your fieldwork

1. Self-authorship (Baxter Magolda & King, 2004)

2. Immersion and being in-situ (Marvell et al., 2013)

3. Exploration and (self-) discovery

4. Chance encounters (Valentine, 2008)

“Incredibly I managed to glimpse a street parade on the last day of a Catalan tradition where people wearing giant masks of kings and queens were surrounded by people playing music.”

5. Personal reflection and self-awareness (Moon, 2000)

6. Perception - real or imagined (Soja, 1996)

7. Insider/Outsider, self/other (Sampson and Goodrich, 2009)

8. Life through a geographical lens (Jackson, 2006)

Concluding remarks

• Every place has its own unique characteristics

• Our senses mediate our relationship with the environment

• So learning about a place involves:-

i. Learning to see a place with a critical eye

ii. Recognising that a sense of place means different things to different people

iii. Acknowledging that as a visitor you are an outsider

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• Baxter Magolda, M.B. and King, P.M. (2004) Learning partnerships: theory and practice to educate for self-authorship. Sterling, VA: Stylus Publishing.

• Boyle, A. et al. (2007) Fieldwork is good: the student perception and the affective domain. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 31(2), 299-317.

• Coe, N.M. and Smyth, F.M. (2010) Students as tour guides: innovation in fieldwork assessment. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 34(1), 125-139.

• Cresswell, T. (2004) Place: a short introduction. Oxford: Blackwell.

• Degen, M. (2003) Fighting for the global catwalk: formalizing public life in Castlefield (Manchester) and diluting public life in El Raval (Barcelona). International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 27(4), 867-880.

• della Dora, V. (2011) Engaging sacred space: experiments in the field. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35(2), 163-184.

• Dummer, J.B., Cook, I.G., Parker, S.L., Barrett, G.A. and Hull, A.P. (2008) Promoting and assessing ‘deep learning’ in Geography fieldwork: an evaluation of reflective field diaries. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(3), 459-479.

• Ealham, C. (2005) An imagined geography: ideology, urban space, and protest in the creation of Barcelona’s ‘Chinatown’, c.1835-1936. International Review of Social History, 50, 373-397.

• Fuller, I., Edmondson, S., France, D., Higgitt, D. and Ratinen, I. (2006) International perspectives on the effectiveness of geography fieldwork for learning. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 30(1), 89-101.

• Ganau, J. (2008) Reinventing memories: the origin and development of Barcelona’s Barri Gotic, 1880-1950. Journal of Urban History, 34, 795-832.

• Haigh, M. and Gold, J.R. (1993) The problems with fieldwork: a group-based approach towards integrating fieldwork into the undergraduate geography curriculum. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 17(1), 21-32.

• Hill, J. and Woodland, W. (2002) An evaluation of foreign fieldwork in promoting deep learning: a preliminary investigation. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 27(6), 539-555.

• Jackson, P. (2006) Thinking geographically. Geography, 91(3), 199-204.

• Jarvis, C. and Dickie, J. (2010) Podcasts in support of experiential field learning. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 34(2), 173-186.

• Kaplan, D.H. and Hakli, J. (2002) Boundaries and place: European borderlands in geography context. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

References

• Kent, M., Gilbertson, D.D. and Hunt, C.O. (1997) Fieldwork in Geography teaching: a critical review of the literature and approaches. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 21(3), 313-332.

• Marvell, A., Simm, D., Schaaf, R. and Harper, R. (2013) Students as scholars: evaluating student-led learning and teaching during fieldwork. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37(4), 547-566.

• Marvell, A. (2008) Student-led presentations in situ: the challenges to presenting on the edge of a volcano. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 32(2), 321-335.

• McGuinness, M. and Simm, D. (2005) Going global? Long-haul fieldwork in undergraduate Geography. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29(2), 241-253.

• Moon, J. (2000) Reflection in learning and professional development: theory and practice. London: Routledge.

• Moore, N., Fournier, E.J., Hardwick, S.W., Healey, M., MacLachlan, J. and Seemann, J. (2011) Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35(3), 351-364.

• Sampson, K. E. and Goodrich, C.G. (2009) Making place: identity constructionand community formation through ‘sense of place’ in Westland, New Zealand. Society and Natural Resources, 22, 901-915.

• Saunders, A. (2013) Recovering the street: relocalising urban geography. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37(4), 536-546.

• Saunders, A. (2010) Exhibiting the field for learning: telling New York’s stories. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 35(2), 185-197.

• Sidaway, J.D. (2002) Photography as geographical fieldwork. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 26(1), 95-103.

• Smith, F.M. (2006) Encountering Europe through fieldwork. European Union and Regional Studies, 13(1), 77-82.

• Soja, E. (1996) Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined places. Oxford: Blackwell.

• Tuan, Y.F. (1977) Space and place: the perspective of experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

• Valentine, G. (2008) Living with difference: reflections on geographies of encounter. Progress in Human Geography, 32(3), 323-337.

• Wee, B., DePierre, A., Anthamatten, P. and Barbour, J. (2013) Visual methodology as a pedagogical research tool in geography education. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37(2), 164-173.