Cultivating identity discourses and iconic places

Abstract

This chapter develops the theoretical framework for this book. The discursive and normative character of identities is stressed. Identity discourses provide a reference framework to understand and evaluate society. Identity discourses are cultivated as they constantly reinterpret and revalue existing elements when circumstances change. Public claims of their authenticity, stability, consistency, and their general acceptance hide their changeable and contradictory nature. This is especially the case for the relation between space and individual and collective identities. Spatial elements are selectively used in different identity discourses. This results in the polarisation between parochial and cosmopolitan identity discourses. The valuation and devaluation of specific places by different identity discourses make these places icons which communicate values by physically showing desired or feared visions of the future or past. Iconic places and their development are not only signifiers in spatial identity discourses but also objects of spatial policies. They link fundamental but more abstract differences in value systems with the political struggle over real places. The mutual (de)valuation of iconic places makes them valuable tools for analysing the polarisation in and on space.