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| Bangladesh Restaurant, Exodus Pan Yard, Palladium, Tunapuna |
Cities often fall short of people's expectations. Fortunately for Trinidad, and more specifically Tunapuna, I think much work is being done to provide a third space for its inhabitants.
Fortunately,
we can reinvent cities so that they become cities for people. Gehl Architects’
urban research work highlights how we can make cities attractive, healthy,
lively, safe, and sustainable again. They have made quite a few places into a
community gathering place. Trinidadians love to hang out. They love to party.
They love to meet and”old talk”. On a whole, they are a community that is rich
in culture and a part of this is their food. Seriously speaking, anywhere food is
you must find a “Trini”. Well it is everywhere; left right center, talk about
food! I know because I love food too. Never underestimate the potency of food;
it can make things happen; especially night life.
The notion of “thirdspace,”
a term that is purposely provisional, Soja challenges the modernist either/or
logic (Soja, 1996: 5) and contemplates instead the existence of a new place of
critical exchange.The pan yard (Trinidad is home to pan music) and the
restaurant, are more popular places of informal gatherings to create community
than the cinema. The cinema however targets a specifc crowd; the youth. These all
help to strike a balance between the private and public life (Pater,1994). Me as
a student for example, my first place is home on my hall , my
second , school and third, I guess the Restaurant or the Cinema as I am yet to
learn to play pan like the Trini. This
innovative “strategic location,” as Soja puts it, combines and transcends the dialectics of conceived/lived
and center/periphery, ultimately allowing for “a radically different way of
looking at, interpreting, and acting to change the embracing spatiality of
human life”.
Postmodernism has some influence on Geography. The ways of
approaching space has changed. "In modernism there are two spaces, the conceived
and the perceived space. But Soja puts another dimension to spatiality. Soja visualized
the other way (l´autre) (I got to use my
French here ( smiles)) postmodernists
look at being and spatiality. He defines it as lived space, a thirdspace. This
space is an imagined space, which consists of actual social and spatial
practices, the immediate material world of experience and realization. Lived
space overlays physical space, making symbolic use of its objects, and tends to
be expressed in systems of nonverbal symbols and signs. The most important
contribution of postmodernism to today’s Geography is the way of looking at the
other. "
In these third spaces, one is to find common ground in order to
hang around with others (Knox, 2004). Often the pan yard an n restaurant for
example is open to the general public where all contribute to each other’s happiness.
This usually happens by recalling
what took place on the Bus Route
or what transpired on the famous Ian
Allen Show; just talk. This offers
social regeneration and all; feels the need to just be; to be free. I honestly feel
like ranting on about this but I must end. It only reminds me of the song from last
Carnival “We Ready for the Road’. Trinidadians are always ready to hang
out. Friendships formed at these places
simply allow for more cultural integration and matched interests. One
interesting thing I also found was that couples go out together and even if
not, a spouse is allowed to generally go out on his or her own. This even
further f fosters the third place type of dwelling. Could that be that it is innate
to a Trinidadian (Soja, 1996)
Cities created for people can unite us. This is so as it allows for common
ground to be established for people of different ages, cultures, genders and
ultimately; becoming even more equitable places.
Reference
Knox,
P. and S. Marston, Places and regions in global context: Human Geography,
Pearson Eduction Inc., New Jersey, 2004
Pater, B. de, H. van
der Wusten, Het geografische huis. De opbouw van een wetenschap. Coutinho,
Muiderberg, 1996
Soja,
E., Postmodern Geographies. The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social
Theory, Verso, London, 2001
Soja, E., Thirdspace.
Journeys to Los Angeles and other real-and-imagined spaced, Blackwell
Publishers Inc, Malden, 1996
I love this. Applying third space to TT, and Tunapuna, and "lived space" in the global south -- wonderful.
ReplyDeletePlease cite this. Make sure to give credit to work that is not your own, otherwise you will be plagiarising:
ReplyDelete. In modernism there are two spaces, the conceived and the perceived space. But Soja puts another dimension to spatiality. He visualized the other way (l´autre) postmodernists look at being and spatiality. He defines it as lived space, a thirdspace. This space is an imagined space, which consists of actual social and spatial practices, the immediate material world of experience and realization. Lived space overlays physical space, making symbolic use of its objects, and tends to be expressed in systems of nonverbal symbols and signs. The most important contribution of postmodernism to today’s Geography is the way of looking at the other.
21 Soja, 2001 11 References Knox, P. and S. Marston, Places and regions in global context: Human Geography, Pearson Eduction Inc.
Thank you Dr. K
ReplyDelete