COMM100b Interpretive Strategies
Professor Elana Zilberg
Winter 2016

Assignment #2: Spatial Analysis
Due: Monday, February 29th by Noon

Part Two: Ethnographic Site and Subject

In this assignment you are asked to transform your stereotype from an image into an ethnographic subject. Take your stereotype “off the screen” or page and locate it as a body in a particular site. Drawing on the spatial analysis vocabulary covered in this section of the course, describe this site. Your site can be rural or urban, inner city neighborhood or suburb, a building (house, mall, corporate or government office building, etc.), a street, a park or beach and so forth. However, the site you choose must but be a physical space (do not use the Internet as a site). You are not only thinking about the physical space itself, but your subject’s relationship to that space. Therefore, the ethnographic site will depend on your ethnographic subject. These are some of the questions to consider in developing your essay:

* How does your ethnographic subject use, appropriate, and shape the space? * Using Lefebvre’s concept of the “spatial triad,” how do you understand your site as a representation of space, a space of representation, or created through spatial practices? * How would you characterize the topography of the built environment of the site? * What macro and micro forces produce that space? * How is the site legislated or policed? * What are the dominant and resistant spatial discourses about that space? * What happens to your subject when you use spatial analysis rather than visual analysis as an interpretive strategy? Is it more effective in complicating and contesting your stereotype?

You must provide a visual illustrating your ethnographic subject’s relationship to space. This visual may be a map, a diagram, a photograph, or a drawing showing the competing forces at work in that site. To render your visual, consider the following: What routes or itineraries are produced through the everyday spatial practices of your ethnographic subject? How does your ethnographic subject use and travel through this space? Include the image in an appendix at the end of your essay. This image does not count toward the required number of pages.

You must cite Zilberg, and at least two of the following authors: Soja, Merrifield or Kropp. You may also refer to the documentary Bus Rider’s Union (2000) and/or the film Bread and Roses (2000). Provide a separate page with references cited following rules for citing your sources in your paper (see below for instructions). The reference page does not count toward the required number of pages.

Note: You do not have to “answer” all of the questions provided above. These are not “questions” as much as they are points to prompt and to help stimulate your thinking. You do not have to use all of the terms introduced in lectures and readings.

Your essays must be 3-4 typewritten pages (Times 12 point font, 1-inch margins, double-spaced). Put your name and your TA's name at the top of the paper. Use single spacing for your and your TAs name, course numbers, title.

Due date: Monday, February 29th at noon. Post your essay using the link to Turnitin.com (the red and white icon with the arrow) on our TritonEd page. Follow your individual TAs’ instructions for turning in your assignments in additional formats.

Citations

a. In the body of your essays * If you are using a direct quote and have not mentioned the author’s name in the sentence or relevant section, cite the author, date and page number (Sturken and Cartwright, 2009: 55-56). * If you are paraphrasing or referring to a concept introduced by the author, cite the author and date only (Sturken and Cartwright, 2009).

b. Bibliography/References Cited page * Book Chapter: Author, date, chapter title, book, city published and publisher, page numbers (for full chapter or segment assigned for the class.) * Article: Author, date, article title, journal in which article is published (volume number etc.), page numbers.