The article suggests that Americans have a lack of connection to community and history in large part because of their transient nature. People are able to move on easily. Indeed the romantic notion of the pioneers pushing ever westwards could lead some to argue that being able to move wherever you want to go is an integral part of the ‘American dream’. The concept of Americans living in a “World without ghosts” supports this and invokes the idea that if anything goes wrong, one could simply move to a new place and erase the past. If the past is as simple to abandon as this then it is easy to understand why people would not see it as worthy of engaging with. This ability to move in turn helps to inhibit people’s sense of place. Mass media and large corporations are also cited as contributing to placelessness. People can interact virtually with others all over the world and so don’t feel the need to connect with those around them. Large corporations can now be seen in every town and city and this leads to “McTowns” where every business is the same and nothing individual is able to thrive.
Glassberg argues that this interpretation ignores people who cannot move around easily, those who are very old or young would fall into this category as might people with certain disabilities or those from a poorer background. He also argues that places can be romanticized for what they were in the past and by ignoring the way places have changed it becomes harder for people to connect with the place.
Despite placlessness being considered a problem, sense of place did play a part in the failure of Disney’s ‘America’ because the people who felt an attachment to the site they wanted to use did not want it to be cheapened by being interpreted by the Disney Corporation. This shows that sense of place can become more pronounced or important when it is threatened by an external force.
No comments:
Post a Comment