Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-05T20:11:58.144Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 15 - Finding Place in the Conjuncture: A Dialogue With Doreen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2023

Marion Werner
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Buffalo
Jamie Peck
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia, Vancouver
Rebecca Lave
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
Brett Christophers
Affiliation:
Uppsala Universitet, Sweden
Get access

Summary

In this chapter I explore a set of persistent questions about the practice of conjunctural analysis concerning the ways in which time and space are constitutive elements of a conjuncture. Although time seems the most obvious, if not foundational, element since the conjuncture is about the “present moment”, the spatial dimensions are equally critical, if harder to diagnose. Starting from a simple question – where does the conjuncture take place? – I consider how Doreen Massey’s profoundly relational view of space illuminates the question of the conjuncture by enabling us to think about the condensation of multiple spatial dynamics and relations.

In exploring some of these problems and possibilities of conjunctural analysis, this chapter carries on an unfinished conversation with Doreen Massey, following up on a promise to “talk more” about how to think about the conjuncture when we last met. The topic had been a running thread in both public and private conversations for some years: we were both convinced about the importance of thinking conjuncturally as a method of getting to grips with the present and its troubles. We shared with Stuart Hall and others a sense that conjunctural analysis was a way of avoiding the short-circuiting tendencies of reductionism by demanding attention to the multiple tendencies, forces and contradictions that made up the present moment. We had participated in a number of events, panels, and discussions considering both the current conjuncture and the way of thinking that conjunctural analysis represented. With a bitter sense of irony, I recall that the last of these encounters was in a panel on conjunctural analysis at a conference at Goldsmiths’ College celebrating the life and work of Stuart Hall (see Henriques & Morley 2017). The orientation – and the stakes – can be seen in this characteristic exchange between Stuart and Doreen in the pages of Soundings, discussing the importance of resisting the temptations to treat the current crisis as “economic”:

Massey: The other thing that’s really striking is the importance of thinking of things as complex moments, where different parts of the overall social formation may themselves, independently, be in crisis in various ways.

Type
Chapter
Information
Doreen Massey
Critical Dialogues
, pp. 201 - 214
Publisher: Agenda Publishing
Print publication year: 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×