The descent into space in contemporary
theories of post modernity can be critiqued by attending to the historically
differential dimensions of social space as the contingent product of particular
practices. These need not mean that space as absolute contingency and
nonbelonging must be replaced by traditionalist notions of pure place with
clearly marked boundaries. It has been the burden of this chapter precisely to
argue the opposite—that spatial practices and representational
spaces cross the “pure borders” of identity, nation and territory , but they do
become grounded, and do reterritorialize space into place as a practiced
,embodied , and lived reality. The dialectic between space and place under
contemporary forms of modernity can be collapsed into the discourse of sheer
difference only at the cost of an ignorance that social place and cultural
politics are mediated by practice.