Turf wars
Subtitle: discourse, diversity, and the politics of place
By: Gabriella Gahlia Modan.
Series: New directions in ethnography -- 1
Publisher: Blackwell
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 357
ISBN-13: 9781405129565; 9781405129558
Subjects: Community development -- Washington (D.C.); Neighborhood -- Social aspects -- Washington (D.C.); Mount Pleasant (Washington, D.C.)
Description: "Turf Wars: Discourse, Diversity, and the Politics of Place is the fascinating story of an urban neighborhood undergoing rapid gentrification. It is a story about how the members of a multi-ethnic, multi-class Washington, D.C., community deploy language to project conflicting images of their neighborhood. Waging wars around such issues as public toilets and public urination, the "morality" of co-ops & condos, and characterizations of "good" girls and "bad" boys, community members use these themes to create identities for themselves as legitimate community members (e.g., as tough urbanites or sophisticated historic preservationists) while creating identities to discredit others (e.g., "People who belong in the suburbs"). "Turf Wars" taps the power of discourse analysis to provide insight into the ways that local activity shapes larger urban social processes."--Book cover.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [336]-350) and index.
Table of contents: title: Sketching the landscape; title: Mt. Pleasant history and social geography; title: The moral geography of Mt. Pleasant; title: The politics of filth; title: La Loca vs. the cultural vampires; title: Keeping it in the family; title: Home ties, winds of change; title: Theorizing discourse; title: Geography and social locations.