5. A Place in the City: resident place-making in
colonias populares
The constructed nature of place is based on the
understanding that it is the product of diverse processes
of decision-making over the course of many years
(Goodman, 1972: 242). This may include the multiple
and various activities which occur in and influence a
place, and the values and meanings that they express,
which are not inherent but are created and defended.
While particular discursive constructions of place may
entail marginalising effects through their reproduction
of normative categories and meanings, people can also
resist such effects by using places in certain ways
(Cresswell, 2004). Residents’ place-making activities
can thus be seen as a form of resistance: not in
opposition to a monolithic dominating power, but rather
to ideas which circulate about these places. In
particular, these activities express residents’ agency,
which is often obscured by negative portrayals in
general and local discourses; and through the construction
of place meaning, such activities resist the
marginalising effects of certain discourses.