Engagement with the study of whiteness is slow within the discipline of geography despite repeated calls for it to be placed on the research agenda, and regardless of a strong heritage of critical “race” and postcolonial scholarship. This paper considers this reticence, and the problems inherent in Whiteness Studies more generally. It then offers examples from inner Sydney, Australia, that avoid some of the more pressing shortcomings of studying whiteness. By prizing open the essentializing bounds of hegemonic ethnicity, this paper identifies whiteness as context-specific, processural and contestable.
1 Department of Anthropology and Geography, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, P.O. Box 880368, Lincoln, NE 68588-0368, USA. 2 Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand. 3 Department of Human Geography, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia. 4 Department of Geography, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada S7N 5A5. *Corresponding author. Email: jjohnson18@unl.edu
The evidence-based analysis of people's navigation and wayfinding behaviour in large-scale built-up environments (e.g., hospitals, airports) encompasses the measurement and qualitative analysis of ...