Intersections of Social and Geographic Marginality in Contemporary Urban Spaces

该奖项支持的研究调查了当代城市中社会边缘和地理边缘之间复杂和不断变化的交叉点。边缘城市空间，如高速公路地下通道、城市森林和废弃地块，越来越多地由不同的边缘群体共同居住，他们可能在语言、宗教、文化和历史上有所不同。我们的目标是了解这些空间发生了什么，居住在这些空间的人是如何相互联系的，他们是如何与社会其他部分联系起来的，不同群体的来去可能如何影响所有这些关系，以及这些过程可能会揭示出更广泛的边缘现象。社会边缘和地域边缘是一个日益明显的全球现象，但其社会层面的许多方面仍不为人所知。这些空间里的人认为自己是边缘人吗？同居带来的是团结还是竞争？当新的集团加入时，这是否会改变更老、更成熟的集团的机会和经历？这种现象最好的描述是社会隔离还是隐藏？作为对这些和其他未知因素的回应，本研究的基本关注点是发展一个一般理论，即空间和社会边缘是如何在它们共同出现的地方相交的。这项研究将由佛蒙特大学人类学家乔纳·A·斯坦伯格博士进行，他将采用案例研究方法，以及一系列详细的空间分析和绘图技术。他选择在法国马赛的工业城市进行这项研究，在那里，来自东欧多瑙河和巴尔干地区的流动罗姆人(有时被错误地称为“吉普赛人”)是一个长期存在的弃儿群体，现在与穆斯林难民广泛重叠，特别是来自叙利亚和阿富汗的穆斯林难民。这是一个合适的地点，因为它汇聚了其他地方独立发生的力量：大量移民涌入，跨国政治运动成员的袭击，以及日益高涨的民族主义。他将把详细的空间观察集中在城市的四个高度不同的区域，这些区域具有高度的跨文化接触，包括几个市场和非正式住房的地点。通过参与者观察、调查、访谈和档案研究，重点是区分一致的居民和较短期的居民，他将收集关于人和空间的数据，通过微观空间分析方法准确地探索来自不同群体的个人和家庭如何在不同的时间尺度上在城市边缘地带互动。这些数据将与“生活地图”相辅相成，这是从个人获得的空间轨迹的地图状描述。研究结果将与政策制定者和研究界分享，并通过与学校和博物馆的伙伴关系，分享给更广泛的公众。

The research supported by this award investigates the complex and changing intersections between social marginality and geographic marginality in contemporary cities. Marginal urban spaces, such as highway underpasses, urban forests, and abandoned lots, increasingly are co-inhabited by distinct marginal groups who may differ in language, religion, culture, and history. The goal is to understand what transpires in these spaces, how the people who inhabit them relate to each other, how they relate to the rest of society, how the comings and goings of different groups may affect all of those relationships, and what these processes may reveal about marginality more broadly. The conjunction of social and geographic marginality is an increasingly visible global phenomenon but many aspects of its social dimensions remain unknown. Do the people in these spaces see themselves as marginal? Does co-habitation produce solidarity or competition? When new groups come in does that change opportunities and experiences of older, more established groups? Is this phenomenon best described as social segregation or hiding? In response to these and other unknowns, the fundamental concern of this research is to develop a general theory of how spatial and social marginality intersect wherever they co-occur. The research will be conducted by University of Vermont anthropologist Dr. Jonah A. Steinberg, who will employ the case study method, alongside a range of techniques of detailed spatial analysis and mapping. He has chosen to conduct the research in the industrial conurbation of Marseille, France, where a long-present pariah group, mobile Roma (sometimes erroneously called "Gypsies") from Danube and Balkan territory in Eastern Europe, are now overlapping extensively with Muslim refugees, in particular from Syria and Afghanistan. This is an appropriate site because it presents a convergence of forces that occur independently elsewhere: a large influx of migrants, attacks by members of transnational political movements, and ascendant nationalisms. He will focus his detailed spatial observations on four hyperdiverse zones of the city with high levels of intercultural contact, incorporating several marketplaces and sites of informal housing. Through participant observation, surveys, interviews, and archival research, with a focus on differentiating consistent inhabitants and shorter-term residents, he will collect data on both people and space, exploring through microspatial analytical methods precisely how individuals and families from multiple groups interact in urban marginal zones over variable scales of time. These data will be complemented with "life cartographies," map-like descriptions of trajectories through space over time elicited from individuals. Results from the research will be shared with policymakers and the research community, and, through partnerships with schools and museums, the broader public.