2.3 Watching the programme

There are two main themes to consider as you watch the programme:

• (a) Image and identity

  • Note down examples of images of Glasgow. What/who is represented? What/who is not represented? Are there different interpretations of the images? Has this image been challenged – how and by whom?

  • You could use a rough matrix to help in this. For example:

Click here to open a printable matrix for your notes.

• (b) Uniqueness and interdependence

  • What wider (global) relationships have contributed to Glasgow's (local) character/distinctiveness?

1. Briefly, try to develop the two themes in Activity 1 in relation to concepts of geographical imaginations, power relations, local-global relations.

• (a) Starting with your notes about images:

  • What do these images contribute to Glasgow's identity?

  • How have the images been ‘constructed’?

  • Whose interests have been represented and whose suppressed?

  • How is this conflict of interests represented?

  • What do we mean by ‘multiple identities’?

  • How can a place mean more than just one thing?

  • What does all this tell us about power relations in Glasgow?

• (b) Using your examples of local-global relationships:

  • How has Glasgow's uniqueness been constructed and reconstructed? What interrelationships have been involved?

  • In what ways does Glasgow's identity result from ‘what Glasgow is not’?

• (c) Note briefly how we have used our concept of geographical imaginations to explore Glasgow's uniqueness.

2. Think about these issues in relation to another place or other places.

• What is being represented/promoted?

• Who gains and who loses?

3. The main points to grasp from this programme are:

• that ‘image and identity’ are central to our geographical imagination;

• that images and identities are socially constructed and are not neutral or objective: how we define a place reflects and affects our attitudes towards it and our experience of it;

• that images are selective;

• that places have multiple identities;

• that images and identities are open to and reflect varied interpretations;

• that these interpretations may frequently be contested;

• that uniqueness of place is constructed out of local-global interdependencies.