Assembling "Japantown"? A critical toponymy of urban dispossession in Vancouver, Canada
department or school: Non UBC
data provider: DSpace
identifier citation: Wideman, T. J., and Masuda, J. R. (2018). Assembling "Japantown"? A critical toponymy of urban dispossession in Vancouver, Canada. Urban Geography, 39(4): 493-518.
creator: Wideman, Trevor James
creator: Masuda, Jeffery R.
issued: 2019-08-01T07:00:00+0000
issued: 2018-08
description: Geographic scholarship in critical toponymy has highlighted the importance of place naming as a form of discursive power within processes of urbanization. This paper builds on such literature and advances a novel theory of toponymic assemblage to interpret findings from a participatory research project in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Canada. We foreground neighborhood history in the form of a Japanese Canadian enclave and its wartime uprooting and dispossession, and trace the historical antecedents of a resurrected toponymy of “Japantown” that has appropriated and renarrated Japanese Canadian history to facilitate further rounds of dispossession. Using a genealogical method, we highlight three “moments” of Japanese Canadian uprooting, return, presence, and activism, demonstrating how toponymies are assembled in place in heterogeneous and historically contiguous ways. This approach expands on current research in critical toponymy, offering a novel methodology for exploring the enrolment of toponymy, discourse, and materiality in the formation of place.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/67263
note: 1 Paper Title: Assembling "Japantown"? A critical toponymy of urban dispossession in Vancouver, Canada. Authors: Corresponding Author: Trevor James Wideman, Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University 8888 University Dr. Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6. Ph: (778) 996-4937 email: twideman@sfu.ca Twitter: @trevorwideman1 Second Author: Jeffrey R. Masuda School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, Queen’s University 28 Division St. Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6 Ph: (613) 533-6000 x77560 email: jeff.masuda@queensu.ca 1 Research was conducted at Department of Geography and Planning, Queen’s University, Mackintosh-Corry Hall, Room D201, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6 Ph: (778) 996-4937 email: trevor.wideman@queensu.ca Twitter: @trevorwideman 2 Assembling "Japantown"? A critical toponymy of urban dispossession in Vancouver, Canada. Geographic scholarship in critical toponymy has highlighted the importance of place naming as a form of discursive power within processes of urbanization. This paper builds on such literature and advances a novel theory of toponymic assemblage to interpret findings from a participatory research project in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, Canada. We foreground neighborhood history in the form of a Japanese Canadian enclave and its wartime uprooting and dispossession, and trace the historical antecedents of a resurrected toponymy of “Japantown” that has appropriated and renarrated Japanese Canadian history to facilitate further rounds of dispossession. Using a genealogical method, we highlight three “moments” of Japanese Canadian uprooting, return, presence, and activism, demonstrating how toponymies are assembled in place in heterogeneous and historically contiguous ways. This approach expands on current research in critical toponymy, offering a novel methodology for exploring the enrolment of toponymy, discourse, and materiality in the formation of place. Keywords: Critical Toponymy, Assemblage, Japanese Canadians, Downtown Eastside, …
has type: Article
has type: Postprint
spatial: Downtown-Eastside (Vancouver, B.C.)
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0372159
language: eng
peer review status: Reviewed
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher DOI: 10.1080/02723638.2017.1360038
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Faculty
scholar level: Postdoctoral
subject: Critical Toponymy
subject: Assemblage
subject: Japanese Canadians
subject: Downtown Eastside
subject: Dispossession
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/67263