Place, identity and Culture

At the moment I am studying for making a PhD proposal. The area in which I am researching is place, identity and culture. My interest started while doing this project, so it is kind of a continuity of this project.

I'll keep posting here some quotes I come across that I find interesting and relevant to the subject of this blog.

“(…) migrants are not ‘exceptional’ people – ‘others’. On the contrary (…). Nowadays, in the western world, only a minority of people are born, live their entire lives and die in the same rural community or urban neighbourhood.” (Massey and Jess, A place in the world, 1995, p.7)

“the migrant’s sense of place and of personal identity often involves a duality – ‘here’ and ‘there’ – which is an important aspect of their lives. When they are abroad they tend to identify with home, when they are home they identify with abroad.” (Massey and Jess, A place in the world, 1995, p.29)
-- This quote I could relate myself. I just came back from Brazil, where I come from. I went there after almost 2 years I'm leaving in the UK. Although I try to keep my mind the most open as possible to see and accept the differences between the two places, and I'm always questioning national culture, when I was there I could relate myself to my life here, the culture I am leaving here. And when I am here, I relate myself to the culture there. I guess it is just a matter of I'm related to the two (and of course more than two) cultures.


More quotes to come.

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