Neighborhood

Foreword
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The question of the neighborhoods we encounter daily is one that is just as important as it is complex. In a space in which varying and unequal power relationships unfold – as in the present-day cultural and economic space – neither a clearly defined place nor a community, much less a local cultural tradition, can simply be regarded as given. They no longer exist as fixed frames of reference. Places are the result of cultural, economic, ethnic, technological and media constructions.
 
Culture scholar Arjun Appadurai introduced the concept of »neighborhood« into the discussion in relation to the idea of »localities.« Neighborhoods in this sense are the virtual or currently existing spatial realization of locality by means of social relations.

Neighborhoods are created not only in reaction to the given ecological and economic conditions, but above all as a way of contrasting and distinguishing themselves from others. Appadurai’s ideas about the social construction of locality are the result of pondering the consequences of a »global cultural flow.« Despite what many people think, locality, according to Appadurai, is actually quite a fragile social achievement. …>>