Space Invaders

02/24/23 • 31 min

Though she was a life-long Liverpool FC fan, Doreen Massey felt like a “space invader” whenever she attended matches, as she’d often be one of the few women on football terraces. Inspired by Massey’s usage of the term, sociologist Nirmal Puwar developed it into a sociological concept to understand “what happens when women and racialized minorities take up ‘privileged’ positions which have not been ‘reserved’ for them”. What kind of bodies are the somatic norm? What are the conditions of inclusion?

Spatial Delight host Agata Lisiak speaks with Nirmal Puwar about her book Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (2004), and about the postcolonial acts of space invading that Nirmal and her collaborators staged in Coventry’s iconic cathedral.

We’d love to hear your stories too. Are you a space invader? Please share your experiences with us here
Episode Credits
Host: Agata LisiakGuest: Nirmal Puwar
Also Featured: Doreen Massey
Writer and Producer: Agata Lisiak
Senior Editor: Susan Stone
Sound Producer: Reece Cox
Production Assistant: Adèle Martin
Music: Studio R
Artwork: Bose Sarmiento
Special Thanks to: Nitin Sawhney, Kuldip Powar
In partnership with: The Sociological Review Foundation
Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation

Find more about Spatial Delight at The Sociological Review.

Episode Resources

Doreen Massey’s work quoted or mentioned in this episode:

Space, Place and Gender (Polity Press, 1994)
When Theory Meets Politics, Antipode, 40.3 (2008)

Nirmal Puwar’s selected works:

Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (Bloomsbury, 2004)
The Noise of the Past
Unraveling, a film directed by Kuldip Powar, music by Nitin Sawhney, produced by Nirmal Puwar and Sanjay Sharma, 2008
Meetings: John Berger in the Library, an essay from A Jar of Wild Flowers, 2016
Walking Through Litter in Life Writing Projects
Indomitable Mint in The Garden Zine
Compiling Maxwell Street by Tim Cresswell, Sociological Review Magazine, 2019
In Memoriam: Tree Felling at The Plaza and In Transition: Comrades for the City – films by Adele Mary Reed in collaboration with Nirmal Puwar and Paul Chokran
Puwar, N. and Sharma, S. 2011. Introduction: War Cries, The Senses and Society, 6:3, 261-266.

Find more about Spatial Delight at The Sociological Review.

Episode Resources

Doreen Massey’s work quoted or mentioned in this episode:

Space, Place and Gender (Polity Press, 1994)
When Theory Meets Politics, Antipode, 40.3 (2008)

Nirmal Puwar’s selected works:

Space Invaders: Race, Gender and Bodies Out of Place (Bloomsbury, 2004)
The Noise of the Past
Unraveling, a film directed by Kuldip Powar, music by Nitin Sawhney, produced by Nirmal Puwar and Sanjay Sharma, 2008
Meetings: John Berger in the Library, an essay from A Jar of Wild Flowers, 2016
Walking Through Litter in Life Writing Projects
Indomitable Mint in The Garden Zine
Compiling Maxwell Street by Tim Cresswell, Sociological Review Magazine, 2019
In Memoriam: Tree Felling at The Plaza and In Transition: Comrades for the City – films by Adele Mary Reed in collaboration with Nirmal Puwar and Paul Chokran
Puwar, N. and Sharma, S. 2011. Introduction: War Cries, The Senses and Society, 6:3, 261-266.

Previous Episode

Cities for the Many Not the Few

For Doreen Massey, every place poses a challenge, “the challenge of negotiating a here-and-now” – or what she called throwntogetherness. In this episode, we hear about different struggles to make cities more liveable – and more just – for the many, not the few. We discuss various limitations of the dominant political structures and why it is crucial to put continuous pressure on those who hold power.

Agata Lisiak and her co-host for this episode, Anna Richter, speak to geographer Ash Amin about urban commons and social empowerment. Urban scholar Carmel Christy K J tells us about the intersections of social and environmental justice in the port city of Kochi, and anthropologist Ayşe Çavdar uncovers the politics of mass housing projects in Turkey. Also, Anna and Agata make use of the sunny weather to go to a park and ask Berliners what they think makes a good city.

What do you think makes a good city? Please let us know by filling out this form.

Episode Credits

Host: Agata Lisiak
Co-host: Anna Richter
Guests: Ash Amin, Carmel Christy, Ayşe Çavdar
Also Featured: Doreen Massey
Writer and Producer: Agata Lisiak
Senior Editor: Susan Stone
Sound Producer: Reece Cox
Production Assistant: Adèle Martin
Music: Studio R
Artwork: Bose Sarmiento
Special Thanks: Serpentine Gallery
In partnership with: The Sociological Review Foundation
Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation

Find more about Spatial Delight at The Sociological Review.

Episode Resources
Doreen Massey’s work quoted or mentioned in this episode:
Doreen Massey interviewed at London’s Serpentine Gallery, 2006
Cities for the Many Not the Few, with Ash Amin and Nigel Thrift (Policy Press, 2000)
For Space (Sage, 2003)
On Space and the City. In: City Worlds, edited by John Allen, Doreen Massey and Steve Pile (Routledge, 1999)

Recommended resources:
Land of Strangers, Ash Amin (Polity, 2013)
Grammars of the Urban Ground, edited by Ash Amin and Michele Lancione (Duke UP, 2022)
Ekümenopolis, dir. Ucu Olmayan Şehir (2012)
Geniş Zaman – a weekly YouTube program on contemporary political issues hosted by Ayşe Çavdar and Aysuda Kölemen (in Turkish)
The ‘Deutsche Wohnen & Co enteignen’ initiative
Housing Expropriation Referendum in Berlin: How it was won and what comes next?, Urban Political podcast, 2021
Housing Struggles in Berlin: Part I Rent Cap, Urban Political podcast, 2021
Housing struggles in Berlin: Part II Grassroots Expropriation Activism, Urban Political podcast, 2021
Richter, A. and D. Humphry. 2021. Ja! Damit Berlin unser Zuhause bleibt! That Berlin will remain our home! حتى تظل برلين بيتنا Berlin evimiz k

Next Episode

Geographical Imaginations

Host Agata Lisiak meets with artist and academic Heba Y. Amin at the Zilberman Gallery in Berlin. Professor Amin gives us a tour of her exhibition, When I See the Future, I Close My Eyes, and discusses how colonial and imperialist violence continues to shape our present. Her art demonstrates that technologies – even, or perhaps especially, those that appear to be “objective” – are inherently biased in favour of some populations and actually violent against others. Her art practice involves meticulous research and rigorous, subversive engagement with archives. She uses simulation, appropriation, restaging and humour to contest and disrupt dominant geographical imaginations.
We'd love to hear how art inspires you to question geographical imaginations. Is there an art piece that made you reflect on how you imagine the world and your place in it? A performance, photograph or film that has prompted a shift in your perspective? Please take a moment to fill out this form and share your thoughts with us.
Episode Credits

Host: Agata Lisiak
Guest: Heba Y. Amin
Writer and Producer: Agata Lisiak
Senior Editor: Susan Stone
Sound Producer: Reece Cox
Production Assistant: Adèle Martin
Music: Studio R
Artwork: Bose Sarmiento
Special thanks to: Zilberman Gallery
In partnership with: The Sociological Review Foundation
Funded by: Volkswagen Foundation
Find more about Spatial Delight at The Sociological Review.
Episode Resources
Doreen Massey’s work quoted or mentioned in this episode:

The Shape of the World (The Open University, 1995)
A Place in the World, edited by Doreen Massey and Pat Jess (The Open University, 1995)
World City (Wiley, 2007)

Heba Y. Amin’s work:

Windows on the West, hand-woven Jacquard textile, 2019
Marseille’s Pyramid, sculpture and video work, 2019
Atom Elegy, miniature model and live photo reconstruction, 2022
Operation Sunken Sea, installation, performance, video, 2018
The Earth is an Imperfect Ellipsoid, photography, text, projection, 2016
The General’s Stork, mixed media, 2016 - ongoing
The General’s Stork (Sternberg Press 2020)
As Birds Flying كما تحلق الطيور video, 2016
Heba Y. Amin’s website
Zilberman Gallery website

Find more about Heba Y. Amin's work at The Sociological Review

Spatial Delight - Space Invaders

Transcript

Nirmal Puwar reading Doreen Massey00:00:02.520

"And all of it -- all of these acres of Manchester -- was divided up into football pitches and rugby pitches ... the whole vast area would be covered with hundreds of little people, all running around after balls, as far as the eye could see. I remember all this very sharply. And I remember, too, it striking me very clearly -- even then, as a puzzled, slightly thoughtful little girl -- that all this huge stretch of the Me