European Conference On Urban Innovations Seville 6 8 October 1993

Author : Eve Darian-Smith
Publisher : Univ of California Press
ISBN 13 : 9780520921832
Total Pages : 292 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (218 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Download or read book Bridging Divides written by Eve Darian-Smith and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1999-10-01 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a study that is original and timely, Eve Darian-Smith uses the Channel Tunnel between England and France to explore the shifting geographies of nationalism, postcolonialism, and legal autonomy in the formation of the European Union. Conducting ethnographic research in Kent, the county at the English mouth of the Tunnel, she looks at regional differences in feelings about Europe and at the vocabulary used in discussing the Tunnel. Visual representations—political cartoons, photographs, etchings—regarding the Tunnel are also examined. Two hundred years after Napoleon planned to invade England via a tunnel, the completion in 1994 of a fast rail link between Great Britain and the European mainland symbolizes the disintegration of conventional state borders. While the Tunnel precariously affirms the ideal of a united Europe, it also brings to the fore questions of boundaries between the first and third worlds, colonizers and colonized, and the "East" and the "West." Bridging Divides is about much more than an engineering feat. By exploring historical narratives, tunnel stories, and legal myths, Darian-Smith's study shows the interconnections between people's memories of the past and current history.