This paper aims to analyze critically the statement on the wall of the city ceremony in Chicago “Graffiti taught me everything I know about place” (Nandrea, 1999) by associating with the concepts and theories of cultural geography.
This paper consists of five sections. The next section briefly introduces the history of advancements in the study of cultural geography and explains why cultural geographers began to analyze Graffiti. The third section describes concepts and theories of place, and how these relate to Graffiti. The fourth section considers the relationship between place and power, and how Graffiti deeply associates with power. The final section concludes with summarized discussion of the statement and some remarks.
2. History of Advancements in Cultural Geography
To understand the contemporary geographers’ approach of cultural geography, it firstly traces its history of advancements to see why Graffiti became important in analyzing the place. This paper takes a look from Traditional
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Thus, they convert space into the Place. This also can be understood that people define their identities by giving the meanings to the places, so that the place is no more just geographical space, but as well as culture and inseparable with the definition of ourselves (p.37). Agnew and Duncan introduced three dimensions of place: location, locale and sense of place. The combination of these three creates people’s emotional bond with the place, senses of belongings (p.41) and give them a chance to define their identities. Some people even feel topophilia or try to fix and make secure their places because they are afraid of invasion from outsiders to change geographically and culturally the meaning of their places as well as the definition of their identities even though the place is always changed its