ABSTRACT
This chapter begins to look at the ways that experiences, representations and perceptions of places are the outcome of a complex and often 'lopsided' struggle between different social and cultural groups. Power is not something that is held by an elite, who carve up the world as they would wish; rather it is exercised from innumerable points and involves a constant struggle between different social cultural groups. Conflicts over the meaning and use of place are of major significance in reaffirming or contesting existing power relations; as such, transgressions may prompt attempts to reassert social and spatial order. Transgressions may be obvious, physical disorderings of place or subtle, symbolic parodies of convention, The impact of either, however, depends on who is transgressing and who notices. Generalizing about the meaning of resistance is clearly problematic; struggles for place can therefore only be understood in relation to the specific cultural politics of place.
