Introduction: Critical Spatial Literacy is Urgent Political Praxis

Abstract

One thing established clearly in my mind, through intuition¹ and the theorizing practice of my everyday learning,² is that the power of spatial configurations and conceptualizations in our everyday social practices and ideological constructions of place and identity cannot be denied. Also when it comes to issues of power and socio-physical space, predominantly black women³ were—and still are—at the bottom of the barrel at which level classism, racism, sexism, and/or nationalism most violently intersect. This phenomenon is evident in various forms and degrees all over our (post)modern⁴ world, especially within the urban context; hence, you will find that black women are often in a majority at the bottom of the urban power hierarchy, in “Third World” cities such as Accra, as much as in Western cities like London. The unequal development of these urban spaces is clearly represented in the low spatial positioning of black women. The low spatial positioning of these women also has grave implications for their power struggles for place in the social construction of urban spatiality, their understanding of their resultant social practices, and most importantly their identity construction. And yet as Black⁵ women, we are not necessarily literate in the politics of space and how it affects our spatial configurations, social practices, and sense of place.