Normalizing urban inequality: cinematic imaginaries of difference in postcolonial Amsterdam

Combining insights from critical urban studies with geographies of race and racism, this article examines the role of spatial imaginaries in normalizing urban inequalities, showing how such imaginaries make the associations between places and populations appear natural. We extend analyses of the interplay between material landscapes and imaginative geographies to examine how these connections feature in processes of gentrification and displacement and emphasize the necessity of an intersectional approach in understanding the cultural underpinnings of urban change. We propose that such analyses of dominant spatial imaginaries benefit from attention to their colonial roots, given the persistence of monomythical explorer-hero narratives and the mapping of reworked colonial imaginative geographies onto contemporary postcolonial cities. Our analysis focuses on Amsterdam, the popular Dutch film Alleen Maar Nette Mensen and the spatiality of difference that its ‘monomyth’ narrative presents. It justifies an unequal urban order by contrasting Amsterdam’s city centre, which is depicted as White, middle-class and ‘civilized’, with the post-war urban periphery, which is cast as a mysterious place of racialized poverty, squalor and pathological behaviour. This culturally essentialist depiction contributes to the depoliticization of state-led gentrification and normalizes changes to the material cityscape

And the Screenwriter Created Man: Male Characterisation in Bromance and Bromedy

Recent discussions of gender and screenwriting have largely focused on the perennial problem of the female character, and the continued need for writers to avoid clichés and stereotypical forms of characterisation (e.g. Seger (1996); Francke (1994); Jacey (2010); Silverstein (2013)). However, when the bromance and the bromedy/bromcom are flourishing as recognisable mainstream sub-genres in both film and television series, critical attention to the approaches screenwriters might take in the creation of the male character is remarkably lacking. This absence raises questions about male representation and the screenwriter’s role in developing characters that promote positive images of men and male identity

EXPANDING THE LIMITS OF POWER: The Federal Reserve and the Implementation of Functional Regulation in the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Era

Research on bureaucratic behavior suggests that agencies are more likely to use the implementation process to extend their power and influence under particular circumstances. I argue that when an agency has been delegated considerable power by Congress, but provided only vague guidance on how to implement this authority, an atmosphere of uncertainty and competition is created. Under such a circumstance the agency will feel pressured to further extend its power in order to defend its regulatory turf against competitors and protect the authority it was delegated. I test this proposition by examining the behavior of the Federal Reserve as it implements the functional regulation provisions of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Evidence from the Federal Reserve's dealings with the Securities and Exchange Commission during the approval of the Schwab - U. S. Trust merger provides evidence that the Fed is indeed acting to extend its power and influence. Copyright 2002 by The Policy Studies Organization.