Boundary Work: Historicizing the Spatial Fix in Atlanta’s Racial Landscape

Coleman Allums, Allegheny College

This paper develops a geographic theory of boundary work. Working through a set of historical and contemporary cases in Atlanta, it demonstrates the ways in which the reproduction and reterritorialization of boundaries—both material and imaginary—can serve to consolidate white capital accumulation and political hegemony in the face of perceived threats. In this way, such efforts represent what the urban geographer David Harvey calls a spatial fix. By reading across historical examples (e.g. redlining, informal segregation, municipal incorporation and annexation, and urban secession), this paper excavates a coherent theory of boundary work that links disparate moments of racial exclusion on the urban landscape, suggesting avenues for further research across multiple geographic scales.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 36. Mapping Atlanta's Historical Geographies of Race, Class, and Justice II