Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-07T04:20:51.768Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

3 - The spaces of the standoff

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

Robin Wagner-Pacifici
Robin Wagner-Pacifici
Affiliation:
Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
Get access

Summary

The bridge indicates how humankind unifies the separatedness of merely natural being, and the door how it separates the uniform continuous unity of natural being.

(Georg Simmel, “Bridge and Door,” p. 9)

Senator Specter to Randy Weaver: So would you please walk over to the mock-up and point out where your home is located and where that door was located?

Mr. Weaver to Senator Specter: … That all looks pretty good. This is where my son was laying, in this shed here. This is what we called the front door. That door opened like this on that front porch – closed – open –

(Senate Hearings on Ruby Ridge, p. 63)

Just as there is a need to situate the standoff in time, so there is a need to locate it in space. The practical and symbolic imperatives of space provide a multidimensional map for the participants. As well, as anyone who has ever found themselves in a competition for a parking space knows, conflicts over space itself can lead to standoffs. Again in this as in previous chapters, I will carry forward the project to develop an analysis of the contingent elements of standoffs. Here, the goal is to analyze both the binarism of the wealth of dyadic oppositional terms linked to the spaces of standoffs as well as the interactional qualities of the mediating terms and concepts that travel back and forth between them.

Type
Chapter
Information
Theorizing the Standoff
Contingency in Action
 , pp. 96 - 136
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×