The Culture of White Space: On The Racialized Production of Meaning

• Published in: The American behavioral scientist (Beverly Hills) Vol. 64; no. 14; pp. 2001 - 2015
• Main Authors: Brunsma, David L., Chapman, Nathaniel G., Kim, Joong Won, Lellock, J. Slade, Underhill, Megan, Withers, Erik T., Wyse, Jennifer Padilla
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-12-2020; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Cultural values; Culture; Internet; Meaning; Neighborhoods; Production; Race; Racialization; Sociology; Sociology of culture; Understanding; academia; culture; digital space; White space; subculture
• ISSN: 0002-7642; 1552-3381
• DOI: 10.1177/0002764220975081

This article focuses on processes of meaning making in White spaces as the glue that holds their social structures together. Understanding White spaces and how they operate necessitates theoretical development from a cultural perspective. The authors’ research empirically engages with a wide range of White spaces—neighborhoods, subcultural scenes, craft breweries, online digital platforms, and academia, to name a few—and do so from a theoretical space where the two areas of sociology meet: race and culture. We engage with three key questions to theorize the culture of White space: (a) How do these White spaces work? (b) How are these White spaces challenged? (c) How do these White spaces change and/or reproduce themselves? From these engagements, this article develops a general approach to understanding White spaces through understanding their racialized processes of meaning making.