Imaginaries, nostalgia, affect and sociospatial change: An embodied theory of belonging and displacement

Cities are, most fundamentally, spaces characterized by density and heterogeneity.  As such, urbanites and visitors are regularly bombarded with a dizzying range of sensory experiences.  

Prevailing understandings of how individuals navigate and situate themselves within complex spatial and social arrangements are primarily cognitive, focusing on the process of incorporating and making these stimuli legible to the experiencing subject.  Yet, new scholarship on embodiment and affect provides a more robust alternative to this cognitive orientation.