Philippine E-Journals

Scaling Mauban: The Complexities of Producing Places

Nelson Turgo

 

Abstract:

Places where we live are always perceived to be local. Our place is the repository of our personal relations, of everyday activities, in a way, the place of our everyday life bestows us with spaces of comfort, of familiarity and warmth, far from the madding crowd of atomised living redolent in cities. In the perceived locality of places, we always assume that they have always been like that, that their being local is a given, an inherent subjectivity of place, free from the myriad complications of social relations and struggle, isolated from the tensions and friction of external and internal forces. On the other hand, in the academic field, in territorial and geographical studies, what is local is conceptualised to be whatever is far from the centre, whatever is not urbanised, in a way, referring to life in the periphery, in rural areas, in small communities. However, such understanding of place and locality of places hides from us the complexities of producing places. There is a need, therefore, to broaden and complexify our perceiving and experiencing of places by framing them in the scales of local, national and global. By doing so, what is perceived to be local is in fact imbued with so much external influences and shot through with the involvement of extra-local forces and significations. This is how Mauban, the locus of the study, will be analysed through three of its important historical moments: the construction of a power plant in one of its districts, the annual staging of Maubanog Festival and the popularity of Cagbalete island to local and international tourists. Through these three historical moments, Mauban is presented in all its complexities, a social construction that is shaped by forces from within and without, a place that is not just local, but is also national and global in so many ways.