Urbanities,
Vol. 3
·
No 1
·
May 2013
© 2013
Urbanities
57
non-buraku, as well as other migrant identities and personal experiences, as homogeneous
social spaces is challenged and re-defined in view of more complex identity factors.
In this context, the reconstruction of urban spaces occurs through the employment of
‘marginal’ features and their integration into the environment. This integration is not a mere
process of inclusion but a form of re-ordering of the buraku and of all their associated images
and social relations. As a result, ethnic identities are not seen as discontinuous, separated and
rooted in different dimensions. Buraku people, migrants, Japanese, individual and collective
stories and experiences are extended and cross borders thereby inhabiting new landscapes in
which these dimensions meet and intertwine. Challenging the fragmented landscape of these
dimensions contributes to our understanding of the connection between social change and
difference (Gupta and Ferguson 1997).
