Indelible stain: territorial stigmatization and the limits of resistance

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the impact of territorial stigma in Limerick, a peripheral Irish city, and whether such stigma can be successfully resisted. It begins by exploring the development of the concept of territorial stigma and its five key characteristics. We reflect on how stigmatization has impacted communities in this city. We then utilize Katz’s (2004) three dimensions of resistance—resistance (denoting an ‘oppositional consciousness’), resilience (denoting coping with life under territorial stigma) and reworking (denoting the recasting of the objects of stigmatization through alternative interpretations) to make sense of how stigmatized identities are being challenged/erased/masked in the context of a top-down ‘rebranding’ of Limerick City. Ultimately the article argues that the capacity of grassroots resistance alone to alter discourses, which although locally focused are intermeshed with much larger ideological conflicts, is questionable.