Weaving the Everyday: Identity, Space, and Power in Lawrence, Massachusetts, 1920-1939

The idea of a constellation of relations is adopted here to examine the multiple identities, spaces, and powers that make up a sense of identity-in-place. The personal accounts of textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts, recalling political actions in work, community, and home relations in the 1920s and 1930s, are used to suggest social-spatial mechanisms through which identity, space, and power were related. Particular attention is paid to the ways in which workers' varied experiences of the social relations of production (as created by divisions of labor, production strategies of an efficiency-driven industry, and "flexible" employment arrangements) influenced the form and space of political action in everyday life. It is suggested that by looking at everyday power-political acts, the spaces through which they occur, and the identities of the actors, a better understanding can be achieved of the intersection of identity, space, and power.