SPATIALITY AND SOCIAL-CHANGE - DOMESTIC SPACE USE IN MEXICO AND THE UNITED-STATES

This article analyzes housing as a culturally mediated phenomenon, as a subtle but powerful means of enculturation by which perceptions of reality are learned and revised. Based on a transnational, multigenerational comparison of the uses and designs of domestic space in parts of Jalisco, Mexico, and the United States, it argues that sociospatial relations are integral to the continuing process of social change for Mexicans living in the United States and migrant workers returning to Mexico. It further suggests that conflicting conceptual and spatial frameworks become a means by which the dominant society attempts to assimilate and control subordinates.