The Dictionary of Human Geography

The cinema itself is a public space,
which some have argued was particularly
important for women and immigrants in the
early-twentieth-century US city; Hansen
understands it to be a site for the formation
of a counter-public sphere. Much of this has
changed with new technologies of home vid-
eos and DVDs, but Hansen (1995) has been
loathe to understand these new technologies
as simply leading to the diminishment of cin-
ema as counter-public sphere. She speculates
that contemporary film viewers, now used
to having control over their viewing at home,
are more active than they were in the classical
Hollywood period of film spectatorship.
Certainly the material conditions of viewing
film are changing. In North America through
the 1990s, there was a dramatic increase in
the number of screens constructed and a sim-
ultaneous reduction in the number of theatres,
reflecting the construction of multiplexes,
facilities that with multiple screens, typically
located in thesuburbs. These multiplex amuse-
ment spaces generate a different timing and
spacing of film spectatorship (Acland, 2003).
Film (and video) is not simply an object, but
a tool for analysis. Pryke (2002, p. 473) calls
up Lefebvre’s notion ofrhythmanalysisto
introduce his video and audio montage of
urban redevelopment of Potsdamer Platz in
Berlin (http://www.open.ac.uk/socialsciences/
geography/research/berlin/). Concerns with
performanceand life that exceedsdiscourse
(see non-representational theory) have
fuelled interest in using film and video as a
means of representation, and electronic jour-
nals such asACMEnow allow the blending of
textand video (e.g. Pratt and Kirby, 2003).
Media literacy and video production training
has been a useful methodological strategy in
action research. gp

Suggested reading
Aitken and Zonn (1994); Cresswell and Dixon
(2002); Scott (2005); Shiel and Fitzmaurice
(2001).

filtering A process whereby housing value
and status declines over time whilehouse-
holds gain access to increasingly higher-
quality dwellings. The theory emphasizes
marketforces in, and identifies triggers for,
changes in the allocation of housing (see
housing studies;invasion and succession).
The literature includes numerous refinements
to filteringmodels(Galster, 1996) and also
strong critiques of the normative element
in filtering theory, which tends to legitimate

laissez-faireapproaches to housing provision

in which demand from wealthier households

for new housing is expected to open up better

housing for lower-income groups (Gray and

Boddy, 1979). em

Suggested reading

Gray and Boddy (1979).

financial exclusion The process by which

people of poor and moderate incomes are

directly and indirectly excluded from the

formal financial system and denied access to

mainstream retail financial services (see also

money and finance). Financial exclusion

plays an active part in the geographical pro-

duction of poverty, because those

who experience difficulty in gaining access to

formal financial serves tend to belong to dis-

advantaged social groups undergoing multiple

forms of social deprivation (Leyshon and

Thrift, 1997).

Access to mainstream financial services

within contemporary societies is important

because many economic exchanges are now

mediated through financial institutions

through direct transfers between accounts.

Without access to the financial system, indi-

viduals andhouseholdsmay find it more dif-

ficult and expensive to pay bills, while the lack

of access to products such as insurance denies

them the opportunity to shield against risk.

In this sense, having access to a full range of

financial services at a competitive price may be

taken to indicate ‘financial citizenship’. In

large parts of the developing world, the major-

ity of the population may lack financial citi-

zenship, whereas in industrialized countries

such as the USA and the UK it is estimated

that around 10 per cent of the population is

financially excluded (cf.citizenship).

The process of financial exclusion is a prod-

uct of a broader bifurcation of themarketfor

retail financial services. Socio-technologies

such as credit scoring systems sort ‘prime’

from ‘sub-prime’ customers on behalf of

financial institutions. Prime financial markets

are made up of individuals and house-

holds that possess socio-economic and geo-

demographic profiles that make them targets

of the marketing and financial strategies of

retail financial services firms. These middle-

and high-income customers are actively pur-

sued by retail financial services firms, and

may be described as the financially ‘super-

included’, benefiting from intense competition

between institutions for their business. One of

the drivers of this strategy is the tendency

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FILTERING