The Dictionary of Human Geography (146 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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phenomena for their own sake, irrespective of their relevance to the spatial characterisation of man's occu pancy and exploitation ... (Chorley, 1971, p. 95) (NEW PARAGRAPH) For Chorley, there were several ways forward for physical geography to avoid increasing divergence within geography and to ensure ?relevance? to science and society beyond: common application of techniques and methods (model building and increasingly, GIS); study of resources and development; and (general) systems theory (GST), in large part adapted from Ludwig von Bertalanffy (a biologist). Of these, only the last topic was new, and for Chorley, it was only this that provided a truly integrating concept and a widely transferable approach: (NEW PARAGRAPH) . . . systems can be visualised as three dimensional structures in which the very complicated flows and relationships forming the socio economic spatial decision making systems interpenetrate the physical process response systems ... (ibid., p. 22) (NEW PARAGRAPH) Chorley attempted, for a modern generation, to reconnect (physical) geography with the integrative strands of natural science, and to recapture for the subject the high ground of ambition and application (brilliantly revived in Stoddart, 1986). GST was the best way to date of representing those elusive linkages and connections (i.e. patterns and processes) that were fundamental to geography from Victorian times. The systems approach trans ferred readily, and enduringly, to physical geography (see Chorley and Kennedy, 1971), but appeared overly mechanistic and control orientated (see, e.g., Bennett and Chorley, 1978), with the ascendancy of humanistic per spectives. There quickly followed a time when, as Haggett (1990, p. 152) put it, consensus around a common nature of areal differenti ation and common methodology evaporated as human geography was ?Cut off from its older geographical roots . . . ? and drifted towards the social sciences. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Aside from the overt concerns with discip linary definitions and coherence, the mid to late twentieth century was not devoid of important substantive scholarly, as well as practical achievements by physical geograph ers. With hindsight, these also provided important points of attachment with contem porary scientific and environmental agendas. Barry and Chorley (1968), for example, helped to keep alive synoptic climatology as a foundational strand of physical geograph ical study, and their book was followed by more technically and scientifically challen ging texts such as Oke?s on boundary layer climates (1978), and Henderson Sellers? and McGuffie?s (1989) early contribution to cli matic modelling. All of these are now con sidered ?classics? and have run into multiple editions. With respect to climatic history, substantiating the character and scale of nat ural environmental change was arguably one of physical geography?s greatest achieve ments in this period. Contributions by physical geographers remain fundamental to the sub discipline of Quaternary studies (see Goudie, 1977, and its numerous editions for review). The traditional emphasis on human environmental interaction was also not forgotten, with physical geographers and physical geography very well represented in the landmark text, Man?s role in changing the face of the Earth (Thomas, 1956), and in its successors such as Manners and Mikeswell (1974) and Goudie (1981). (This latter volume offers a very accessible synthesis of the diverse geographical and non geographical literature in its several newer editions.) (NEW PARAGRAPH) Another strong manifestation of physical geography in the later twentieth century occurred in environment and development studies, with the fusion of political economic analysis and scientific technical environmen tal expertise into what is now termed political ecology. Works by Blaikie (1985) and Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) are paradigmatic exem plars, and again offer enhanced valence with a much wider (geographical) literature and through the study of globalization, economics and uneven development. In the USA, for example, Butzer (2002) places concern for environment and development at the heart of a reinvigoration of physical geography that has been able to shape and enact globally signifi cant agendas outside, as well as within aca demic circles. A good example of this is the conservation and environmental move ment, where physical geographers have been central in charting its origins and changing characteristics, and in defining and populariz ing new directions see, for example, the very different perspectives offered by Grove (NEW PARAGRAPH) , Pepper (1996) and Adams (2004). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Returning to a disciplinary theme, by the 1990s, geography inhabited a post paradigmatic world (Abler, Marcus and Olson, 1992) and there seemed renewed pos sibilities to revisit older themes and once more to look for disciplinary coherence, if not unity. Indeed, physical geography was itself punctu ated by a series of debates examining post positivist epistemologies (notably realism) and hence ontological depth (Rhoads and Thorne, 1996). Both it and human geography might thus visit intellectual territory, if not with common purpose, then jointly armed with methodological and philosophical sophis tication. There are, too, signs of more aware ness of the role of physical geography and physical geographers in defining and progress ing the discipline as a whole (Matthews and Herbert, 2004). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Outside the discipline, there are strong imperatives for the repositioning of academic approaches favourable to, if not reliant upon, physical geography. Systems approaches are being revisited across many disciplines, with a deeper theoretical perspective and the enhanced vocabulary of ?complexity studies? (see complexity theory). Environmental debate increasingly identifies an essential link age between science, ethics and sustainability, which necessitates both mechanistic and humanistic modes of analysis (Nordgren, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . Academic subjects are reordering, with inter and trans disciplinarity not merely becoming fashionable but seen as prerequis ites to tackle more complex environmental and societal issues (see especially the concept and consequences of hybridity Whatmore, 2002a). In this climate, it would seem obvious that: (NEW PARAGRAPH) . . . widening the existing divide would be a tragic mistake that would weaken the dis cipline at a time when . . . society needs a synthetic, coherent view of how humanity uses and abuses the physical environment ... (Abler, Marcus and Olson, 1992, p. 397) (NEW PARAGRAPH) Gregory (2005c), in perhaps the most com prehensive evaluation of the recent scope and history of physical geography, provides a wel ter of optimistic scenarios for its engagement to this task (see figure 3). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The recent identification of sustainability science (Kates, Clark, Corell et al., 2001) is a clear example of physical geography being used to identify and coordinate trans discplinary agendas that respond to large scale, complex and hybrid environment society development issues. The growing abil ity of gis to move from the realms of a research technology to practical application, particu larly when used in tandem with a vastly increased information flow from a variety of remote platforms spanning observations of the human and biophysical world, would also seem to make the case for the renewed pros pering of physical geography a compelling one. Nonetheless, there are warning signals, for while Gregory reiterates one of those crit ical attributes defining physical geography, whose purpose: (NEW PARAGRAPH) ... is to understand how the Earth?s phys ical environment is the basis for and is affected by human activity. (Gregory, 2005, p. xxvii) (NEW PARAGRAPH) It is this emphasis that over a long period, has so divided and, paradoxically, often down graded the subject outside particular ?applied' studies. Expectations are raised, to be disap pointed in the follow through. Crucially, the new millennium is a time when physical geog raphy conducted on the margins of, or away from, the geographical arena is very strong. A new scientific network devoted to Earth systems science has developed, which claims the same human environment agenda, and that may be better placed to take advantage of wider intellectual and analytical advances, and to fulfil societal needs (Pitman, 2005). The natural claims of physical geography to privilege as an environmental discipline thus need to show an added value that transcends that derived from the collected expertise of others. It is, for example, quite possible to view physical (and environmental) geog raphy) as smaller components in a very broad, holistic science environment frame work that claims much of the same intellec tual heritage and rationale as geography itself (see figure 4). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Once more, then, the hunt is on for a dis tinctive way forward, and for a more robust means of integrating physical geography into geography and science as a whole. njc (NEW PARAGRAPH) physical geography 4: The relations between landscape, conservation, geography and landscape ecology (NEW PARAGRAPH) (Wascher, 2005) (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Chorley (1971); Fenneman (1919); Gregory (2005), which includes a reprint of Chorley (1971); Pitman (2005); Rhoads and Thorne (1996); Turner (2002) and subsequent discus sions. (NEW PARAGRAPH)
Pirenne thesis
A modeL of the relations between international trade and urbaniza tion in post Roman and medieval europe, proposed by the Belgian historian Henri Pirenne (1862 1935) (Pirenne, 1925, 2001 [1937]). The fall of the Roman Empire in ad 476 produced a politico military crisis, but (NEW PARAGRAPH) Pirenne argued that the major economic shock to the urban system came much later, from the Islamic conquest of the eastern Mediterranean and North Africa, Sicily and southern Spain (al Andalus) in the eighth century. Long dis tance Mediterranean trade was cut ?with the elemental force of a cosmic cataclysm', and the urban foundations of Europe crumbled as it was ?forced to live by its own resources?. Europe fractured into a series of cellular, insu lar regions. It was not until the tenth and eleventh centuries, so Pirenne claimed, after the Christian Reconquista in Spain and the military campaigns of the Crusades, that commercial recovery revived the fortunes of cities: ?Just as the trade of the west disap peared with the shutting off of its foreign mar kets, just so it was renewed when these markets were re opened.? Merchants led the urban revival, spearheaded by cities in the south (especially Venice) and on the North Atlantic coast (Bruges), where they settled in grey zones close to but outside former, pre urban fortified enclaves: the faubourg or portus. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Later work has used archaeological, numis matic and textual sources to show that the Mediterranean remained a practicable trade route throughout this period, however, though activity was concentrated in the more secure central zones, and that trade was also vigorous along the Atlantic and Baltic coasts. Still more arrestingly, McCormick (2001) argued that communications between the Frankish empire and the eastern Mediterranean surged in the final decades of the eight and ninth centuries, so that Islam did not so much ?apply the coup de grace to a moribund late Roman system? as offer ?the wealth and markets which would fire the first rise of Europe? and its commercial economy (see also Hodges and Whitehouse, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . It is now also clear that towns ?of unambiguously commercial character? grew in north west Europe from the seventh and multiplied in the eight and ninth centuries, with important implications for both geog raphies of local and long distance trade and the role of merchants in shaping urban morphology (see Verhulst, 1999). dg (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Hodges and Whitehouse (1983); Verhulst (1989). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
pixel
The term ?pixel? is a corrupted abbre viation of picture element the individual elements arranged in columns and rows to form a rectangular, composite image. For example, a 1980s VGA (Video Graphics Array) monitor had a maximum resolution of 640 x 480 pixels (with 16 colours), whereas a modern Super VGA monitor can have 1,024 x 768 pixels (and 16,777,216 colours!). Raising the number of pixels per fixed area increases the resolution of an image, but also the amount of information to be processed and stored. Consequently, raster images are often compressed, as are digital photo graphs (as JPEGs) and DVD frames (using MPEG2). rh (NEW PARAGRAPH)
place
In a generic sense, a place is a geo graphical locale of any size or configuration, comparable to equally generic meanings of area, region or location. In human geog raphy and the humanities more generally, however, place is often attributed with greater significance (cf. landscape). It is sometimes defined as a human wrought transformation of a part of the Earth?s surface or of pre existing, undifferentiated space. It is usually distinguished by the cultural or subjective meanings through which it is constructed and differentiated, and is understood by most human geographers to be in an incessant state of ?becoming? (Pred, 1984). Place is a central concept in human geography in general and in cultural geography in particular, but there has also been renewed interest in the concept in economic geography, where it stands for the necessity of economic processes to be grounded in specific locales and for those locales to be proactive competitors within the global economy (Massey, 1984; Harvey, 1989b). For many geographers, place and the differences between places are the very stuff of geography, the raw materials that give the discipline its warrant (cf. areal differenti ation). But the potential interchangeability of place with other concepts is a sticking point. Place, region, area and so on all can denote a unit of space that has discrete boundaries, shared internal characteristics, and that changes over time and interacts with other similar units. What then makes place a dis tinctive concept? There are three arenas of discussion of special interest: (NEW PARAGRAPH) The idea that place, to be a place, necessarily has meaning. Although there are glim mers of this idea throughout the history of geography, it grew in popularity in the modern discipline with the rise of humanistic geography. Tuan (1977), Relph (1976) and a host of others approached place as a subjectively sensed and experienced phenomenon. Often taking their inspiration from phe nomenology, humanistic geographers regarded place as not only the phenom enological ground for geography but also an irreducible component of human experience, without which human experience itself could not be constituted and interpreted. Such experiences included perceptions of place, senses of place and human dwelling in and mem ories of place (see environmental per ception; memory). These were understood to be formative of the unique experiences of individuals, while also being specific to different cultures. Places themselves were understood as unique, meaningful material construc tions that reflected and articulated cul tural perceptions and habits. With the rise of feminist geographies and a ?new' cultural geography in the 1980s, place was understood less through the notion of a self adequate, intentional human subject and more through the lens of power laden social relations through which human subjects were at once constituted and de centred. That is, subjects were not understood as authors of their own intentions and meanings, but as bearers of social iden tities that they did not themselves cre ate. Place meanings came to be seen as specific to particular racial and gender , sexual and class based identities (e.g. Keith and Pile, 1993; McDowell, 1997b). (This was part and parcel of the changing meanings of cuLture in geog raphy.) At the same time, meaning itself was cast in a new light, being viewed as much less self evident than before. Particular attention was given to how places are represented in different cul tural forms (e.g. art, fiM, literature, maps), which themselves were given over to specific social uses within power laden fields of activity (e.g. Duncan and Ley, 1993). But meaning was understood to be controlled neither by its producers nor by its consumers. Meaning had no ultimate locus: it was understood to be contestable and alterable at each point of dissemination. Another important stream of place as meaning filled sees place as a concept that helps mark the distinction between social order/disorder, the proper/improper and so on. Place in this regard is inextricable from imposed/ internalized social and cultural rules that dictate what belongs where. It denotes the (alterable) state of belonging versus exclusion, as suggested by the expression that something or someone is ?in place' or ?out of place' (Creswell, 2004) (see also heterotopia). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Place as becoming locale. Temporal change as a constituent feature of place has long been accepted, particularly in cultural historical geographies. It is an unexcep tional (yet at times politically charged) statement that places do not remain the same. Instead, place is continually emer gent. This has meant various things. It has meant that place involves a trans formation of some kind; for example, the transformation of a non human element (the physical environment) by human beings into a hybrid of culture and nature (see cuLturaL Landscape). A different kind of transformation often spoken of is the transformation from space to place. The introduction of the notion of the production of space has made the space and place opposition difficult to sustain, however, as it seems to render place largely as a particular moment within produced space. More recently, the emergence of place has been understood as wrought through a process of immanence. In this sense, place is not derived from something else (as place from space); it is, rather, an always already ongoing assembLage of geographically associated, ontoLogic aLLy co constitutive elements and rela tionships. (Space, one might say, is fully saturated with place.) This idea of place builds upon structuration theory (e.g. Pred, 1984) and, later, on non representationaL theory and on the monistic thought of Gilles Deleuze and other theorists of immanence (Hether ington, 1997a; Thrift, 1999a). (NEW PARAGRAPH) (3) The de centred, global sense of place. Recently, geographers and others have taken up the question of whether glob aLization has eliminated place as a social spatial reality (in much the same way that globalization is claimed to have brought about the ?death of distance? and, still more apocalyptically, ?the end of geography?), and whether places are degenerating into ?non pLaces' under the signs of late modernity (see also pLaceLessness). There seems to be broad agreement that place does still matter, and that it would be wrong to see place and globalization as negating one another. For example, places/locales continue as salient features of a global izing economy that is still marked by the production of differences through a con stitutive process of uneven deveLop ment. Also interesting is the way in which some geographers, notably Mas sey (1991), have promulgated an idea of place that takes the notion of global interconnection as a precondition for place or sense of place. For Massey, place is not constituted by what is in ternal to it, but by its distinct lines of (NEW PARAGRAPH) connection to other parts of the world. One place is different from another on the basis of its relations to the outside. This effectively renders the distinction between ?inside' and ?outside' moot. Massey's ?global sense of place' has the added virtue of a politics that looks to wards the outside rather than towards a defensive localism on the basis of em battled, threatened traditions. Her sense of place nonetheless leaves open the question of whether to construe places as centres of some kind, even if only as meeting places of lines of global con nectivity. Hetherington (1997), drawing upon actor network theory, advo cates somewhat differently for place as an ?ordering process' of diffuse but con nected placings, through which a net work of potentially far flung sites are enrolled into relationship with each other. (See also contrapuntal geog raphies.) ghe (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cresswell (2004); Hetherington (1997a). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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