The Dictionary of Human Geography (187 page)

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social exclusion
A situation in which certain members of a society are separated from much that comprises the normal ?round? of living and working within that society. The concept is chiefly envisaged in social terms, identifying particular groupings that become excluded, but it is also recognized that the multiple factors involved in creating social exclusion may combine spatially to produce distinctive places of disadvantage and discrim ination (Gough, Eisenschitz and McCulloch, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . Indeed, excluded groupings tend to be found outside those spaces comprising the loci of ?mainstream? social life (e.g. middle class suburbs, up market shopping malls, prime pubLic space), congregating elsewhere as the residents of spaces largely hidden from the view of academics, politicians and policy makers (e.g. working class estates, homeless shelters, anonymous back streets). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The term ?social exclusion? has been popu larized in policy making across europe, if less so North America, and has particularly fea tured in the social policies of recent UK gov ernments. The definition favoured in the UK is broadly thus: ?the outcome of processes and/ or factors which bar access to participation in civil society? (Eisenstadt and Witcher, 1998, p. 6). As a concept, social exclusion ?does not simply describe the static condition of ??pov erty?? or ??deprivation??, but emphasises the processes by which aspects of social marginal isation are intensified over time? (Amin, Cameron and Hudson, 2002, p. 17), and it also embraces a diversity of economic, polit ical, social and cultural dimensions. While some are sceptical, others see social exclusion as an advance over notions such as the ?under class?, originating in the USA, that effectively blame people for irresponsible lifestyles bringing their marginalized status upon themselves. (NEW PARAGRAPH) ?[T]he debate on the causes and locations of social exclusion, as well as proposed solutions, has become cast in terms of geographically defined communities?, but there are snares in this ?new hegemony of the social as local? aris ing from a neglect of broader structural forces, whose malign impact on neighbourhoods is unlikely to be reversed by local initiatives alone (Amin, Cameron and Hudson, 2002, pp. 19 22). Many considerations ripe for crit ical analysis emerge, including the articula tions of social exclusion with the ?social economy? of not for profit activity and also the possible deployment of sociaL capitaL, all of which can be traced across what Gough, Eisenschitz and McCulloch (2005) term ?spaces of social exclusion? inescapably skewered by the workings of both the local and the global. Relatedly, attention is drawn to the policies of social inclusion, designed to counter exclusionary tendencies, and new forms of citizenship, marked by the privil eging of ?active citizens? supposedly able to take responsibility for their own well being, circumstances and neighbourhoods. (NEW PARAGRAPH) An academic geographical concern for socio spatial exclusion pre dates the current policy interest, though, and can be traced in a manner explicitly framed as such to Sibley?s (NEW PARAGRAPH) innovative Outsiders in urban societies. Through substantive studies of ?Gypsies?, travellers and the North American Inuit, Sibley anticipated a new tradition of research into excluded minority groupings that has now greatly extended the compass of sociaL geog raphy. All manner of peoples standing outside of the mainstream, on whatever grounds, have now had their ?exclusionary geographies? mapped, interpreted and critiqued, with sen sitivity shown to both structuring forces from without and felt experiences from within. It is possible to identify works in this vein tackling women, people of colour, refugees, sexual ?dissidents?, chiLdren and elderly people, dis abled and chronically ill people, welfare dependent and homeless people, and many others (for accessible introductions, see Pain, Burke, Fuller and Gough, 2001; Panelli, 2004). These are people who are excluded because of who they are, how they look, and what they do and think, and who are therefore deemed ?out of place? (see also Cresswell, 1996) in a range of mainstream spaces that they either choose to vacate (to avoid hostility) or because they are compelled to do so (by stigmatizing acts both symbolic and real). Various studies conceptualize the roots of such socio spatial exclusion, notably Sibley?s (NEW PARAGRAPH) Geographies of exclusion, which borrows from psychoanalytic theory to probe the inherent will of ?the Self? to distance itself from all that it perceives as ?Other? (as alien, impure, polluting and ?abject?). Sibley specula tes that such psycho dynamics, as inculcated in individual psyches, translate into wider socio spatial configurations that materialize lines of exclusion between selves who reckon themselves to be essentially similar (the ?same?) and those cast out as fundamentally ?Other?. cp (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Sibley (1981, 1995). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
social formation
In structural marxism, the specific combination of social relations obtain ing within a particular society at a particular historical moment or conjuncture. The con cept was derived from a reading of Marx?s Capital undertaken in the 1960s and early 1970s by a group of French scholars associ ated with the Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. Whereas the mode of production specifies structural combinations of relations and forces of production in general terms, identifying the diagnostic class relationships involved in the production of surplus value hence, for example, feudalism or capitalism the concept of ?social formation? refers to concrete forms of social relations at a specific conjuncture (e.g. post revolutionary France). It also takes account of social relations and forms that survive from previous conjunctures, as well as non class modes of social exploit ation and oppression (e.g. patriarchy), and seeks to identify their modes of articulation with what is assumed to be the central grid of class relations. dg (NEW PARAGRAPH)
social geography
The sub discipline that examines the social contexts, social processes and group relations that shape space, place, nature and landscape. The generality of this definition indicates both the breadth of social geography and changing emphases through time, across various paradigms and also in different national traditions. In France, for example, social geography has sometimes been regarded as having the range of human geography itself, while in Germany it was often associated more narrowly with the land scape indicators school (see the continuing series since 2003 on national social and cul tural geographies in the journal Social and Cultural Geography). Three abiding theoretical concerns in the sub discipline have been the relationship between spatial pattern and social process; the question of determinism and human agency; and the engagement with a range of geographical scales. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Following the practice of human geography itself, early work in social geography was dom inated by an emphasis on landscape form and spatial pattern. Innovative voices urging that intellectual labour should move beyond descriptive pattern studies to explanatory pro cess included Wreford Watson?s seminal chap ter (1957), Max Sorre?s (1957) productive engagement with French sociology, and Emrys Jones? impressive monograph (1960) on the development of social areas in Belfast. Ironically, the new paradigm of spatial analy sis in the 1960s did not significantly advance the explanatory ambitions of social geography but, rather, reinforced the emphasis on pattern by borrowing from human ecology to estab lish more rigorous quantitative descriptions of segregation patterns and classifications of social areas. While often sophisticated, only rarely did this work move into issues of explanation as, for example, in Peach?s (NEW PARAGRAPH) important research on ethnicity and immigration, as he considered economic and discriminatory explanations of segregation and, in earlier work, the restricted social inter action that was associated with maps of social segregation. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Akin to geomorphology?s transition from form to process, social geography moved decisively into process studies in the 1970s with two significant developments. The first was David Harvey?s (1973) paradigm shaking discovery of Marxist theory (see Marxist geography), leading to his claim that capit alism was the root cause of social spatial distributions, and the two class system was the fundamental expression of social groups, a research programme that has helped to shape a continuing and vital critical tradition in social geography (e.g. Blunt and Wills, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . In contrast to such a political econ omy, the second development was a human ism that emphasized the experience and construction of place, seeking inspiration from a range of theoretical and philosophical sources (Jackson and Smith, 1984; see huma nistic geography). Humanism was not inc ompatible with some forms of Marxism, as work in historical geography made clear, but contemporary humanistic approaches were much more attentive to issues of experi ence, identity and human agency in place making (Buttimer and Seamon, 1980). They also continued earlier resistance to environ mentaL determinism, though by the 1970s the economic environment had replaced the physical environment as the privileged context of human action. By the 1990s, social con structionism (see sociaL construction) had become a dominant position, and several important monographs used it to good effect (e.g. Anderson, 1991b), though sometimes risking a newer social determinism. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Humanistic and qualitative research were much more attuned to ethnographic and micro scale studies, and attempts were made to effect a theoretical convergence between agency and structure and the micro and macro scale, notably in the short lived struc turation perspective. While that scaffolding has largely fallen away, the best work today continues to attempt to marry agency and structure, and micro and macro scale pro cesses (e.g. Duncan and Duncan, 2004b; Mitchell, 2004a). (NEW PARAGRAPH) A number of authors have associated the explosive growth of social geography following the social movements of the 1965 75 period with the newly awakened desire for reLevance in human geography. Aside from the theor etical issues noted above, what was at stake was also a liberal impulse towards social wel fare and, for some, social activism. A wide range of research topics came under scrutiny, beneath the initial rubric of geographies of social problems (Herbert and Smith, 1989). Some of these, including the geography of crime and policing (e.g. Herbert, 1997), and especially health geography (Gatrell, (NEW PARAGRAPH) , are becoming sub disciplines in their own right. Other significant research topics include poverty and deprivation, social polar ization and social exclusion, education, housing and, in the consumer age of neo LiberaLism, geographies of Leisure, tourism, sport and consumption. In David Smith?s work, a challenging progression has taken place from a consideration of welfare and sociaL justice to a more philosophical, but still activist, examination of moral geograph ies and an ethic of care (Smith, 2000a). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The stratification of society in contempor ary social geography follows topical as well as theoretical categories. Class, variously def ined, remains a major line of demarcation, but it is far from alone. race and ethnicity have been a significant focus of attention, particularly with the growing cultural diversity in gateway cities in the global north accom panying migration and refugee streams from the global south. Geographers have completed research on such topics as segre gation and integration, immigrant recep tion and racism, transnationaLism and muLticuLturaLism as a governance policy (e.g. Anderson, 1991b; Peach, 1996a). femi nist geographers have affected the field as a whole (Pratt, 2004), engaging structures of patriarchy and diverse expressions of gender and sexuaLity, among other topics. But class, race and gender are not the only divisions recognized in society by social geographers. The Life cycLe offers its own distinctive groupings, with studies of childhood, youth and the elderly, as well as varied family config urations (e.g. Aitken, 2001: see also ageing; chiLdren). Among cultural attributes, both religious status and aboriginal status are experi encing revived emphasis as sources of group formation (see aboriginaLity; reLigion). disabiLity studies have attracted a small but active scholarship on the spatial experience of differently abled groups (Park, Radford and Vickers, 1998). In short, the range of the social is substantial, and the postmodern attention to multiple and decentred identities in cities of difference ensures continuing multiplica tion of the social groups of interest to social geographers (Fincher and Jacobs, 1998). Institutions, too, are social formations with par ticular rules, hierarchies and cultures, and the return of institutional approaches in the social sciences (see institutionaLism) has encoura ged more systematic study of the involvement of public and private corporations in shaping people and place (e.g. Herbert, 1997; Ley, 2003b), reinvigorating the managerial or gate keeper approach to place making of the 1970s. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Social geography experienced a second period of expansion in the 1990s, benefiting from the renewal and expansion of cuLturaL geography. Indeed, the boundaries of the two sub disciplines are blurred, and strict demar cation neither possible nor necessary. Today, social geography ranges widely indeed, some might say, too widely. Like geomorphology, the preoccupation with process has sometimes led some distance from recognizable geog raphies of space, place, landscape or nature. Another trend has been the remarkable diffu sion of quaLitative methods as the primary and often exclusive methodoLogy of social geography. There would seem to be advan tages to more methodological diversity to make use of large national surveys and data bases that require modest quantitative skills, (NEW PARAGRAPH) thereby offering a triangulation of methods that extends the range of research outcomes. These qualifications aside, social geography as a sub discipline has entered the new millennium with considerable energy and momentum, if perhaps a less coherent subject matter. dL (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Eyles (1986); Harvey (1973); Jackson and Smith (1984); Knox and Pinch (2000); Ley (1983). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
social justice
A standard used to assess the fairness of a society. Justice is a central moral standard that requires the fair and impartial treatment of all. Social justice differs from other realms of justice, such as that relating to the application of Law, being centrally con cerned with the fairness of a social order and its attendant distributions ofrewards and costs. Determining how fairness is to be assessed, and according to which principle, is an issue of fierce debate. Different criteria, including equaLity, entitlement, recognition or need, yield different principles of justice. While some scholars view social justice in essentially descriptive terms, the literature within fields such as geography has been more normative, with an emphasis on using some definition of social justice in the moral evaluation of prevail ing social arrangements(see also ethics). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Social justice has long been a rallying cry for many sociaL movements. The arguments of poor communities of colour that they are dis proportionately burdened by environmental externaLities, the claim by unions for better compensation or the democratization of the workplace, or the organizing of anti capitalist globalization (anti globalization) move ments are all motivated, in part, by the power ful claim that prevailing social arrangements should be fairer. The injustice of many social relationships, distributions and arrangements has long been the focus of a rich scholarly and activist tradition (activism). Broadly, three perspectives can be identified: (NEW PARAGRAPH) The most extensive body of scholarship is to be found in liberal political theory that seeks variously to determine the essential characteristics of a ?fair? society (see LiberaLism). John Rawls? (1971) A theory of justice, for example, imagines an original position, prior to the creation of society. The just social order is that which those in this original position would agree to, he argues, if they did not know in advance whether they would be rich or poor in the resultant society. From this, he derives a number of yardsticks to assess social justice, of which the most famous is his ?difference principle?, which holds that inequality can only be justified if it benefits the least advantaged. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Particularly influential within geography is a Marxist analysis of social justice (departing from one strain of marxism that sees social justice as an ideological construct). Since his seminal Social justice and the city, David Harvey (1973) has been concerned with the topic, abandon ing a liberal characterization as ?a matter of eternal justice and morality? in favour of a view of social justice as ?contingent upon the social processes operating in society as a whole? (p. 15). He judged questions of spatial distribution not according to the prevailing standard of efficiency but, rather, according to some measure of distributive justice. Social justice was said to apply to the distribu tions of benefits and burdens, as well as the social and institutional arrangements arising from production and distribution (including power, decision making). In sum, he sought ?a just distribution, justly arrived at? (p. 98). In subsequent work, Harvey (1996) has extended his scope to include questions of environmentaL justice. While he acknowledges the im portance of social difference and posi tionaLity, he continues to argue from poLiticaL economy. (NEW PARAGRAPH) A post structuraList reading of social (NEW PARAGRAPH) justice supplements a Marxist emphasis upon cLass and economic relationships with the inclusion of multiple axes of social differentiation such as gender and race. For example, while recogniz ing the injustices of class exploitation, Iris Marion Young (1990a) constructs a pluralist reading of oppression that includes marginalization, vioLence, (NEW PARAGRAPH) powerlessness and cultural imperiaLism. She advocates a politics that ?instantiates social relations of difference without ex clusion? (p. 227). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Social justice has been of occasional con cern within geography since Harvey?s original intervention. The collection edited by Merrifield and Swyngedouw (1997) for example, provides one example, as do recent arguments by Don Mitchell (2003a). Drawing, in part, from a Rawlsian analysis, David Smith (NEW PARAGRAPH) has also written thoughtfully on the topic. In an important paper, Smith (2000b) constructs a geographically sensitive argument for equal ity as a basis for social justice, and articulates an argument for the morally significant aspects of human sameness as a way out of the rela tivism of difference. Smith also considers the injustices of an uneven geography of global resource endowment as a basis for a territorial social justice. In a more post structuralist vein, Kobayashi and Ray (2000) argue for a pluralist notion of justice that embraces posi tionality. They eschew a calculus of rights, with its logic of impartiality, arguing instead for an emphasis upon risk (cf. Peake and Ray, 2001). Noting that differently positioned people face differential exposure to injustice, they insist on the importance of geography to social justice. That said, social justice dem ands more careful and sustained attention by geographers. As Merrifield and Swyngedouw (1997, p. 2) note, it has all to often been relegated to the ?hinterlands of academic inquiry?. For while social justice is often invoked, or implicit to much geographic work, particularly of a critical bent (critical geog raphy), it is all too often left untheorized (although see the special issue of the journal Critical Planning, 14, 2007, which is dedicated to the theme of spatial justice: see http://www. spa.ucla.edu/critplan/). nkb (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Holloway (1998); Peake and Ray (2001). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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