The Dictionary of Human Geography (199 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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sustainable development
The concept of sustainable development has become ubiqui tous in global debate, but like sustainaBiLity, different actors use the phrase to express dif ferent visions for econoMy, environment and society (Adams, 2001). The Brundtland Report of 1987 famously defined sustainable development as ?development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs?. This cleverly captures the central paradox of the impact of econoMic growth on the environment, and yet the need for such growth to alleviate both present and future poverty (often spoken of as intra and inter generational equity). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Radical critiques ofthe unsustainable nature of deveLopMent have included calls for zero economic growth and critiques of industriaL ization, consumerism and free market eco nomics. However, mainstream thinking about sustainable development has centred on ?market environmentalism? and continued economic growth, adapted to ensure that the capacity of the planet to provide raw materials and absorb wastes is not overstretched (Low and Gleeson, 1998). This is to be achieved through the ?greening? of industry and society, ?green? consumerism and efficient production systems that minimize wastage, poLLution and negative social impact. Under market envir onMentaLisM, growth and consumption are the engine that drives the creation of sustain able environments and livelihoods. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Such changes demand ?ecological Modern ization?, the pursuit of rational, technical solutions to environmental problems and more efficient institutions for environmental management and control (Hajer, 1995). This involves new partnerships between state and private enterprise, including Market based incentives, self regulation by business, strong government and an efficient state bureaucracy. The feasibility of this approach is limited by the erosion of state power by gLoBaLization and free trade. Many developing countries in parti cular display significant weaknesses in govern ance, and powerless civiL society institutions. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Mainstream thinking about sustainable development became established at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED, or simply the ?Rio Conference?), held at Rio de Janeiro in (NEW PARAGRAPH) Brazil in June 1992 (Chatterjee and Finger, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . This meeting produced a vast encyclo paedia of ideas in Agenda 21 (over 600 pages long), the Convention on Biological Diversity (http://www.biodiv.org/default.shtml) and the Framework Convention on Climate Change (http://unfccc.int/2860.php). (NEW PARAGRAPH) At Rio, sustainable development was inter preted primarily in terms of global environ mental change (biodiversity depletion and cLimate change), reflecting the agenda of industrialized Northern countries. Complex and controversial issues of global poverty or north south inequality were discussed less effectively). However, this emphasis changed at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2002. This followed the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000 and agreement on a series of Millennium Development Goals (www. developmentgoals.org/). Poverty was central to debate at Johannesburg. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation addressed the eradi cation of poverty as well as issues such as unsustainable patterns of consumption and production, the protection and management of the naturaL resource base of economic and social development, globalization and health (www.johannesburgsummit.org/). wma (NEW PARAGRAPH)
symbolic interactionism
A sociaL theory that focuses upon the sociaL construction of the self and objects through interaction with others. Based on the theoretical formulations of the philosopher G.H. Mead (1934), its sociological implications were developed by Herbert Blumer (1969) and others. The the ory posits that the self and social organization more broadly are formed by an ongoing process of the interpretation of meanings. As such, the theory is opposed to notions of structures, which are not reducible to ongoing interaction. More structurally inclined theorists have accused it of being individualistic and voluntarist. anti humanism in geography criticizes its primary emphasis on human interaction. jsd (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Prus (1995). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
system
A set of elements organized so that each is either directly or indirectly interde pendent on every other, usually in some form of network (cf. graph theory; social net work). Many analysts argue that systems must have a function, goal or purpose even if this is only the maintenance of the system itself (see functionaLism; structuraL function aLism). Some have a clear, separate existence and function as with a central heating system but many geographical studies involve the pragmatic isolation (or abstrac tion) of linked parts from a larger whole (such as a metropoLitan area): where such abstrac tions are somewhat arbitrary, the system stud ied may yield few valuable conclusions (and be categorized as a chaotic conception). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Systems analysis involves four main decisions regarding the object of study: (NEW PARAGRAPH) Whether it is to be conceptualized as open or closed. A closed system has no links to a surrounding environment either as a source of energy (as in ecosystems) or as a receptacle for by products of its oper ation (as in poLLution): an open system (which is by far the commonest condition) interacts with its milieu. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Whether it can be divided into subsystems, com prising separate clusters of interdependent elements weakly linked to each other. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Whether the links involve flows and causal relationships, or are presented as black boxes. Systems of flows involve the movement of materials, ideas and people (as in trade, migration and commuting); causal sys tems involve links that transmit clearly defined consequences (as in A generates B; e.g. assuming constant demand, an increase in the supply of a good leads to a reduction in its price): a black box incorporates links that may be causal, but for which the processes involved are not understood. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Whether the system involves feedback, either positive or negative. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The concept of a system and the formal protocols of systems analysis (many of them derived from engineering) were introduced to geography during its quantitative revolu tion, and were seen by some as providing both substantive and methodological links between human and physical geography (see also ecology; general systems theory; human ecology; political ecology). More gener ally, the concept of a system is applied descrip tively in a wide range of contexts to refer to sets of interdependent phenomena, without adopting any of the more formal concepts associated with systems analysis. rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Bennett and Chorley (1978); Huggett (1980); Wilson (2000)
taken-for-granted world
The realm of everyday Life, frequently unreflective, where convention and routine prevail, leading to the accumulation of the attitudinal norms and habitual practices that define a subculture. The taken for granted world was inspired by humanistic geography through ethno graphic and other interpretative methods inspired by the philosophical traditions of German constitutive phenomenoLogy and American pragmatism (Ley, 1977). Also rele vant is Pierre Bourdieu?s concept of HaBitus, with its emphasis on cLass based subcultures with varied resources to bring to everyday social projects. The centrality of power in everyday life has been also been drawn out more fully by the French philosophers Michel de Certeau and Henri Lefebvre. dL (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Werlen (1993, ch. 3). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
tariff
A tax levied by a government on the importation of a commodity made abroad. Governments impose tariffs on foreign made imports for multiple reasons, including to protect domestic producers from foreign com petition, to correct a trade deficit, to give pref erence to imports from certain countries over others, or, contrarily, to retaliate against an other country?s preferential tariff regime. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Preferential tariffs designed to privilege or punish particular exporting countries date to imperial trading practices, which were often organized within networks of ?imperial prefer ence?. But it was in the context of nineteenth century imperiaLism that British industrialists began the rhetorical inflation of free trade and the political struggle to reduce tariffs (Sheppard, 2005): they wanted to sell their products to foreign and domestic markets, and also saw the advantages of tariff free food imports for feeding and maintaining a cheap workforce (Merrett, 1996). Early economists such as David Ricardo helped the industrialists make their case with academic arguments about the gains from trade, and until the 1930s, the cause of free trade and tariff reduc tion spread around the world, albeit within limits created by inter imperial struggles (in cluding the immense upheaval of the First (NEW PARAGRAPH) World War). During the Great Depression, however, in the rush to protect their domestic capitalists from the global crisis of over accu mulation, governments imposed steep tariffs on foreign imports. The resultant ?tariff walls? drastically reduced world trade and created much more autarchic or self contained na tional economies: this territorialization of economies set the geographical pattern for the distinctively national regimes of accumuLa tion based on fordism that characterized the mid twentieth century (see Lash and Urry, 1987; Harvey, 1989b; Mitchell, 1998, 2002d). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The Fordist pattern of economic national ization was also influenced by global politics, the rise of communism and, most notably, the national mobilizations forced by the Second World War. However, as the war drew to a close, the cause of free trade was launched again with the American led meetings at Bret ton Woods, which led to the General Agree ment on Tariffs and Trade or GATT in 1947. Some joke that GATT in fact stood for the General Agreement to Talk and Talk, be cause, despite unending American pressure and resulting rounds of talks, other countries were reluctant to quickly remove their tariff walls, as they faced the prospect of rebuilding their war torn economies. The USA, by con trast, had emerged from the war with its econ omy unscathed and eager to expand markets for its products worldwide. American negoti ators pushed for a more open global free trade system that could absorb the US trade surplus, and slowly but surely they prevailed: the crowning achievement was the establishment of the worLd trade organization in 1994 (Peet, 2003). However, by the 1990s the US trade surplus had turned into a large and fast growing deficit; thus, in the years since its inception the WTO has had to deal with in creasing complaints by developing countries that the USA is abandoning free trade and ironically albeit unsurprisingly imposing tar iffs on foreign products (Wallach and Woodall, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . ms (NEW PARAGRAPH)
Taylorism
A set of workplace practices developed from the principles of ?scientific management? by the American engineer Frederick W. Taylor (1911) from his (NEW PARAGRAPH) systematic time and motion studies of the labour process in American factories. The core principle involved breaking down pro duction activities into their simplest, standard ized components and linking them in precisely coordinated, closely supervised sequences. This imposed a strictly disciplined choreog raphy on the workplace, a sort of mechanized ballet, and workers often resisted its introduc tion. Taylorism was designed to enhance over all efficiency by reducing the scope of activity of individual workers and optimizing the per formance of individual tasks, but the logic of distinguishing between close supervision and standardized activities also accentuated the separation of conception and execution of tasks in the workplace. (NEW PARAGRAPH) For this reason, analysts such as Braverman (1974) have associated the widespread intro duction of Taylorist principles with the des killing or degradation of work. The result is a distinctive occupational division of labour, in which unskilled workers execute simple, repetitive shop floor fabrication functions, while skilled technical and managerial staff perform functions related to research, product design, process and quality control, coordin ation, finance and marketing. The economic outcomes for workers depend on the wider social and political context in which the pro duction systems are embedded. Under the terms of classical fordism in the USA and western Europe, for example, the array of in stitutions governing collective bargaining and wage determination increased the likelihood that even unskilled workers might enjoy a de cent living and enjoy tolerable working condi tions. The application of Taylorist principles elsewhere, in parts of asia, africa and latin america, was not normally accompanied by such institutional frameworks, however, lead ing to a more ?primitive Taylorization?, based on the ?bloody exploitation? of labour (Peck and Tickell, 1994, pp. 286 7). (NEW PARAGRAPH) As Clark (1981) and others have observed, during the postwar period, in which Taylorist principles gained their widest acceptance, large firms organized along Taylorist lines would often segregate skilled and unskilled functions in separate plants, producing a spatial division of labour defined by the pre existing geography of labour supply, wage rates and social relations (see also labour geography). Subsequent methods of work or ganization associated with post fordism are generally regarded as having reversed the task fragmentation and separation of conception and execution characteristic of Taylorism. (NEW PARAGRAPH) But Schoenberger (1997) and others suggest that organizational innovations such as just in time production were developed by eliminating wasted time in production through the use of precisely the same tools of time and motion study pioneered by Taylor himself. msg (NEW PARAGRAPH)
teleology
Teleological enquiry is motiv ated by the belief that there is an ultimate purpose or design at work within the world, and that all elements and events, whether we are conscious of it or not, are pre configured to realize that purpose or design. The teleo logical end reaches back to explain everything that precedes it. The origins of teleology lie in Greek philosophy, especially the writings of Aristotle and the concept of a final cause, which proposes that phenomena take on their peculiar properties because they enable some final end or purpose (telos) to be met. To use Aristotle?s own example, humans do not see because of a series of prior biological processes that produce eyes; rather, eyes are produced in order to meet the purpose of seeing. The teleological end of seeing arranges biological conditions such that eyes eventuate. As Aristotle had it, ?Nature adapts the organ to the function, and not the function to the organ.? (NEW PARAGRAPH) Teleology as a form of argumentation is found in a diverse range of enquiry. It is per haps best known within Christian theology from St Thomas Aquinas? (1225 74) five proofs of God?s existence, to recent (unsuc cessful) arguments in the US court system to justify classroom teaching of ?intelligent de sign?. Within the humanities and social sci ences, the teleological writings of the German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel (1770 1831) have been pivotal, in large part because of their influence on others, especially Karl Marx (1818 83). Hegel argued that human history was teleologically directed to the unification of spirit (Geist) and proceeded through a dy namic process of negation and contradiction (the dialectic). At some historical juncture (which Hegel said happened to be his own time), the negations and contractions were finally comprehended by individual human minds as a unity, at which point the mandate of history was fulfilled; history?s teleological purpose was reached. Marx invoked a similar teleology in his own historical scheme, also propelled also by negation and contradiction. But in Marx?s view, history was moved not by contradictions of spirit becoming unified, but by a set of contradictory physical social relationships within successive modes of production, and unification occurred not within individual minds but very much outside in the world of people?s material lives and prac tices. Marx argued that history?s teleology was marked by distinct stages of completion, with capitALism, the epoch in which Marx lived, merely the penultimate one. History?s ultimate purpose, the negation of all negation, would manifest in what necessarily came next, the final stage, the end of history, communism. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Teleological arguments are criticized on many grounds, including: they are not empirically test able and are thus unfalsifiable; they reverse the temporal sequence of cause and effect (effects determine causes); causal mechanisms are either absent or not well specified; and they deny human beings free will, confining them within an iron cage of historical inevitability. Neverthe less, teleological arguments can be found in two distinct bodies of work in modern humAn geog raphy. The first was in studies of moderniza tion in the 1960s that were (mis)informed by Rostow?s (1960) stages of growth model to depict and predict the inevitable spatial dif fusion of modernization across the landscape of a developing economy (Gould, 1969b). The sec ond was in the early writings of some Marxist geographers who saw capitalism?s crises as in evitable way stations towards the end point of its final destruction and overthrow (Smith, 2008 [1984]). tb (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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