The Dictionary of Human Geography (29 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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commodity chain/
filiere A collection of interrelated economic activities and industries that produce a particular kind of product or service. While commodity chains connote ?vertical? coordination among firms, from design to assembly to final distribution, the term seems to have first been used by Hopkins and Wallerstein in 1977 in a pro grammatic call to de centre the nation state in international political economy. Coming from the perspective of world systems theory (see core periphery modeL), they argued for attention to be paid to ?the widespread com modification of processes? by ?tak[ing] an ultimate consumable item and trac[ing] it back to the set of inputs that culminated in this item the prior transformations, the raw materials, the transportation mechanisms, the labor input into each of the material processes, the food inputs into the labor? (p. 128). The alternative and more common usage of this concept seems to have independent ori gins in French industrial economics. Montfort and Dutailly (1983) used the term filiere to refer to a set of firms linked vertically in the creation of a single product. The organiza tional structure of an economy is then best understood and described as a collection of constituent filieres, or commodity chains. This approach has been used in economic geography to discuss technological and eco nomic interdependencies between spatially proximate buyers and suppliers, as well as firms linked horizontally in relations of co operation. The approach also appears to have independent origins in agro food studies (see agro food system), representing a rare case in which agricuLturaL geography led the way in economic geography. Friedland, Barton and Thomas (1981) first use of the term ?commodity systems analysis? to focus on the mutual interaction of agricultural pro duction practices, grower organization, labour, science and extension, and marketing and distribution systems, which was quickly followed by the actor oriented variant associ ated with Wageningen University to empha size how the specificity of farm labour processes can give rise to different styles of farming (van der Ploeg, 1985). (NEW PARAGRAPH) For some scholars, the utility of commodity chains is largely descriptive, a lens through which to examine industrial organization and/ or economic geography. For instance, the global commodity chain approach, most asso ciated with Gary Gereffi and his colleagues, focuses on the transnational reach of inter firm networks of manufacturers, suppliers and subcontractors to each other, and to mar kets. In respect to the strong coordination role that apparel design firms started to play in the 1980s, they also suggested an epochal shift from producer driven to buyer driven chains. Recently, they have posited the existence of regulation or consumer driven commodity chains, in light of the increased salience of ethical products and the increasing power of private systems of regulation to construct and ensure quality in certain spheres of commodity production (see Gereffi, Humphrey and Sturgeon, 2005). (NEW PARAGRAPH) One variation on this approach is value chain analysis, which draws attention to how surplus distribution along a given chain is a function of rent generating barriers to entry, which are in turn a function of chain govern ance (Kaplinsky, 2004). Kaplinsky and others have argued that that national deveL opment prospects can be improved by indus trial ?upgrading? to higher value added processes. (NEW PARAGRAPH) For another set of scholars, the commodity chain approach is a tool of radical scholarship, in that it has the potential to make the work ings of capitaLism more transparent, particu larly because gLobaLization seems to make most commodities inscrutable as to how they are made and distributed (Hartwick, 1998). Other geographers, notably Leslie and Reimer (1999), are critical of the notion that commodities can be ?unveiled?. Leslie and Reimer have also remarked that commodity chains privilege fLows relative to scaLe. jgu (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Gereffi and Korzeniewicz (1994); Hughes and Reimer (2004). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
common pool resources
resources, usually natural, from which it is difficult to exclude users, and whose use reduces resource avail ability for others (Ostrom, Dietz, Dolsak, Stern, Stonich and Weber, 1999). Contra the tragedy of the commons thesis and its calls for privatization or centralized state control, common pool resources have often been gov erned sustainably by common property regimes, whose rules are structured around the resource's size, mobility, renewability and other characteristics. Common pool resources thus differ from true open access resources. It is unclear, though, whether and how these lessons can be ?scaled up' to address contem porary problems at larger scales, with more users and greater rates of change. jm (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Dietz, Ostrom and Stern (2003); Ostrom, Dietz, Dolsak, Stern, Stonich and Weber (2002). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
common property regimes
Forms of own ership and access whereby all or parts of a local environment are owned and managed by a com muNity. This differs from private ownership, state ownership and open access regimes, where nobody owns the environment. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Common property regimes have existed for thousands of years. They have become more popular as indigenous practices are rec ognized and validated, and the limitations of state ownership, top down management and private property become increasingly appar ent. Common property regimes may be par ticularly suited to ?resources' where it is possible to restrict access, but private owner ship, while possible, is a very costly way to manage the resource. pm (NEW PARAGRAPH)
communication(s)
The geography of com munication treats the sending, receiving and exchange of information and messages face to face or via other means (letters, media, telephone, Internet). Because communication is essential to social relations, it is central to many of the processes of interest to human geographers, such as the construction of dif ference, the definition of community, the causes and consequences of segregation and the conduct of sociaL movements. At issue is who has access to what information, and how space, pLace and networks shape this access. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Despite the power of information technology to enable communication at a distance (see time space compression; time space con vergence; time space distanciation), face to face communication is still prized in many theories in human geography. In economic geography, for instance, the spatial agglom eration of certain types of industry (such as software development, the film industry or watchmaking) in industrial districts is seen as a prime facilitator of innovation: the key motivation for such agglomerations is believed to be the ease of face to face communication, which many see as necessary to the develop ment of trust in social interactions (Murphy, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . In urban geography, the desire for rela tively easy face to face communication is seen as the main rationale for the clustering (see CLUSTERs)of producer services in dense urban areas. Information exchanged face to face in social networks is also important to the func tioning of labour andhousing markets, because large numbers of people learn about and evalu ate employment and housing options via such channels. Because the nature of the information exchanged, including its locational dimensions, depends in part on the characteristics of the people in a social network, the social identity of network constituents is important. In sum, the process offace to face communication plays an important role in concentrating certain types of human activity in certain places and in certain groups ofpeople. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Because telecommunications permit com municating over great distances, questions arise as to the power of such technologies to support the dispersal of human activity. Will information technologies such as the internet and video conferencing undermine the raison d?etre for urban agglomerations and industrial districts (i.e. the need for face to face con tact)? In addressing this question, geographers have examined the extent to which communi cation via technology is a substitute for face to face interaction (in which case one might expect greater dispersal of human activity), a stimulus to face to face interaction (in which case one would expect information technologies to lead to a greater demand for face to face contact and therefore increased agglomeration effects) or a complement to per sonal contact (in which case one might expect information technologies to have little impact on the concentration or dispersal of human activity) (Janelle, 2004). SHa (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Wheeler, Aoyama and Warf (2000). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
communism
A tradition of thought based on the principle of the communal ownership of property (primitive communism) and com mon ownership ofthe means ofproduction (full communism). Although traceable back to ancient Greece, in its modern form it is most widely associated with the writings of Karl Marx, especially The communist manifesto (Marx and Engels, 2002 [1848]). Writing at the height of the industrial revolution, Marx observed the increasing exploitation of newly urbanized wage labourers (the proletar iat), and the widening gulf between the rich and the poor. He argued that the socio economic system known as capitalism was responsible for the exploitation and alienation of these labourers, and that only by transcending it through revolutionary struggle could society advance to a better system, that of communism. In communism, all private property is abol ished, there are no discernible classes and the people are self governing. In pure communism the state is unnecessary, but according to Marx and most of his followers, communism will be preceded by a transitional stage called social ism, in which the state plays a major role. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Although pure communism has never been implemented, Marxist theories were central in galvanizing workers' movements in Europe in the late nineteenth century, and socialist gov ernments became important players on the world stage following the Russian Revolution of 1917. After the Second World War, many more communist parties came to power and established regimes in Eastern Europe under the aegis of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The victory of Mao Zedong and the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949 was another major turning point in the growth and spread of communist ideology. Other countries in Asia and Africa, including Vietnam, North Korea, Laos, Mozambique and Angola, adopted some form of communist principles of government over the following years. (NEW PARAGRAPH) With the expansion of new forms of neo liberal governance and the introduction of glasnost (openness) by the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s, communist ideology began to wane. Over the past decade numerous geographers have explored the social and spatial repercussions of the transi tion to a post communist world, especially in the former satellite countries of the USSR (see especially Pickles and Smith, 1998; Rainnie, Smith and Swain, 2002: see post socialism). Others have interrogated the implications of communism's disintegration for theory and intellectual movements (see Burawoy, 2000). In both cases, the break up of state planned and regulated societies has had enormous ripple effects, with ongoing ramifications in the context of increasing American dominance on the global stage. km (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Marx and Engels (1972 [1845]). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
communitarianism
Both a political and an intellectual programme, communitarianism affirms the values and procedures of commu nity, and rejects the political and analytical premises of individualism, while worrying at the effects of industrialization and urban ization on community life (Smith, D.M.J 1999a). Under the direction of writers such as Amitai Etzioni (1994), as well as critics of liberalism, such as Michael Sandel, commu nitarianism has enjoyed a resurgence in the past decade. However, one can find precedent in the work of those such as Emile Durkheim, who also traced the disorganizing effects of modernity. Contemporary communitarians argue for a new moral and social order based on shared values that bridge tradition, such as moral ties of family, with modern norms of tolerance and inclusion. nkb (NEW PARAGRAPH)
community
A group of people who share common culture, values and/or interests, based on social identity and/or territory, and who have some means of recognizing, and (inter)acting upon, these commonalities. The definition is contentious, however, and Joseph (2002) has suggested that commu nity is less about social identity and more related to practices of production and con sumption under capitalism. Community is frequently used to connote a scale at which people can easily interact and recognize one another, although as Anderson (1991a [1983]) argued in relation to nations, community can be ?imagined' and actualized through media and culture rather than interpersonal interaction. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The chicago school of sociologists saw community as the basis for social organization, and their usage fostered a connotation with neighbourhood. The use and propagation of community as related to urbanism by the Chicago School drew upon, but also reinter preted, notions of community from German sociologists such as Ferdinand Tonnies (1855 1936). Tonnies envisioned community (Gemeinschaft) as one?s family and intimate life, while society (Gesellschaft) was an ?imaginary and mechanical structure? (Tonnies, 1955 [1887], p. 37). For Tonnies and the Chicago School, urban neighbourhoods could provide the kind of mutual support required for a com munity such as that found in a ?rural village? (Tonnies, 1955 [1887], p. 49; Park, 1967 [1925]). Nonetheless, in Tonnies? formula tion, community was being replaced by society through urbanization and industriaLization. Although Tonnies acknowledged a possibility of community in urban neighbourhoods, his formulation situated community primarily in pre industrial rural settings. Equating commu nity with the intimacies of village life, however, fails to acknowledge the political and economic inequalities inherent to such a setting Joseph (2002, pp. 4 5) cites Williams (1973) on this point. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Tonnies? (2001 [1887]) conceptualization of community as a traditional ?rural? phenom enon sets it in opposition to or pre dating industrial capitalism (Bender, 1978; Joseph, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . This conceptualization fosters and sup ports claims such as that of communitarians exemplified by Etzioni (1993) and Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler and Tipton (NEW PARAGRAPH) . These scholars see community as missing from, or left behind by, modernity. They seek a return to mutual support and responsibility, which, they argue, form the basis of community and social values (Bellah, Madsen, Sullivan, Swidler and Tipton, 1985). Such notions of community have been import ant to the governance strategies of the neo liberal state (Herbert, 2005: see also neo LiberaLism). These strategies such as welfare reform and community poLicing transfer to individuals or groups of citizens? activities and roles that were formerly assumed by the state. But Herbert (2005) argued that many communities often conflated with neigh bourhood from Chicago School formulations in these state devolutions are unable and unwilling to assume these tasks, thus fostering a disconnect between ideals of community and actual experiences of them in neo liberalism. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The failure of community to act in lieu of the state highlights its status under capitalism. Seeking to challenge the notion of community as antecedent of and potentially in opposition to the individualization of capitalism, Joseph (2002) argued that capitalism actually pro duces community. In her view, community is not merely or primarily a set of shared social identities, although it is often depicted as such in identity politics (for an example, see Young, 1990a). Instead, community is performed (NEW PARAGRAPH) (see performativity) and practiced through relations and practices ofproduction and con sumption: ?Marx articulates the necessary role that historically particular and differentiated social formations play as the bearers of capital, as the medium within which capital circulates ...? (Joseph, 2002, p. 13). Community is a way that people articulate use values within the circulation of production and consump tion, thereby supplementing and particulariz ing the abstractness of capitaL. Joseph?s (2002) formulation of community as operat ing in and through capitalism forces reconcep tualization of it as a positive reaction or antidote to capitalism. It may support or dis rupt capital, but neither outcome is evident a priori (Joseph, 2002). Instead, scholars need to attend to the particularities of community; how it is produced and performed discursively and in practices, and to what end. dgm (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Herbert (2005); Joseph (2002); Williams (1973); Young (1990a). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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