The Dictionary of Human Geography (39 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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cycle of poverty
The idea that poverty and deprivation are transmitted from one gener ation to the next. The work of Oscar Lewis in the 1960s (see Lewis, 1969b) presented the victims of poverty as the authors of their own misfortune. Members of poor families were said to place little value on education, hard work or sexual responsibility. The empirical evidence for this behavioural view of poverty is slight, although it feeds into talk of an uNDercLAss. Other poverty cycle models pay more attention to neighBourhooD eFFects (bad schools, lack of jobs, danger), or the determining effects of social divisions struc tured around class, genDer and race. sco (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Wilson (1990)
Darwinism
Narrowly construed, Darwinism refers to the theory of evolution developed by Charles Darwin (1809 82) and initially pub lished in The origin of species (1859). The term itself was coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in his 1860 review of The origin to identify the central component of the theory; namely, the mechanism of natural selection, according to which organisms born with any advantageous feature have selective advantage over rivals in the struggle for life. Yet Darwinism, more broadly understood, conveys numerous asso ciated ideas including common organic des cent, gradualism and the multiplication of species, and such additional mechanisms of evolutionary transformation as sexual selec tion, group selection and correlative variation (Bowler, 1989). (NEW PARAGRAPH) At the same time, Darwinism is also associ ated with at least two further suites of ideas social Darwinism and neo Darwinism. Social Darwinism is usually taken to refer to the appli cation of Darwinian principles and mechan isms to human society, and often is thought to have justified anti interventionist, laissez faireeconomic policies on the basis of a survi val of the fittest ideology. Trading on organic analogies, the idea is that human societies and institutions are subject to the laws of evolution by selection and struggle, and that human intrusion constitutes unwarranted interference in the processes of natural development. Such perceptions need modifying in at least two respects. First, there are good grounds for supposing that social thinking, notably in the form of Malthusian demography (see malthu sian model), was integral to Darwin?s theory from the beginning and it is thus not simply a case of extending its application from the natural to the social world (Young, 1969). Darwinism, in this reading, always was social (Greene, 1977). Second, revisionist social evolutionists could equally mobilize the the ory, sometimes drawing on its Lamarckian counterpart, to justify interventionism and political reform (Jones, 1980). Neo Darwinism (or the neo Darwinian synthesis as it is usually known), refers to the classical theory of evolu tion that emerged during the 1930s when R.A. Fisher, J.B.S. Haldane and Sewall Wright building on T.H. Morgan?s earlier chromosomal theory of inheritance combined Darwinian natural selection with a quantitative approach to population genetics that served to show the compatibility between Mendelian genetics and Darwin?s mechanism (Smocovitis, 1996). This synthesis rescued Darwinism from the attacks to which it had been subject in the decades around 1900 from figures such as William Bateson and Hugo DeVries, who had argued that evolution took place by saltation; that is, by discontinuous variation (Bowler, 1983). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Within geography, Darwinian thinking in its various guises sometimes in association with lamarck(ian)ism has exerted consider able influence. Stoddart (1966) identified ideas of change through time, organization and ecology, selection and struggle, randomness and chance, as key Darwinian influences on geography, though some of these were already established in the tradition prior to Darwin?s intervention and were, in any case, compatible with Lamarckism. Whatever the precise genealogy, evolutionary thinking in one form or another found expression in almost every sub disciplinary specialism of geography. W.M. Davis? cycle of erosion gave an evolu tionary reading of landscape development though hardly in any specifically Darwinian sense, given the absence of sexual reproduction and inheritance as the drivers of change, as Darwin envisaged it (see also physical geog raphy). Frederick Clements? plant geography displayed his fascination with organic modes of thought, and the Russian geographer and ich thyologist Lev Semyonovich Berg developed a Darwinian theory of ?nomogenesis? that, by emphasizing mutations, allowed for evolution ary ?jumps? (see also biogeography). Friedrich Ratzel?s anthropogeography disclosed an organismic conception of the state and trans lated into human geography Moritz Wagner?s Lamarckian inspired migration theory. Derwent Whittlesey?s scheme of sequent occupance and H.J. Fleure?s geographical anthropology and anthropometric cartog raphy were also evidently imbued with evolu tionary thinking. In the latter case, the interplay of racial type, evolutionary mechanisms, anthropometric localization and psycho social factors were of central importance. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Besides these individuals, a variety of key issues within the geographical tradition drew heavily on evolutionary motifs. Statements of ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINISM by figures such as Ellen Semple, Elsworth Huntington and Griffith Taylor were invariably couched in evolutionary categories, with climate, migration and natural selection routinely play ing the leading roles. From a more radical per spective, Peter Kropotkin found in a modified Darwinism the grounds for championing col lectivism, opposing Spencerian individualism and connecting up the philosophy of natural science with anarchism. This essentially Russian reading of evolution drew inspiration from the St Petersburg naturalists, all of whom had conducted fieldwork in Siberia, in condi tions markedly different from the tightly packed in niches of the tropical world in par ticular, from the work of Karl Kessler, who set out the law of mutual aid. The transference of ideas about community between sociology and ecology, couched within an evolutionary pol itical economy, also found expression in geography in the tradition of human ecology (Mitman, 1992). Debates about acclimatiza tion were likewise connected up to questions about heredity and adaptation (Livingstone, 1987a; Anderson, 1992). And early theoretical statements about regional geography, such as those of Herbertson and Geddes, were sup ported by appeals to the need for elucidating evolutionary mechanisms in specific contexts (Livingstone, 1992). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Within contemporary human geography, issues raised by Darwinism continue to sur face. The legitimacy of transferring biological categories to the social order, for example, continues to be the subject of debate (cf. bio power), as are matters rotating around the understanding of how nature and culture to employ two abstractions are to be concep tualized. Recently too, enquiries have been undertaken into the geography of Darwinism, with the aim of ascertaining the ways in which evolutionary theory circulated around the world and was differently embraced, mobil ized and resisted in the light of local cultural politics (Livingstone, 2006). dl (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Bowler (1989); Livingstone (2006); Stoddart (1966). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
data archive
A central repository of access ible data sets. Researchers are encouraged to deposit original data sets (e.g. survey data) there to enable others to conduct secondary (NEW PARAGRAPH) data analyses. Many countries now have such archives (usually sponsored by research funding agencies that encourage in some cases require researchers to deposit data sets to encourage social scientific advances through the re analysis of existing data sets alongside the creation of new sources). These archives are increasingly used to store and disseminate not only original data sets col lected by academic researchers but also those collected by public sector bodies (such as censuses). Although most of those archives focus on quantitative data, other types are now stored in formats that allow them to be made readily available to other researchers as in Qualidata, part of the UK Data Archive housed at the University of Essex (see soft ware for qualitative research) and archives that store maps in digital form, and the iNTERNET has facilitated linking archives to enable international data sharing. As well as storing data, most archives offer training and other forms of user support to facilitate analyses of the data sets held. rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) See the Guide to primary social science data and related resources available on the Internet (http:// www.chass.utoronto.ca/datalib/other/) and the Social science data archives (http://www2.fmg. uva.nl/sociosite/databases.html) (NEW PARAGRAPH)
data mining
Computer based automated procedures for searching large and complex data sets in order to identify spatial patterns and relationships, either to confirm existing or to generate new hypotheses. In spatial analysis, Openshaw?s geographical analy sis machine and geographical explanation machine exemplify data mining algorithms, as do some aspects of geodemographics. Some term these practices ?data dredging?, since they are based on little prior knowledge and exemplify inductive thinking (see induction) whereby explanations are sought after patterns are identified (cf. exploratory data analy sis): however, they can also be abductive (cf. abduction; geocomputation). Many of the structured algorithms for data mining use artificial intelligence approaches. rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Berry and Linoff (1997). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
decentralization
A process of spatial change generated by centrifugal forces (cf. centrifu gal and centripetal forces). Within urban areas (see urbanization), demands for space (NEW PARAGRAPH) and to avoid the congestion, pollution and land costs of high density areas stimulate decentralization into suburbs and beyond, whereas at larger scales the negative external ities of large cities encourage movement to smaller settlements (cf. counter urbanization). Decentralization is facilitated by reliance on roads for the movement of goods and individuals. rj (NEW PARAGRAPH)
decision-making
The process whereby alternative courses of action are evaluated and a decision taken. The decision making perspective attracted great interest after it was introduced to geography during the 1960s as part of the behavioural movement (see behavioural geography). It broadened traditional perspectives, making them more realistic with respect to human practice. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The crux of the decision making perspec tive is the recognition that real world location decisions are seldom if ever optimal in the sense of maximizing profits or minimizing resources used. Similarly, consumer behav iour hardly ever accords with the rational cal culus of utilities assumed in conventional economic formulations. The all knowing and perfectly able economic actor of neo classical economics bears only slight resemblance to actual human beings. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Sub optimal location decision making may be incorporated into conventional location theory by the use of spatial margins to profit ability within which some profit is possible anywhere and the business is free to locate away from the optimal (profit maximizing) location at some pecuniary cost. However, this tells us nothing about how actual choice of location is arrived at within the economically determined constraints. (NEW PARAGRAPH) A step further was taken by Allen Pred (1967, 1969) in his concept of the behavioural matrix. According to this, decision makers have a position in a matrix with the informa tion available on one axis and the ability to use it on the other. The more information and the greater the ability, the higher is the probability of a ?good? location within the spatial margin; that is, near the optimal location on cost/rev enue grounds. Decision makers with very lim ited ability and information are more likely to locate beyond the margins and fail, but a good location could still be chosen by chance. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Pred was greatly influenced by H.A. Simon?s (1957) concept of satisficing behaviour, as an alternative to the unrealistic optimizing capacity attributed to ?economic man? (sic). Decision makers were viewed by Simon as considering only a limited number of alternatives, choosing one that is broadly satis factory rather than optimal. The introduction of a more realistic perspective on location decision making corresponded with a similar move in the study of business behaviour in general, within a broad context of industrial organization. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The decision making perspective in loca tional analysis followed two routes: theoret ical and empirical. The search for a theoretical framework for studies of location behaviour under conditions of risk and uncertainty led geographers and regional scientists into such fields as game theory and organization theory, and more recently to use large scale simulation models, as in agent based mod elling (cf. artificial intelligence). The light shed on actual decision making was very limited, however. (NEW PARAGRAPH) An empirical approach promised more, in a field where the emphasis is so much on individual practice. There was a tradition of survey analysis in industrial location studies well before the behavioural movements penetrated the subject. Such research often revealed the importance of ?purely personal? factors. Later empirical research preferred to take sets of firms and examine the actual process of decision making. Some perceived problem (such as undercapacity) sets in motion a sequence of decisions beginning with whether to expand in situ, to set up a branch or to acquire an existing plant; the sequence continues with the process of searching for a site, the evaluation of alternatives, the final decision and the feedback of the learning experience into some subsequent decision of a similar nature. This empirical approach held out the prospect of generalizations that relate the process of location decision making to the nature of the organization concerned (cf. search behaviour). (NEW PARAGRAPH) After many years of behavioural studies of industrial location decision making, the find ings seemed to promise more than it was able to deliver. A critique was mounted by Doreen Massey (1979), who pointed to objections on epistemological grounds (see epistemology) to the practice of adopting ideal type con structs (whether ?economic man? or some ?satisficing man?) and of making a distinction between behaviour that accords with the ideal type and that which must be attributed to other factors. Massey argued that the focus on individual decision making distracts attention from the structural features of the economy to which firms react, and that what firms actually do with respect to the setting up or closure of plants is best understood in this broader context of political economy. There has recently been a revival of interest in aspects of location decision making, however, including the learning process and corporate strategy with respect to restructuring. The work of Schoenberger (1997) emphasizes rec ognition of the significance of cultural factors to the operation of the firm. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Other aspects of human geography in which the decision making perspective assumed importance include response to environmental hazards (e.g. Kates, 1962), residential choice (e.g. Brown and Moore, 1970), shopping behaviour (e.g. Rushton, 1969: see also revealed preference analy sis) and the decision to migrate (e.g. Wolpert 1965). Again, neo classical economics was originally influential, the concept of place util ity being an obvious geographical extension of the theory of consumer behaviour. While qual ities of place as people evaluate them do influ ence decisions including locational choice or movement, there are many other consider ations of a fortuitous and seemingly irrational nature. Indeed, geographers can easily exag gerate the spatial element in decision making. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Research involving qualitative methods has sought a more sensitive understanding of how people assign meaning to various aspects of life and how decisions follow from this. For example, the decision to seek health care, involving the coverage of distance, is influ enced by culturally specific conceptions of the meaning of illness, personal and shared experience of being ill, assessment of the bene fit likely to be derived from the doctor?s advice based on past contacts, the felt need for treat ment or reassurance, and so on. Such work helps to set the spatial aspects of decision making and taking in a broader context, getting away from crude notions of human behaviour as some stimulus response mech anism and allowing greater scope for the way meaning is interpreted and translated into action. Work in the earlier tradition is now part of the discipline?s history rather than important to contemporary practice. dms (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Chapman and Walker (1991); Hayter (1997); Malmberg (1997); Smith (1981 [1971], Ch. 5); Wolpert (1964). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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