The Dictionary of Human Geography (57 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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epidemic
A term (derived from the Greek epi , upon + demos, people) used in the health sciences to describe the unusually high inci dence of a specified illness, health behaviour or other health related event in a given com munity or region; ?unusually high? is defined relative to the usual frequency, or expectancy, of the health event in the population under examination (Benenson, 1995). The term is often used to describe the rapid spread of an infectious disease (e.g. ?an epidemic of measles?) and may be applied to a range of geographical scales, from small and highly localized outbreaks to global pandemic epi sodes. Epic events, such as the Black Death (ad 1346 53) or the Spanish influenza (NEW PARAGRAPH) pandemic (ad 1918 19), are extreme examples from the many tens of thousands of historically recorded disease outbreaks to which the term ?epidemic? can properly be applied (Kohn, 1998). msr (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Haggett (2000). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
epidemiology
The branch of medical sci ence that is concerned with the study of the causes, distribution and control of health related events in a specified population. geog rapHy and epidemiology have a long associ ation that can be traced back to the nineteenth century and the use of disease maps to analyse the causes of epidemic events (Gould, 1985). Today, the association between geography and epidemiology finds expression in a cross dis ciplinary branch of MEdicAL geograpHy known as spatial epidemiology(Elliott and Wartenberg, 2004). Spatial epidemiologists map, analyse and model the distribution and spread of health related conditions and their biological, environmental, behavioural and socio economic determinants over space and through time. (See also disease, diFFusioN of.) msr (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading Cliff and Haggett (1988). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
episteme
A term introduced into modern thought by the French thinker Michel Foucault (1926 84) in his book Les mots et les choses, translated as The order of things (1970 [1966]). The term is based on the Greek word for knowledge or science, and for Foucault an episteme is a system of thought that conditions the particular sciences or know ledges (savoirs) that emerge at a particular time. He identifies three main epistemes: the Renaissance, the classical age and the modern. It is within an episteme that we find the criteria not just of individual pieces of knowledge, but the rules that govern the production of truth and reality as such. Foucault discounts an understanding of absolute, atemporal, aspatial knowledge, and instead analyses historically specific forms of understanding that are the conditions of possibility of knowledge (see Foucault, 1972b [1969]). In this sense, he can be understood as historicizing Kant?s work (see gENEALogy). Foucault rarely used the term in his later work, but introduced the notion of a dispositif (1980c), which he described as ?a thor oughly heterogeneous ensemble consisting of discourses, institutions, architectural forms, regulatory decisions, laws, administrative measures, scientific statements, philosophical, moral and philanthropic propositions?. The notion of the episteme is now seen as ?a specif ically discursive dispositif? (cf. discourse). se (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading Gutting (1989); Han (2002). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
epistemology
Concerned with defining knowledge and explaining how it works. While oNtoLogy attempts to account for what is in the world, epistemology asks how it is possible to know the world. Although often considered in tandem, particularly in describ ing the constituent elements of a body of thought, ontology and epistemology more properly should be thought of as overlapping, as there may be elements of ?what is? that are not knowable, and knowledge may contain ideas that do not correspond to existing things in the world. Their conceptual complications were made most explicit during the epistemo logical ?turn? in the humanities and social sciences, which was inspired by the linguistic ?turn? developed under the post structuraL ism of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Judith Butler, among others. These connected movements rejected Platonic epistemology, which took knowledge to be innate and discoverable by profound illumination, and made it the product of circulating discourses and dispersed powEr relations, which were naturalized over time through their popular uptake and transformation into common notions (see HEgemoNy). Among the political consequences of this take on knowledge was a dethroning of the notion of Truth, particularly in its a priori, universal articulation, as the lofty goal of all acts of knowing. With the new, rising wave of feminist, anti racist and anti colonialist perspectives and activism in and beyond the academy, the classical notion that there are absolute, knowable Truths that correspond to things in the world was increasingly critiqued as an ENLigHTENMENT invention that reflected the privileged position of white, Western mas culinity, the historical subjectivity holding sci entific, social and political knowledge power (Haraway, 1988; Rose, 1993). Rooted in feminism, standpoint epistemologyrecognizes the partiality of knowledge, but goes further by arguing that the ?worked for? or ?struggled for? knowledge generated by members of oppressed gENders, races and classes is more likely to capture truths than the uncritical and comfortable epistemologies that evolve out of privileged experience (Hartsock, 1983; Harding, 2004; see also situated knowledge). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Such concerns have made for lively debate within human geography, but epistemology is also implicit within much historical theoriz ing in the discipline. One of the most import ant threads throughout the long history of geography (see geography, history of) and its attendant philosophy has been an argu ment over the relative merits of generality and particularity. This seemingly abstract bin ary relates to concrete knowledge production insofar as ?general geography? is distinct from ?specific geography? (as Bernhardus Varenius, 1622 50, termed it: see chorology), and on that distinction rests the question of how much emphasis should be given over to the search for trans contextual scientific laws. The answer hinges to some extent on whether geography can claim to be a mature science, one whose knowledge is objective, explana tory, rational and orderly. In the 1950s and 1960s, adherents to spatial science and regional geography fought over various aspects of these qualities (see nomothetic and idiographic), but that debate was eclipsed by humanistic geography?s outright reversal of the polarities fastened on to the objectivity subjectivity opposition. Through its attention to hermeneutics, the interpret ation ofsubjective experience and concepts such as sense of place, humanistic geographers reversed direction on decades of ?scientism? in geography, and paved the way for geographical critiques informed by feminism and post structuralism. (NEW PARAGRAPH) key epistemological binaries (NEW PARAGRAPH) Objectivity Subjectivity (NEW PARAGRAPH) Explanation Interpretation Order Complexity (NEW PARAGRAPH) General Particular (NEW PARAGRAPH) Rational Emotional (NEW PARAGRAPH) Most recently, post structuralist geography has seen a shift in epistemological emphases, from (1) a trenchant critique of knowledge claims that puts all matter into question through a constructivist epistemology to (2) a materialization of epistemology through an anti essentialist assertion of ontology (cf. ESSENTIALISM): (NEW PARAGRAPH) Through the exploration of foreign con TINENTS, the naming of their spaces after West erners and other Western spaces, and the mapping of those spaces in such a way that Western prejudices and power relations became inscribed upon their landscapes (see also orientalism), attention has long focused on the role that cartography, exploration and geography played in processes of Western colonialism during Enlightenment and post Enlightenment modernity (Mitchell, 1988; Gregory, 1994). Pervasive within the latter, mapping practice (Pickles, 2004) came to be based on a detached or ?bird?s eye? (Schein, (NEW PARAGRAPH) perspectivalism that Dixon and Jones (1998) summarize as follows: (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cartesian perspectivalism, ?which lineates the world with respect to a central point? (see also cartesianism); (NEW PARAGRAPH) ocularcentrism, ?which privileges vision from an elevated vantage point from which the world may be surveilled in its totality? (see also surveillance; vision and visuality); and (NEW PARAGRAPH) the epistemology of the grid, ?a procedure for locating and segmenting social life so that it may be captured, measured, and interro gated? (see cartographic reason). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Epistemologically, this view lent itself to a conceit of representation and to what Mitchell (1988) and Gregory (1994) call the world as exhibition: the power to know and control space rests in the capacity to visualize, demarcate and survey, all parts of a grid episte mology that colonizes spaces just as it dominates mainstream geography. These epistemological inquiries led many in the 1990s to debate the relative importance of materialism and discourse in the production of social space. In many cases, post structuralism?s represen tational instabilities and uncertainties trump ed the apparently self evident bedrock ontologies found in materialist theories such as marxism. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Recently, some thinkers have begun to investigate how knowledge works beyond representation. In many ways, this work hark ens back to the studies of emotional and sensational connections to places highlighted under humanistic geography, though these tended to connect interiorized and subjecti vized feelings to the representational idea of place. Instead, the current work draws heavily upon Gilles Deleuze?s critique of representa tion as a hindrance to understanding the world, which, ontologically, articulates pro cesses of ?pure difference? beyond, prior or even contrary to the orders or similitude and resemblance at work in representation. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Human geography?s exemplars here are affect and non representationaL theory, two areas concerned with the possibilities of ?presubjec tive knowledge? derived from differential bodily capacities, functions and experiences that, if only fleetingly, occur beyond the knowledge as representational idea framework. The chal lenges to this body of theory are: (1) thatitmust invariably bring us, as researchers, back to representation through the presentation of re sults; and (2) that it is still largely unclear what practical political value lies within the domain of the politically unrepresentable. At present, responses to these challenges are still in the early stages (Anderson, 2006b; Thrift, 2008). Kwo / jpj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cloke and Johnston (2005); Dixon and Jones (1998); Gregory (1994); Pickles (2004); Rose (1993). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
equality
A political ideal promoting the equal treatment, standing or status of people in certain respects. Equality has a close, though complex, connection to justice. While equality is a central ideal within liberal democracies (see LiberaLism), often enshrined as a formal right, its precise meaning and scope remain contro versial. Different and often competing contexts for equality exist that variously answer the question: What is the relevant respect in which people are to be compared? (NEW PARAGRAPH) Administrative equality. The requirement that existing laws (see Law) be adminis tered equally to everyone. This minimal view of equality concerns the application of law, not the content. As Bakan (1997, p. 46) notes, it would be met even in a system that made explicit distinctions be tween people, such as apartheid, so long as laws were equally applied to all mem bers of an oppressed group. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Political equality. Equality in respect to for mal political rights (such as voting or running for office). This issue, of course, has proved controversial, as in the case of the struggle for the extension of the fran chise to women, for example. The disen franchisement of convicts in many US states, or the scalar politics of non citizen voting (Varsanyi, 2005), attests to the con tinued relevance of this issue. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Formal equality. The Aristotlean principle to treat like cases as like: when two persons have equal status in relation to one relevant aspect, they must be treated equally with regard to this aspect. Thus the content of law, rather than its implementation, must not draw distinctions between people on inappropriate grounds. This, of course, begs the question: Which distinctions are legitimate? Modern liberal sensibilities for bid distinctions on the basis of gender, or race, for example. However, chiLdren and the insane are treated differently from adults of sound mind. For a law to meet the requirements of formal equality, however, requires only that it not draw illegitimate formal distinctions between people: its ef fects may still be unequal between people. A law that forbids all citizens from begging in public space treats all equally: however, given that only the poor beg, its effects are invidious. Moreover, interventions that seek to redress iNEQuaLity through redis tribution (such as social welfare or pro gressive taxation) compromise formal equality. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Substantive or social equality. The absence of ?major disparities in people?s resources, political and social power, well being and of exploitation and oppression? (Bakan, 1997, p. 47). Attaining social equality is fundamental to some movements for so cial justice. Advocates for social equality note that people may attain formal, polit ical and administrative equality, yet any resultant benefits are cancelled out by their manifest social inequality. In 1929, upon learning that women could, for the first time, be appointed to the Senate, the Canadian feminist Nellie McLung asked: ?Now that we are persons [in law], I won der if we will notice any difference?? (http://www.abheritage.ca/famous5/ leadership/legal social equality.html). In other words, political equality was of limited utility while women faced the in equalities of patriarchy. Feminists have also struggled with the tension between equality and difference. For some, femi nist struggle should seek to erase differ ences between men and women, as it is a basis for discrimination. Others argue that the differences between men and women should be acknowledged in any adjudication of rights. (NEW PARAGRAPH) As noted, the promulgation of social equality can also conflict with formal equality (as in the case of positive discrimination, for example). For some, social equality can be attained through equality of opportunity: that is, all should be allowed the same chance to compete for social goods and resources. Others insist on the need to attain equality of outcome or results. The parameters of social equality are, however, uncertain: Are people to attain equal ity in resources, material goods, well being or capabilities, for example (Gosepath, 2005)? (NEW PARAGRAPH) Equality, particularly social equality, is an important though rarely articulated principle that underlies some geographical scholarship, particularly of a critical orientation (see Smith, 2000a: see also criticaL geograpHy). Nkb (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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