Showing papers in "Dialogues in human geography in 2012"
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore what assemblage thinking offers social-spatial theory by asking what questions or problems assemblages responds to or opens up, using a set of questions and answers.
Abstract: In this paper we explore what assemblage thinking offers social-spatial theory by asking what questions or problems assemblage responds to or opens up. Used variously as a concept, ethos and descri...
433 citations
TL;DR: An allegorical tale of economic geography's "island life" and some of its possible futures is presented in this article, where it is suggested that there is much to be gained from reciprocal intellectual trade with other countries.
Abstract: An allegorical tale of economic geography’s ‘island life’, and some of its possible futures, is presented. There is much to be gained, it is suggested, from reciprocal intellectual trade with other...
88 citations
TL;DR: Merriman, P., Jones, M., Olsson, G., Sheppard, E., Thrift, N., Tuan, Y-F. as discussed by the authors, 2012). Space and spatiality in theory.
Abstract: Merriman, P., Jones, M., Olsson, G., Sheppard, E., Thrift, N., Tuan, Y-F. (2012). Space and spatiality in theory. Dialogues in Human Geography, 2 (1), 3-22.
65 citations
TL;DR: The authors make a stronger claim for the value of the aesthetic as a stepping off point for thinking through post-human geographies and make the argument that, as a means of developing our aesthetic sensibility, geography can usefully further its engagement with art theory and practice.
Abstract: Geographers have long pondered post-human worlds. And yet, whilst such analyses have explored the natural and physical sciences as a means of articulating the relationalities and commonalities that span species and kingdoms, an explicit consideration of the aesthetic has been largely absent. To a degree, this is because the aesthetic has been understood as a `humanist remain'. Here, we want to make a stronger claim for the value of the aesthetic as a stepping off point for thinking through post-human geographies. We begin by acknowledging a productive tension within Kantian and post-Kantian accounts of sense-making: that is, a series of questions that speak directly to the post-human have been raised by dwelling upon how the aesthetic can be related to bodily needs and desires, as well as a feeling that emerges from the exercise of judgement. Then, we make the argument that, as a means of developing our aesthetic sensibility, geography can usefully further its engagement with art theory and practice. This leads us to ground our own exploration of the post-human in a discussion of two projects created by artist Perdita Phillips. Moving from a consideration of bowerbirds in the savanna to thrombolites in a saline lake, and from evolutionary biology to a Deleuzo -Guattarian geophilosophy, we ask, where is the artistry?
64 citations
TL;DR: The apparent tendency of geographers to disparage particular periods of the discipline's history, at the same time as exalting exaltation of exalti... as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Histories of geography are, by their very nature, selective enterprises. The apparent tendency of geographers to disparage particular periods of the discipline’s history, at the same time as exalti...
47 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that a more than relational geography may be the more appropriate ontology to think through the basis of assemblage thinking and argue that the kind of realism that comes into play may be of surprise to some geographers.
Abstract: Anderson et al.’s (2012) attempt to put assemblage thinking onto a firmer ontological footing is to be welcomed. Whether their spaced-out ontology is postrelational, however, is more open to question. The shadow of realism looms large over their account and poses the question as to what kinds of entities make and are made through relations. In this respect, I argue that a more than relational geography may be the more appropriate ontology to think through the basis of assemblage thinking. If so, the kind of realism that comes into play may be of surprise to some geographers.
41 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors raise questions about the status of materialism and realism in current debates around relations and relations and propose a short response to the commentaries on Anderson et al. (2012).
Abstract: In response to the commentaries on Anderson et al. (2012), the authors’ short response raises questions about, first, the status of materialism and realism in current debates around relations and r...
31 citations
TL;DR: This paper argued that assemblage theory has enormous potential to overcome binaries such as nature/culture, but only if it understands what novelty it brings and has its relationship to other materialisms, especially Marxism, biology and feminism.
Abstract: The emphasis on assemblage in the social sciences and humanities of late naturally leads to the problem of race, or of how bodies assemble together into unequally positioned racial formations. This commentary argues broadly in line with Deleuze and Guattari that assemblage theory should investigate more than it has its relationship to other materialisms, especially Marxism, biology and feminism. Assemblage theory has enormous potential to overcome binaries such as nature/culture, but only if it understands what novelty it brings.
30 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, Asher reflects on the theoretical and ethical implications of the Karatini-Wainwright exchange in the context of development theory, including its postcolonial, post-development, and feminist variants.
Abstract: In this commentary Kiran Asher reflects on the theoretical and ethical implications of the Karatini-Wainwright exchange in the context of development theory, including its postcolonial, postdevelopment, and feminist variants.
29 citations
TL;DR: Wainwright and Karatani as mentioned in this paper discuss the conditions of possibility of transcending the dominant social formation (i.e. capital-nation-state) of global capitalism, the formation of empires and territorial nation states, and the current economic crisis.
Abstract: In this dialogue, geographer Joel Wainwright interviews the celebrated Marxist philosopher, Kojin Karatani. Their wide-ranging discussion examines key concepts by a series of philosophers – especially Kant, Marx, Hegel and Derrida – through an analysis of several core geographical concerns: the spatial organization of global capitalism, the formation of empires and territorial nation states, the current economic crisis, and more. The interview concludes with a discussion of the conditions of possibility of transcending the dominant social formation (i.e. capital-nation-state).
26 citations
TL;DR: To accept the constitutive power of assemblages as a composition of forces rather than a form, is to accept that the scale, composition and temporality of the thing in question are not pre-given as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: To accept the constitutive power of assemblages as a composition of forces rather than a form, is to accept that the scale, composition and temporality of ‘the thing' in question are not pre-given,...
TL;DR: This article argued that geography could do more to explore the processes by which certain texts become identified as key influences on the trajectories of academic thought, particularly in an Anglo-American academy that remains dominated by linguistic and disciplinary traditions which can easily overlook the contributions of non-Anglophone authors.
Abstract: This response disputes the notion that geography has a collective amnesia about the contributions of its founding figures. Recent work in the discipline has indeed done much to explore the situated influence of key thinkers, encouraging re-engagement with both acknowledged ‘classics’ and lesser known texts. This response nonetheless concurs that geography could do more to explore the processes by which certain texts become identified as key influences on the trajectories of academic thought, particularly in an Anglo-American academy that remains dominated by linguistic and disciplinary traditions which can easily overlook the contributions of non-Anglophone authors and those who practised geography outside geography departments.
TL;DR: There has been a trend towards aestheticising geographical themes, which in crucial ways repeats humanistic geography's valorisation of poetics, sensuousness and spirituality as mentioned in this paper. But this should not impede its equally indispensable relationship to politics.
Abstract: There has been a trend towards aestheticising geographical themes, which in crucial ways repeats humanistic geography's valorisation of poetics, sensuousness and spirituality. Although a philosophical relationship with art is certainly indispensable to human geography, especially as it attempts to break away from its past confinement to the human perspective, this should not impede its equally indispensable relationship to politics. Deleuze, for one, would find deficient any conception of art without consideration of its immanent critical potentials.
TL;DR: The authors draw a contrast between assemblage as Deleuzian agencement, orientated towards the possibilities for reordering and the emergence of new orders, and the forms of assemblages emphasised by the form of order.
Abstract: This commentary draws a contrast between assemblage as Deleuzian agencement, orientated towards the possibilities for re-ordering and the emergence of new orders, and the forms of assemblage emphas...
TL;DR: The authors unpacks the use and neglect of ethos within Anderson et al. and explores the way assemblage becomes a kind of ethos in itself, by unravelling the use of ethos and the neglect of it.
Abstract: This commentary unpicks ethos and assemblage, and specifically explores the way assemblage becomes a kind of ethos in itself. By unravelling the use and maybe neglect of ethos within Anderson et al...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the importance of engagement with academic work in order for it to have impact within the histories and intellectual legacies of our discipline, and highlight the need for engagement in academic work.
Abstract: This commentary highlights the importance of engagement with academic work in order for it to have impact within the histories and intellectual legacies of our discipline. Any canon or corpus of cl...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors respond to Peck's (2012) call to position markets as central conceptual, methodological and political research objects within economic geography, and suggest that markets can be viewed as a kind of "policies".
Abstract: In this commentary, I respond to Peck’s (2012) call to position markets as central conceptual, methodological and political research objects within economic geography. In particular, I suggest that...
TL;DR: The authors discuss the nature of memory and forgetfulness in geography and examine what the implications of active forgetting are for the stories we tell about geography and geographers, and explore the role which fashion plays in directing the course of the discipline and what this means for our engagement with the work of past geographers.
Abstract: In responding to the commentaries on Keighren et al. (2012), we discuss in this paper the nature of memory and forgetfulness in geography and examine what the implications of active forgetting are for the stories we tell about geography and geographers. We explore the role which fashion plays in directing the course of the discipline and what this means for our engagement with the work of past geographers. Finally, we consider how notions of inheritance and bequest can inform the ways in which we value the texts through which the discipline has defined and represented itself.
[...]
TL;DR: For instance, this paper argued that the history of geography has always been a prisoner of its times, no more obviously so than today, and that it is more interested in the fashionable than in the canonical.
Abstract: As a field, geography has always been a prisoner of its times, no more obviously so than today. Texts from the past fail to speak to today's concerns. Now we are more interested in the fashionable than in the canonical.
TL;DR: The authors discuss the characteristics of island scholarship, arguing that such scholarship involves an academic style based on bricolage and borrowing, inflected with homegrown innovation and ingenuity, and that translations always change both the translator and what is being translated.
Abstract: This commentary stretches Jamie Peck’s (2012) allegorical account of ‘island life’ by discussing the characteristics of ‘island scholarship’. It argues such scholarship involves an academic style based on bricolage and borrowing, inflected with homegrown innovation and ingenuity. It occupies awkward conceptual spaces that demand conversations across difference, ‘rubbing along together’ without fully understanding or accepting others’ world-views, and accepting that translations always change both the translator and what is being translated.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that it is "productive to examine not just institutions but also commodities and the economic architectures that have cohered around them" (p. 427).
Abstract: vision in an ethnographic sense – or how these might plug into a broader cultural economy. Similarly although Christophers claims (p. 425) to have sought a ‘bottom up’ approach to the study of power in television, I think this claim can only be pushed so far without a different kind of examination of the lived experience of television in society more broadly (and how this also co-constitutes the territories and power relations of media capitalism). Christophers argues that it is ‘productive to examine not just institutions but also commodities and the economic architectures that have cohered around them’ (p. 427). I share this sentiment from what is a great book; it additionally invites further exploration of the ethnographic architectures that surround television. References
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the criteria for identifying canonical works in geographical literature and the place of "classics" within geographical literature, and propose a set of criteria to identify canonical works.
Abstract: In responding to reflections by Keighren et al. (2012) on the place of ‘classics’ within geographical literature and on the possibilities of identifying canonical works, I focus on the criteria for...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors address three related matters related to the making and editing of texts: since canonicity is a textual matter, we need to pay greater attention to the make-and-edit of texts.
Abstract: The commentary addresses three related matters. Since canonicity is a textual matter, we need to pay greater attention to the making and editing of texts. Since canonicity is significant in geography’s pedagogy, we need to be clear as to the purposes of our teaching it. Since canonicity is a reflection both of text and authorship, we need to understand the context to both text and its readership.
TL;DR: LSE Research Online as mentioned in this paper is a platform that allows users to access research output of the London School of Economics (LSE) to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research.
Abstract: LSE has developed LSE Research Online so that users may access research output of the School. Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Users may download and/or print one copy of any article(s) in LSE Research Online to facilitate their private study or for non-commercial research. You may not engage in further distribution of the material or use it for any profit-making activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute the URL (http://eprints.lse.ac.uk) of the LSE Research Online website.
TL;DR: The authors suggest the need for a more nuanced argument in several respects, including the need to bring physical geographers on board and more clarity is required about the relationship between "canons" and "classics".
Abstract: Whilst in general welcoming the call to rethink the need for canons in human geography offered by Keighren et al. (2012), this paper suggests the need for a more nuanced argument in several respects. Physical geographers need to be brought on board and more clarity is required about the relationship between ‘canons’ and ‘classics’. Above all, the claim that geography is unusual in its historical superficiality and indifference to its earlier generations needs qualification. Only then can the call for canons in geography to create historical depth to our understanding and to aid in disciplinary identity formation, which the authors champion, prove successful.
TL;DR: In this article, Goonewardena and Orzeck analyze the theoretical, political, and practical implications of Kojin Karatani's valorization of the mode of exchange relative to the modes of production.
Abstract: In this commentary Kanishka Goonewardena and Reecia Orzeck analyze the theoretical, political, and practical implications of Kojin Karatani’s valorization of the mode of exchange relative to the mode of production.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors respond to the discussion on the shifting ways that geographers approach questions of space, and question what is at stake here, and whether the viewpoints of those i...
Abstract: This commentary responds to the discussion on the shifting ways that geographers approach questions of space. Questioning what is at stake here, this response asks whether the viewpoints of those i...
TL;DR: This paper argued that one of the strengths of Dixon et al.'s (2012) paper is the way that it pushes a concern with inhuman entities and processes far beyond any entanglement with human lives, and suggested that what makes this possible is the authors' refreshing willingness to explore aesthetic and ontological questions without feeling obliged to immediately demonstrate the political valence of these explorations.
Abstract: This commentary argues that one of the strengths of Dixon et al.'s (2012) paper is the way that it pushes a concern with inhuman entities and processes far beyond any entanglement with human lives. This takes us on a turn – strangely rare in human geography – from life or vitality into the realms of minerality. It is suggested that what makes this possible is the authors' refreshing willingness to explore aesthetic and ontological questions without feeling obliged to immediately demonstrate the political valence of these explorations.
TL;DR: In this article, a short commentary briefly flags and develops three dimensions of an ''aesthetics for post-human worlds', which are suggested by Dixon et al.'s (2012) paper.
Abstract: This short commentary briefly flags and develops three dimensions of an `aesthetics for post-human worlds', which are suggested by Dixon et al.'s (2012) paper. The first relates to questions of non-human difference – encouraging the authors to focus on what might be gained from comparing the different ontologies offered in their two case studies. The second examines questions of expertise, dwelling on the skills recounted in the paper under discussions and the epistemological politics that underpin science-art collaboration. The third observation explores the relationships between post-human aesthetics, ethics and politics. In short this commentary suggests that the authors have perhaps been a little humble about the import of their analysis. There are wider implications for geographical thought and practice after the relational turn raised here that are worthy of more extensive discussion.
TL;DR: In this article, Challenging Governance Theory encourages us to face new and exciting intellectual challenges in the study of this phenomenon, which represents a turning point in the course that this debate has followed so far.
Abstract: if they all could be characterized in the same general way’ (Provan and Kenis, 2008, p.233). J. S. Davies himself gives us a valuable heuristic tool for analyzing the diversity in various forms of network governance from a Gramscian perspective (Davies, 2011, pp. 131–137). The six ideal models identified in his book (flawed hegemony, governance by exclusion, interregnum, counter-hegemony, comprehensive hegemony and post-hegemony) may represent a useful starting point for analyzing the crucial issue of diversity in various forms of governance. Empirical research in this field has enormous challenges ahead: understanding what conditions help or hinder the development of some or the other forms of governance; assessing the chances of developing some or the other models and what are their main characteristics; analyzing in-depth the relationship between the what, the who and the how of this type of cooperative arrangements; and, above all, to explore the extent to which different models of governance significantly perpetuate or transform power relations and social policies. Far from upsetting the theories of network governance, Challenging Governance Theory encourages us to face new and exciting intellectual challenges in the study of this phenomenon. This is not just another book in the endless list of works that explain the transformation to networked governance, but rather represents a turning point in the course that this debate has followed so far.