Showing papers in "Progress in Human Geography in 1988"

The new regional geography in English and French-speaking countries

Abstract: Confronted with realities too complex to be subsumed under mere generic models, geographers are rediscovering the study of the specific. Indeed, the analysis of the recent evolution of geography indicates that after a period devoted almost entirely to the study of geographical systems and, more recently, to the unmasking of social structures in space, geography is beginning to see those systems and structures as localized and to reexamine the specificity of places. Geographical studies of the specific inner forces acting to promote the individuality of regions are each year more numerous. And many scholars mainly associated with nomothetic thinking are now producing regional geography. Their renewed interest in the specific resurrects some of the traditional concerns of regional studies and thus can be interpreted as a return to chorology. However, we shall argue here, along with Claval (1984), Nonn (1984), Johnston (1984, 1985) and Gregory (1986a), that the regional geography practised since the mid-1970s is a new one. Its emergence may be seen as a response to recent developments in social theory, notably the reacknowledgement of the role of ’agency’ within the ’structure’, as well as to changing societal goals, of which the enhancement of diversity is not the least. The argument will be based on a review of both previous interpretations of traditional regional geography and its more contemporary expressions, and of major contributions theoretical and empirical to the geographical study of specific regions in the last 10 years. Our aim is to show the significance of today’s regional geography as an intellectual

Arguments within regional geography

Abstract: categories are used to interrogate historical geographical situations and through this interrogation, gain empirical substance. This substance becomes the basis for more concrete and specific analytical categories that take on forms and meanings consistent with the questions and regional setting under consideration. The implied methodology involves continual movements among general and specific levels of analysis or ’determinations’, around a set of core formalizations such as the labour process, class structure and cultural practice. Related tasks are distinguishing among relations of necessity and contingency that define and explain the object of study. Methodological underpinnings of reconstructed regional geography are typically revealed in a theoretical exegesis introducing the interpretive account. For example, Gregory (1981) and Pred (1986) both spell out theoretical vocabularies in first chapters, and then permit theory to speak through subsequent empirical accounts. Gregory has explained the rationale for separating conceptual and empirical discussions: ’ I have not continually stopped the narrative and separated out systems and structures, because this would have stopped the narrative and cut into the continuities of structuration. Instead, I have used all these propositions to inform my account and what I have tried to

Geographic information systems

Abstract: Geographic information systems (GISs) are defined as software systems. In this article, the relationships between GIS and other activities having to do with geographic information are reviewed. The use of GIS in social and behavioral sciences is discussed as an increasingly essential component of the research infrastructure and as a tool for acquiring and communicating geographic knowledge. Examples are used to discuss the importance of GIS across the social and behavioral sciences. Sources of data are reviewed, and GISs are discussed from the perspectives of client–server architectures, the Internet, Internet-based services, data archives, and digital libraries. GIS use is intimately related to the role of space in scientific explanation. The article ends with a discussion on the future of GIS.

Geography and literature

Abstract: With a derivative base and integrative aim, it is the very essence of geography to ’borrow’. The direction, extent and perhaps reciprocity of its borrowing varies not least with the perceived focus of geography itself. If the literal translation ’earth description’ is broadly interpreted as human-environment relations and taken as the main thrust, then the interface with literature, with its integrated triad of person, plot and place, is an essential field for geography no less than for any other discipline attempting an explication of the human condition (Thorpe, 1967). In this review the interface between geography and literature will focus on writing variously termed imaginative, creative or serious; a further refinement is

A structural perspective on labour migration in underdeveloped countries

Abstract: In a stimulating historical treatment McNeill (1978) discusses the pivotal role that the geographical movement of human population has played in the process of socioeconomic formation and transformation (also see Balan, 1982; Davis, 1974; Lee, 1978). While the forms of migration have varied through time and space, labour migration has become a prominent type of migration, especially since the ’genesis of the capitalist farmer’ in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries (Marx, 1964; 1967). Today, migration has emerged as a major population and development concern for most third world governments attracting considerable research attention. Yet most studies have generally failed to provide more than proximate explanations of why migration occurs (Bilsborrow et al., 1984). The attempt here is to provide a structural perspective on the on-going process opf migration in underdeveloped societies. In this endeavour, I propose a general conceptual framework one in which migration is viewed as a structural process that is systematically produced and reproduced. While some may find the proposed framework general enough to be applicable to many underdeveloped countries, others may find it too general to explain certain regional and national variations in migration forms, patterns and impacts. My own contention is that like many other social science theories, this one also may have to be somewhat modified when applied to specific case studies in order to account for possible regional variations; this does not however lessen its theoretical value as a general structural framework.

The place of 'place' in cultural studies of sports:

Abstract: Sport is a major element of culture and has attracted the academic interest of scholars from a diverse range of disciplines. Psychology, history, philosophy and sociology each possess several sport-oriented journals. Geographers have arrived relatively late on the sports studies scene, though the recent birth of Sport Place: an International Journal of Sports Geography suggests that a geographical involvement especially in the United States is at least growing, if not yet fully legitimized. Sport has lain uneasily within both social and recreational geography (fields in which it might most logically be expected to emerge), being viewed as

Rationality and relativism in economic geography: an interpretive review of the homo economicus assumption

Abstract: ion and mathematical dexterity. Because of this legacy it is unclear whether economic geographers can realign the discipline to emphasize context (although as indicated there are moves in that direction). Another related obstacle is the necessity of learning the new skills that a contextual approach demands. For example, once trained in the ways of quantitative methods, how easy is it to view the world from, say, an ethnographic perspective? Despite these difficulties it is important to make the effort. The alternative is to deny the variety within the world that we seek to explain. Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Orthodoxy and new directions: cultural/humanistic geography

Abstract: For geographers accustomed to the low, yet enduring profile shown by cultural/ humanistic geography over the decades, a silhouette that sometimes engendered a certain defensiveness by its practitioners, this last year has been characterized instead by highly visible activity: a well-known, committed and productive cultural geographer as AAG president, recognition of cultural geography as a specialty group within the association, a multitude of panels and special sessions on ’new directions’ and ’emergent themes’ in cultural geography, even multipleedition textbooks that attest to strong undergraduate enrollments in the area. Has a phoenix arisen? While we might blush from the renewed interest shown for our traditional concerns with culture, landscape and place, by both our own discipline and neighbouring fields, cultural geographers might also reflect upon and assess the positive and creative tensions resulting from the interplay between our traditional roots and contemporary social theory. I have shaped and structured this report to foreground the linkages between orthodoxy and our new directions; I write as one interested in a more ’theory informed’ cultural geography, yet also as a participant sensing that our intellectual heritage has given us far more than we normally appreciate and that it would be more constructive to build from these roots than to sever them.

A State of mind?: Some thoughts on the State in capitalist society

Abstract: Consideration of the form and function of the State has largely been disregarded by geographers (Clark and Dear, 1981: 45; Johnston, 1982: ix). It seems likely that geographers have ignored critical analysis of the State because it fulfils one of its many roles so well. The State has been taken for granted, being perceived by many as a neutral arbiter, acting for the common good (Holloway and Picciotto, 1978: 2), exerting influence only in the political arena and having little bearing upon the construction of our spatial environment. However, recent moves to marxian literature and perceptions of the limits to State activity and the difficulties confronted by the State in weathering a crisis characterized by unemployment, wage cuts, social problems and attempts to reduce State

The mapping of language in North America and the British Isles

Abstract: Language is a subject that has seriously concerned only a handful of Englishspeaking geographers (Wagner, 1958; Trudgill, 1975). The situation may be understandable, but it is also regrettable. The geography of language is so intimately interwoven with political, ethnic, religious and a variety of other social phenomena, and with the geography of population and communications, and even certain aspects of the physical habitat, that we cannot fully understand any of these non-linguistic topics without giving the linguistic its due. Indeed, in a most fundamental sense, we cannot begin to understand the nature and dynamics of human society without coming to terms with the central role of communications and, more immediately, the ways in which our minds, singly and collectively, dwell within a fearfully complex enveloping cocoon of language. This is not the occasion for a comprehensive review of the geographic study of language, but two reasons for its relative neglect are clear enough. As is also the case for other cultural and social items, geographers have been slow to recognize the true significance of whatever may be relatively inconspicuous in the visible landscape. Moreover, in this instance, problems of data and methodology are particularly daunting. The bulk of our place-specific information comes from

Persistence and change in the relationship between anthropology and human geography

Abstract: Scientific disciplines, as cultural activities conducted through social relationships (rather than as sets of abstract idealized values or prescriptions), can ultimately only be identified in terms of the practices of those who identify with the label. This is quintessentially so for both geography and anthropology, and gives rise to some obvious problems in exploring the overlapping borderlands between them. Nevertheless, it may help to structure the discussion which follows by saying that for present purposes I understand geography as that discipline which concerns itself with the spatial distribution and relationships of natural and artefactual (including human) entities; and anthropology as the study of the biology, culture and social structure of human populations. I am, however, here concerned more specifically with connections between those aspects of geography which shed light on the human condition (though not necessarily human geography in its strict sense) and the anthropology of human social and cultural organization. Moreover, rather than providing a bibliographically exhaustive review, I have elected to discuss a number of key areas of interfertility and coincidence

Social geography social struggles and spatial strategies

Abstract: This is the sixth (and last) in the series of annual reviews that I have undertaken of ’progress in social geography’. It has been a period of considerable excitement and turmoil within the discipline and within social geography in particular. Keeping up with a burgeoning and diverse literature, let alone trying to evaluate it or to detect signs of intellectual ’progress’, has been a daunting task. The general absence of response from readers has been disappointing but presumably indicates that the ’silent majority’ treat these reviews simply as an annotated

Informal work and development in the west

Abstract: The concept of work in the social science literature has progressively broadened since the 1970s. It is now commonly recognized that work refers to more than just employment in the wage economy; it includes a wide range of unpaid activities. Unfortunately, researches into work has produced a disparate literature reflecting the particular perspectives of separate disciplines. An attempt is made in this paper to survey and unify some of these ideas, and to illustrate their usefulness in the analysis of spatially uneven development. This synthesis is drawn from a review of English language sources (United States, Canada, United Kingdom) and focuses on western economies. There are other important sources in German, French and Italian which are not reviewed. The paper begins with a categorization that distinguishes four forms of work in the literature; formal, irregular, household and communal. For each of the last three categories, the so-called informal sector, the major lines of inquiry in the literature are summarized. In general, there have been two main research questions: How can the value of informal work be measured? And, how do the form, scale and functions of informal work vary over time, among social groups and across space? Consideration of the geographic dimensions of informal work has, so far, been brief and unsystematic. This paper’s final section illustrates the relevance of a geographic perspective, particularly as it applies to the question of the contribution of informal work towards, or against, socioeconomic develop-

Disease as natural hazard

Abstract: Increasing specialization and fragmentation have characterized human geography in recent decades. More than one critic has suggested that this threatens the integrity, even the future, of the discipline. Recognizing a potential area for fruitful synthesis between our research specialization, medical geography, and natural hazards research, we offer some preliminary thoughts on the conceptualization of disease as a natural hazard. By examining areas where the two traditions can draw upon one another, we should learn more about human response to stressors, from parasites to extreme geophysical events, and increase our understanding of human-environment systems. At the same time, it should contribute to synthesis rather than fragmentation of the discipline and stimulate

Political geography bringing the context back

Abstract: and global influence, the responsibilities of which demand an understanding of the lands, languages and cultures of the world’ and ’an ignorance of geography, foreign languages and cultures places the United States at a disadvantage with other countries in matters of business, politics and the environment’. A knowledge of regional contexts would appear to be an important element in the current national effort to reassert America’s competitiveness. Geography is viewed as an applied discipline. Like the discipline of geography, the political and social leadership has discovered the world’s regions. Political setbacks abroad and economic difficulties at home have led to a search for a ’spatial fix’ (Harvey, 1985; Johnston, 1985; 1986a), in which states play leading roles in promoting capital accumulation. This state-assisted strategy is occurring during a restructuring of the geopolitics of capitalism. As America’s postwar hegemony ebbs (Harvey, 1985; Klein, 1987), a new global order is slowly taking shape due to the changing differential concentration of economic and political power. For this reason, a renewed emphasis on places, their changing roles in the new order

History's dialogue

Abstract: History can be interpreted, according to E.H. Carr (1964: 35), ’as a process of interaction, a dialogue between the historian in the present and the facts of the past’. Carr offers this argument as a counterpoise to the optimistic views of nineteenth-century historians who believed they would someday be able to produce ’ultimate history’ when ’the last document’ with its final facts was eventually described (Carr, 1964: 7). There can be no ’ultimate history’ if history is indeed a dialogue, for a fundamental corollary follows: since the present is continually changing, and the past is interpreted in the light of the present, then the past is continually changing also. Heroes and villains, movements and parties, will all change over time not because the events with which they are associated will change, but because the meaning we give to those events will alter. Historians, like all scientists, are products of their time. I was reminded of these arguments, set out so clearly in E.H. Carr’s classic What is history?, when recently carrying out some research in political geography. This research involves investigation into the long-term sectional structure of American politics as reflected in Presidential voting returns. This project had originally resulted in a book Section and party which I co-authored with Clark Archer (Archer and Taylor, 1981). After the 1984 Presidential election the editor of Professional Geographer asked us to update the analysis to include the latest results (Archer et al., 1985). It was in the process of this updating that the history dialogue came into play without our realizing it. In fact this was the second update we had carried out. The analysis for the original book

Perspectives on migrant labouring and the village economy in developing countries: the Asian experience in a world context

Abstract: Temporary labour migration by the inhabitants of rural communities in the developing world is now recognized to be an important and widespread phenomenon whose roots lie in the inequalities that exist at the regional, national and international levels. However, attempting to define the process is difficult (see Chapman and Prothero, 1985). It can involve seasonal movements of a few months timed to coincide with the agricultural slack season, or movements of a

The functioning and the development of Polish human geography

Abstract: The mechanisms for the functioning and especially for the development of geography have been extensively discussed in its literature. This literature concerned, however, hardly any national geography save that in the developed capitalist countries of western Europe and North America, while little has been written on the mechanisms for the development of geography in the socialist countries of eastern Europe. In the recently published volume edited by Johnston and Claval, Geography since the second world war; an international survey (1984), only two chapters were devoted to east European countries, viz. the Soviet Union and Poland and only the latter chapter was written by a national

Geographical dimensions of NATO's evolving military strategies

Abstract: geographical considerations which underlie growing doubts about the whole idea of nuclear deterrance doubts which are leading people towards the notion of defending western Europe by conventional means alone and I shall try to highlight these. At the end, I will consider whether focusing on specifically geographical issues in this way can lead us to any conclusions about the role of deterrence in preventing armed conflict. Throughout, I shall take it that the geographer’s particular interest in these matters concerns the interaction of

Geography and the study of Third World underdevelopment re-revisited.

Abstract: PIP: Progress in development geography has been recently associated with the shift of the perspective on underdevelopment from a right-wing, conservative standpoint to a leftward, liberal-radical position. Marxism often conceals its message in obscure rhetoric with moral overtones on colonialism, slavery, poverty, and underdevelopment. Liberal academics have lamely acceded to the dogmas of this once-assertive ideology. Marxist view have exerted a stimulus on debates, but could not provide answers to the issues of this discipline. The hopes of development and prosperity a generation ago have evaporated only to be replaced by news of economic malaise, the food crisis, and crushing debt. In the late 1980's geographers addressed Third World environmental issues. Blaikie and Brookfield examined environmental deterioration among elements of the population-environment issue. Lewis and Berry dealt with African environments and resources. Watts and Bassett touched on agrarian and political concerns in West Africa. Adams examined water resources development in Nigeria's Sokoto Valley. Bryceson analyzed the political economy of agriculture in Tanzania. Lawson depicted how government policy bore on agriculture and its regional pattern. Crush detailed the absorption of Swazi labor into the South African economy. Dayal described the deficiency diet of agricultural workers in Bangladesh. Others examined Africa's financial disaster, Japan's trade surplus, and the global population crisis. Nevertheless, the dearth of output on and neglect of Third World issues by human geographers awaits positive research publications.

Book reviews : Simpson, E.S. 1986: The developing world: an introduction. London: Longman. xv + 360 pp. £9.95 paper. This is a disappointing book. According to the publisher's blurb, The developing world

Abstract: Yet, in spite of frequent references to specific problems of policy and organization, the book does not amount to a rigorous critique of the status quo, nor does it offer any convincing prescriptions, either nationally or globally (admittedly the latter, at least, have eluded most authors!). One senses that the authors draw back from the more radical implications of their analysis for fear of seeming ’biased’, with the result that their treatment of intensely political issues (such as the nuclear debate) is curiously bland. The claim which is made in several places that progress in resource management practice is threatened by recession, and that even in the richer western democracies, ’Environmentalism is running out of momentum’ (p. 307), is surprising. Fortunately, much evidence (from opinion polls, membership of pressure groups and even political response) points the other way. Contrary to expectations, environmental concern has proved remarkably resilient during the 1970s and 1980s and remains high on the political agenda in many advanced economies. Fernie and Pitkethly have produced a curate’s egg. In structure and style of presentation the book is disappointing, but in other respects it is welcome and will provide useful material for both teachers and students of resource management. It will probably be most useful as a reference text and source of case-study material. Those seeking more radical and provocative or polemic approaches will have to look elsewhere.

Book reviews : Markusen, A., Hall, P. and Glasmeier, A. 1986: High tech America: the what, how, where, why and when of the sunrise industries. London: Allen and Unwin. xvi + 227 pp. £20.00 cloth

Abstract: In High tech America Markusen, Hall and Glasmeier have set out to meet ’the huge unslaked thirst’ for information about high technology industry that exists among academics and decision makers. To that end they have written a book outlining what they consider ’high tech’ to be; how it has evolved over the 1970s in terms of both plant and employment numbers; where it has been located; how the location pattern has changed; and finally some of the major characteristics of those places with which high technology industry is associated, as identified by regression analysis. It would be impossible in a short review even to outline the highly contentious nature of much of the contents of High tech America, so we will confine ourselves to summarizing the argument and commenting on some of the problems in the analysis. For the purposes of the authors high technology industry means those industrial

Book reviews : Blaikie, P. and Brookfield, H. 1987: Land degradation and society. London: Methuen. xxiv + 296 pp. £10.95 paper:

Abstract: are by the editors and dominant authors of Land degradation and society: Brookfield’s Interdependent development (1975) and Blaikie’s The political economy of soil erosion in developing countries (1985). I thus approached this joint work with enthusiasm and eager anticipation. In large measure I was satisfied, but not fully pleased. Inevitably, a work with contributions from many authors has some sections that are almost out of place, or so different in tone that they detract from the development of the argument. Brookfield and Blaikie take great pains to emphasize that ’land degradation should by definition be a social problem’, suggesting that: Net degradation = (natural degrading processes and human interference) (natural reproduction and restorative management). They introduce the important concepts of the sensitivity of land to physical and other forms of damage and the resilience of the site characteristics in the face of use. Using

Book reviews : Richards, P. 1985: Indigenous agricultural revolution: ecology and food production in West Africa. London: Hutchinson. £7.95 paper. 1986: Coping with hunger: hazard and experiment in an African rice-farming system. London: Allen and Unwin. £25.00 cloth

Abstract: of places mentioned in the text. To have avoided that pitfall, the editors and the cartographers would have needed time that was denied them by the inexorable approach of the sesquicentennial. The editors acknowedge that ’few academic geographers have the opportunity to present their ideas in full-colour printing’ and they have clearly made the most of it. We can be grateful for that and for the excellent Atlas they have produced.