Showing papers in "Progress in Human Geography in 2000"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define social resilience as the ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social, political and environmental change, and explore potential links between social resilience and ecological resilience.
Abstract: This article defines social resilience as the ability of groups or communities to cope with external stresses and disturbances as a result of social, political and environmental change. This definition highlights social resilience in relation to the concept of ecological resilience which is a characteristic of ecosystems to maintain themselves in the face of disturbance. There is a clear link between social and ecological resilience, particularly for social groups or communities that are dependent on ecological and environmental resources for their livelihoods. But it is not clear whether resilient ecosystems enable resilient communities in such situations. This article examines whether resilience is a useful characteristic for describing the social and economic situation of social groups and explores potential links between social resilience and ecological resilience. The origins of this interdisciplinary study in human ecology, ecological economics and rural sociology are reviewed, and a study of the impacts of ecological change on a resource- dependent community in contemporary coastal Vietnam in terms of the resilience of its institu- tions is outlined. I Introduction The concept of resilience is widely used in ecology but its meaning and measurement are contested. This article argues that it is important to learn from this debate and to explore social resilience, both as an analogy of how societies work, drawing on the ecological concept, and through exploring the direct relationship between the two phenomena of social and ecological resilience. Social resilience is an important component of the circumstances under which individuals and social groups adapt to environmental change. Ecological and social resilience may be linked through the dependence on ecosystems of communities and their economic activities. The question is, then, whether societies dependent on resources and ecosystems are themselves less resilient. In addition, this analysis allows consideration of whether institutions
3,732 citations
TL;DR: A review of the important literature on scale construction can be found in this paper, where the authors argue for enlarging the scope for understanding scale to include the complex processes of social reproduction and consumption.
Abstract: Over the last ten years, scholars in human geography have been paying increasing theoretical and empirical attention to understanding the ways in which the production of scale is implicated in the production of space. Overwhelmingly, this work reflects a social constructionist approach, which situates capitalist production (and the role of the state, capital, labor and nonstate political actors) as of central concern. What is missing from this discussion about the social construction of scale is serious attention to the relevance of social reproduction and consumption. In this article I review the important literature on scale construction and argue for enlarging our scope for understanding scale to include the complex processes of social reproduction and consumption. I base my critique on a short case study which illustrates that attention to other processes besides production and other systems of domination besides capitalism can enhance our theorizing and improve our attempts to effect real social change.
1,535 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that real analytical progress has been made, but there are still "wrinkles which research into the 'geography' of gentrification could address: financifiers - super-gentrification; third-world immigration - the global city; black/ethnic minority gentrification - race and gentrification; and liveability/urban policy - discourse on gentrification.
Abstract: The gentrification literature since the mid-1990s is reappraised in light of the emergence of processes of post-recession gentrification and in the face of recent British and American urban policy statements that tout gentrification as the cure-all for inner-city ills. Some tentative suggestions are offered on how we might re-energize the gentrification debate. Although real analytical progress has been made there are still 'wrinkles' which research into the 'geography' of gentrification could address: 1) financifiers - super-gentrification; 2) third-world immigration - the global city; 3) black/ethnic minority gentrification - race and gentrification; and 4) liveability/urban policy - discourse on gentrification. In addition, context, temporality and methodology are argued to be important issues in an updated and rigorous deconstruction of not only the process of gentrification itself but also discourses on gentrification.
582 citations
TL;DR: This paper reviewed the literature on fear of crime of interest to the geographical and environmental disciplines, focusing on accounts which link fear with the physical environment, and then on fear, social identity and exclusion.
Abstract: This article reviews the literature on fear of crime of interest to the geographical and environmental disciplines After discussing definitional and methodological issues, the article focuses on accounts which link fear with the physical environment, and then on fear, social identity and exclusion It considers the significance of one area of recent research that attempts to link place and social relations through developing local ethnographies of fear The review concludes with some suggestions for building upon this work, and highlights the relevance of the geographical themes discussed to current policy debates
439 citations
406 citations
TL;DR: A survey of the history of GIS critique can be found in this paper, where the authors argue that if GIS critics are to be effective, they must find a way to address GIS researchers, using the language and conceptual framework of the discipline.
Abstract: GIS eased into geography without much discord until the 1990s, when a flurry of commentaries about the relative merits of GIS made their way into a number of geographic journals. The ensuing decade was marked by varying degrees of friction between GIS practi- tioners and their critics in human geography. Despite the methodological chasm between the two groups, little discussion of the implications of these differences has ensued. This article fills that gap with a historiographic examination of critiques of GIS. Critiques of GIS are organized into three waves or periods, each characterized by distinct arguments. The first wave, from 1990 to 1994, was marked by the intensity of debate as well as an emphasis on positivism. By 1995, the conversation waned as the number of critics grew, while GIS practitioners increasingly declined comment. This second wave marked the initiation of a greater degree of co-operation between GIS scholars and their critics, however. With the inception of the National Center for Geographic Information Analysis (NCGIA) Initiative 19, intended to study the social effects of GIS, many critics began to work closely with their peers in GIS. In the third wave, critiques of GIS expressed a greater commitment to the technology. Throughout the decade, debates about the technology shifted from simple attacks on positivism to incorporating more subtle analyses of the effects of the technology. These critiques have had considerable effect on the academic GIS community but are presently constrained by limited communication with GIS practitioners because of the absence of a common vocabulary. I argue that, if critiques of GIS are to be effective, they must find a way to address GIS researchers, using the language and conceptual framework of the discipline.
367 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss how everincreasing video-surveillance is changing the nature of urban space and evaluate whether surveillance can be seen as a means of making space safer and more available.
Abstract: This article discusses how ever-increasing video-surveillance is changing the nature of urban space. The article evaluates whether surveillance can be seen as a means of making space safer and ‘more available’. The main focus is on surveillance in publicly accessible spaces, such as shopping malls, city streets and places for public transport. The article explains how space under surveillance is formed, and how it is related to power structures and human emotions. Space is conceptualized from various viewpoints. Three concepts of space are postulated: space as a container, power-space and emotional space. The purpose is not to construct a meta-theory of space; rather, the concepts are used as ‘tools’ for exploring the issue of surveillance. It is argued that video-surveillance changes the ways in which power is exercised, modifies emotional experiences in urban space and affects the ways in which ‘reality’ is conceptualized and understood. Surveillance contributes to the production of urban space.
265 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the ways in which social relations of gender and ethnicity shape migrants' experiences and suggest that these complex questions about identity, subjectivity and context call for critical ethnographies of migration, and explore the potential of this approach for a case study of migration.
Abstract: In this article, I engage the ways in which migrants' experiences are socially constructed and situated in particular political-economic and cultural contexts in meaningful ways. Drawing on migrants' own stories, I examine the ways in which social relations of gender and ethnicity shape their experiences. The analysis examines the interplay of desires, identities and subjectives in multiple sites in order to understand processes of belonging, exclusion and affiliation that are produced through migration. Secondly, I examine the ways in which migrants' social positionings allow them to question dominant narratives of neoliberal development. Thirdly, I take seriously the idea that questions about mobility only take on meaning in particular political-economic contexts which have produced those migrations and discourses. I suggest that these complex questions about identity, subjectivity and context call for critical ethnographies of migration, and I explore the potential of this approach for a case study of ...
229 citations
TL;DR: The authors present a tentative and speculative geography of the varied and complicated senses (and non-senses) of the conditions and approaches purported to be described by the term "postcolonial".
Abstract: This article is about debates concerning the ‘postcolonial’. The term bears a variety of inter-related sets of meanings. In the first place ‘postcolonial’ has been used in reference to a condition that succeeds colonial rule. But ‘postcolonial’ also signifies a set of theoretical perspectives. Mindful of this diversity, I present a tentative and speculative geography of the varied and complicated senses (and non-senses) of the conditions and approaches purported to be described by the term.
213 citations
TL;DR: The first of three reports on retail geographies of retailing and consumption was published by Blomley et al. as discussed by the authors, who attempted to map out and delimit the boundaries of this large and growing research area from being one of the most undertheorized and "boring of fields" (Blomley, 1996).
Abstract: In this, the first of three reports on geographies of retailing and consumption, I will attempt to map out and delimit the boundaries of this large and growing research area From being one of the most undertheorized and ‘boring of fields’ (Blomley, 1996), retail geography has come to occupy a central position within social-scientific research Some commentators have gone so far as to suggest that the spaces, places and practices of consumption, circulation and exchange lie at the very heart of a reconstructed economic geography (Crang, 1997), and that retailing is in many ways redefining the economic and cultural horizons of contemporary Britain (Mort, 1995) Quite how such a transformation has occurred forms the basis of the following account Part of the problem with early work in retail geography was its inability to take either its economic or its cultural geographies seriously, the result being a largely descriptive and all too often simplistic mapping of store location, location, location While many cultural theorists, historians and anthropologists at the time were exploring the ways in which retailing and consumption spaces act as key sites for the (re)production of meanings and the constitution of identities (Leach, 1984; Wolff, 1985; Benson, 1986; Abelson, 1989; Buck-Morss, 1989; Dowling, 1991; Williamson, 1992), retail geographers were slow to interrogate the ways in which consumer spaces can be at once material sites for commodity exchange and symbolic and metaphoric territories The result was that retail geographies throughout much of the 1980s remained woefully undertheorized (Blomley, 1996) This early emphasis on retailers and store location activities served to ‘misrepresent both the wider structure of the commodity channel and the status of consumption in shaping retail change’ (Clarke, 1996: 295) However, the decade of the 1990s was a period when a reconstructed retail geography began to take shape, stimulated in part by Ducatel and Blomley’s (1990: 225) Progress in Human Geography 24,2 (2000) pp 275–290
207 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors call attention to the potential of ethnographic studies in furthering our understanding of migration and circulation systems, as many individuals and groups forge connections and social fields across expanses of space and time.
Abstract: This article calls attention to the potential of ethnographic studies in furthering our understanding of migration and circulation systems. The dominant conceptualization of migration and migrant adjustment as a one-way journey is inadequate, as many individuals and groups forge connections and social fields across expanses of space and time. There has been insufficient attention directed toward understanding migrations as cultural events rich in meaning for individuals, families, social groups, communities and nations. Three recent ethnographic studies of disparate migrant groups in North America are presented as exemplars. A careful reading and interpretation of each brings to light key ideas in migration and culture, culminating in four overarching themes that serve as prolegomena for a research agenda in migration and postmodernity: dislodgement from place, entrainment in migrant cultures, the ambivalence of migration, and identity construction and change.
TL;DR: This article examined how heterosexuality has been theorized within and beyond geography, exploring the contention that the "performance" of particular oedipal identities is central to the normalization of heterosexuality.
Abstract: Recent studies of sexuality and space have done much to demonstrate that ‘everyday’ space is experienced as aggressively heterosexual by lesbians and gay males. In this review essay, I aim to extend this analysis by examining the (limited) body of work which has explored how heterosexuality has served to create (and justify) other forms of oppression and confinement in western cities. Specifically, this essay examines how heterosexuality has been theorized within and beyond geography, exploring the contention that the ‘performance’ of particular oedipal identities is central to the normalization of heterosexuality. This idea is scrutinized through an overview of the geographies of ‘moral’ and ‘immoral’ heterosexual identities which serves to demonstrate how heterosexuality is territorialized in the city, albeit in an often complex and contradictory manner. Invoking geographic theories of morality, identity and difference, the article concludes that a fuller and more nuanced understanding of heterosexualit...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the work of several sets of researchers prominent in current debates over how sustainability might be interpreted and achieved, and the notion of sustainable development has reac...
Abstract: This article reviews the work of several sets of researchers prominent in current debates over how sustainability might be interpreted and achieved. The notion of ‘sustainable development’ has reac...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that tourism maps and other representa- tions play an important role in the production of tourism spaces, and they define tourism maps, spaces and identities as inter-related processes rather than final products.
Abstract: Tourism maps remain underexamined in geography. Despite recent trends in critical cartography and tourism studies that redefine the relationship between space and representa- tion, these geographic texts are rarely explored for their intertextual relationships with the spaces they claim to represent. In this article, we argue that tourism maps and other representa- tions play an important role in the production of tourism spaces. We begin with an examination of the parallel trends in critical cartography and tourism studies and then push these intial theoretics further by integrating theories of identity, space and representation. We define tourism maps, spaces and identities as inter-related processes rather than final products. The creation of maps as processes inevitably includes the ambiguities introduced in the production of spaces and the formation of identities by changing social contexts. These ambiguities are readable in maps and they permit us, and potentially other map readers, to understand the spaces and identities of tourism in ways not fully circumscribed by a map's immediate production context and purpose. To explore this theoretical argument further we read one tourism map for the inter-related, ambiguous and therefore contested processes reproducing, but never fully fixing, tourism spaces and identities.
TL;DR: The focus has shifted from administrative to city-regions, from central government regional policies to regional competition, and from taken-for-granted permanent regional definitions to historicized units whose boundaries and politicaleconomic significance change historically as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Two intellectual trends in the 1980s and early 1990s reversed much of the emphasis on the political economy of regions within countries that had become popular among geographers and others in the 1970s and early 1980s. One was the rise of a neoliberalism which saw regional differences in economic performance and affluence as either temporary disequilibria or the result of government interference in market allocation of resources. A new conventional wisdom arose: just wait long enough and everything will iron out. The other was the emergence of perspectives on globalization, particularly among sociologists, which saw regions and localities, at least in the ‘developed’ world, as fading away in social importance as social and cultural practices standardized a round global norms. Remaining regional diff e rences were put down to either historical inertia or composition effects reflecting differences in population characteristics and other nongeographical variables. There is now something of a swing away from these positions towards a renewed emphasis on mapping and explaining the continuation of old and the emergence of new regional diff e rences. Rather than disappearing, regional economic and political differences seem, if anything, to be strengthening under contemporary circumstances. This time around, however, the political economy of regions has different ingredients in which the regions are central rather than merely derivative of nonspatial processes. In particular, the focus has shifted from administrative to city-regions, from central government regional policies to regional competition, and from taken-for-granted permanent regional definitions to historicized units whose boundaries and politicaleconomic significance change historically. There is also greater theoretical diversity than characterized the previous round of political-economic theorizing about regions. More specifically, institutionalist, cultural and representational approaches compete with more conventional rational-economic ones. Most importantly, however, regions Progress in Human Geography 24,1 (2000) pp. 101–110
TL;DR: For example, the authors argue that the firm in industrial geography goes beyond being an economic entity; it is also a sociospatial construction embedded in broader discourses and practices.
Abstract: I want to begin the first of my three annual progress reports on industrial geography by claiming that industrial geography, at least as I know it, has done very well within the geographical and, perhaps even, the wider social-scientific discourses. I am pleased the subdiscipline has lived up to the concluding remark by Taylor (1986: 412) in his progress report some 14 years ago that industrial geography was ‘alive and well and encouragingly contentious’. In this and two other reports, I aim to sustain my optimism with an indulgence in the most recent studies which have contributed towards a more pluralistic industrial geography. Although I have taken ‘the firm’ as a fundamental category to define the arbitrary boundary of industrial geography, I am more than happy to situate ‘the firm’ within the context of wider social relations, politicaleconomic processes and environmental change (see also Barnes, 1996a; Hayter, 1997; Lee and Wills, 1997; Schoenberger, 1997; Barnes and Gertler, 1999; Sheppard and Barnes, 1999; Clark et al., 2000).1 In my view, the firm in industrial geography goes beyond being an economic entity; it is also a sociospatial construction embedded in broader discourses and practices (Yeung, 1998a; see also Oinas, 1997; Taylor, 1999). This reconfiguration of our conceptions of the firm in industrial geography therefore helps us to make sense of the diverse and plural range of industrial geographical studies in the past few years (see also Thrift and Olds, 1996; Schoenberger, 1998). My pluralistic view of the firm and industrial geography, however, poses a significant problem for writing my progress reports because there may be some overlap with the material and studies chosen for review by other recent progress reports on political economy (Barnes, 1995; 1996b; 1998) and geographies of money and finance (Leyshon, Progress in Human Geography 24,2 (2000) pp. 301–315
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TL;DR: The progress in human geography journal Progress in Human Geography (phg.sagepub.com) as discussed by the authors is a publication of the SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms.
Abstract: can be found at: Progress in Human Geography Additional services and information for http://phg.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Email Alerts: http://phg.sagepub.com/subscriptions Subscriptions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Permissions: http://phg.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/24/3/445 SAGE Journals Online and HighWire Press platforms): (this article cites 3 articles hosted on the Citations
TL;DR: The notion of good fortune in people's lives occupies an important place in the liberal egalitarian perspective on social justice as discussed by the authors, and this notion sets the scene for a discursive approach to social justice.
Abstract: Recognition of the place of good fortune in people's lives occupies an important place in the liberal egalitarian perspective on social justice. Elaboration of this notion sets the scene for a disc...
TL;DR: The legacy of urban public facility theory in the postquantitative era is decidedly uneven as discussed by the authors, as the legacy was effectively refuted by situating location theory within a much broader political, economic and social matrix.
Abstract: In 1968, Michael Teitz initiated a new locational theory, focusing on how best to locate urban public facilities given the need to balance efficiency and equity. This locational problematic would evolve into a coherent set of geographical concepts steeped in normative, neoclassical and quantitative assumptions. Building on Teitz's original formulations, quantitative geographers and regional scientists focused on operationalizing efficiency and equity concerns according to distance, pattern, accessibility, impacts and externalities. The legacy of these concepts in human geography, however, has not been systematically traced. While both reflecting and bolstering wider stances in welfare, urban and behavioral geography during the quantitative era, the legacy of urban public facility theory in the postquantitative era is decidedly uneven. On the one hand, the legacy was effectively refuted by situating location theory within a much broader political, economic and social matrix. Adopting a more conflictual fra...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the usefulness of a range of contemporary theoretical accounts including regulationist approaches in responding to these lacunae and argue that attempts to move beyond partial evaluations of the new local governance must be predicated upon appropriate and rigorous theoretical foundations.
Abstract: Since 1980 the dominance of elected municipal government in Britain has given way to a broader local governance. While the precise configuration of this change has been debated in detail, approaches to the processes of restructuring and the operation and relative efficacy of new arrangements remain empirically limited and theoretically underdeveloped. We explore the usefulness of a range of contemporary theoretical accounts including regulationist approaches in responding to these lacunae. In developing our analysis we argue first that explaining the restructuring of local governance requires (amongst a range of developments) further theoretical and empirical work on local business interest representation; and, secondly, that attempts to move beyond partial evaluations of the new local governance must be predicated upon appropriate and rigorous theoretical foundations.
TL;DR: For instance, the first time a question on ethnicity was asked in the 1991 census of Great Britain this paper, which included a question about ethnicity, and the results of the British 1991 census were used to identify ethnic groups in the UK.
Abstract: My previous report dealt substantially with the impact of the publication of the 1991 census of Great Britain, which included, for the first time, a question on ethnicity (Peach, 1999a). Work on the spatial analysis of minorities continues apace. Two journals (Urban Studies and Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales) devoted special issues to articles on the geography of ethnicity (van Kempen and Özüekren,1998; Ogden and Charbit, 1999). The Revue Européenne concentrated on the results of the British 1991 census, apart from Findlay et al.’s (1999) article on Hong Kong. The special issue of Urban Studies had the ambitious remit of ‘Ethnic segregation in cities: new forms and explanations in a dynamic world’. The special issue of Urban Studies contained four articles on British cities (Daley, 1998; Peach, 1998; Phillips, 1998; White, 1998), two articles on Germany (Friedrichs, 1998, on Cologne; Kemper, 1998, on post-unification Berlin), one article on Vienna (Giffinger, 1998), two on Dutch cities (Burgers, 1998; van Kempen and van Weesep, 1998), one article on Brussels (Kesteloot and Cortie, 1998), one on Stockholm (Murdie and Borgegård, 1998) and one on polarization, public housing and racial minorities in US cities (Carter et al., 1998). Kemper’s article is particularly interesting as it shows that, although the physical traces of the Berlin Wall have disappeared, the social geography of the city still bears its traces in the behavioural geography of East and West Berliners. The Revue Européenne contained articles by Ogden and Charbit (1999), reviewing the history of migration and ethnicity in Britain since the arrival of the Empire Windrush, the first West Indian migrant ship in 1948; Peach (1999b) on ethnic groups in the 1991 census; Owen (1999) on recent changes in the geography of minority ethnic groups; Richard (1999) on racism and the far-right vote in Docklands; and Hurdley and White (1999) on the Japanese in Britain. There is a critical review by Champion (1999) on the four ONS ethnicity volumes discussed in my previous progress report (1999a) and a useful review by Clarke et al. (1999) on international migration flows to the UK. In a sensitive article, Deborah Phillips (1998) shows the diverging class, housing and spatial Progress in Human Geography 24,4 (2000) pp. 620–626
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on the nature of social exclusion and polarization in anglophone, western societies and make reference to contemporary debates about class, the concept of an underclass and the different explanatory frameworks advanced for social polarization.
Abstract: In this series of reports I shall focus on the nature of social exclusion and polarization. Given my background and expertise, much of what I do will be focused on anglophone, western societies. This review will attempt to distinguish between social polarization, segregation and exclusion. In the process it will make reference to contemporary debates about class, the concept of an underclass and the different explanatory frameworks advanced for social polarization. Future reports will emphasize the multifaceted nature of exclusion and polarization, consequences for the character of public space and policy responses in terms of welfare provision.
TL;DR: Ogden as mentioned in this paper pointed out that the challenge must be to strengthen population geography by engaging more fully in the wider methodological and theoretical debates in human geography; population geographers need to forge stronger links with other branches of discipline; and the relationship between population geography and other disciplines is important.
Abstract: Philip E. Ogden in his reports on the state of population geography attempts to provide evidence of the continued interest of geographers in the field of population studies thus making a plea for its enhanced status. Ogden also tries to provide a critique of the approaches of population geographers as demonstrated by the material reviewed in the period from late 1995 to early 1999. He notes items of geographical interest from the wider literature. In the process three points about the field are identified: 1) the challenge must be to strengthen population geography by engaging more fully in the wider methodological and theoretical debates in human geography; 2) population geographers need to forge stronger links with other branches of discipline; and 3) the relationship between population geography and other disciplines is important and represents a particular challenge. In this final report Ogden seeks to reinforce these points by focusing on three main aspects: the long-term view of demographic change; the continuing importance of the geography of populations; and migration which remains the area where geographers make the most notable and increasingly original contributions.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on several themes, including early agriculture and modern farming, foodways and the often associated festivals or celebrations thatcommemorate them, and also cover other ground, mentioning a number of disparate works that occupy the intersection of ecology and cultural landscape study.
Abstract: In this, the final of three reports, I focus on several themes, including early agricultureand modern farming, foodways and the often associated festivals or celebrations thatcommemorate them. I will also cover other ground, mentioning a number of disparateworks that have appeared in the past year or two that occupy the intersection of ecologyand cultural landscape study. As I discussed in the two previous reports, the themesand topics found at this site shift over time. Of the three mentioned in the title, foodgathering and production are long-standing staples in ecology and cultural landscapestudies. Food as focus of nature/culture interactions is more recent, but still has a timedepth of several decades. Festivities have enjoyed some attention by culturalgeographers since at least Kniffen’s (1951) work on agricultural fairs. For the most part,however, the topic is a new one, associated with, if not always approached from, post-structuralist perspectives.