The Dictionary of Human Geography (10 page)

applied geography
This is a notion that necessarily operates at a number of different levels. On the one hand, geographical research and the production of geographical knowledge are activities that necessarily relate to the ?real world?. Geographers are attempting to under stand the physical and human world, and their knowledge is produced in a diaLectic with the world around them. In addition, their know ledge is disseminated to others and particu larly students in a way that is likely to shape people?s beliefs and behaviour. In this regard, all knowledge is potentially applied. (NEW PARAGRAPH) On the other hand, however, there are par ticular strands of geographical enquiry that prioritize the production of knowledge that can be applied to solving pressing issues or concerns in society. There are strong strands of geographical research in the fields of envir onmental policy, deveLopment and urban and regionaL pLanning that have been more ap plied. It is also important to note that any field of human geography and physicaL geography can potentially be applied to the development of policy. Geographers might be contracted to do research about a social con cern and highlight the potential policy impli cations of their findings. They may also be consulted as experts in order to draw on their knowledge in the production of public policy. Yet further, geographers might highlight their own views about potential policy making by the state, corporations or civiL society as a result of their own research or insights. There is clearly a place for geography to be applied through policy engagements of various kinds and there have long been vocal calls to do more of this work for the debate in the 1970s, see Coppock (1974) and, more re cently, see Martin (2001b) and Ward (2005a). (NEW PARAGRAPH) It is useful to distinguish this focus on policy from a wider set of engagements and applica tions that we can call pubLic geographies. Echoing recent debates in the discipline of sociology (see Burawoy, 2005), a number of geographers are beginning to rethink the way in which academics engage with, and even create, audiences through their research, teaching and in their roles and performances as intellectuals in the wider society (Murphy, 2006; Ward, 2006). In this model, the discip line itself comprises different interlocutors such as students and fellow academics with whom there is an ongoing dialogue over the production and dissemination of ideas. In addition, there are multiple publics with whom academics might engage with as part of their own work, exploring new develop ments, testing out ideas and putting research into action. The explosion of interest in ac tion research and participant observation methodologies that seek to empower research groups and participants is in part a reflection of this shift towards public collaborative engagement through our research (see Hale and Wills, 2005). Furthermore, the practice of research can itself constitute audiences, however fleetingly, through activities such as holding a workshop or conference to dissem inate findings, publishing research material and papers on the Internet, or taking part in media coverage of events. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Geography and geographers can add signifi cantly to understanding the contemporary human and physical world at a time when issues of geography are increasingly pressing. There is clearly a place for applying such knowledge on a whole range of fronts, from the most powerful intellectual interventions about contemporary neo LiberaLism and war (Gregory, 2004b; RETORT, 2005), to on going engagement in the problems of civil so ciety and the development of policy for particular ?clients?. Our notion of applied geography thus needs to be widened far be yond the traditional focus on policy, to incorp orate the discipline?s relevance to multiple audiences and political forces for change. jwi (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Murphy (2006); Ward (2005, 2006). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
area studies
Academic programmes that cut across disciplinary boundaries to develop a relatively comprehensive body of knowledge about given regions or areas of the world. There is a history of such regionally based, interdisciplinary studies that pre dates the Second World War (Said, 2003 [1978]), including within geography. Contemporary area studies, however, and the world regions that they have taken as objects of study, are largely a post Second World War phenomenon. (NEW PARAGRAPH) At the end of the Second World War, the US government took on a leading role in funding area studies programmes within US universities in order to develop the academic expertise necessary for effective management of the national project of world leadership (Gendzier, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . In the cold war era, some of the first areas of major concern were in europe, but area studies programmes were also quickly developed for regions of ASIA (including the middle east) and the rest of the so called thirD world (Cumings, 1998). Although the intention of the US government in funding such programmes clearly had to do with the need to develop knowledge useful to the maintenance of imperial power (see AMERican empire), the kinds of work done within area studies came to vary widely, both methodo logically and politically (Wallerstein, Juma, Keller et al., 1996). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Methodologically, area studies programmes brought together scholars from a range of so cial sciences including anthropology, applied economics, geography, history, political sci ence and sociology as well as various hUMAN ities and physical sciences disciplines. This spurred a significant amount of interdisciplin ary collaboration and is credited by some scholars with having helped erode disciplinary boundaries in the post Second World War academy (Wallerstein, Juma, Keller et al., 1996, pp. 36 48). (NEW PARAGRAPH) While many early Cold War studies were animated by a desire to serve the US govern ment's overseas projects even leading in some cases to considerable controversy within disciplines over the appropriate role of scholarship many area studies programmes also came to serve as the home base for a range of critical scholarly endeavours that ques tioned these same US policies (Anderson, 1998, pp. 11 12). This was the case, for example, in Asian studies, where a group called the ?Concerned Asian Scholars' came together during the Vietnam War, challenging the views of Asianist scholars who supported the US war effort. Likewise, scholarship critical of US foreign policy agendas has fre quently emanated from fields such as Latin American and Middle Eastern studies. jgi (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Anderson (1998); Cumings (1998); Gendzier (1985); Said (2003 [1978]); Wallerstein, Juma, Keller et al. (1996). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
areal differentiation
The study of the spatial distribution of physical and human phenomena as they relate to one another in REgions or other spatial units. Also sometimes referred to as choroLogy, it is, with land scape and spatial analysis approaches, often regarded as one of the three main conceptions of hUMAN gEographY. Of the three, it is the oldest Western tradition of geographical enquiry, tracing its beginnings to the Greeks Hecateus of Miletus and Strabo, although the term itself only dates from the 1930s. In Strabo's words, the geographer is ?the per son who describes the parts of the Earth'. Description, however, has never been just tak ing inventory of the features of regions. The purpose was always to relate the features to one another to understand how places dif fer from one another and how this has come about. As the theoretical justification for study ing REgions and REgionaL gEographY, use of areal differentiation has waxed and waned down the years, with different proponents using distinctive concepts and language. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The ?classic? epoch of regional geography, to use Paul Claval?s (1993, p. 15) turn of phrase, was reached in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when much of the theor etical debate in geography was devoted to the concept of the region. The most important modern statement of geography as areal differ entiation was made in Richard Hartshorne's The nature of geography (1939). Though often viewed as an argument for the uniqueness of regions, the logic of the presentation suggests that recognizing regions requires investigating similarities as well as differences over space. In the 1950s and 1960s, critics of regional geog raphy succeeded in marginalizing the focus on areal differentiation as they pushed a rede finition of the field in terms of spatial analysis. In the 1980s, however, the approach made something of a comeback. But the revival is neither directly connected to older debates such as that between Hartshorne and his critics, nor is it monolithic. Three positions can be distinguished. One involves a focus on place making as an essential human activity. A second sees regional differences in terms of processes of uneven development that are forever rearticulating the global Division of LAbouR under capitalism. A third attempts rec onciliation between the first two by seeing places or regions as settings for the interpellation of hUMAN agEncy and the conditioning effects on it of social and environmental context. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Persisting dilemmas limit the possibility of unifying these positions. For one thing, the question of whether regions are ?real' or exist solely in the mind of the observer continues to wrack debate (Agnew, 1999). There are also important differences over narrative versus analytic modes of thinking and presentation, the relevance of regional divisions in an (NEW PARAGRAPH) increasingly ?networked? world, and the best terminology (such as that of place versus region). ja (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Entrikin and Brunn (1989); Sack (1997). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
art
Geography has a long standing and multifarious relationship with art. geograpHy's literal meaning as ?earth writing' and its con cern with visual representation have often brought the discipline into close involvement with artistic practices, with geographical knowledge frequently being dependent upon skills of visual survey and graphic recording such as sketching, drafting and painting, especially during the period of European expLoration (Cosgrove, 1999). The signifi cance of an aesthetic sensibility continued through much cuLturaL geograpHy and re gionaL geograpHy in the early twentieth cen tury; for example, in Carl Ortwin Sauer's studies of cuLturaL Landscapes and in the pictorial language with which Paul Vidal de la Blache referred to landscape description. Geographical interest in visual art has taken many forms. These include studies of repre sentations of spaces, places and environments in a range of artistic media, especially in terms of the politics of representation, ideology, identity and the construction of imaginative geograpHies. Also important is geographical research on art production (e.g. the formation of local, regional and national artistic tradi tions; the role of arts industries in economic and urban change; the spaces of artistic cre ativity); on art dissemination and reception (including through artistic networks, institu tions, audiences, and public engagement with and contestation of works of art); and on art practices (as embodied creative processes, as expressions and forms of geographical know ledge, as interventions in and performances of spaces and places). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Geography's reconstitution as a spatiaL sci ence in the 1950s and 1960s sidelined such artistic considerations, although a concern with visualization and the aesthetics of order can be discerned in geometric spatial model ling (Gregory, 1994). Humanistic geograpHy brought an interest in the expressive and emo tional engagement of art with places through its emphasis on subjectivity and human ex perience. The emergence of a politicized cul tural geography in the 1980s, influenced by marxism as well as social histories of art and broader currents of cultural theory, turned critical attention to the social conditions and power relations through which art is produced as part of a concern with the politics of repre sentation. Significant studies focused on the constitution of the Western idea of landscape as a ?way of seeing?, and on its role in natural izing class and property relations, in articulat ing visions of national identity, and in legitimating colonial interests (e.g. Daniels, 1993; Cosgrove, 1998 [1984]). Feminist critics also emphasized the importance of gen der relations and sexuaLity in discussions of visuality and landscape (see also vision and visuaLity). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Recent geographical interest in art has be come more extensive and diverse. While much work remains focused on visual and iconograpHic readings of artefacts such as paintings, drawings, maps, photographs, land scapes, architecture, monuments and sculp tures, research has also addressed the spatialities of sound art, land art, street art, music, video, fiLm, performance and dance, among other fields. Attention has turned in particular to artistic practices and to the em bodied, processual and performative elements of art (see performance). Studies have thus drawn out the bodily practices and sensory immersion in places involved in visual art pro duction (Crouch andToogood, 1999), and to a lesser extent viewing and reception. They have also explored the ways in which modern and contemporary artistic practices have directly engaged with urban and rural geographies, from attempts by twentieth century avant gardes such as the dadaists, surrealists and situationists to break down divisions between art and everyday spaces, to more recent ?works' and interventions by performance artists, con ceptual artists, community artists and others. The latter often take collectivist, collaborative, ethnographic or dialogical approaches, based not on the individualized production of aes thetic objects but on practices such as urban expLorations, walks, participatory events, in vestigations of social spaces and sites, and interactions with groups and communities. They are also frequently politicized or activist, forging public arenas for political discussion and critical engagement with the processes through which spaces are produced (Deutsche, 1996b; for examples, see Cant and Morris, 2006; and the ?Cultural geographies in prac tice? section of the journal Cultural Geograph ies). Alongside researching such art, a number of geographers are collaborating with artists (e.g. Driver, Nash, Prendergast and Swenson, 2002). Some are further experimenting them selves with artistic and performative practices (NEW PARAGRAPH) as a critical and imaginative means of address ing geographical concerns. dp (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cosgrove (1999); Deutsche (1996b). (NEW PARAGRAPH)