Read The Dictionary of Human Geography Online

Authors: Michael Watts

The Dictionary of Human Geography (106 page)

intensive research
Research strategies directed towards discovering the causal chains that connect social structures, social practices and individual agents in particular time space contexts. Sayer (1992 [1984]) argued that in tensive research is typically conducted under the sign of realism and relies on qualitative methods, including ethnography. As such, it is concerned with substantial relations of con nection and privileges a logic of corroboration. Sayer insisted that such studies are every bit as ?objective? as extensive research and, indeed, are more powerful, since their focus on causal mechanisms means that they are likely to produce ?abstract knowledge [that is] more generally applicable?. dg (NEW PARAGRAPH)
internal relations
Necessary relations be tween objects or practices that make them what they are. Formally, ?a relation AB may be defined as internal if and only if A would not be what it essentially is unless B is related to it in the way that it is? (Bhaskar, 1998 [1979]). Internal relations are of two kinds: (NEW PARAGRAPH) The relation between landlord and ten ant is an internal relation, for example: in this case, each presupposes the other, so that the relation is symmetrical. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The relation between the state and local authority (or ?social?) housing is also an internal relation: the latter pre supposes the former, but the converse is not true, since it is perfectly possible to think of a state that makes no provision for social housing, so that the relation is asymmetrical. (NEW PARAGRAPH) These distinctions are important for the process of abstraction that is the mainspring of the philosophy of reaLism, because they guard against so called chaotic conceptions that ?combine the unrelated and divide the indivis ible? (Sayer, 1982). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Sets of internal relations may be termed structures. Thus Harvey (1973, pp. 286 314) defined a structure as ?a system of internal relations which is in the process of being structured through the operation of its own transformation rules?. In his subsequent writ ings, Harvey provided a more developed ac count of the structures of capitaLism as a mode of production and, in particular, of the diaLectic within which ?each moment is constituted as an internal relation of the others within the flow of social and material life? (Harvey, 1996, p. 81; see also Jessop, 2006). Harvey was following Marx, and his project was directed towards what he termed historico geographical materialism (see marx ism; materiaLism). In his exploration of the philosophy of internal relations, however, Olsson (1980) elected to follow a radically different direction. For Olsson, echoing Hegel in a transposed key, thought, language and action are internally related to such a degree that ?the world and our ideas are so entangled in each other that they cannot be separated?. Hence, so he claimed, ?social re lations between people [are] like logical rela tions between propositions? and vice versa: they are all internal relations. This prompted Olsson to make a linguistic turn and embark upon a series of linguistic experiments that took him into the realms of surrealism and beyond, but always circling around the internal relations that skewer thought and (NEW PARAGRAPH) action through the logics of ?cartographic reason? (Olsson, 2007). dg (NEW PARAGRAPH)
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
One of (NEW PARAGRAPH) the two international financial institutions cre ated at the meeting of national leaders held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, shortly be fore the end of the Second World War the other being the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, better known as the World Bank. A third proposed Bretton Woods institution, the International Trade Organization (ITO), was stillborn be cause of opposition from the US Congress, and a body with the powers to be accorded the ITO did not come into existence until the founding of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1996. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The IMF was created with the task of pro moting international trade through facilitat ing monetary co operation, and it was allocated funds for the specific purpose of helping countries get past short term balance of payments crises. This made its tasks complementary to the longer term deveLopment funding undertaken by the World Bank. Both institutions had a somewhat Keynesian mandate. The Articles of Agree ment of the IMF included among the pur poses of the organization to ?facilitate the expansion and balanced growth of inter national trade, and to contribute thereby to the promotion and maintenance of high levels of employment and real income?. This was to be accomplished by promoting exchange rate stability among national currencies and avoid ing ?competitive exchange depreciation? (Holborn, 1948, p. 172). (NEW PARAGRAPH) With the breakdown of the fixed exchange rate regime in the early 1970s, however, the IMF began to take on new and distinctly anti Keynesian roles that mark the beginnings of neo LiberaLism. The IMF is today more fa vourably inclined towards floating exchange rate regimes, even when this results in com petitive devaluations, and its favoured policies of structuraL adjustment have frequently sacrificed goals of high employment and wages in favour of ensuring international financial investors against the consequences of inflationary government policies such as domestic price supports (Payer, 1974; Kolko, 1988, pp. 265 9). (NEW PARAGRAPH) In its role as the dispenser of short term funds to countries undergoing balance of payments crises, the IMF has increasingly demanded as its price for loans conformity by recipient governments to neo liberal policies (see aid). This has generated criticisms from a range of popular organizations, governments and economists, making the IMF somewhat of a lightening rod for criticisms of neo liberal ism, especially in the wake of the 1997 Asian economic crisis, when many critics perceived IMF policies to have been inappropriate and to have exacerbated the crisis (see anti GLObALlZATlON). In addition, because voting rights at the IMF are allocated on the basis of contributions, and because the US govern ment is the leading contributor, the IMF has been seen by many critics as a USA dominated institution, pushing an agenda favoured by the US Treasury Department (Stiglitz, 2002). jGl (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Holborn (1948); Kolko (1988); Payer (1974); Stiglitz (2002). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
international relations
The term has two meanings: (1) the relations between states; and (2) the study of international politics (where it is often abbreviated as IR). (NEW PARAGRAPH) International relations are conventionally understood as the political issues (espe cially foreign, defence and security pol icy) that take place between states and beyond the borders of states. These ?high politics? are sometimes said to be in con trast to the ?low politics? of domestic issues. In this conception, states are understood to be bounded and sover eign, unitary and rational, and the pri mary actors on the international stage. World politics is thus understood as the sum of diplomatic, economic, military and political interactions between states as they prioritize their national interests and seek security by maximizing power. This view is said to be historically valid, traceable to thinkers such as Thucydides and Machiavelli, and formalized in agreements such as the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. (NEW PARAGRAPH) This conception of world politics as international relations which shares much with classical approaches to geo politics can be questioned empirically. International trade, the global circulation of capital and the movement of labour involve ?non state? actors (e.g. corpor ations, markets and migrants) and tra verse both ?domestic? and ?foreign? spaces, demonstrating that the varied scales of local, national and global are intertwined. Environmental issues, the (NEW PARAGRAPH) transmission of disease, mobile cultural forms and fundamentalist religions are social forces that call sovereign spaces into question. They are developments that can require transnational governance that involves co operation rather than conflict, collective interests rather than national priorities, and international or ganizations rather than military alliances. (NEW PARAGRAPH) International Relations especially when capitalized as IR represents the aca demic study of relations between states and international politics. Although pre viously approached via the study of law, history and politics, as a formal discipline IR was established in the aftermath of the First World War, with positions at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the London School of Economics. As a predominantly Anglo American enter prise ever since, IR has been subject to a series of paradigmatic debates that have pitched realists against idealists, sci entists against historians, and globalists against statists. Only in the past 20 years or so, however, have the metatheoretical assumptions the questions of episte mology and ontology of all these con tending positions been subject to debate. Drawing on developments in critical social theory associated with theories of discourse which have also been behind developments in critical geopolitics this intellectual ferment has seen questions of borders, identities and the construction of international order receive much greater attention. Approaches derived from constructivism (see social cons truction), feminism, marxism, polit ical ecology and post structuralism have taken on, but not displaced, the realist and neo realist mainstream in the study of international politics. DCa (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Baylis and Smith (2004); Burchill, Devetak, Linklater, Paterson, Reus Smit and True (NEW PARAGRAPH) ; Dalby and O Tuathail (1998). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
Internet
A vast network of interconnected computers used to make the information, services, data and programs stored on one computer accessible to remote users, permit ting them to purchase goods, download music, query databases, communicate messages and so forth. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Whilst partly developed from US defence research during the Cold War, the Internet?s (NEW PARAGRAPH) birth date is usually taken to be 1985, when the US National Science Foundation created NSFNet, allowing universities access to five supercomputer centres. Other networks existed at that time (e.g. the UK?s Joint Academic Network and CompuServe?s net working capabilities for corporate clients), but NSFNet was TCP/IP enabled: it used the protocols underpinning the Internet today, directing ?packets? of data to computers by assigning unique addresses to host networks and machines (e.g. IP address 68.142.226.55 is yahoo.com). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The Internet emerged as a public utility due to the popularity of the World Wide Web (WWW) a series of interconnected docu ments (web pages). This development is cred ited to Tim Berners Lee, who fused the concepts of hypertext (e.g. the ability to hyper link pages) with the architecture of the Internet and developed the first web browser, in 1991. Amazon.com began in 1995, the same year that the Java programming language was integrated with a web browser. Google started life as a research project in 1996 the year in which Microsoft?s Internet Explorer was incorpor ated into Windows. Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia (and invaluable resource for this Dictionary entry), was launched in 2001. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Clearly, the Internet and WWW have grown rapidly in both use and scope. Whilst future trajectories and their long term socio economic effects are difficult to judge, recent history is suggestive. The ?dot.com bubble? may have peaked in 2000, but e commerce (including online banking and music downloads) is still growing (e.g. downloads contributed 6 per cent of total worldwide record sales in the first half of 2005 a 350 per cent increase in value from 2004: www.ifpi.org). If cyBer space develops as a dominant transaction space, then undoubtedly it will impact upon service and retail sector employment, and perhaps also on the landscapes of commerce. (Will the iconic ?high street? of shops and ser vices be threatened by e commerce or benefit as specialist shops are able to extend their global reach?) The Internet also contributes to alternative workspaces and practices, in cluding home working and ?hot desking?, and the collaboration of geographically sep arated persons in virtual meeting rooms and e seminars (technologies that are being used to facilitate e learning, taking traditionally place bound universities into global education markets and ?knowledge economies?). (NEW PARAGRAPH) It is likely that the WWW will continue to be the primary point of access to more and more information in online repositories, archives and data warehouses. Who should control or own this information? Google?s Book Search facility allows the full text of books to be searched but has involved digitizing the book collections of some libraries, raising copyright concerns amongst some publishers and authors. Other parties may want to restrict access to certain information for various reasons, including anti terrorist protection or to close down undesirable websites. When Google.cn was launched in 2006, Chinese regulators required that ?sensitive information? be removed from its search results. This occa sionally happens in France, Germany and the USA too (source: Google official blog). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Finally, whilst the Internet WWW network can confidently be predicted to expand, it is unlikely to be perfectly ubiquitous. There are digital divides globally in terms of communi cation infrastructures, as there are nationally (e.g. broadband access is uneven across the UK, generally to the detriment of rural areas). Other geographies of cyberspace reflect on who owns the various components of the Internet WWW (including IP addresses, con tent and service provision), raising social and geopolitical questions (see geopoLitics). rH (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Dodge and Kitchin (2002); Gillies and Cailliau (NEW PARAGRAPH) (2002). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
interoperability
The ability for something to work or interface between separate oper ations or systems without error or changed meaning. For example, digital downloads from online music stores to portable storage devices are facilitated by interoperability standards such as MP3 audio compression. The converse to interoperability is proprietary data formats locking the user into particular software. This was a problem with GIS, addressed by the Open Geospatial (formerly, Open GIS) Consortium leading the develop ment of standards for geospatial and location based services (www.opengeospatial.org) including the Geography Markup Language (GML), a schema for the modelling, transport and storage of geographical information. eh (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Lake (2004). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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