Cultural Geography Flashcards
(143 cards)
1
Q
What did the superorganic approach to culture entail in the Berkeley school?
A
- Reification of culture (ABSTRACT TO CONCRETE), separating it from individual agency
- “Culture was viewed an entity above man [sic]” (p182)
- Culture as a genetic code reinforced through inheritance (still forgetting human agency!)
- Concedes defeat to dominant forces changing society
- Homogenous cultures (and racism)
- Ontological and empirical errors
(Duncan, 1980)
2
Q
What does modern (the “new” and contemporary forms of) cultural geography do?
A
Denaturalises notions of difference in people and places
3
Q
What is culture, a priori?
A
- VALUES: this is paramount
- Customs
- Products
- Power
- Ideology
- Identity
4
Q
Give 3 ways of understanding culture
A
- A way of seeing
- A way of being
- A way of shaping
5
Q
What is one way in which culture could be seen as involuntary?
A
- The Spectacle (Debord, 1967)
- Images and materials shaping consumerism in western, advanced capitalist societies
- May not be part of identity, just a superimposed norms
- Life is all about getting the best commodities
6
Q
What are the 5 aspects of the Berkeley school?
A
- Rejection of environmental determinism
- Culture as a morphology
- Spatial diffusion of cultures
- Sequent occupance and outcomes
- The “culture group”
7
Q
What is a “culture group” (Sauerian cultural geo)?
A
- How cultures can be learnt from the family
- Cultural determinism
8
Q
An overview of Berkeley school flaws
A
- Culture created change, not individuals changing culture
- A material focus, not looking at processes or nonmaterial aspects
- Rejected theoretical approaches
- A “genetic explanation” of outcomes, not processes
(Solot, 1986)
9
Q
What is ironic about Sauer’s rejection of environmental determinism?
A
- In rejecting environmental determinism, he was against an overriding force determining places (Solot, 1986)
- Cultural determinism resulted in equally racist views because of the idea of a “culture group”, homogenity of culture and inherited cultures (Duncan, 1980 - see Mexican character types)
10
Q
How did Sauer view animal domestication? What is wrong with this view?
A
- Rejected economic reasons for domestication because he believed this was driven by environmental issues (scarcity of resources, a Malthusian approach viewed by environmental determinists)
- Instead due to religion (SOLOT, 1986)
- Forgot that economic reasons can be a social relation, as Marx theorised - domestication to get more profit. A major misinterpretation of economics
- Religeous reasons probably before economic reasons, though (Philo 1995)
11
Q
What did Sauer do well?
A
Resources determined by culture
(but if culture is superorganic how does this work? Marx saw resources as a social relation driven by values…)
(Solot 1986)
12
Q
Why did the Berkeley school focus on rural areas?
A
Rural centrism due to the homogeneity assumption - rural areas less complex
(Duncan, 1980)
13
Q
Has anyone supported the Berkeley school?
A
YES
Price and Lewis, 1993
- No superorganic in Sauerian cultural geography (even though Duncan showed it was strongly implied by Sauer and Zelinsky)
- Generalised all “old” cultural geography
14
Q
Was the Berkeley school explanative?
A
Sequent occupancy described how the material landscape becomes what it is, which could be viewed as an explanation. NO explanation as to WHY changes occurred (Duncan, 1980)
Requires more of a Socratic method
15
Q
What did the “New” cultural geography, with its origins at the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS), Birmingham, focus on?
A
- Power shaping cultural landscapes
- Culture as a “way of seeing”, thus differentially revealing and obscuring the world
16
Q
What is an example of a cultural clash?
A
- Tebbit Cricket test (1990)
- “Which side do they cheer for? It’s an interesting test. Are you still harking back to where you came from or where you are?” (Tebbit, 1990)
- Makes culture a matter of choice and values
- Also power to force cultural change
- Economic rationality also important in culture
17
Q
How does the Tebbit test link to the Berkeley school conception of culture?
A
Culture exists in a place prior to the arrival of people (superorganic, Duncan, 1980)
Interesting how the superorganic fallacy is used as a way of shaping values and power here
18
Q
Good texts for landscape and power?
A
- Marxist approaches to landscape, capital and power (Nayak and Jeffrey, 2013)
- Subjugation of cultures in frontier capitalism (Patel and Moore, 2017)
- Shock doctrine and Sri Lanka developments (Klein, 2007)
19
Q
How is power used to shape the landscape in Bedford, NY (In Landscapes of Privilege)
A
- Segregation through laws of exclusion enforced by local residents
- Prevents 4 acre plots being subdivided to allow less affluent citizens to move in
- Environmental issues used as main discourse in arguments
- Privacy defines Bedford - the town “wouldn’t exist” without 4 acre plots
- “Situational environmentalism” - environmental issues selectively used as cultural values
- Workers who are excluded from the community live in Mount Kisco nearby. These latino labourers maintain the pristine and cherished landscape in Bedford
(Duncan and Duncan, 2004)
20
Q
What is the effect of racial minority labourers being excluded from the landscape of privilege they maintain in Bedford?
A
- Production alienation of workers from the fruits of their labour
- Consumer alienation (of post-marxism) of employers and the workers (links to class alienation)
- Mount Kisco is viewed as the “servants quarter” (p204) for Bedford’s workers by locals
(Duncan & Duncan, 2004)
21
Q
What is discourse?
A
- A means of producing knowledge about the world, shaping how we see it
22
Q
How does performance differ from discourse?
A
Shapes the world rather than simply presenting it
see Butler; Nussbaum, 1999
23
Q
How does Orientalism by Said relate to geopolitics and cultural geography?
A
- Gives westerners authority over “oriental” places abroad
- Appropriates cultures and reinforces racial stereotypes
- Colonialism (geopolitics) is a “geographical imagination” - development is needed to help them (see Escobar)
24
Q
How can seeing the landscape text be obscured by power structures and grand narriatives?
A
Landscape as a way of SEEING for bourgeoisie (illusionary) versus a WAY OF LIFE (/BEING) or the proletariat (vernacular) - a big emphasis on positionality (Daniels, 1989)
Interesting how even cultural geography’s categorisation into “ways of seeing” can be generalised
25
In what ways was the imagined and material landscape of St Petersburg changed after 1991?
- Authoritarian communist symbols removed
- New place names (Leningrad to St P.)
- Material aspects lost: monuments
- Communal apartments still exist (for this - Bater, 2006)
26
Why are post-socialist urban areas significant regarding cultural changes?
The fall of the soviet union and the adoption of free market capitalism resulted in very abrupt changes to citizens lives
27
Where were most family apartments built in St Petersburg during the Khrushchev years?
In the suburbs, mainly low-rise apartments (Bater, 2006)
28
How many (absolute and as a proportion of all apartment types) of people live in Communal apartments in St Petersburg in 2000?
- 328, 000 families
- 9.3% apartments
(Bater, 2006)
29
How was social class segregated in St Petersburg during the imperial period?
- A "three dimensional" segregation
- Segregation within apartments and buildings, despite the city being designed to segregate more by neighbourhoods
(Bater, 2006)
30
How did people proclaim their status during the Imperial era in St Petersburg? Why?
- Clothing and "uniforms"
- Due to mixed neighbourhoods of different social classes
- "[D]ress, or personal appearance, not address, defined who one was" (p22)
(Bater, 2006)
- Interspatial expression of class, mobile, and encompassing many parts of the city
31
Why does much of St Petersberg city centre still exhibit Imperial architecture?
- No need to build parade squares in Soviet Era
- Imperial aspects still exist in the material environment, strongly contrasting with soviet buildings and requisitioned parts of the city
(Bater, 2006)
- A phenomenological aspect of place memory in everyday life
32
How could the expression of social class in clothing be applied to post-modern city mixed developments?
Could see people express their class and social superiority in clothing, so needs more egalitarian measures to reduce wealth
CONSPICUOUS CONSUMERISM
(an extension)
33
Why did social class segregation continue in the Soviet era, despite egalitarian measures (eg nationalisation of property)?
- Still enclaves of wealth adjacent to enclaves of poverty in the centre
- Rise of a mertiocracy towards end of Soviet era, with managerial class rewarded with better apartments
- City centre still seen as attractive to families etc
(Bater, 2006)
34
In what ways could cultural change in the St Petersburg landscape relate to marxist geographies?
- Since 2000 apartments have been gentrified due to privatisation (Bater, 2006)
- Many refurbished former communal apartments are surrounded by pseudo-communal apartments still (Bater, 2006), increasing divides and class segregation
- Capital made by wealthier investors - perhaps cheap communal apartments are a frontier of capitalism? Material changes affect place memory
35
How has neoliberalism in St Petersburg affected industries in St Petersburg?
- Industries have closed as can no longer compete (Bater, 2006)
- Derelict appearance of parts of the city, even in the centre because of soviet planning to evenly spread industries... (Bater, 2006)
- Place memory in these derelict areas represent changes in the city and remind residents of past events. Urban natures too - a fundamentally random biological process
36
Has St Petersburg changed?
Yes and no. There has been "continuity and change" in the city (Bater, 2006)
37
How did everyday life change in Soviet times, especially towards the end of the era?
People wanted to be more "normal", like people in the west (Harris, 2005), unlike the economic anomaly they were portrayed as by the west
38
Did normality arrive for citizens of Russia and St Petersburg post-1991?
- Not really
- Many aspects of the Soviet era still existed (Harris, 2005)
- Communal apartments remained (see Bater, 2006)
- Communal apartments site of abnormality (Harris, 2005)
- Also sudden shock of liberalisation (Klein, 2007)
- A new dynamic to place memory
39
In what ways did everyday life extend beyond the communal apartment in St Petersburg?
- In soviet and post-soviet everyday life, people perform actions and communicate with others outside their apartments
- Allows mixing within certain groups not bound by place
(Harris, 2005)
40
How can places of dynamic change, such as St Petersburg, be studied?
- Alltagsgeschichte: "history from below"
- "Ordinary people" under oppression could still express themselves (had choice) and roles in everyday life
- Allows the society under a totalitarian regime to be understood better
- Sheds light on the citizens views of regimes (support and resistance)
(Harris, 2005)
41
Is the communal apartment in St Petersburg really the "abnormal" anymore?
- It depends
- Some see private family apartments as "abnormal" and alienating
- Communal apartments seen as a way of life, sometimes preferred
- Political change did not bring changes to everyday life
(Harris, 2005)
- What is considered to be the norm is fluid. Culture is not set in stone. Values change
42
Were communal apartments a place to express yourself?
Yes, they became an informal economy (Harris, 2005)
43
Was clothing used as an expression of social class only in imperial St Petersburg?
No
- Also used to express social class, especially among the bourgeoisie during the New Economic Policy (NEP 1921-28) (Harris, 2005)
- Due to formal segregation in Soviet era, though
44
How could Khrushchev's "major reform" have affected place memory?
- Agency to build own home incentive, not seen under Stalin's leadership
- Allowed workers to build their own home (Harris, 2005)
- Marxist elements: less alienation from their environment (also link to Heidegger's Dasein)
- Privatisation later: not only transferring ownership but changing the design and making capital
45
In what ways was there "public privacy" (publichnaia privatnost) in communal apartments?
- Private areas (eg sleeping quarters) visually private but transparent to sound
- Public areas (eg toilet) could intermittently become private spaces, although communal activities outside changed substantially
(Harris, 2005)
- Spatial (material) and symbolic aspects of privacy
46
Why were communal spaces in apartments in St Petersburg kept to a minimum cleanliness?
- Not due to laziness
- Meant nobody cloud claim the space
- Polite to do so
(Harris, 2005)
47
Why was state-owned housing significant in St Petersburg?
Occupants could be disciplined in the world of work (Harris, 2005 - good links to Biopower and Foucault)
48
Why did communal apartments act as a microcosm of an informal economy?
- Social hierarchy (due to length of occupancy and social identities, jobs etc)
- Cultural capital in an oppressive regime and communal place
(Harris, 2005)
49
Why is Bedford, NY, seen as a "privileged landscape"?
- Exclusion from development
- "Invisible walls around towns" (p102)
- Education affected by exclusion (as local taxes pay for it and thus regulate it)
- Workers are detached from the landscape
(Duncan and Duncan, 2004)
50
What aspects of cultural geography are there in St Petersburg?
- Place memory
- Postmodern cultural geo (images and materials)
- Marxist geographies (with capital and gentrification)
- Power and private spaces
- Informal economies
- Norms and performances
51
What are geographies of sexuality?
- Ambiguous nature of sexuality
- The relationship to space and place
- "Inherently spatial" - space is needed from sexuality to be constructed (Mitchell, 2000)
52
What was Freud's understanding of sexuality?
- the family was key
- Sexuality learned and constructed through interaction with others and ones self
- People reflect sexual identities and views onto others
- All people predisposed to be attracted to both sexes
- Freud thought heteronormativity was good and that homosexuality was due to inappropriate interaction
53
What was Foucault's understanding of sexuality?
- Discourse analysis: 'A history of the present'
- Sexuality is a discourse and a historical product, not a biological fact
- ALL OF SOCIETY shapes sexuality
- Sites of sexuality: how places are used by certain genders. Spatial divides reinforce what is "Normal"
- "Acts to identity" - and the relationship with power and the state
54
What was Butler's understanding of sexuality?
- 'Gender Trouble' (1990)
- Replicated acts reperforming identities as a social artifice separate from nature
- Corporeal aspects - how we use our bodies constitutes reality
- Normative dimensions of culture
- Post-structuralists criticisms and resistance
55
Why is space important in projecting identity and resisting social norms?
An empty box to overcome norms and powerful conventions - as seen with rent strike in 1915 Glasgow (Castells 1983)
56
Why were women important in the 1915 Glasgow rent strike?
- Not the subjects of the protests, just participants
- The action might have made them more self-aware of gender inequality (as well as factory labour for first time)
(Castells 1983)
57
What are some issues with geographies of sexuality?
- Public space focus
- Does not look at intersectionality and other groups which are studied as separate, discrete structures in society (Oswin, 2008)
58
What makes queer geography more post-structualist?
- Not just about sex, sexuality and gender
- Also other groups interacting in marginalised spaces
(see Oswin, 2008)
59
What are explicans?
How you explain something
60
What is an explanandum?
Something that needs to be explained
61
What are the 4 changes from the "new" to the contemporary cultural geography?
1) Discourse to practice
2) Meaning to affect
3) Politics of identity to politics of knowledge
4) Human to more-than-human
62
What is the difference between discourse and practice?
- Discourse = linguistic system of meaning, how the world is shaped by words
- Practice = a performance shaping meaning. Ideas are reinforced and constructed. Phrases are not just reused, but reinforced (also inherently spatial)
63
What distinguishes affect from meaning?
- How things shape us and how we shape meanings further
- We are physical and mental objects. Both of these aspects can be affected
- Crude aspects of 'affect' include Wylie's blistered foot (2005)
- Corporeal aspects of how scars induce memories of places etc
- Drinkscapes affecting culture inside and outside a group
64
How are politics of identity changing to politics of knowledge?
- Nash (2004) and DNA tests acting as a biological backdrop to identity
- What is more important to identity?
- Culture not set in zone by where we live
- Politics concerns what is right and wrong
65
What does animal geographies concern?
Animals as mobile places
- Could be applied to interspatial queer identities
- Also interspatial social class in St Petersburg
66
What are some aspects of more-than-human geographies?
- In/ex-situ conservation and how humans control non-humans and vice versa
- The independent agency of nature as a geography of affect - processes over time etc
- Are landscapes natural? Pristine myth?
- DNA storage places vital for endangered species
- Culture-nature hybrids, as a way of seeing and performing
- Links to political ecology and conservation
67
What is a good exemplification of contemporary cultural geography?
Consumerism
- Practiced in buying habits
- Affects our buying habits
- Due to knowledge of human and more-than-human affects of our buying habits
68
How has a deconstructive approach been applied to queer spaces?
- Incorporates aspects beyond sex and gender
- "Toronto's gay village" not just a place of resistance but a "battleground" (Nash, 2006)
- Being Queer does not mean you are JUST queer (can be black/white, middle/working class, male/female) (Oswin, 2008)
- Race is often overlooked in particular (Oswin, 2008)
- All occupation of space is colonisation, which can also generate capital (Puar, 2002 in Oswin 2008)
69
Are queer spaces a means of resisting heteronormativity?
- No, rather a way of extending the norm to include them, according to Oswin (2008)
- Butler more focused on resistance and parody
70
How does queer culture relate to geopolitics and the war on terror?
War on terror used to enhance queer safety against the unsafe and uncivilised Taliban. Appropriation of different values (Puar and Rai (2002) in Oswin, 2008)
71
How is the material and symbolic merging in postmodern cultural geography?
Landscape as a text, representing material components of landscapes (Taylor and Francis, 1989)
72
Why are marxist "ideologies" not used in analyses of the superstructure?
Narrowly-conceived and based on grand narratives, not multiple discourses fighting for power (Taylor and Francis, 1989)
73
How has marxism changed since its inception, especially regarding culture?
- Keynesian economic model
- Different modes of production (welfare, state industry, unionisation)
- Consumer society of advanced western capitalism
(Taylor and Francis, 1989)
- On the other hand, Marxism could be more relevant in a post-Fordist/neoliberal society
74
How does advertising influence consumerism and culture more widely?
- Images of a very different world (Berger, 1972), cultural images reinforcing inequalities
75
How does photography and film raise awareness of things previously not known about? Link Geopolitics
- War
- Imagined, utopian aspects to places
- Detaches people from warfare, a hyperreality (Berger, 1972; Baudrillard)
- Used to be exclusively for bourgeoises
76
How does the spectacle relate to cultural geography?
- A new superstructure of culture (capitalism) shaping everyday life
- Real and imaginary no longer discrete due to mass media as a vital component of capitalism
- "all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles" (Debord, 1983)
- The spectacle merges with reality, thus perpetuating the spectacle
- Consumer alienation - not just production alienation etc
(Debord, 1967)
77
How does a simulacrum drive consumerism and the cultures of everyday life?
A value placed on something separate from its use value (brands esp) (Jameson 1984)
78
How does the concept of a simulacrum influence place memory?
Simulacrum has made the past an assemblage of images (Jameson, 1984)
(Not so much objects, but surely galvanised around them...)
79
What are some interesting aspects of the Glasgow rent strike?
- One of the first large-scale strikes
- Started the beginnings of a welfare state
- Not anti-capitalist, just anti-consumption (rent)
- A women's (not feminist) movement
- Many domains of society (genders and class involved)
(Castells, 1983)
80
Why is marxist geography important to cultural geography?
- Those who control the economic base have more power
- Redefines ownership and landscapes with teleconnections (eg slavery)
- Relation to each other an nature: a social relation
- Commodity fetishism with products of less use value
(Nayak and Jeffrey, 2013)
81
How does Anderson (2015) define culture?
"[C]ulture includes the material things, the social ideas, the performative practices, and the emotional responses that we participate in, produce, resist, celebrate, deny or ignore... culture is what humans do"
Anderson, 2015, p3
82
How is a "way of seeing" versus "a way of being in" (Daniels, 1989) cultural landscapes extended?
- "A working country is never a landscape"
- "landscape implies separation [from the labour, activities and performances] and observation"
(Williams, 1973, p120; Also Mitchell 1996)
- The "real", subjugated history should be uncovered and studied instead
83
How does the Marxian theory relate to "temporal" frontiers of capitalism?
- Hides or disguises the past work put into the landscape by conjuring images detached from historical materials
- Landscapes just scenic resources (as discussed extensively in Daniels, 1989)
84
How do Berger's and Williams' Marxist approaches to landscape, power and culture vary?
- For Williams, literary description was more important than seeing, for Berger the opposite was the case
- Berger an existentialist Marxist, whereas Williams more focussed on historical materialism
- Berger looked at how people LIVED in landscapes more
(Daniels, 1989)
85
What did Berger theorise regarding the role of the painter in depicting landscapes?
- Biophysical aspects to painting (Daniels, 1989)
- A social relation to the material product
- Van Gough painted in the shoes of the worker (eg painted a road as though he was the roadbuilder)
(Berger, 1972 CHECK)
86
Why does Peter Kennard (1981)'s photomontage of 'Haywain - cruise missiles' provide useful insights into culture and landscapes?
- A pastiche depiction of a nostalgic painting with a brutal reality
- Contrasting, showing workers as small and insignificant
- Geopolitical aspects of brutal conflict merging with nostalgic landscapes hoping to be conserved
(Daniels, 1989)
87
How did Rose (1993) analyse Mr and Mrs Andrews?
- Unlike Marxist views (eg Berger, 1972), the "passive" role of women is highlighted in feminist perspectives of Mr and Mrs Andrews
- Mr Andrews stood up so he can walk and manage the land he owns
- Mrs Andrews seated - apart of the landscape
- Thus a possession of Mr Andrews (who is the only owner of the property)
(Rose, 1993)
88
How are landscapes studied in feminist geography?
- Rural landscapes are feminine, just as a female body is regarded as a landscape
- The way women saw landscapes scrutinised in 18th Century (see Mary Kingsley's travels to west Africa)
(Seymore, 2000; Rose, 1993)
89
How can the Marxist grand narrative of landscapes (as proposed by Berger and Williams in Daniels, 1989) be deconstructed from a feminist geography perspective?
- A focus on class struggle
- Some landscapes were created by less powerful groups, eg garden landscapes in the 19th century by middle class women (morris, 1994)
90
Who came up with the idea of "Assemblages"?
Deleuze and Guattari (1987)
91
What is an assemblage?
- Process of constant production and reproduction of people, discourse, images and ideas etc
- Structural outcomes
- Role of power and authority in shaping these assemblages: looks at why, how and where assemblages form (Guattari, 1995)
Deleuze and Guattari (1987)
92
What is an "atmosphere"?
- Where an assemblage "gains place" an atmosphere exists
- Affects people.
- When you enter a space people "feel the atmosphere"
- Inherently geographical, unlike assemblages
(Shaw, 2014)
93
How can atmospheres be self-reinforcing?
Characteristics of, and bodies occupying, spaces affects and constructs the space; reinforcing itself somewhat
(Shaw, 2014)
94
How might policing of alcohol extend the concept of "affective atmospheres"?
- Atmospheres of fear
- Night-time discipline
(EXTENSION)
95
Why is night-time economy an empirical error?
- The idea has been utilised by neoliberalism so that drinking economies have become the dominant area of study
- A "performative" term reinforcing drinkscapes (CHECK??)
- Only studies drinking places as the ONLY aspect of night-time in urban areas
- Only looks at actors involved in drinking (similar to above)
96
Why is an assemblage approach useful to studying night-time atmospheres (in Shaw, 2014)
- Enables the entire night-time atmosphere to be studied by questioning the historical emergence of practices
- Assemblages extend across many cultural groups, not just drinkers (also litter pickers etc) of nightlife
(Shaw, 2014)
97
Why are boundaries significant for atmospheres?
- "Entrench" atmospheres
- FORCE affect to connect to space, thus maintaining the atmosphere for its duration
(Shaw, 2014)
98
What act as boundaries of atmospheres?
Space and time
| Shaw, 2014
99
What mechanism mediates night-time drinking atmospheres in Newcastle?
- Taxis
- Bring bodies together and disperse them afterwards
- In addition to this spatial boundary, the temporal boundary is created by rapidly transporting people to atmospheres
- Break boundaries between atmospheres too
(Shaw, 2014)
100
What role do litter pickers play in atmospheres?
- Bodies which intersect many atmospheres and selectively socialising with occupants
- Clear up remnants of atmospheres
- Clearing up entrenches the atmosphere, to an extent that the public in the morning would not know it occured
(Shaw, 2014)
101
Do all geographers (and other specialists) view atmospheres as a suitable method of studying cultures in performance?
Opinion is divided, with some finding them obscure (Gandy, 2017)
102
How does Gandy (2017)'s conceptualisation of atmospheres differ to Shaw (2014)'s?
Gandy explores atmospheres more from the point of view of an individual - a phenomenological approach
- Affect participant's bodies
- "Atmospheres are both experienced and created" (p357)
(Gandy, 2017)
103
How significant is the entomology of cultural aspects of atmospheres?
Still bear some relation to meteorological origins - a material boundary and flows within
104
What is the "superstructure"?
A Marxian perspective of an transcendent economic force shaping life (consumerism and ?culture?)
(Nayak and Jeffrey 2011)
105
What does a Marxian perspective entail?
A worldview derived on the basis of capitalist economic powers shaping things
(Nayak and Jeffrey 2011)
106
How is capital made, from a Marxian perspective?
Control over the means of production through:
- Capital (assets)
- Knowledge of the means of production
(Nayak and Jeffrey 2011)
107
What are 4 issues with Marxist geographies, and why should it still be studied?
1) A reductionist view of society
2) Suggests that there is no human agency
3) Masculine, looking at the public world of work and not private, domestic labour
4) Class given greater importance over race and gender (although post-marxist theory may group these as results of historical materialism and systemic racism etc). A more post-structural approach needed
BUT divergence from Marxism could result in less scrutiny of economics etc, focussing on "participatory geographies"
(Nayak and Jeffrey 2011)
108
What is postmodernism?
Material and imaginary combined
109
What is the underlying point of "Gender Trouble" (Butler 1990)?
Gender is a process, not static, in-situ material object (Butler 1990)
110
Who devised the concept of a 'grand narrative'?
Jean-François Lyotard
111
What is a grand narrative?
Something that attempts to provide an explanation for all life/culture, becomes the 'truth'
(Nayak and Jeffrey 2011)
112
What is deconstruction (Derrida) useful for in the context of geography?
Map-territory relations - especially landscape representation
113
What is a Baudrillardian hyperreality?
Places have many different realities (/representations)
| Nayak and Jeffrey 2011
114
Who has criticised Baudrillard's hyperrealities?
Don Mitchell 1996 in 'Lie of the land' - hyperrealities do not look at how and why some realities are covered up, especially regarding labour
115
How does hyperreality link to spectacles?
Consumerism now based on "signs" - advertisement and logos. No longer about use value
(Baudrillard was inspired by Debord)
116
How can pastiche be used to deconstruct ideas and realities?
Uncovers aspects not covered in traditional structures and conventions, thereby discrediting "reality" and the consensual "truth" of traditions etc
(Nayak and Jeffrey 2011)
117
What are some criticisms of postmodern geography?
- Not enough quantitative approaches, too much qualitative, diverging from measurable, realist forms
- Postmodernism (in geography) is highly apolitical. Ironically it is discourse, and not practice. It conveys meaning but not affect
- Is, as Jameson (1984) has suggested, postmodernism just a part of late capitalism?
- Opaque and obscure use language
- Categorisation by philosophical ideas is a contradiction of postmodernism?
(Nayak and Jeffrey 2011 - check for plagarism...)
118
In what ways does regulation spatially manifest itself in Foucault 1975?
"The art of distributions"
- The enclosure as a space for confinement, ordered and partitioned for maximum efficiency (Biopower basically)
- Activities controlled by managing time and timetabling (also Thompson 1969)
- Not just about ordering things, but how that order manifests itself and changes over time
Foucault 1975
119
What is an interesting example Foucault (1975) used to exemplify bodies being connected to other things for efficiency?
- The "body-object articulation"
- Rifle firing instructions link directly to body parts
- The rife will not work without body
120
What is a good piece of literature on Marxist conceptualisations of landscapes?
The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck 1939)
See also Mitchell 1996, with "Californian dream" only possible by hiding labour (esp. migrant labour) put into the landscape
121
How can the landscape lie?
- Work put into the landscape to create an idyll
- The labour put into landscapes often hidden from the perspective of an outsider
- Material landscape representations
(Mitchell 1996)
122
How does Don Mitchell (1996) view landscapes?
- Focuses on Marxian materialism
- Representations not so important, unless it concerns the material labour of landscapes
(Mitchell 1996)
123
What is a criticism of Mitchell's (1996) disregard towards representational geographies?
- Mitchell, a Marxist geographer, believes landscapes cannot be studied exclusively through representations
- Yet people occupy space and are represented very differently (Queer geography)
- Landscape can be studied in the present, not just using a historical materialistic approach
124
How does the imaginary landscape relate to a Marxist framework of studying landscapes?
- Abstract labour - people think things through before making them
- The "human condition", ideologically planning a landscape before it is made
(Mitchell 1996)
125
From a Marxian perspective, what allows capitalism to continue?
"Reproduction of labour power" in the landscape (Mitchell 1996, also strong links to Foucault's biopower)
126
How could 'landscape labour alienation' occur?
The "landscape is both a work and an erasure of work" (Raymond Williams in Mitchell 1996 - FIND EXACT SOURCE CITATION)
Work is put in but simultaneously covered up
127
What two landscapes are there in California?
- Landscape of beauty
- Landscape of work (the dammed)
(Mitchell 1996) - also indicated by Steinbeck 1939
128
Why could Mitchell's ideas, esp 1996, be considered to be radical?
Mitchell believes that hiding labour put into landscapes is important for the survival of capitalism in general by ensuring cheap work can go unnoticed
(Mitchell 1996)
129
How could Mitchell (1996) "Lie of the Land" be extended to incorporate the American dream?
- California epitomises the American dream (Mitchel 1996)
| - Extended to include "America: the land of the free" - to be free requires work to be done by yourself and others
130
What does Mitchell focus on in California (1996)?
"Fruit culture" - the labour work that is put into making fruit produce to be sold
(Mitchell 1996)
131
Why is Mitchell critical of Baudrillard's hyperrealities in California?
- Romanticises the state
- Too focussed on hypermobility
- REVISIT!
(Mitchell, 1996)
132
According to Mitchell (1996), what are the two ways that landscapes are produced?
1) Through labour
2) Re-presentation to appropriate, dominate, hide and naturalise the labour put into the landscape
(Mitchel 1996)
133
Does a landscape ever reach a maxima or end point?
Mitchell (1996) believes that landscapes are constantly being worked and re-worked
Alternative argument from Koolhaars (as discussed in Gandy, 2004 CHECK)
134
How were women part of the landscape in California during WW2 (a Marxian perspective)?
- The "woman's land army"
- Labour controlled in a military fashion
(Mitchell, 1996)
135
What term does Mitchell (1996) use to describe the effects of labour on people?
Labour "Ideologically marked" on bodies - a form of biopower - bodies become programmed, combining with the monstrous machines they operate (Steinbeck 1939)
- Mexican migrant labourers in California were literally more programmable, a frontier to be exploited
136
In what ways are there similarities between opposition to Chinese migrant workers in CA during the 1930-50 and E. European workers in Brexit?
- Migrant labour seen as a problem (Neo-Malthusian view) (Mitchell, 1996)
- People forget that labour makes the landscape
137
What is a good text for democratic socialist cultural geographies?
Mitchell, et al., 2020 - Parks and Houses for the People in Sweden
- Interesting use of urban natures for genuine pleasure and not biopower
- Focussed on ALL PEOPLE, not just workers
- Sites of political education, discussions and intellectualism
138
What is interesting about public/private spaces in Folkets Hus and Parkers? Why was this important politically?
- Peoples spaces, not public spaces
- Owned by the people
- Everyone welcome, giving democratic socialists support and power
- A "right to the landscape" - good links to urban nature
(Mitchell, et al 2020)
139
Why have Folkets Hus and Parkers disappeared?
- Political change
- No longer spaces for solidarity
- Rise of neoliberalism threatens democratic socialism in Sweden in general, especially without these places for solidarity, debate and education. Left vulnerable to the infection of neoliberalism
(Mitchell, et al 2020)
140
Why is Homosexual culture in San Francisco significant?
- Boundaries constructed around gay communities, creating new forms of citizenship, as well as liberation
- A gay city within the city
- Economy built around queer culture
- Gay individuals became a gay community because of the space they occupy
(Castells 1983)
141
Why are public spaces important for queer culture? Where has this been discussed?
- Provide security and a right to publicly accessible spaces
- Sexuality and gender can be performed
- Seen in Gandy 2012 Queer ecology
- Also in Castells 1983 - San F. streets
142
What is interesting about the historical context of queer communities in San Francisco?
- Irish disapora moved out to suburbs
- City centre became a gay community
(Castells 1983)
- Interesting because of cultural and political renewal in a doughnut city
143
How does 'queer gentrification' in San Francisco differ from conventional forms of gentrification?
Gay people gentrified urban areas on a budget, leading to a cascading effect on local businesses and the wider community
(Castells 1983)
