Table Of ContentENVI SI ONI NG
Human Geographies
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E N V I S I O N I N G
Human Geographies
EDITED BY Paul Cloke • Philip Crang • Mark Goodwin
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First edition published 2004 by Hodder Arnold
Distributed in the USA by Oxford University Press
Published 2014 by Routledge
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Copyright © 2004 Taylor & Francis
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The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at
the date of going to press, but neither the authors nor the publisher can accept
any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 13: 978-0-340-72012-7 (pbk)
Typeset in 10/14 GillSans by Charon Tec Pvt.Ltd,Chennai,India
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CONTENTS
Introduction 1
Paul Cloke
Chapter 1 Space and substance in geography 11
Neil Smith
Chapter 2 Engaging ecologies 30
Margaret Fitzsimmons
Chapter 3 Enclosure:a modern spatiality of nature 48
Michael J Watts
Chapter 4 Recovering the future:a post-disciplinary perspective on
geography and political economy 65
Mark Goodwin
Chapter 5 Summoning life 81
Nigel Thrift
Chapter 6 Postcolonial geographies:spatial narratives of inequality and
interconnection 104
Catherine Nash
Chapter 7 Feminist geographies:spatialising feminist politics 128
Geraldine Pratt
Chapter 8 Poststructuralist geographies:the essential selection 146
Marcus A Doel
Chapter 9 Computing geographical futures 172
John Pickles
Chapter 10 Morality,ethics and social justice 195
David M.Smith
Chapter 11 Deliver us from evil? Prospects for living ethically and
acting politically in human geography 210
Paul Cloke
Chapter 12 Activist geographies:building possible worlds 229
Sue Ruddick
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Introduction
Paul Cloke
Personal vision?
This book presents a series of personal visions for the future of human geography.Before
introducing each chapter,I want to dwell briefly on this interconnection between the per-
sonal,the subject and the visionary agenda,because it seems important to recognise that
the ‘subject’ of human geography is very much to be found at the interstices of individual
human geographers and the collectivity of their and others’ work.To identify stimulating
futures for human geography,then,will at least in part entail a recognition of the kinds of
intellectual, ideological, aesthetic and everyday prompts which fire the personal human
geographical imagination. An understanding of why we are interested in particular sub-
jects/objects/modes of human geographical study will not solely be found in the quality
and persuasiveness of the canon of study which already exists,important though that is.
Such an understanding will also demand some scrutiny of the subjectivities, identities,
positionalities and situated knowledges that we as individuals bring to the collectivity of
that canon.
The iteration of individuality and collectivity is,I suspect,a fundamental but sometimes
taken-for-granted aspect of the academic profession of human geography. In the every-
day events of seminars, tutorials, presentations, reading groups and the like, choice is
exercised over the focus of the event; politics are worked out in its conduct and inter-
relations;experienceis deployed in order to ground,illustrate,compare or contrast;posi-
tionis expressed (and sometimes shifted) in critical engagement with text and discussion;
knowledge is displayed in the structuring or destabilisation of understanding; and deep-
seated but sometimes difficult-to-define aspects of opinion – like and dislike – surface in
the seemingly instinctive reaction to particular ideas and expressions. For years now,
many human geographers have reacted vehemently against the notion that they should
operate as some kind of white-coated automaton,carrying out their work in the tyranny
of supposed neutrality and objectivity.It seems important,however,to avoid the oppos-
ite essentialism – the idea of caring, sharing human geographers totally in touch with
their identities and thoroughly able to recognise and control the reflexive prompting of
their subjectivities. No, these expressions of individuality seem much less certain than
such an image might suggest. They emerge fitfully and inconsistently, as capable of being
swayed by fashion or prejudice as being developed with intellectual or emotional certainty.
They also bear the marks of unspoken but plainly evident agendas, such as the pursuit
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k
o of personal or professional reputation,the external structuring of suitable ‘deliverables’ of
Cl
ul research and scholarship, and differential levels of ease with arenas of power – where
Pa exploration,subjugation and demand of respect are both presenced and performed.
Individuality in human geography, then, is a somewhat difficult-to-grasp series of
prompts,often hidden behind and justified by a liaison with the existing collective canon.
Nevertheless, further scrutiny of what we as individuals bring to the table seems to me
to be both necessary and fruitful if we are to proceed to a discussion of what it is to
envision the future. There are many ways of approaching such a task, some of which
focus autoethnographically on the self, and others which analyse the reflexive principles
(ideologies,theories,spiritualities and so on) around which the self is thought to be fash-
ioned.Yet another approach,and one which I have found to be both informative and fun
in teaching,is to use a sense of like and dislike of texts (books,papers,films) as a mirror
of the particularity of an individual approach to the subject.The task here is to fashion an
opportunity to choose texts which appeal,and to present an account of that choice – a
kind of Desert Island Disc(ourse)s– allowing others to offer an interpretation or decipher-
ing of what emerges with reference to the interface between the individual and the
texts. There are obvious dangers here, notably the risk of a deliberate fashioning of
choice to present a persona which is knowledgeable/fashionable/tasteful/intellectually
right-on.However,suspend your scepticism and give it a go.Here,for example,is a sum-
mary of a recent exercise in which I chose ten books with links to human geography for
my desert island.They were as follows (in no particular order,and bearing in mind that
the Bible and the complete works of Shakespeare are already in the bag).
1. David Korten (1995) When Corporations Rule The World
David Korten is the founder of The People-Centred Development Forum,an organisation
concerned with the creation of just, inclusive and sustainable societies through voluntary
action. His populist book charts the concentration of economic and political power in a
small number of financial institutions and corporations, which are largely blind to human
interests and focussed increasingly on short-term financial gain. Although Korten’s ‘estab-
lishment’ approach sometimes grates (I think that I really would rather hear commentaries
on these issues from the perspective of idealistic,supposedly old-fashioned,left-wing pol-
itics), his critical exposure of globalisation necessitates some kind of personal response. It
chimes loudly and harmoniously with the issues of practical justice that I share with my wife
Viv,who is a champion for ethical trading,and runs a local Traidcraft network in Bristol.
2. John Rawls (1971;1999) A Theory Of Justice
This is a book that, to my shame, I have only recently discovered and read. Rawls
expounds a theorisation of justice which encompasses both liberty and socio-economic
benefit.I don’t find it user-friendly (I’m worried that this exposes an intellectual shallow-
ness on my part),but I do find it provocative in terms of appropriate political and ethical
futures. I am struck by potential parallels with biblical philosophies of agape, caritas and
justice.It is a book that I want to go deeper into.
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3. Cynthia Duncan (1999) Worlds Apart r
o
d
Mil Duncan’s account of rural poverty in Appalachia,the Mississippi Delta and New England u
c
presents powerful ethnographic evidence of the connections between place,community, tio
politics and inequality. She contrasts the downward spiral of persistent poverty which n
erodes community and political will in Appalachia and the South,with the strong civic cul-
turein her New England case study, where a rather different community fabric seems to
offer pathways for the escape from poverty.This book scratches where I itch in its concerns
for the political and ethical spaces of rurality,and in its methods of encountering its subject.
4. Joanne Passaro (1996) The Unequal Homeless
A painstaking ethnography of homelessness in New York,Joanne Passaro’s book under-
scores, for me, the continuing importance of social geographies. Not only does she
emphasise the cultural and moral locations of homelessness, but her perspectives on
gender and race demonstrate how the preferential treatment given to homeless women
both keep (predominantly black) men on the streets,and endow women escapees from
the streets with embodied and traditional ideals of womanhood.
5. Tim Cresswell (1996) In Place Out Of Place
Jim Duncan’s cover note sums up this book more eloquently than I ever could:
‘Through a close reading of that which is considered to be “out of place” in our society,
Cresswell casts a brilliant light on the role of space and place in the practices of everyday
life and the maintenance of ideological belief…This is new cultural geography at its best.’
More particularly,Tim Cresswell’s study presents ideas and understandings which seem to
me to work when applied to knowledges arising from research into rural poverty and
rural homelessness.
6. David Syring (2000) Places In The World A Person Could Walk
Syring’s evocative and memory-laden anthropological study of the Texas Hill Country
explores the notion of belonging to a place.His family histories of ‘homeplace’ interweave
graciously with the adoption of the town of Fredericksburg as a virtual home for German
Americans attracted by the heritage tourism industry.His recognition of the importance
of the local church, both as social nexus and as container of memory, adds important
dimensions to the wider discussion of what it is to recognise a place as a spiritual home.
7. Iain Borden (2001) Skateboarding,Space And The City
My 18-year-old son, Will, is a skateboarding fanatic. Through his eyes I have learned to
rethink the city of Bristol and beyond. His eye for the architecture of place relies on
embodied knowledges of surfaces and edges which had previously evaded my perview.
His sense of resistance to the conventions and authority of the city is vital to the embodied
expression of energy and emotion through skateboarding.Iain Borden’s book charts the
subculture through which skateboarders experience and understand the city. For me,
this is Will’s human geography.
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