EDITORIAL BOARD

Editor
Barney Warf
University of Kansas

Associate Editors
Piotr Jankowski
San Diego State University

Barry D. Solomon
Michigan Technological University

Mark Welford
Georgia Southern University

Managing Editor
Jonathan Leib
Old Dominion University
Copyright © 2010 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Encyclopedia of geography, volume I - VI / edited by Barney Warf.

6 v., p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4129-5697-0 (cloth)
1. Geography—Encyclopedias. I. Warf, Barney, 1956-

G63.E554 2010
910.3—dc22 2010009453

This book is printed on acid-free paper.

10 11 12 13 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Publisher: Rolf A. Janke

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Proofreaders: Penelope Sippel, Rae-Ann Goodwin, Annette Van Deusen
Indexer: Julie Sherman Grayson
Cover Designer: Ravi Balasuriya
Marketing Manager: Amberlyn McKay

Volume 5 cover photo: Drag line and strip pit in the Star Fire and Lost Mountain Site owned by Cyprus Realty in Hazard,
Kentucky. © Karen Kasmauski/Science Faction/Corbis.
CONTENTS List of Entries
vii

Entries
P 2184

5
Q 2323
R 2335
S 2499
 LIST OF ENTRIES

Abler, Ronald Air Pollution. See Atmospheric Arid Topography

Absolute Space Pollution Aristotle
Accessibility Albedo Armstrong, Marc
Acid Rain al-Idrisi Art and Geography
Actor-Network Theory Altitude Asia-Pacific Economic
Adaptation to Climate Change Ambient Air Quality Cooperation
Adaptive Harvest Management American Geographical Society Association of American
Adaptive Radiation Analytical Operations in GIS Geographers
Adiabatic Temperature Anarchism and Geography Association of Geographic
Changes Anaximander Information Laboratories
Aerial Imagery: Data Animal Geographies for Europe
Aerial Imagery: Interpretation Annales School Association of Southeast Asian
African Union Anselin, Luc Nations
Agamben, Giorgio Antevs, Ernst Atmospheric Circulation
Agent-Based Models Anthropogenic Atmospheric Atmospheric Composition and
Agglomeration Economies Change. See Anthropogenic Structure
Aging and the Aged, Climate Change; Atmospheric Energy Transfer
Geography of. See Elderly, Stratospheric Ozone Atmospheric Moisture
Geography and the Depletion Atmospheric Particulates
Agnew, John Anthropogenic Climate Change Across Scales
Agricultural Biotechnology Anthropogeography Atmospheric Pollution
Agricultural Intensification Antiglobalization Atmospheric Pressure
Agricultural Land Use Antipodes Atmospheric Remote Sensing
Agriculture, Industrialized Antisystemic Movements Atmospheric Variations
Agriculture, Preindustrial Applied Geography in Energy
Agrobiodiversity Appropriate Technology. See Atoll
Agrochemical Pollution Sustainable Development; Automobile Industry
Agroecology Sustainable Development Automobility
Agrofoods Alternatives; Sustainable Avalanches
Agroforestry Production Aviation and Geography
AIDS, Geography of. See Aquaculture
Disease, Geography of; Archipelago Barrier Islands
HIV/AIDS, Geography of Architecture and Geography Barrows, Harlan
Air Masses Argumentation Maps Basin and Range Topography
k^^
k^^^ L IS T O F EN T RIE S

Batty, Michael Business Models for Class, Geography and

Bayesian Statistics in Spatial Geographic Information Class, Nature and
Analysis Systems Client-Server Architecture
Behavioral Geography Buttimer, Anne Climate: Dry
Berkeley School Climate: Midlatitude, Mild
Berry, Brian Cadastral Systems Climate: Midlatitude, Severe
Bhopal, India, Chemical CAD Systems Climate: Mountain
Disaster Câmara, Gilberto Climate: Polar
Biblical Mapping Canadian Association of Climate: Tropical Humid
Biodiversity Geographers Climate Change
Biofuels Cancer, Geography of Climate Policy
Biogeochemical Cycles Carbonation Climate Types
Biogeography Carbon Cycle Climatic Relict
Biome: Boreal Forest Carbon Trading and Carbon Climatology
Biome: Desert Offsets Clouds
Biome: Midlatitude Deciduous Carcinogens Clusters
Forest Carrying Capacity Coal
Biome: Midlatitude Grassland Cartograms Coastal Dead Zones
Biome: Tropical Deciduous Cartography Coastal Erosion and Deposition
Forest Cartography, History of Coastal Hazards
Biome: Tropical Rain Forest Castells, Manuel Coastal Zone and Marine
Biome: Tropical Savanna Caverns Pollution
Biome: Tropical Scrub Cellular Automata Cold War, Geography of
Biome: Tundra Census Collaborative GIS
Biophysical Remote Sensing Census Tracts Colonialism
Bioregionalism Centers of Domestication Color in Map Design
Biosphere Reserves Central Business District Columbus, Christopher
Biota and Climate Central Place Theory Commodity Chains
Biota and Soils Chemical Spills, Environment, Common Pool Resources
Biota and Topography and Society Common Property Resource
Biota Migration and Chernobyl Nuclear Accident Management
Dispersal Chicago School Commons, Tragedy of the
Biotechnology and Ecological Childhood Spatial and Commonwealth of
Risk Environmental Learning Independent States
Biotechnology Industry Children, Geography of Communications Geography
Biruni Chinooks/Foehns Communism and Geography
Blaikie, Piers Chipko Movement Community-Based
Blaut, James Chlorinated Hydrocarbons Conservation
Blindness and Geography Chlorofluorocarbons Community-Based
Body, Geography of Cholera, Geography of Environmental Planning
Borderlands Chorley, Richard Community-Based Natural
Borders and Boundaries Chorology Resource Management
Bourghassi, Carmina Choropleth Maps Community Forestry
Bowman, Isaiah Chrisman, Nicholas Commuting
Brownfields Christaller, Walter Comparative Advantage
Built Environment Circuits of Capital Competitive Advantage
Bunge, William Citizenship Complexity Theory
Bush Fallow Farming Civil Society Complex Systems Models
Business Cycles and Geography Clark, Andrew Conference of Latin
Business Geography Clark, William Americanist Geographers
 LIST OF EN TRI E S ^m

Conflation Database Management Systems Domestication Centers. See

Conservation Database Versioning Centers of Domestication
Conservation Zoning Data Classification Schemes Domestication of Animals
Consumption, Geographies of Data Compression Methods Domestication of Plants
Continental Drift. See Plate Data Editing Domino Theory
Tectonics Data Format Conversion Dot Density Maps
Cook, Captain James Data Indexing Drought Risk and Hazard
Coordinate Geometry Data Querying in GIS Drugs, Geography of
Coordinate Systems Datums Dunes
Coordinate Transformations Davis, William Morris Dynamic and Interactive
Coral Reef Dear, Michael Displays
Coral Reef Geomorphology Debt and Debt Crisis
Coriolis Force Decolonization Earle, Carville
Corporate Voluntary Deep Ecology Movements Earthquakes
Environmental Initiatives Deforestation Earth’s Coordinate Grid
and Self-Regulation Deindustrialization Eastman, Ronald
Cosgrove, Denis Delta Ecofeminism
Cosmopolitanism Democracy Ecological Economics
Cost-Benefit Analysis Demographic Transition Ecological Fallacy
Council for Mutual Economic Dendrochronology Ecological Footprint
Assistance (COMECON) Dependency Theory Ecological Imaginaries
Countermapping Derechos Ecological Justice
Counterurbanization Desertification Ecological Mapping
Coupled Human and Animal Desert Varnish Ecological Modernization
Systems Deterritorialization and Ecological Regimes
Coupled Human and Natural Reterritorialization Ecological Risk Analysis
Systems Developing World Ecological Services. See
Creep Development Theory Environmental Services
Crime, Geography of Diamond, Jared Ecological Zones
Crisis Diaspora E-Commerce and
Critical Geopolitics Diastrophism Geography
Critical GIS Difference, Geographies of Economic Base Analysis
Critical Human Geography Differential Heating Economic Geography
Critical Studies of Nature Differential Vulnerabilities to Economies of Scale
Crop Genetic Diversity Hazards Economies of Scope
Crop Rotation Diffusion Ecoregions
Cross-Border Cooperation Digital Divide Ecoshed
Cultural Ecology Digital Terrain Model Ecosystem Decay
Cultural Geography Digitizing Ecosystems
Cultural Landscape Disability, Geography of Ecotone
Cultural Turn Disaster Prediction and Ecotourism
Cyberspace Warning Education, Geographies of
Cyborg Ecologies Disaster Preparedness Egenhofer, Max
Cyclones: Extratropical Discourse and Geography Elderly, Geography and the
Cyclones: Occluded Disease, Geography of Electoral Geography
Distance Decay Electronic Atlases
Dangermond, Jack Distributed Computing Electronics Industry,
Darby, Henry Clifford Distribution of Resource Geography of
Darwinism and Geography Access El Niño
Dasymetric Maps Division of Labor Emerging Markets
m L IS T O F EN T RIE S

Emotions, Geography and Environmental Protection Feminist Environmentalism

Empiricism Environmental Racism Feminist Geographies
Endogenous Growth Theory. Environmental Refugees Feminist Methodologies
See Knowledge Spillovers; Environmental Restoration Feminist Political Ecology
Learning Regions Environmental Rights Fertility Rate
Energy and Human Ecology Environmental Security Fieldwork in Human
Energy Models Environmental Services Geography
Energy Policy Environmental Social Fieldwork in Physical
Energy Resources Movements. See International Geography
Enlightenment Environmental Movements Film and Geography
Enterprise GIS Environment and Development Filtering
Environmental Certification Epistemology Filtration
Environmental Determinism Equator Finance, Geography of
Environmental Discourse Equinox Fisher, Peter
Environmental Entitlements Eratosthenes Fish Farming
Environmental Ethics Error Propagation Fjords
Environmental Footprint. Ethics, Geography and Flash Floods
See Ecological Footprint Ethnicity Flexible Production
Environmental History Ethnicity and Nature Flocculation
Environmental Imaginaries Ethnic Segregation Floodplain
Environmental Impact Ethnocentrism Floods
Assessment Eurocentrism Flow
Environmental Impacts of Euromarket Flow Maps
Agriculture European Green Movements Folding
Environmental Impacts of European Union Folk Culture and
Cities Everglades Restoration Geography
Environmental Impacts of Everyday Life, Geography and Food, Geography of
Manufacturing Existentialism and Geography Food and Agriculture
Environmental Impacts of Exotic Species Organization (FAO)
Mining. See Open-Pit Exploration Footprint Analysis.
Mining Exploratory Spatial Data See Ecological Footprint
Environmental Impacts of Analysis Fordism
Oil Fields Export-Led Development Foreign Aid
Environmental Impacts of Export Processing Zones Foreign Direct Investment
Pipelines Externalities Forest Degradation
Environmental Impacts of Extinctions Forest Fragmentation
Roads Extractive Reserves Forest Land Use
Environmental Impacts of Extreme Geography Forest Restoration
Tourism Exurbs Fotheringham, A. Stewart
Environmental Impacts of War Frank, Andrew
Environmental Impact Factors Affecting Location Frontiers
Statement of Firms Fronts
Environmental Justice Fair Trade and Environmental
Environmental Law Certification Gaia Theory
Environmental Management Famine, Geography of Gama, Vasco da
Environmental Management: Faulting Game Ranching
Drylands Fear, Geographies of Gated Community
Environmental Mapping Febvre, Lucien Gays and Lesbians,
Environmental Perception Feminist Environmental Geography and/of
Environmental Planning Geographies Gazetteers
 LIST OF EN TRI E S m^

Gender and Environmental GIS, History of Greenhouse Gases

Hazards GIScience Green Revolution. See
Gender and Geography GIS Design Environmental Impacts of
Gender and Nature GIS Implementation Agriculture
General Circulation Model GIS in Archaeology Gregory, Derek
(GCM). See Anthropogenic GIS in Disaster Response Gross Domestic Product/Gross
Climate Change; GIS in Environmental National Product
Atmospheric Energy Management Ground Reference Data
Transfer; Climate Change GIS in Health Research and Groundwater
Genetically Modified Health Care Growth Machine
Organisms (GMOs) GIS in Land Use Management Growth Poles
Genocide, Geographies of GIS in Local Government Gully Erosion
Gentrification GIS in Public Policy Guyot, Arnold
Geocoding GIS in Transportation
Geocollaboration GIS in Urban Planning Hadley Cell
Geocomputation GIS in Utilities Hägerstrand, Torsten
Geodemographics GIS in Water Management Haggett, Peter
Geodesy GIS Software Hanson, Susan
Geographical Ignorance GIS Web Services Harley, Brian
Geographical Imagination Glaciers: Continental Hartshorne, Richard
Geographically Weighted Glaciers: Mountain Harvey, David
Regression Global Climate Change. Hate, Geographies of
Geographic Information Systems See Anthropogenic Climate Haushofer, Karl
Geography Education Change Hayden, Ferdinand
Geolibraries Global Environmental Health and Health Care,
Geologic Timescale Change Geography of
Geomancy Globalization Heavy Metals as Pollutants
Geometric Correction Global Positioning System Hegemony
Geometric Measures Global Sea-Level Rise Herbicides
Geomorphic Cycle Global Warming. See Herodotus
Geomorphology Anthropogenic Climate Hettner, Alfred
Geophagy Change Heuristic Methods in Spatial
Geopolitics Globes. See Cartography; Analysis
Geosensor Networks Map Projections High-Performance
Geoslavery Glocalization Computing
Geospatial Industry Golledge, Reginald High Technology
Geospatial Semantic Web Goodchild, Michael Hipparchus
Geostatistics Goode, J. Paul Historical Geography
Geothermal Energy Google Earth Historicism
Geothermal Features Gottmann, Jean Historic Preservation
Geovisualization. See Gould, Peter History of Geography. See
Cartography; Dynamic and Governance Cartography, History of;
Interactive Displays; Three- Governmentality and GIS, History of; Human
Dimensional Models Conservation Geography, History of;
Getis, Arthur Gravity Model Physical Geography,
Ghetto Great American Exchange History of
Giddens, Anthony Greenbelts HIV/AIDS, Geography of
Gilbert, Grove Karl Green Building Home
GIS, Environmental Model Green Design and Homelessness
Integration and Development Hou Renzhi
m^^ L IS T O F EN T RIE S

Housing and Housing Markets Indigenous and Community Jackson, John Brinckerhoff
Housing Policy Conserved Areas Jefferson, Thomas
Hoyt, Homer Indigenous Cartographies Johnston, R. J.
Human Dimensions of Global Indigenous Environmental Journey-to-Work. See
Environmental Change Knowledge Commuting
Human Ecology Indigenous Environmental Justice, Geography of
Human Geography, History of Practices
Human-Induced Invasion of Indigenous Forestry Kant, Immanuel
Species Indigenous Reserves Karst Topography
Humanistic Geography Indigenous Water Management Kates, Robert
Humanistic GIScience Industrial Districts Keystone Species
Human Rights, Geography and Industrial Ecology Knowledge, Geography of
Humboldt, Alexander von Industrialization Knowledge Spillovers
Humidity Industrial Revolution Köppen, Wladimir
Hunger Inequality and Geography Köppen-Geiger Climate
Hunting and Gathering Informal Economy Classification
Huntington, Ellsworth Information Society Kropotkin, Peter
Hurricane Katrina Infrastructure Krummholtz
Hurricanes, Physical Innovation, Geography of Kuhn, Werner
Geography of Input-Output Models Kwan, Mei-Po
Hurricanes, Risk and Hazard Institute of British Geographers Kyoto Protocol. See Climate
Hybrid Geographies Interactive Mapping. See Map Policy
Hybridization of Plant and Animation
Animal Species Intergovernmental Labor, Geography of
Hydroelectric Power Environmental Lahar. See Volcanoes
Hydrological Connectivity Organizations and Initiatives Land Degradation
Hydrology International Criminal Court Landfills
Hydrothermal Energy. See International Environmental Landforms
Geothermal Energy Movements Land Reform
International Environmental Landscape and Wildlife
Ibn Battuta NGOs Conservation
Ibn Khaldūn International Geographical Landscape Architecture
Ice Union Landscape Biodiversity
Identity, Geography and International Monetary Fund Landscape Design
Idiographic International Watershed Landscape Ecology
Image Enhancement Management Landscape Interpretation
Image Fusion Internet. See Communications, Landscape Quality
Image Interpretation Geography of; Cyberspace; Assessment
Image Processing Digital Divide; Landscape Restoration
Image Registration Telecommunications and Landslide
Image Texture Geography Land Tenure
Imaging Spectroscopy Internet GIS Land Tenure Reform
Immigration Interoperability and Spatial Land Use
Imperialism Data Standards Land Use Analysis
Impermeable Surfaces Interviewing Land Use and Cover Change
Import Substitution Invasion and Succession (LUCC)
Industrialization Isard, Walter Land Use and Land Cover
Incubator Zones Island Biogeography Mapping
Indigeneity Islands, Small Land Use History
Indigenous Agriculture Isopleth Maps Land Use Planning
 LIST OF EN TRI E S m^^^

Land-Water Breeze Marcus, Melvin G. Multivariate Mapping

Languages, Geography of Marginal Regions Music and Sound, Geography
La Niña Marine Aquaculture and
Lapse Rate Maritime Spaces. See Oceans
Latent Heat Mark, David M. Nation
Latitude Market-Based Environmental National Aeronautics and
Law, Geography of Regulation Space Administration
Learning Regions Marsh, George Perkins (NASA)
Lefebvre, Henri Marxism, Geography and National Center for
Legal Aspects of Geospatial Masculinities and Geography Geographic Information and
Information Massey, Doreen Analysis
Lewis, Peirce Mass Wasting National Council for
Lewis and Clark Expedition Mather, John Russell Geographic Education
Ley, David Maury, Matthew Fontaine National Geographic Society
LiDAR and Airborne Laser McKnight, Tom L. Nationalism
Scanning Media and Geography Natural Growth Rate
Lightning Medical Geography Natural Hazards and Risk
Lillesand, Thomas Meinig, Donald Analysis
Linear Referencing and Mental Maps Nature
Dynamic Segmentation Mercator, Gerardus Nature-Society Theory
Literature, Geography and Metadata Neighborhood
Livingstone, David Metropolitan Area Neocolonialism
Locality Microwave/RADAR Data Neogeography
Locally Unwanted Land Uses Migration Neoliberal Environmental
(LULUs) Military Geography Policy
Location-Allocation Modeling Military Spending Neoliberalism
Location-Based Services Miller, Harvey J. Neo-Malthusianism
Location Quotients Minerals Network Analysis
Location Theory Mining and Geography Network Data Model
Logical Positivism Mitchell, Don New International Division of
Longitude Mixed Farming Labor
Los Angeles School Mobile GIS Newly Industrializing
Lösch, August Mobility Countries
Love Canal Models and Modeling New Urbanism
Lynch, William Modernity Nitrogen Cycle
Modernization Theory Nomadic Herding
MacEachren, Alan Modifiable Areal Unit Problem Nomadism
Mackinder, Sir Halford Money, Geographies of Nomothetic
Magellan, Ferdinand Monmonier, Mark Nongovernmental
Mahan, Alfred Thayer Monsoons Organizations (NGOs)
Malaria, Geography of Morrill, Richard Nonpoint Sources of Pollution
Malthusianism Morse, Jedediah Nonrenewable Resources
Manufacturing Belt Mortality Rate Nonrepresentational Theory
Map Algebra Most Favored Nation Status Nonvisual Geographies
Map Animation Movimento Sem Terra North American Free Trade
Map Design Multimedia Mapping Agreement (NAFTA)
Map Evaluation and Testing Multispectral Imagery North Atlantic Treaty
Map Generalization Multistakeholder Participation Organization (NATO)
Map Projections Multitemporal Imaging Not in My Backyard (NIMBY)
Map Visualization Multivariate Analysis Methods Nuclear Energy
m^k L IS T O F EN T RIE S

Nutrient Cycles Patches and Corridors in Positionality

Nyerges, Timothy Wildlife Conservation Positivism. See Logical
Path Dependence Positivism
Object-Based Image Analysis Patriarchy, Geography and Postcolonialism
Oceanic Circulation Peasants and Peasantry Post-Fordism. See Flexible
Oceans Peat Production
Offshore Finance Pedology. See Soils Postindustrial Society
Oil Spills Peet, Richard Postmodernism
Okabe, Atsuyuki Penck, Walther Poststructuralism
Olsson, Gunnar Periglacial Environments Poverty
Ontological Foundations of Permaculture Powell, John Wesley
Geographical Data Permafrost Prairie Restoration
Ontology Pesticides Prairies
Open Geodata Standards Pest Management Precipitation, Global
Open Geospatial Consortium Petroleum Precipitation Formation
(OGC) Peuquet, Donna Pred, Allan
Open-Pit Mining Phenomenology Primate Cities
Open Source Geospatial Phosphorus Cycle Prime Meridian. See Longitude
Foundation Photochemical Smog Privacy and Security of
Open Source GIS Photogrammetric Methods Geospatial Information
Open Space Photography, Geography and Producer Services
Organic Agriculture Physical Geography, History of Product Cycle
Organisation for Economic Pickles, John Production of Space
Co-operation and Pilgrimage Psychoanalysis, Geography and
Development (OECD) Place Ptolemy
Organization of the Place Names Public Housing
Petroleum Exporting Place Promotion Public Participation GIS
Countries (OPEC) Plantations Public Policy, Geography of
Organophosphates Plate Tectonics Public-Private Partnerships
Orientalism Playas Public Space
Ortelius Point Pattern Analysis Public Water Services
Other/Otherness Point Sources of Pollution Pyrogeography
Outsourcing Poles, North and South
Overpopulation. See Political Ecology Qualitative Methods
Malthusianism; Neo- Political Economy Quantitative Methods
Malthusianism Political Economy of Resources Quantitative Revolution
Political Geography Queer Theory
Palimpsest Polychlorinated Biphenyls
Panchromatic Imagery (PCBs) Race and Empire
Panopticon Popular Culture, Geography and Race and Nature
Parks and Reserves Population and Land Race and Racism
Parsons, James Degradation Racial Segregation
Participant Observation Population and Land Use Radiation: Solar and
Participatory Learning and Population Density Terrestrial
Action Population, Environment, and Radical Geography
Participatory Mapping Development Radiometric Correction
Participatory Planning Population Geography Radiometric Normalization
Participatory Rural Appraisal Population Pyramid Radiometric Resolution
Pastoral Herding. See Nomadic Portolan Charts Railroads and Geography
Herding Ports and Maritime Trade Raisz, Erwin
 LIST OF EN TRI E S mk

Rank-Size Rule Rill Erosion Soil Conservation

Ratzel, Friedrich Risk Analysis and Assessment Soil Degradation
Real Estate, Geography and Ritter, Carl Soil Depletion
Realism Rivers Soil Erosion
Reclus, Élisée Rock Weathering Soils
Recycling of Municipal Solid Rose, Gillian Soja, Edward
Waste Royal Geographical Society Solar Energy
Redistricting Rural Development Solstices
Refugees Rural Geography Sovereignty
Regional Economic Rural-Urban Migration Space, Production of. See
Development Russian Geographical Society Production of Space
Regional Environmental Space of Flows
Planning Satellites and Geography Spaces of Representation/
Regional Geography Sauer, Carl Representational Spaces
Regional Governance Scale, Social Production of Spatial Analysis
Regional Science Scale in GIS Spatial Autocorrelation
Regional Science Association Schaefer, Fred Spatial Cognition
International (RSAI) Science, Technology, and Spatial Cognitive Engineering
Regions and Regionalism Environment Spatial Data Infrastructures
Regulation Theory Science and Technology Studies Spatial Data Integration
Relational Space. See Relative/ Scott, Allen Spatial Data Mining
Relational Space Sedimentary Rock Spatial Data Models
Relative/Relational Space Sedimentation Spatial Data Structures
Religion, Geography and Segregation and Geography Spatial Decision Support
Relph, Edward Self-Organizing Maps Systems
Remittances Semantic Interoperability Spatial Econometrics
Remote Sensing Semantic Reference Systems Spatial Fix
Remote Sensing: Platforms and Semple, Ellen Churchill Spatial Inequality
Sensors Sense of Place Spatial Interaction Models
Remote Sensing in Disaster Sequent Occupance Spatial Interpolation
Response Services. See Producer Services Spatialization
Renewable Resources Settlement Geography Spatially Integrated Social
Rent-Gap Sexuality, Geography and/of Science
Representations of Space Shifting Cultivation Spatial Multicriteria Evaluation
Research and Development, Shortest-Path Problem Spatial Optimization Methods
Geographies of Single Large or Several Small Spatial Resolution
Resilience (SLOSS) Debate Spatial Statistics
Resistance, Geographies of Situated Knowledge Spatial Strategies of
Resource Economics Smart Growth Conservation
Resource Geography Smith, Neil Spatial Turn
Resource Management. See Smog. See Photochemical Smog Species-Area Relationship
Environmental Management Social and Economic Impacts Spectral Characteristics of
Resource Management, of Climate Change Terrestrial Surfaces
Decision Models in Social Construction of Nature Spectral Resolution
Resource Mapping Social Darwinism Spectral Transformations
Resource Tenure Social Forestry Spit. See Coastal Erosion and
Restoration Ecology. See Social Geography Deposition
Environmental Restoration Socialism and Geography Sports, Geography of
Restructuring Social Justice Squatter Settlements
Retail Trade, Geography of Social Movements State
mk^ L IS T O F EN T RIE S

Steel Industry, Geography of Textile Industry United Nations Conference on

Stereoscopy and Orthoimagery Thales Environment and
Storper, Michael Thermal Imagery Development
Strabo Thornthwaite, C. Warren United Nations Environmental
Strahler, Arthur Three-Dimensional Data Summits
Stratospheric Ozone Depletion Models United Nations Environment
Strip Mining Three Mile Island Nuclear Programme (UNEP)
Structural Adjustment Accident United States Census Bureau
Structuralism Thrift, Nigel United States Geological
Structuration Theory Thunderstorms Survey (USGS)
Subaltern Studies Thünen Model University Consortium for
Suburban Land Use Timber Plantations Geographic Information
Suburbs and Suburbanization Time, Geographies of Science
Sui, Daniel Time-Geography Unsupervised Classification
Suitability Analysis Time-Space Compression Unwin, David
Sunbelt T-in-O Maps Urban and Regional
Supervised Classification Tobler, Waldo Development
Supranational Integration Tomlinson, Roger Urban and Regional Planning
Surface Water Topological Relationships Urban Ecology
Surveillance Toponymy Urban Environmental Studies
Surveying Topophilia Urban Gardens
Sustainability Science Tornadoes Urban Geography
Sustainable Agriculture Tourism Urban Green Space
Sustainable Cities Township and Range System Urban Heat Island
Sustainable Development Trade Urban Hierarchy
Sustainable Development Transhumance. See Nomadism Urbanization
Alternatives Transnational Corporation Urban Land Use
Sustainable Fisheries Transnationalism Urban Metabolism
Sustainable Forestry Transportation Geography Urban Planning and
Sustainable Production Trap Streets Geography
Symbolism and Place Travel Writing, Geography and Urban Policy
Symptoms and Effects of Tree Farming Urban Solid Waste
Climate Change Trewartha, Glenn Management
Triangulated Irregular Urban Spatial Structure
Taphonomy Network (TIN) Data Model Urban Sprawl
Taylor, Griffith Troll, Carl Urban Storm Water
Taylor, Peter Tropical Rain Forests. See Management
Technological Change, Biome: Tropical Rain Forest Urban Sustainability
Geography of Tsunami Urban Underclass
Telecommunications and Tsunami of 2004, Indian Urban Water Supply
Geography Ocean Usability of Geospatial
Teleconnections Tuan, Yi-Fu Information
Television and Geography Turner, Billie Lee, II
Temperature Patterns Typhoons. See Hurricanes, Vagueness in Spatial Data
Temporal GIS Physical Geography of Vance, James
Temporal Resolution Typography in Map Design Varenius
Terrain Analysis Vectorization
Territory Underdevelopment Vernacular Landscapes
Terrorism, Geography of Uneven Development as Expressions of
Text/Textuality United Nations Environmental Ideas
 LIST OF EN TRI E S mk^^

Via Campesina (International Water Needs Wine Terroir

Farmers’ Movement) Water Pollution Wise Use Movement
Vidal de la Blache, Paul Watershed Management Wittfogel, Karl
Video Games, Geography and Watershed Yield Wood, Denis
Viewshed Analysis Water Supply Siting and Woodfuel
Virilio, Paul Management Woodlots. See Forest
Virtual and Immersive Watts, Michael Fragmentation
Environments Wayfinding World Bank
Virtual Geographies Weather and Climate World Cities
Virtual Globes Controls World Court
Vision and Geography Weber, Alfred World Health Organization
Volcanic Eruptions as Risk and Web Geoprocessing Workflows (WHO)
Hazard Web Service Architectures for World Summit on Sustainable
Volcanoes GIS Development
Voronoi Diagrams Wetlands World-Systems Theory
Vulnerability, Risks, and Hazards White, Gilbert World Trade Organization
Whiteness (WTO)
Waldseemüller, Martin Whittlesey, Derwent Wright, Dawn
Walker, Richard Wilderness Wright, John Kirtland
War, Geography of Wildfires: Risk and Hazard Writing
Waste Incineration Wilson, John
Wastewater Management Wind Xeriscaping
Water Degradation Wind Energy
Water Management and Wind Erosion Zelinsky, Wilbur
Treatment Wine, Geography of Zoning
'&-) P I LGR I MAG E

PILGRIMAGE routes from all over Western Europe terminating

in Santiago de Compostella).
While a pilgrimage is undertaken as a response
Throughout recorded history, the pilgrimage has to a sacred demand (a command to travel to the
been an important practice in most of the world’s place, the need to seek divine favor or make
religions. It consists of an individual or a group amends for sins, or the desire to be in proximity
leaving home and traveling to a sacred site that with the holy), it has all the effects on the societ-
has a spiritual magnetism within their belief sys- ies involved that are associated with tourism,
tem. Pilgrims encounter both the core of the reli- and it has often been an important factor in cul-
gion and their fellow believers in a new and tural and political developments. The Muslim
enhanced way, before returning home somehow pilgrimage to Mecca has been a key factor in cre-
transformed by their journey. Such a site can be a ating a sense of Islam as a single transnational
unique center of divine presence (e.g., the Ka‘bah identity and community, with the pilgrims meet-
in Mecca [Makkah]), a place that is the group’s ing one another as brothers and sisters. In the
“most precious possession” (e.g., the Western 11th century, Western Christians’ desire for eas-
Wall, in Jerusalem, of the temple destroyed in AD ier access to their holy places in Syria triggered
70, for Jews), a place linked with primordial his- the Crusades.
tory (e.g., Varanasi [Benares] on the Ganges, in Pilgrimages, as an activity, usually belong to
Uttar Pradesh, India), the tomb of a saint (e.g., popular religion; it involves joining in group ritu-
the tombs of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in Rome als such as processions at the site, touching sacred
for Christians or that of Husayn ibn ‘Ali in Kar- objects, wearing special clothes, and bringing
bala, Iraq, for Shia Muslims), a place linked to a home religious artifacts. As such, it often attracts
religion’s founder (e.g., the holy places in Jerusa- criticism from a religion’s intellectual corps—
lem for Christians), or a miraculous place of rev- indeed, within Christianity, the rejection of pil-
elation or healings (e.g., Lourdes, France, for grimages as blasphemous frauds was one of the
Catholics). To arrive at such a center, to engage themes of the 16th-century Protestants (hence,
in the rituals prescribed there, and to be in the pilgrimages are still frowned on by many who so
“very place” and see, touch, and taste its sacred identify themselves). Later, the rationalists saw
relics is experienced as desire fulfilled and as joy pilgrimages as a form of primitive superstition
both in the object of the pilgrimage and in being that portrayed one place as more favored by the
part of the blessed group who have been so blessed deity than another. Within many religions, the
to get there. authorities seek to control pilgrimage activity,
A few pilgrimage places have world renown which often has the effect of removing the con-
(e.g., Varanasi, Jerusalem, Mecca, Rome), but the straints of home and village among otherwise
sacred sites that attract devotees are almost with- conservative people. Within Islam, however, such
out number. In every region, there are sites draw- hesitations do not arise because the pilgrimage to
ing pilgrims: a holy well, a tomb, or some place Mecca (in its ideal form, the hajj, or the more
where local tradition holds that there was an convenient form, ‘umrah) is one of the Five Pil-
apparition. This site often provides a focal point lars of Islam and far more closely integral to the
for the region, and its annual ritual cycle estab- whole practice of the religion than pilgrimages in
lishes the fixed points in the locality’s calendar other religions.
(e.g., the apparition site of Tirano on the Swiss- Recent decades have seen a revival of interest
Italian border). There are sites whose renown has in pilgrimages both in practice and among schol-
spread farther afield and that have become ars. Many religions have found that modern
national shrines (e.g., Thomas Becket’s tomb in transport has made pilgrimages far more easily
Canterbury, the destination of Chaucer’s pilgrims undertaken, while within Christianity, a growing
in The Canterbury Tales). Last, there are interna- appreciation of the role of ritual and action in a
tional sites where pilgrimage activities have been community’s life has led to a rediscovery of pil-
responsible for the building of an infrastructure grimage as an activity. Equally, many Western
of roads, hostels, and support industries (e.g., the forms of Christianity are now quite happy to use
 P ILGR IMA G E '&-*

Holy Mecca in Saudi Arabia. An important practice in most of the world’s religions, a pilgrimage consists of an
individual or group leaving home and traveling to a sacred site, such as the Holy Mecca, which has a spiritual
magnetism within the belief system.
Source: Aidar Ayazbaye/iStockphoto.

pilgrimage—with its implication of life being an sustained assault, more recent years have seen a
open journey that has not yet reached a destina- renewal of interest. Anthropologists and ethnolo-
tion—as a metaphor for the spiritual life. From gists study the phenomenon’s implications for
another perspective, the advent of mass tourism societies, while for those undertaking research on
has blurred the distinction between the tourist ritual and religion, this interest has moved from
and the pilgrim—many tours take in religious condemnation of the practice as superstition or a
sites en route—while there is also a secularized mark of primitive belief to seeing it as providing
pilgrimage element in many tourist programs that an insight into religious consciousness and how
include visits to significant sites (e.g., battlefields) rituals shape societies. Among geographers, there
or that respond to people’s desire to stand in and have been studies aimed at distinguishing pilgrims
relate to the place of some major event (e.g., from other travelers such as tourists.
Ground Zero in New York City is emerging as
such a site). Thomas O’Loughlin
While in Western thought for much of the past
five centuries, pilgrimage activity has been under See also Religion, Geography and
'&-+ P LA C E

Further Readings Building Perspectives

This position has been espoused by geographers
Turner, V., & Turner, E. (1978). Image and
informed by Marxism, phenomenology, femi-
pilgrimage in Christian culture: Anthropological
nism, and critical social and cultural theory, who
perspectives. New York: Columbia University
had become disenchanted with the lack of con-
Press.
cern with social issues in spatial science and the
way in which its proponents ignored the produc-
tion of place by capital and global forces. To
Marxist geographers, the differential impacts of
capitalism were feeding the exclusive forces of
PLACE bigotry and nationalism, as exemplified by con-
flicts in many parts of the world. Place thus had
The idea of place is at once simple and yet very negative connotations. Critical cultural geogra-
enigmatic. The term is used daily in the English- phers began to use the concept of place to reveal
speaking world, and it is hard to get beyond the the connection between place, meaning, and
commonsense level, in which most people think power. Place had to be understood in terms of
of it as any meaningful location. It has become a social and cultural conflict, and once “places”
significant theme in many disciplines, but human were established, they became tools in the cre-
geography has long claimed place as a central ation, maintenance, and transformation of rela-
concept, although even among geographers tions of domination, oppression, and exploitation.
there is little agreement about the meaning of Yet another approach spatialized ideas deriving
the term and how it should be used in scholarly from structuration theory to demonstrate that
discourse. places were the outcomes of both larger struc-
Before the mid 1960s, the central word used in tural concerns and individual and group action.
geography to identify areas was region rather than Other studies demonstrated that the processes of
place. Academic geography came to be dominated economic competition were having varying effects
by a search for similarity, generality, and pattern, across the globe, producing geographical differ-
often referred to as spatial science. But the concept ence rather than similarity. These studies led to
of place refused to go away, becoming intertwined the conception of place as “locale,” an objective
in a debate over its relationships with space. Space arena for everyday action and face-to-face inter-
became associated with objectivist theories and action and the subjective setting in which people
place with subjectivist theories. The two terms develop and express themselves.
increasingly became seen as representing alterna-
tive conceptions of spatiality (how space/place
Dwelling Perspectives
enters into human lives and social arrangements)
rather than as inherently or internally related to During the 1970s, humanist geographers wanted
each other. The scholarship privileging space has to rehumanize human geography and felt that the
often been referred to as a social constructionist way to do this was to focus on individual and
(building) approach, whereby a portion of space group life-worlds in an attempt to recover peo-
becomes a place only when humans invest mean- ple’s sense of place—that is, how different indi-
ing in it. The latter body of scholarship is based on viduals and groups interpret and develop
the premises that before all else, every person is a meaningful attachments to those specific areas
being in the world and that human conceptions of where they live out their lives. Place, for these
space, time, and place must begin with our own geographers, was seen as a universal and transhis-
physical constitution as an embodied being with torical part of the human experience, and it was
certain corporal orientations and sensory capaci- not so much particular places that interested them
ties. From this perspective, humans cannot con- but “place” as an idea and way of being in the
struct anything without being first in a place; that world. This work also uses “home” as a meta-
is, they must dwell somewhere. phor for place; home is seen as the foundation of
 P LACE '&-,

human identity, the dwelling place of being. In include a strong social dimension: Locales are
most of this work, the concepts of oneness, root- inclusive and progressive sites of social life. This
edness, authenticity, and experience were given work recognizes both global connections and
prominence. Subsequent accounts of place in this local specificity, which create a world of hybrid-
humanistic perspective have elaborated on these ized identities and hybridized domains of being
ideas, based on the principle that the social and and thought. Another approach sees the social
the cultural are geographically constructed. Places production of the spaces within which social life
are seen as requiring human agents, who in turn takes place as the key to understanding how the
require specific places if they are to be the selves abstract space of capitalism colonizes everyday
(with identities) they are in the process of becom- life by means of both spatial practice and repre-
ing: There is no place without self and no self sentations of space and how this is countered
without place. Such places are woven together by through new understandings built on a mixture
movement (practice or performance) and by the of memories and residues of older place attach-
network ties that produce places as changing con- ments and new practices. A third new way to
stellations of human commitments, capacities, overcome the space-place dualism has suggested
and strategies. that place is associational, with all manners of
Place also has become key in the decentering spaces and times woven together through the
of the authoritative form of knowledge in the intersection of many encounters between people
world today—techno-science. Sociologists of and things through time and space.
knowledge, geographers, and anthropologists There are also integrative approaches that
have argued that one common attribute of all begin from a dwelling perspective. The formula-
knowledge is localness, that it is place based. tion of the concept of the “geographical self,” the
Until recently, little attention has been paid to human subject who is oriented and situated in
another problem, that of “knowing” local knowl- place, and the use of three related concepts—self,
edge, but a number of anthropologists and geog- body, and landscape—are pertinent because they
raphers have begun to use place, and especially resonate with, and connect to, work being done
the concept of dwelling, to inform their work on place from a building perspective. This formu-
among indigenous peoples. Place making, in this lation puts the emphasis on form: If the body is
work is a relational matter involving activities the form in which a creature is present as being-
and experiences and focuses on “practice,” or in-the-world, then the world of its being-in pres-
“performance,” emphasizing embodiment. Fur- ents itself in the form of landscape. Another
thermore, a number of indigenous scholars in highly creative approach has examined trees as
different parts of the world have identified phe- agents that co-constitute places and cultures in
nomenological approaches as being parallel to relationship with human agency. Using the con-
indigenous thinking, as both are based on the cepts of dwelling and performance, this work has
innate human experience of place. Indigenous demonstrated at a practical level that these are
peoples claim a cocreative relationship with their fruitful ways of dealing with the richness and
land, making places as much as places make dynamism of places. Likewise, another agency-
them, with the body seen as the source of think- oriented approach argues that differences emerge
ing, sensing, acting, and being and the basis of all in places through both place-based experiences
relationships. and human agency and that such places are never
separate but always parts of larger sets of places.
Connecting Building and Dwelling
Conclusion
Although disagreement remains over which con-
ception of spatiality should be privileged, recent It is doubtful whether the proponents of one
scholarship has addressed how space and place approach or another to place will ever agree.
are inherently related to each other. However, there is beginning to be some agree-
A number of these attempts have their roots ment that place involves both mental construc-
in “building” approaches. Locale studies now tions and human agency. There are a number of
'&-- P LA C E NAME S

terms that are being used by scholars with very

different philosophical positions, including self, Castree, N. (2003). Place: Connections and
body, landscape, practice, and performance. But boundaries in an interdependent world. In S. L.
like the term place itself, they are fraught with Holloway, S. P. Rice, & G. Valentine (Eds.), Key
difficulty, being frequently equivocal, often concepts in geography (pp. 165–185). Thousand
ambiguous, sometimes evasive, often taken for Oaks, CA: Sage.
granted, and always contested. Earlier key con- Creswell, T. (2004). Place: A short introduction.
cepts involving a dwelling perspective (such as Malden, MA: Blackwell.
authenticity, involving a fixity, a rightness, a Entrikin, J. (1991). The betweenness of place:
duration in place, a oneness and rootedness, Towards a geography of modernity. Baltimore:
where people and landscape become joined) have Johns Hopkins University Press.
been replaced by the idea that places are ongoing Massey, D., & Jess, P. (1995). A place in the world?
productions, involving a human agency, and that Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
they are fluid and multiscalar, complex and Pred, A. (1984). Place as historically
hybrid. Perhaps the focus in much recent work on contingent process: Structuration and the
the experiences of human beings as agents and on time-geography of becoming place. Annals
the practice or performance of place offers a prac- of the Association of American Geographers,
tical way of resolving some of the ambiguities of 74, 279–297.
the concept of place. Relph. E. (1976). Place and placelessness. London:
Pion.
Brian Murton Sack, R. (1980). Conceptions of space in social
thought: A geographic perspective. Minneapolis:
See also Architecture and Geography; Body, Geography University of Minnesota Press.
of; Chorology; Cultural Geography; Cultural Landscape; Thrift, N. (1999). Steps to an ecology of place.
Everyday Life, Geography and; Existentialism and In D. Massey, J. Allen, & P. Sarre (Eds.), Human
Geography; Hartshorne, Richard; Home; Idiographic; geography today (pp. 295–322). Cambridge, UK:
Jackson, John Brinckerhoff; Landscape Architecture; Polity Press.
Mental Maps; Palimpsest; Phenomenology; Tuan, Y. (1976). Topophilia: A study of
Photography, Geography and; Place Names; Place environmental perception, attitudes and values.
Promotion; Regional Geography; Regions and Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Regionalism; Relative/Relational Space; Sense of Place; Tuan, Y. (1977). Space and place: The perspective of
Structuration Theory; Symbolism and Place; Territory; experience. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota
Time-Geography; Topophilia; Tuan, Yi-Fu Press.

Further Readings

Adams, P., Hoelscher, S., & Till, K. (Eds.). (2001).

PLACE NAMES
Textures of place: Exploring humanist
geographies. Minneapolis: University of
Place names (or toponyms) are used to identify
Minnesota Press.
and differentiate geographic features, both
Agnew, J. (2005). Space: Place. In P. Cloke & R. J.
human-made (e.g., countries, cities, and streets)
Johnston (Eds.), Spaces of geographical thought:
and physically based (e.g., mountains, lakes, and
Deconstructing human geography’s binaries
rivers). Toponyms are systems of spatial reference
(pp. 81–96). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
and symbolic expression. They are one of the
Casey, E. (2001). Between geography and
most fundamental ways in which people con-
philosophy: What does it mean to be in the place-
nect with places. Traditionally, geographers have
world? Annals of the Association of American
classified and mapped names as artifacts; how-
Geographers, 91, 683–693.
ever, newer research emphasizes the politics of
place naming.
 P LA C E NA ME S '&-.

place promotion—from the intentional misnam-

Place Name as Spatial Reference
ing of Greenland to the more contemporary prac-
Place names facilitate the identification and tice of crafting idyllic-sounding monikers for
physical navigation of the landscape, using a subdivisions and apartment complexes.
single word or series of words to distinguish one Humans apply place names to create a sense of
place from another. As part of the larger struc- order and familiarity, frequently choosing names
ture of language, toponyms permeate our daily that reflect and reinforce the importance of their
vocabulary, both verbal and visual. They are point of view. Even when time has erased other
found on road signs, advertising billboards, and evidence, toponyms can provide insight into peo-
addresses. Place names are critical to the use of ple’s religious beliefs, ethnic origins, history, envi-
nearly any kind of map, contributing to geo- ronmental perceptions, and political values.
graphic knowledge and the development of a Interpreting such names requires reading their
sense of place. many layers of meaning. In 1916, the Canadian
Although names are important points of refer- town of Berlin, Ontario, changed its name to
ence, misunderstanding can result from conflicts Kitchener, honoring the British Secretary of War
in their use and spelling. The same name is some- who died at the beginning of World War I. On
times applied to different places, and a place may one level, the naming reflected Canada’s support
have more than one name. Seeking greater unifor- of the Allied effort and the strengthening of its
mity in naming, particularly in response to grow- ties with England. On another level, it symbolized
ing electronic data demands, applied geographers a nativist rewriting of the landscape and the anti-
have worked to standardize toponyms on maps German hysteria sweeping across Canada.
and other publications. They have also estab- Naming also represents a means of claiming
lished administrative procedures for dealing with or taking ownership of places, both materially
new place names, name changes, and naming and symbolically. In many world regions, a
controversies. renaming of geographic features accompanied
Several countries, including the United States, European colonial exploration. Explorers and
have set up boards to review and rule on top- mapmakers not only projected their Western
onymic issues. The United Nations Group of values onto the landscape but also excluded and
Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN) devalued the naming systems of the original
assists in sharing the results of these national inhabitants, in effect writing off native knowl-
efforts and promoting the benefits of the stan- edge. The toponymic process sheds light on
dardization of international names. Despite the power relations—that is, which social groups
technical justifications for standardization, the have the authority to name—and the selective
process can lead to public disputes as authorities way in which naming privileges one worldview
try to choose a single name for a feature. over another.
Place names are often characterized by a per-
manence that outlives their creators; however,
they are not static symbols. Major global shifts
Place Name as Symbol
frequently underlie the renaming of features—
Place names are also symbols to which people decolonization, the fall of communism, the rise of
attach meaning and from which they draw iden- Islamic fundamentalism, recognition of minority
tity. Names evoke powerful connotations, as rights, and so forth. In the United States, racial
became evident in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and ethnic groups have actively sought the
when residents along Anthrax Street demanded a removal of names containing racial slurs and the
name change. The street name had existed for renaming of places to recognize their historical
several years but was reinterpreted in light of the achievements. Hundreds of streets and schools
tragedy of September 11, 2001, and bioterrorism bear the name of the civil rights leader Martin
fears. Its new name, Allegiance Avenue, offers a Luther King Jr. These names sometimes serve as
more patriotic association. The image-generating arenas for debates about culture and identity,
power of toponyms has long played a role in thus exposing the divisions within society.
'&.% P LA C E NAME S

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard (West 125th Street) in Harlem’s main cultural and commercial district, New
York City
Source: iStockphoto.

Place Name Study Germany, Romania, and the former Yugoslavia

have used place names—particularly commemora-
Geographers traditionally have collected, classi- tive street names—to advance reinvented notions
fied, and mapped toponyms as artifacts, using of national history and identity. Yet other scholars
them to reconstruct the environmental and have examined naming as resistance; for example,
human history of places. Names provide clues marginalized groups such as the Maori of Aotearoa,
about the direction and timing of human migra- New Zealand engage in toponymic struggles to
tions, the location of settlements, indigenous establish their legitimacy within society. Mapping
perceptions of place, and the boundaries of ver- remains important to place name study; however,
nacular regions. Naming patterns have also been it is also necessary to study the naming process, the
used to reconstruct the original vegetation and participants involved, and the very language used
land use of an area. in referring to and debating toponyms.
Newer approaches take a more contemporary
focus and stress the politics of place naming. Derek H. Alderman
Rather than passive artifacts, toponyms are vehi-
cles for reinforcing and challenging cultural See also Cultural Geography; Historical Geography;
and political ideologies. Studies have examined Nationalism; Symbolism and Place; Toponymy;
how government elites in countries such as Israel, Zelinsky, Wilbur
 P LA C E P R OMOT IO N '&.&

Further Readings
the selling of the suburb continues. Attracting
industries and selling the advantages that one
Alderman, D. (2002). Naming streets after Martin location might have over other places led to an
Luther King, Jr.: No easy road. In R. Schein era of place promotion combined with the provi-
(Ed.), Landscape and race in the United States sion of incentives and policies that continues
(pp. 213–236). New York: Routledge. today. These efforts were often antilabor, to lure
Azaryahu, M. (1997). German reunification and the industrial plants, and tax breaks were given to
politics of street names: The case of East Berlin. attract corporates.
Political Geography, 16, 479–493. As cities declined during the deindustrializa-
Berg, L., & Vuolteenaho, J. (2009). Critical tion of Western Europe and North America,
toponymies. London: Ashgate. efforts to remake city images dominated. Bereft
Kearns, R., & Berg, L. (2002). Proclaiming place: of their industrial economic base, cities turned
Towards a geography of place name pronunciation. toward services, shopping, and the creation of
Social & Cultural Geography, 3, 283–302. spectacles. Downtown shopping centers, sports
arenas, and entertainment districts were incor-
porated in urban redevelopment projects in the
1960s and 1990s, a practice that continues
today. Cities compete for assets such as con-
PLACE PROMOTION ventions, professional sports franchises, and
other markers of urban success in the 21st cen-
tury. Culture also became vital to the image of
Place promotion is the development of advertise- cities, with Europe, Canada, and the United
ments for the purpose of attracting investment, States overseeing efforts to develop science and
tourism, and economic growth. These efforts can education centers, aquariums, and museums
take on many forms and today are practiced by focused on niche sports and local cultures to
multiple actors, including but not limited to gov- attract tourists and attention.
ernments, chambers of commerce, tourism and
convention bureaus, and economic development
corporations and agencies. Examples of place pro- Academic Foci
motion are found in most media today and reflect Most research on place promotion can be classi-
the specific goals of the groups advertising a place. fied roughly into two categories. The first is the
application of marketing to places, and the sec-
ond is debates about whether this is effective. An
Historical Context
important question at the heart of these market-
Efforts to promote places as tourism destinations ing efforts is whether a place can be marketed in
and attract investment capital have been under- the same way as a package of toilet paper or
taken since the 1840s. Early place promotion foodstuffs; many scholars argue that, with some
efforts were begun by private firms seeking to adjustments, it can be. Others counter that the
develop the frontier regions. In particular, U.S. complexity of places requires the use of strategies
railroad companies were given government land specific to tourism or economic development.
grants to exploit. Encouraging settlers to home- This research aims to improve the process of place
stead in order to create demand for railroad ser- promotion and its counterpart, place marketing,
vice entailed advertising campaigns extolling (and to provide cities and regions with the capacity to
exaggerating) the virtues of farming the frontier. effectively lure tourism and investment.
Railroads and resorts partnered to promote health The second category consists of critical
tourism and the qualities of beaches in the late perspectives on place promotion. Researchers
1800s. The evolution of mass transit in the 1900s working from this perspective argue that place
led to the earliest promotion of suburbs, invoking promotion efforts are partial descriptions of cities
images of healthy homes away from industrial and regions and thus leave out many voices of
city cores. With current reliance on the automobile, people who wish to have a stake in creating the
'&.' P LA N T ATIONS

image of the city. They argue that elite business

leaders and politicians go to great lengths to
PLANTATIONS
control the image of a city—a city’s “brand,” as it
is referred to by practitioners. This implies an Plantations are assemblages of trees, shrubs, or
undemocratic process and the exclusion of other plants deliberately established on an area of land.
stakeholders’ perspectives on the place being pro- Plantations can also be understood as a system of
moted. Others point out that only select parts of agro-economic production. Plantations represent
places are highlighted in tourism and economic a dominant mode of industrial organization and
promotion efforts, often reflecting the racial and social-ecological production in modern agricul-
class divisions that all places contain. ture and forestry.
Much of the most recent research still focuses As an organizational form, the plantation has a
on cities. Since the 1990s, much work has focused significant colonial and postcolonial history.
on cities in Eastern Europe, which faced eco- Between the 18th and early 20th centuries, tropi-
nomic hardship during the transition to a more cal plantations were a primary form of colonial
market-oriented economy in many countries. enterprise, organized around the cultivation of
Other emerging bodies of work examine the efforts globally traded commodities, including sugar-
of Chinese cities and regions, working under com- cane, bananas, coconuts, tea, cocoa, cotton,
munist planning systems that are embracing more spices, and rubber. Different labor regimes
free market principles. Other research examines became associated with the colonial plantation.
explicitly the processes of exclusion as target mar- In the Caribbean and the U.S. South, indentured
kets are created and reached, thus often leaving and slave labor was widespread, while in the
out minorities as target audiences for place promo- Netherlands East Indies and British Malaya, plan-
tion efforts. tation labor regimes were based on organized
transfers of people from South Asia. Labor con-
Darren Purcell
trol in colonial plantation development often
involved a radical restructuring of preexisting
See also Place; Symbolism and Place; Tourism
social relations; this history, in many cases, con-
tinues to influence ethnic politics in contempo-
rary societies.
Further Readings Scholars have long made the linkage between
plantations and the characteristics of “total
Kotler, P., & Gertner, D. (2002). Country as brand, institutions.” Political ecologists such as Nancy
product and beyond: A place marketing and brand Peluso have analyzed colonial and postcolonial
management perspective. Journal of Brand teak plantations in southeast Asia as an expres-
Management, 9(4/5), 249–261. sion of state control and political-economic
Waitt, G., & McGuirk, P. (1997). Selling waterfront power. For James Scott, plantations can be
heritages: A critique of Millers Point, Sydney. understood as an emblematic form of agricul-
Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale tural “high modernism,” amenable to state ratio-
Geografie, 88(4), 342–352. nalities of simplification, legibility, calculation,
Ward, S. (1998). Selling places: The marketing and and control. The plantation as a social and eco-
promotion of towns and cities, 1850–2000. nomic technology has also been linked to state
London: E&FN Spon. initiatives to suppress rural insurgencies, as in
Wu, F. (2003). Globalization, place promotion and Malaysia and Myanmar.
urban development in Shanghai. Journal of Urban While there are many organizational forms,
Affairs, 25(1), 55–78. large-scale plantations typically involve varia-
Young, C., Diep, M., & Drabble, S. (2006). Living tions on the following characteristics: appropria-
with difference? The “cosmopolitan city” and tion and control over land and property, a
urban reimaging in Manchester, UK. Urban disciplined labor regime, corporatist or state-led
Studies, 43(10), 1687–1714. management structures, the commodification and
improvement of high-yielding planting material,
 P LA NT A T IO N S '&.(

and the employment of industrial technology and some postcolonial countries, successful “land to the
finance capital. Not all plantations have been tiller” reforms were initiated. New global develop-
organized along logics of entrepreneurial capital- ment institutions such as the Food and Agriculture
ism and surplus reinvestment. The hacienda form Organization of the United Nations were closely
of plantation development, which emerged in involved in the establishment and promotion of
Latin America and the Philippines, was essen- plantations in the postwar period. New plantation
tially a precapitalist form, involving the direction boom crops, including oil palm, eucalyptus, acacia,
of surplus toward powerful oligarchic ruling teak, rubber, coconuts, sugarcane, soybeans, cof-
families. Contemporary plantations typically fee, and cocoa, have radically reshaped tropical
involve state-led reforestation schemes or private forest environments and have been associated with
sector firms integrated with global capital flows widespread deforestation. In Indonesia through the
and markets. 1990s, the clearing of peat swamps for oil palm
The Great Depression led to a collapse in global plantations, in association with El Niño climatic
plantation commodity prices through the 1930s. events, was identified as the primary source of
World War II, followed by anticolonial struggles, uncontrolled forest fires, which blanketed south-
ended the age of colonial plantation regimes. In east Asia in haze. Biofuels (including sugarcane,

Tea plantation at Cameron Highland in Pahang, Malaysia

Source: Azmi Mansur/iStockphoto.
'&.) P LA N T ATIONS

Blue agave plantation near Tequila, Mexico, in the state of Nayarit. Used to make tequila, the blue agave is
grown only in Mexico, primarily in the state of Jalisco.
Source: © Can Stock Photo Inc.

corn, oil palm, and cassava) have emerged in the landlessness, as well as enclosure movements in
past decade as a new plantation boom crop linked many regions. At the same time, new social coun-
to rising global energy prices. The convergence termovements have emerged in resistance to plan-
between agricultural and energy commodity mar- tation enclosures in the global South. The efforts
kets is predicted to have negative implications for behind community-based natural resource manage-
land use conversion, deforestation, and food secu- ment systems have established improved legal rec-
rity in many developing countries, although the ognition of local resource rights, although in many
rising prices of these agricultural commodities may countries significant limitations remain on the abil-
also benefit some farmers. ity of rural communities to actually claim legal
In addition to transforming tropical and sub- rights over customary lands.
tropical forest biodiversity, plantations have long Many plantations in tropical countries involve
been associated with serious land and resource con- the provision of state subsidies of various kinds,
flicts with rural communities. The requirement of typically access to land through the granting of
plantation companies for access to large areas of exclusive concessions at below-market rates.
land, in combination with the legally insecure land Some global forest policy institutions have argued
rights held by many rural and indigenous commu- against these subsidies, which promote the con-
nities, has led to problems of dispossession and version of natural forest to plantations and
 P LA T E T EC T ONICS '&.*

undermine the viability of smallholder farms.

Further Readings
New market-based mechanisms of forest conser-
vation, including programs of carbon sequestra- Peluso, N. (1992). Rich forests, poor people:
tion and payments for ecosystem services (PES), Resource control and resistance in Java. Berkeley:
are designed to increase the value of existing nat- University of California Press.
ural forests relative to the profits that can be Scott, J. (1998). Seeing like a state: How certain
made through forest conversion. In some cases, schemes to improve the human condition have
PES programs are being combined with commu- failed. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
nity-based resource management systems to pro- Sivaramakrishnan, K. (1999). Modern forests:
vide rural smallholders with more secure land Statemaking and environmental change in colonial
rights and improved financial incentives for sus- Eastern India. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University
tainable resource management. Press.
Many rural communities have also engaged in
the establishment of smallholder plantations,
including the established smallholder traditions
of cultivating “jungle rubber” in Indonesia. Rural
people have also widely participated in the culti-
PLATE TECTONICS
vation of various plantation boom crops, in some
cases initiating a process of forest conversion, Plate tectonics embraces the concepts of seafloor
communal land privatization, and market-based spreading (the creation of new oceanic crust at
dispossession. Initiatives in support of communi- midoceanic ridges) and continental drift (the
ty-based resource management and forest-based gradual movement of Earth’s continents over
sustainable livelihoods can thus at times be in geologic timescales) to provide a theory for the
tension with local and smallholder aspirations to large-scale movements of Earth’s lithosphere.
engage with plantation markets and modernity. This theory, together with the advent of remote
There is significant controversy around the imagery from satellite and aerial platforms, has
ecological effects of plantations, particularly fast- led to a greater understanding of the large-scale
growing plantations of eucalyptus, pine, and aca- geomorphology of Earth’s crust. It has also
cia, and their putative effects on water and soil helped us understand other aspects of physical
fertility. While these are complex scientific ques- geography, such as biogeography (which helps
tions, the evidence supports a view that all trees explain the distribution of biota across the globe),
access and use groundwater and soil resources and emerging areas such as planetary geomor-
and that fast-growing tree plantations use a cor- phology (which aids the identification of plate
responding amount of these resources. Balancing tectonic features on remote imagery of Mars).
the ecological effects of plantations with other This entry outlines the theory of plate tectonics
resource management objectives is considered to and its relevance to other physical geography
be a social and political question. phenomena.
Plantations are not only established in the trop-
ical or subtropical South. In the forest industries
of North America, Scandinavia, New Zealand, Composition of the Earth
Chile, and China, plantations of pine, poplar, A section through Earth would reveal a rigid lith-
spruce, and fir have widely replaced natural for- osphere that is 0 to 100 km (kilometers) thick.
est stands, leading to a decline in biodiversity as Although this layer behaves in a brittle-elastic
well as land conflicts with native, indigenous, or manner, it can, under high loads and long time
rural communities. spans, deform as a plastic. The lithosphere is bro-
ken up into eight major and several minor plates,
Keith Barney which are in motion with respect to each other
and the underlying asthenosphere. The astheno-
See also Agriculture, Preindustrial; Agroecology; sphere is a weaker mechanical layer, whose outer-
Colonialism; Food, Geography of most portions contain some (less than 1%) partial
'&.+ P LA T E T E CTONICS

Key

Divergent plate boundary Convergent plate boundary

(mid-oceanic ridge) (trench). Triangles on side of
overriding plate
Transform plate boundary
(oceanic transform fault Convergent plate boundary
or continental strike-slip fault) (mountain range). Triangles on
side of overthrust terrain
Plate motion at plate boundary overriding plate

Figure 1 The major lithospheric plates, plate boundaries, and directions and rates (in millimeters per annum)
of plate movement
Source: Adapted from Summerfield, M. A. (2001). Global geomorphology. New York: Longman Scientific & Technical.
Notes: Ca: Caribbean Plate; Co: Cocos Plate; Ph: Philippine Plate; JF: Juan de Fuca Plate.

melt (material at 1000 nC). This behaves as a A tectonic or lithospheric plate is generally
high-viscosity fluid. It is the interactions between composed of continental or oceanic lithosphere
the upper part of Earth’s mantle (the astheno- from a few hundred to thousands of kilometers
sphere) and the lithospheric plates that are sig- across. Plate thicknesses range from less than 15
nificant for plate tectonics. Interaction between km for young oceanic lithosphere to ^200 km
the plate boundaries and the resultant stresses for ancient continental lithosphere. The conti-
within the plates determines to a large extent the nental crust is composed predominantly of gra-
distribution of seismic and volcanic activity, nitic rocks, which are made up of relatively
which is mainly concentrated at plate margins lightweight minerals such as quartz and feld-
(Figure 1). spar. Oceanic crust, however, is dominantly
 P LA T E T EC T ONICS '&.,

Volcanic Mid-oceanic Mountain range

Hot spot
island arc ridge with volcanoes
volcano
(convergent boundary) (divergent boundary) (convergent boundary)

Sea level Sea level

Figure 2 A schematic cross section through examples of convergent and divergent plate boundaries and their
associated major landforms
Source: Author.
Notes: Blue represents oceanic lithosphere; brown represents continental lithosphere. Red arrows indicate the relative movement
of convection cells in the asthenosphere (upper mantle). White arrows indicate movement of the lithosphere.

composed of basaltic rock, which is denser and is one such example, situated over an upwelling
heavier. mantle plume (hotspot) on the mid-Atlantic ridge
system. Iceland is the only significant suprama-
rine example of this 14,000- to 15,000-km-long
Divergent (Constructive) Plate Boundaries
ridge system, which runs from the Arctic Ocean
Divergent boundaries occur where two plates to south of Africa. The volcanism associated with
move apart from each other and tend to originate the ridge, in conjunction with the latitude (near
at triple junctions, which are sometimes believed the Arctic Circle), produces a unique environ-
to be associated with hotspots (Figure 2). At ment where sudden volcanically induced melting
hotspots, extremely large convective cells bring of the ice sheets creates some of the most dra-
vast quantities of hot asthenospheric material matic outburst floods on Earth.
near the surface, weakening the lithosphere. In the continental lithosphere, divergent plate
Beneath the oceans, extensive submarine ridge boundaries are responsible for the African rift
systems represent divergent plate boundaries. system, generating rift basins and associated vol-
Here, as the plates move apart, the space is filled canic and seismic activity. Subsidence has gener-
with new crustal material that originates from the ated the accommodation space for many of the
molten magma derived from below (seafloor lake systems, and associated warping of the crust
spreading). It is at these locations that magnetic has led to reorganization of the low-relief drain-
reversals were first identified from airborne geo- age systems associated with Lake Victoria, in
magnetic surveys, which revealed a symmetrical some cases reversing them. During periods of
pattern of magnetic bandings either side of the enhanced plate activity, the increased volume of
ridge crests. These bandings record reversals in midoceanic ridges has been credited with displac-
Earth’s magnetic field and provide data on the ing water in the oceanic basins, leading to sea-
spatial and temporal spreading rate associated level rise and thus reducing potential carbon
with the tectonic boundary. Only rarely are the availability from weathering of the smaller exposed
ridges large enough to become emergent. Iceland land masses, as well as increasing volcanic activity
'&.- P LA T E T E CTONICS

and thus increasing the availability of greenhouse the San Andreas Fault in the south) and New Zea-
gases. land (convergent in the North Island and trans-
form along the Alpine fault in the South Island).
Transform faults may also offset the crests of the
Convergent (Destructive/Active)
midocean ridges of divergent plate boundaries.
Plate Boundaries
Where these transform faults occur, the plates are
The nature of convergent plate boundaries associated with stress buildup as a result of fric-
depends mainly on the relative density, and thus tional forces. This stress will build to a critical
buoyancy, of the lithosphere. Oceanic crust is threshold (the strain threshold of rocks on either
considered denser (less buoyant) than continental side of the fault). The accumulated potential
crust. Where two similar densities meet (e.g., con- energy is released as strain. Ductile lower crust
tinent-to-continent collision, such as the Himala- and mantle accumulate deformation gradually
yas, or oceanic-to-oceanic merging, such as the via shearing, but the brittle upper crust reacts by
Aleutian Island arc of Alaska), the crust will typi- fracture, or instantaneous stress release, causing
cally buckle and one plate will be subducted earthquakes to be common along the transform
beneath the other. Where two different densities boundaries (see, e.g., the South Island of New
occur (oceanic and continental, e.g., the Andes of Zealand or California in the United States).
South America and the subducting Nazca plate),
the denser oceanic plate will be subducted. These
The Driving Forces
types of margins are commonly associated with
explosive volcanism (Figure 2). This phenomenon The driving forces for plate tectonics are not
is generally considered to be the result of the clearly understood but are considered to be mostly
release of volatiles, predominantly water, as the related to gravity. When oceanic lithosphere
subducted oceanic slab is heated at depth. This forms at midocean ridges, it is initially less dense
lowers the melting temperature of the surround- than the underlying asthenosphere. As it becomes
ing mantle, producing magma, with the dissolved cooler and older, it becomes denser. This is impor-
gases generating highly explosive eruptions. tant for two reasons: (1) it generates an undersea
Mountain ranges and volcanic chains are thus topography where the elevation is greater at the
typical large-scale landforms associated with con- midoceanic ridge and falls away with distance
vergent plate boundaries. These types of margins from the ridge as a result of the older, denser, and
are typically associated with dramatic relief. The thicker oceanic lithosphere sinking into the asthe-
Andes, for example, have a relief of up to 6 km nosphere and (2) the oldest and densest oceanic
and a corresponding offshore trench some 8 km lithosphere is located at the subduction zones,
deep, giving a total relief on the order of 14 km farthest from the midoceanic ridge. Thus, gravity
over a horizontal distance of some 750 km. This sliding (sometimes known as ridge push) from the
particular boundary is associated with large, topographic high of the ridge occurs. At the sub-
megathrust earthquakes; in 1960, the largest duction zone, slab pull resulting from the weight
recorded earthquake (magnitude 9.5) and tsu- of the descending slab is important.
nami were generated. The Peruvian coastline is In some regions, such as the Mediterranean, the
one of the most tsunami-prone coastlines in the slab pull, in combination with relative plate veloci-
world. ties, has led to a situation where the position of the
subduction zone migrates regressively with time.
In the Aegean Sea, the African plate is moving
Transform (Conservative) Plate Boundaries
northeastward at 6 mm/a (millimeters per annum)
Transform plate boundaries occur where there is and the Anatolian (Turkish) plate southwestward
oblique movement along a plate boundary. In at 30 mm/a. Thus, the associated Hellenic subduc-
these situations, convergent and transform bound- tion zone has to migrate away from both Europe
aries may exist along the same plate boundary. and Turkey as long as these plate velocities are
This occurs along the western coast of the United higher. In part of the oldest (50 million years
States (convergent in the north, transform along ago), and thus densest, oceanic lithosphere of the
 P LA YAS '&..

Mediterranean, the lithospheric slab drops almost synonymously with playa in North America
vertically, leading to the “rollback” (regressive include playa lake, playa-lake basin, prairie pot-
migration) of the subduction hinge. Subduction hole, buffalo wallow, rainwater basin, lagoon,
rollback is still active in the Central Mediterranean salt pan, salt lake, alkali lake, bolson, and dry
and has been used to explain the morphology of lake. A variety of names come also from other
the Apennine Mountains of Italy. parts of the world, including vlor (Southwest
Although gravitational forces are believed to Africa), sebka (North Africa), kewire (Iran), sab-
be the strongest force driving plate motions, we kha (Middle East), rei (India), praia (India),
also have to explain why some plates (e.g., the plage (France), pliazh (Russia), salar (Chile),
North American Plate and Eurasion plates) are boinka (Australia), and salina (Spain and else-
moving but are not being subducted. This sug- where). Though geographers and other Earth
gests that friction from large-scale convection scientists have not yet completely agreed on a
currents in the upper mantle on the lithosphere term, playa and playa lake are the most com-
may play a role. This may occur at subduction monly used. Similarly, a wide range of defini-
zones (slab suction) or away from these areas tions for playa exists in the literature, but one
(basal drag). More controversially, some propo- can reduce the myriad definitions to something
nents have suggested that Earth’s rotation and the relatively simple: an internally drained basin that
tidal friction of the moon may account for the is flat, barren, or sparsely vegetated, formed in
westerly component of every plate’s motion. prairie to desert environments and infrequently
containing either freshwater or saline water.
Anne E. Mather
Though many have defined playa with a requi-
See also Biogeography; Earthquakes; Geologic site diameter measuring hundreds of meters,
Timescale; Tsunami; Volcanoes many functioning playas are 100 m or less in
diameter (see High Plains photo).
In North America, playas are ubiquitous on
the High Plains of the Great Plains, but many
Further Readings
also occur throughout the intermountain west-
ern region. Within the southern and central
Cox, A., & Hart, R. B. (1986). Plate tectonics:
Great Plains, where playas are densest, estimated
How it works. London: Blackwell.
numbers range from about 25,000 to more than
Mather, A. E. (2009). Tectonic setting and landscape
40,000. Several origins have been proposed for
development. In J. Woodward (Ed.), The physical
these playas, but those most commonly cited are
geography of the Mediterranean (pp. 5–32).
subsidence as a result of dissolution of subsur-
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
face salt or carbonate beds, the collapse of pip-
Summerfield, M. A. (2001). Global geomorphology.
ing (conduits created by percolating water),
New York: Longman Scientific & Technical.
eluviation (the downward movement of particles
or dissolved solids), deflation, or various combi-
nations of the preceding. Of these, deflation is
frequently identifiable as having at least a par-
PLAYAS tial role in playa development, in that on the
downwind side of many playas, crescent-shaped
The word playa comes from Spanish and trans- dunes (lunettes) of clay- to sand-size material
lates into English as “shore” or “beach.” As have accumulated (see lunette photo). Because
early as the late 1800s, however, the term playa of their characteristic location on the south to
was adopted for use in geomorphology in refer- southeast side of the playa basin, lunettes in the
ence to the ephemeral lakes in the Great Basin of High Plains likely developed during the last gla-
North America. To complicate things, playa is ciation, when prevailing winds were from the
not the only name applied to these features, and north and northwest.
names vary geographically, sometimes even at Playas are crucial to the ecosystems in which they
the local scale. Terms that are used more or less occur. In the Great Plains, playas function as sources
''%% P LA Y A S

Small playa within a winter wheat field on the High Plains

Source: Author.

View northeast of playa and associated lunette. The lunette, accentuated by a contour field terrace, is visible in
the lower right of the image.
Source: Author.

of recharge to the High Plains aquifer, as wetland agrochemicals. Throughout history, playas have
habitats for migratory waterfowl, as water sources served humankind as oases, first for the Paleoindians
for animals (wild and domesticated), as biogeo- and subsequently for the early European settlers.
graphic islands for native wetland vegetation, as car-
bon sinks, and as sites for the breakdown of William C. Johnson
 P OINT P A T T ER N A NA LY S I S ''%&

See also Climate Change; Drought Risk and Hazard; and others. In general, point pattern analysis is
Dunes; Wetlands; Wind Erosion important for uncovering and studying the spatial
processes underlying many types of point data.
To understand the processes that generate par-
Further Readings ticular patterns, theoretic models are usually con-
structed. For instance, a simple theoretical model
Briere, P. R. (2000). Playa, playa lake, sabkha: that has often been used is the complete spatial
Proposed definitions for old terms. Journal of randomness (CSR) resulting from a homogeneous
Arid Environments, 45, 1–7. Poisson process over a study region. In this pro-
Osterkamp, W. R., & Wood, W. W. (1987). cess, the probability of event occurrence for any
Playa-lake basins on the southern High Plains of area (A) follows a Poisson distribution with mean
Texas and New Mexico: Part 1. Hydrologic, L|A|, where L is the fundamental property of a
geomorphic, and geologic evidence for their point process, representing the intensity or mean
development. Geological Society of America number of events per unit area. In other words,
Bulletin, 99, 215–223. under CSR, events have an equal chance of occur-
Rosen, M. R. (1994). The importance of ring anywhere in the region, and event occurrence
groundwater in playas: A review of playa at one location is independent of that at any other
classifications and the sedimentology and location. Hence, under CSR, the study region is
hydrology of playas (Geological Society of completely homogeneous in all respects, and no
America Special Paper 289). In Paleoclimate and interaction exists between event occurrences.
basin evolution of playa Systems (pp. 2–18). One important aspect of point pattern analysis
Boulder, CO: Geological Society of America. is to ascertain whether there is a trend for the
Smith, L. M. (2003). Playas of the Great Plains. events to exhibit a pattern, such as regularity or
Austin: University of Texas Press. clustering, using CSR as the null. This issue
Steiert, J., & Meinzer, W. (1995). Playas: Jewels of involves the assessment of the departure of the
the plains. Lubbock: Texas Tech University event occurrence under study from CSR. If events
Press. tend to significantly concentrate or form groups
different from those in CSR, the resulting pattern
is considered clustering. On the other hand, if
events are more dispersed or spread out than those
in CSR, a regular pattern is formed. A straightfor-
POINT PATTERN ANALYSIS ward method for the assessment is to explore the
pattern by plotting and visualizing the point
Point pattern analysis is considered a branch of events. However, in general it is difficult to come
spatial statistics involving the ability to analyze to a conclusion purely based on a visual judgment,
the spatial patterns of “events” that occur at a especially when the data set is large and other
set of locations, with each event representing a issues such as time or other relevant attributes or
single instance of the phenomenon of interest. marks, such as type, size, or age, are considered.
Point patterns were initially studied in plant ecol- Therefore, various methods have been developed
ogy 70 years ago, when researchers tried to to explore and examine spatial point patterns.
describe and analyze the spatial distribution of Quadrat methods are the earliest methods
plants. Point pattern analysis was gradually used by plant ecologists to examine point pat-
introduced into a wide range of fields such as terns. This type of method is based on quad-
archeology, epidemiology, astronomy, criminol- rats—well-defined frames of a certain shape,
ogy, and so on. Meanwhile, the analysis received usually rectangular, although other shapes such
much interest in geography in the early 1960s as a square, circle, or hexagon can be used. The
during the quantitative revolution and was used quadrats can be placed over the region randomly
and extended to examine settlement patterns, or contiguously. Then, the number of events fall-
retail establishments, and spatial characteristics of ing into each quadrant is counted, and the inten-
the landscape such as drumlins, volcanic craters, sity for a quadrant can be derived. Under CSR, a
''%' P O I N T PATTE RN ANAL YSIS

quadrat with an area |A| should follow a Poisson t

_
,†I‡
distribution with mean and variance equal to _
-†I‡ ‰
I;
L|A|, where L is the intensity of the events. CSR Q
also implies quadrat independence. Hence, Pear-
son’s C2 goodness-of-fit test can be used to exam- The assessment of the significance of the pattern
ine the pattern against CSR by comparing the can be achieved by simulation of CSR and estab-
observed and expected frequencies over all the lishing the confidence bounds for the transformed
quadrats. _
function -†I‡;
Quadrat methods are highly dependent on how While a variety of methods have focused on
the quadrats are defined, and transforming points investigating the general patterns of a region,
in a two-dimensional (2D) region into counts of attention has also been paid to examining local
1D is subject to the risk of losing spatial informa- variation. A local method has been developed to
tion. Therefore, quadrat methods only give a gen- quantify clustering at various scales by using
eral idea of areas with high and low intensity of L(D), which is similar to the K function but is
event occurrence. An alternative is to use a kernel applied to each event. The local indicator of spa-
estimator to derive a smooth estimate of the inten- tial association (LISA) has also been defined for
sity by moving a window of a fixed size over the local clustering examination.
region. This method transforms point data into a
Daoqin Tong
density surface for a specific phenomenon. The
kernel intensity function can also be used to test
See also Geostatistics; Quantitative Methods; Spatial
for the overall clustering pattern as well as for
Analysis; Spatial Autocorrelation; Spatial Statistics
location of local clusters.
The methods discussed above were developed
mainly for identifying the first-order properties of
a spatial point pattern by studying intensity varia- Further Readings
tion in the study area. Other approaches focus on
the distribution of interevent distances. One Anselin, L. (1995). Local indicators of spatial
approach has been built on the nearest distances association-LISA. Geographical Analysis, 27,
either between events (W) or from point to events 93–115.
(X), where a point is a randomly selected location Bailey, T., & Gatrell, A. (1995). Interactive spatial
in the study region. A simple way to examine a data analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
point pattern is to estimate the empirical cumula- Boots, B., & Getis, A. (1988). Point pattern analysis.
tive probability distribution function (†X‡_ of W, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
_
or '†Y‡of X. Under CSR, the average of the event- Clark, P., & Evans, F. (1954). Distance to nearest
to-event distance, X  approximates a normal dis-
 
neighbor as a measure of spatial relationships in
tribution for large samples, and YJ XJ follows populations. Ecology, 35, 445–453.
an F2n,2n distribution. Other test statistics using W Diggle, P. (1985). A kernel method for smoothing
and X are also possible. point process data. Applied Statistics, 34, 138–147.
In addition to the nearest distance, the com- Diggle, P. (Ed.). (2003). Statistical analysis of spatial
monly used K function takes into account a range point patterns. London: Arnold Press.
of distances for examination. The K function, Getis, A., & Franklin, J. (1987). Second-order
K(h), is defined as the average of extra events neighborhood analysis of mapped point patterns.
within a distance h of a random event divided by Ecology, 68(3), 473–477.
the event intensity (L). Under CSR, K(h) would be Perry, G., Miller, B., & Enright, N. (2006).
equal to Ph2, with the average number of events A comparison of methods for the statistical
within a distance h of a randomly chosen event analysis of spatial point patterns in plant ecology.
being LPh2. Under clustering, K(h) is expected to Plant Ecology, 187, 59–82.
be larger than Ph2, and under regularity, it would Waller, L., & Gotway, C. (2004). Applied spatial
be smaller than Ph2. For formal testing, ,†I‡ _ is statistics for public health data. New York: Wiley.
usually transformed to
 P OLES, NOR T H A ND SOUTH ''%(

POINT SOURCES OF In addition to the regulation of air pollution

from individual point sources, atmospheric dis-
POLLUTION persion modeling is often required to determine
the effects of individual sources on ambient air
Point sources of pollution are individual, localized quality, particularly in urban areas. Such model-
facilities that emit air and/or water pollution into ing requires mathematical simulation by com-
the environment. Point sources can also emit ther- puter programs to determine the atmospheric
mal, light, and noise pollution. Point sources of air concentration of pollutants downwind from a
pollution are often also called stationary sources range of sources. These models are important to
and are usually industrial facilities (e.g., coal-fired the efforts of government air pollution agencies
power plants, chemical plants, steel mills, paper to design control strategies and plans. For water
mills, copper and aluminum smelters, oil refiner- pollution, water quality simulation and waste
ies). A related category, area sources, refers to load allocation models are used to similarly deter-
small, stationary sources of air pollution such as mine how multiple-point source dischargers can
dry cleaners, bakeries, fast-food restaurants, home best meet ambient standards and total maximum
fireplaces, landfills, and gasoline stations. The daily load requirements.
other major source of air pollution is transporta-
Barry D. Solomon
tion, or mobile sources, which has accounted for a
growing share of air pollution as increasingly strict
See also Atmospheric Pollution; Environmental Law;
standards have been implemented in many nations
Market-Based Environmental Regulation; Nonpoint
for stationary sources and as the automobile fleet
Sources of Pollution; Water Pollution
size has increased. In the water pollution arena, the
major point sources are publicly owned sewage
treatment plants and industrial effluent discharg-
ers. The other major sources of water pollution are
nonpoint, diffuse sources such as runoff from agri- Further Readings
culture, silviculture, storm water, and cities.
Point sources of pollution are usually regulated Portney, P., & Stavins, R. N. (Eds.). (2000). Public
by government requirements to control emissions policies for environmental protection (2nd ed.).
or effluents from smokestacks, pipes, vents, Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.
ditches, tunnels, or conduits, either by limiting Reitze, A. W. (2005). Stationary source air pollution
the emission rate over a short time period or by law. Washington, DC: Environmental Law
controlling the total emissions into the ambient Institute.
air or water. Permits are often issued that specify
these requirements for the emission source (usu-
ally a private business), including the type of pol-
lution being controlled, which could be one or
more categories. For large industrial sources, POLES, NORTH AND SOUTH
these requirements can become complicated and
expensive, involving dozens of point sources and The North Pole and the South Pole are defined by
many categories of air and water pollution. Since the intersection of the Earth’s rotation axis with
the 1980s, governments have increasingly turned its surface. In a broader sense, the poles encom-
to emissions trading systems to control point pass all land and ocean at the high latitudes,
sources of pollution, especially in the United where ice, sea ice, and snow are perennial.
States. These approaches, such as emission offsets Ice and snow are important components of
and “cap-and-trade” systems for sulfur dioxide Earth’s climate system and are particularly sensi-
and nitrogen oxides, are more cost-effective and tive to local and global climate change. Changes in
flexible for industry. In the case of water pollu- snow cover and sea ice have immediate effects on
tion, effluent trading in watersheds even allows land and ocean heating, the strength of major
for trading between point and nonpoint sources. ocean currents, terrestrial and marine ecosystems,
''%) P O LES , NORTH AND SOU TH

and human activities. As stated in the Fourth Antarctic sea ice extent has shown a slight
Assessment of the International Panel on Climate increase in studies based on satellite mapping
Change (IPCC), “Warming of the climate is from 1979 to 2008, contrary to what the Arctic
unequivocal, as is now evident from observations experiences (Figure 2). If the eastern part of Ant-
of increases in global average air and ocean tem- arctica has seen very little change, the western
peratures, widespread melting of snow and ice, part has witnessed significant declines for the past
and rising global average sea level.” On this prem- 25 yrs., and probably longer (measurements begin
ise, the International Polar Year (IPY) was launched at the sub-Antarctic Island of Orcadas in 1901
in March 2007, until March 2009. The program and show a nearly monotonic warming trend).
involves thousands of scientists from 63 nations, in Monitoring and assessment of sea ice extent in
more than 200 projects, to examine a wide range this part of the world remain difficult because of
of physical, biological, and social research topics the vastness and remoteness of the region.
in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. Interestingly, the exact reasons behind these
Unlike the South Pole, which lies on a continen- different trends in sea ice extent in the Arctic
tal land mass, the North Pole is located in the and around Antarctica are still mysterious and
middle of the Arctic Ocean, surrounded by waters unresolved. Anomalous changes in atmospheric
that are almost permanently covered with sea ice. and oceanic circulations are currently being
Continental ice sheets extend horizontally for examined in both polar regions to explain them.
hundreds to thousands of kilometers (km) and In a letter published in Nature in 2009, Steig
are 1 to 4 km in thickness. The two existing ice et al. argued for enhanced meridional flow—
sheets over Greenland and Antarctica represent that is, more warm air reaches West Antarctica
3% of Earth’s total surface area and 11% of its from farther north (i.e., from warmer, lower lat-
land surface. They contain some 32 million km3 itudes). This positive feedback mechanism (less
(cubic kilometers) of ice, equivalent to about 70 sea ice, warmer water, rising air, lower pressure,
meters of sea-level change. During winter, large and enhanced storminess) would explain the
sections of the Arctic Ocean and Southern Ocean warming of the Antarctic continent over the past
freeze into patches of sea ice. 50 yrs.
On average, the Arctic is warming twice as fast
as the globe as a whole and the vast land masses
of the region, at five times the global average. The
Sea Ice
amplified warming in the Arctic was attributed to
In the Arctic, sea ice coverage approximately dou- positive feedback mechanisms that accelerate cli-
bles from 7 million km2 (square kilometers) at the mate change, some likely triggered by the melting
end of the summer melt season to 15 million km2 of sea ice, snow, and permafrost. A study by Gil-
at the peak of the winter. Around Antarctica, sea let et al. in 2008, using an up-to-date gridded
ice extent varies from 3 million km2 during sum- data set of land surface temperatures and climate
mer to 18 million km2 at the height of winter. model simulations, assessed the causes of the
Sea ice regimes and climate in high latitudes observed polar warming. They found that the
have changed during the past 30 yrs. (years). In observed changes in Arctic and the Antarctic tem-
the Arctic, sea ice has decreased markedly, reach- peratures are not consistent with internal climate
ing unprecedented low extents in the summer of variability or natural drivers alone and are directly
2007 (Figure 1). Scientists have calculated that ice attributable to human influence.
extent in September 2007 was 50% lower than
conditions from the 1950s to the 1970s. All mod-
els used in the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Greenland Ice Sheet
IPCC indicate declining sea ice from 1953 to
2006. However, recent data show that the models Representing almost 1/20 of the world’s ice, the
underestimate the actual melting rate, leading to ice locked atop Greenland covers 1.7 million km2,
a conservative estimate of a seasonally icefree for a total ice volume of 2.9 million km3. It has
Arctic Ocean by 2030. shed an average 150 billion metric tons more than
 P OLES, NOR T H A ND SOUTH ''%*

Figure 1 Arctic sea ice minimum extent in September 1982 and 2008. The red line indicates the median
minimum extent of the ice cover for the period 1979 to 2000. This figure compares the Arctic sea ice extent in
September for the years 1982 (the record maximum since 1979) and 2008. The ice extent was 7.5 million km2
in 1982 and only 5.6 million km2 in 2005 and down to 4.3 million km2 in 2007. As has been observed in other
recent years, the retreat of the ice cover was particularly pronounced along the Eurasian coast. Indeed, the
retreat was so pronounced that at the end of the summers of 2005 and 2007, the Northern Sea Route across the
top of Eurasia was completely ice free.
Sources: Hugo Ahlenius, cartographer and designer, UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library. Retrieved February 20,
2010, from http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/arctic-sea-ice-minimum-extent-in-september-1982-and-2008. Data from Fetterer, F., &
Knowles, K. (2002). Sea ice index (updated 2004). Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Retrieved November 27,
2008, from http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/daily.html.

it gains in snow in winter over the past four sum- Helheim and Kangerdlugssuaq glaciers started
mers (Figure 3). Although this is only a tiny frac- speeding up in 2002 and 2005, respectively. As
tion of its total ice volume, this shedding could the glaciers calve icebergs into the ocean, it
weaken this survivor of the most recent ice age, relieves stress on the glaciers, allowing them to
20,000 yrs. ago, when the climatic conditions surge. One possible explanation lies in a warmer
were substantially different. It is very unlikely ocean bathing the coast, as data show a correla-
that the Greenland ice sheet will disappear in an tion between outlet glacier speeding up and warm
instant or even a century, but the assumption that ocean temperature. However, very little has been
the total melting and collapse of such a large ice done to correlate water temperature and glacier
sheet takes millennia is being revised. movement so far.
One reason for the revision is an unanticipated Another area of interest is surface meltwater
acceleration of outlet glaciers on the west and draining to the bottom of glaciers. Potentially,
east coasts. The Jakobshavn Isbrae glacier on this could encourage movement and collapse by
the west coast has doubled its speed from 5.7 to lubricating the interface between the basement
12.6 km/yr. between 1992 and 2003, while the and the glacier.
''%+ P O LES , NORTH AND SOU TH

Southern Hemisphere
Whole S Hemisphere +1.2
Bellingshausen Sea −5.3%
Weddell Sea +1.0
Indian Ocean +1.1
West Pacific Ocean +1.2
Ross Sea +4.8
Change in annual mean sea ice
extent (% per decade)

Figure 2 Regional changes in Antarctic sea ice. In contrast to the Arctic (Figure 1), there are signs of a slight
increase in the extent of annual mean sea ice in the Antarctic over the period from 1979 to 2005 (+1.2% per
decade) based on the NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) team retrieval algorithm. There are
far fewer observations of sea ice thickness for the Antarctic than for the Arctic because of the lack of submarine
measurements. It is therefore not possible to detect any trends in Antarctic sea ice thickness over recent decades.
Sources: Hugo Ahlenius, cartographer and designer, UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library. Retrieved February 20,
2010, from www.unep.org/geo/ice_snow. Data from National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (2007). Sea ice remote
sensing. Washington, DC: Author. Retrieved March 30, 2007, from http://polynya.gsfc.nasa.gov/seaice_projects.html.

6 7 8

Figure 3 These images are derived by comparing satellite and aircraft laser-altimeter surveys. They show the
regions of the Greenland ice sheet over which melt occurred for more than 3 days between May 1 and
September 30 for (A) 1998, (B) 2003, and (C) 2007, respectively.
Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio. The Next Generation Blue Marble data are courtesy of
Reto Stockli (NASA/GSFC). Available at http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?3475.
 P OLES, NOR T H A ND SOUTH ''%,

Figure 4 Antarctica, showing rates of surface elevation change derived from satellite radar-altimeter
measurements
Sources: Hugo Ahlenius, cartographer and designer, UNEP/GRID-Arendal Maps and Graphics Library. Data from
(corresponding to the numbers on the rectangles) (1) Rignot and Thomas (2002), (2) Ramillien et al. (2006), (3) Velicogna
and Wahr (2006), (4) Chen et al. (2006), (5) Zwally et al. (2005), (6) Wingham et al. (2006), and (7) Rignot et al. (2007).
Map retrieved and full source information available from http://www.unep.org/geo/geo_ice/graphics.asp.

Notes: The figure shows the rates at which the ice sheet mass was estimated to be changing based on radar-altimeter data (black),
mass-budget calculations (red), and satellite gravity measurements (blue). Rectangles depict the time periods of observations
(horizontal) and the upper and lower estimates of mass balance (vertical). Measurements by satellite techniques based on gravity
indicate mass loss of ice at a rate of 138 o 73 billion metric tons/yr. (per year) during 2002–2005, mostly from the West Antarctica
Ice Sheet. However, two interpretations of satellite radar altimetry pointed to a much smaller loss of about 31 billion metric tons/
yr. or a net gain of about 27 billion metric tons/yr.

Antarctica Ice Sheet provide continuous monitoring of the ice sheets,

allowing scientists to make predictions by finding
The Antarctic ice sheet covers 12.3 million km2, evidence of trends in the data.
for a total ice volume of 24.7 km3. Antarctica is Using ERS and Envisat satellite missions
also made of ice shelves—thick, floating slabs of from the European Space Agency, scientists
freshwater ice extending from the coast. They identified new rifts (deep linear breaks in the
cover an area almost as large as the Greenland ice) on the Wilkins Ice Shelf (WIS) on Novem-
ice sheet itself (1.5 million km2) but with a much ber 26, 2008 (Figure 5). The WIS is connected
lower ice volume (0.7 million km3). to two Antarctic islands by a strip of ice. That
Though there are uncertainties in the actual “ice bridge” has lost about 2,000 km2 since the
rate of mass loss, estimates indicate a recent shift beginning of 2008, possibly leading to the open-
to a net loss of Antarctic ice and suggest that the ing of the ice bridge that has been preventing
losses might be accelerating (Figure 4). Satellite the ice shelf from disintegrating and breaking
missions over Antarctica are important as they away from the Antarctic Peninsula. Six other
''%- P O LES , NORTH AND SOU TH

Figure 5 New rifts form on Antarctic ice shelf. Image acquired by Envisat’s Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar
(ASAR) sensor. New rifts on the Wilkins Ice Shelf developed from August 10 to November 26, 2008. These rifts
joined previously existing rifts (blue dotted line). The development of these rifts threatens to collapse the ice
bridge that has been preventing the ice shelf from disintegrating and breaking away from the Antarctic
Peninsula.
Sources: Interpretations based on ESA Envisat images provided by Dr. Angelika Humbert from the Institute of Geophysics,
Münster University. Photo from European Space Agency. Available at www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMXK5AWYNF_index_0.html.

ice shelves have already been lost entirely—the

Further Readings
Prince Gustav Channel, Larsen Inlet, Larsen B,
Wordie, Muller, and Jones shelves—in the past Gillett, N., Stone, D., Stott, P., Nozawa, T.,
20 yrs. Karpechko, A., Heger, G., et al. (2008).
Mathieu Richaud Attribution of polar warming to human influence.
Nature Geoscience, 1, 750–754.
Hanna, H., Huybrechts, P., Janssens, I., Cappelen, J.,
See also Anthropogenic Climate Change; Climate Steffen, K., & Stephens, A. (2005). Runoff and
Change; Glaciers: Continental; Global Sea-Level Rise; mass balance of the Greenland ice sheet:
Ice; Periglacial Environments; Permafrost
 P OLIT IC A L EC OLO G Y ''%.

1958–2003. Journal of Geophysical Research, POLITICAL ECOLOGY

110, D13108.
Holland, D., Thomas, R., de Young, B., Ribergaard, Political ecology is a relatively broad term that
M., & Lyberth, B. (2008). Acceleration of encompasses an interdisciplinary field, a theory,
Jakobshavn Isbrae triggered by warm subsurface and a conceptual approach that focus on how
ocean water. Nature Geoscience, 1, 659–664. power relations in society affect—and are affected
International Panel on Climate Change. (2007). by—the natural environment. In particular, politi-
Summary for policymakers. In S. Solomon, cal ecology explores the role of political powers,
D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K. B. economic interests, societal norms, and emerging
Averyt, et al. (Eds.), Climate change 2007: The conflicts in environmental decision making. The
physical science basis (Contribution of Working approach centers on the notion that politics and
Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the environment are thoroughly connected on multiple
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). scales and levels, as all access and control of natu-
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. ral resources are structured by power relations in
International Polar Year: www.ipy.org/index.php?/ human society. This affects all aspects of nature-
ipy/about society interaction and makes environmental issues
Ozsoy-Cicek, B., Xie, H., Ackley, S., & Ye, K. on various levels inevitably political.
(2008). Antarctic summer sea ice concentration Political ecology offers analytical tools for a
and extent: Comparison of ODEN 2006 ship power- or knowledge-focused analysis applicable
observations, satellite passive microwave and across theoretical, empirical, and disciplinary
NIC sea ice charts. The Cryosphere Discussion, boundaries. The field emerged from a variety of
2, 623–647. disciplines over the past decades in a growing rec-
Schneider, D., & Steig, E. (2008). Ice cores record ognition of the complexity of the social influences
significant 1940s: Antarctic warmth related to surrounding environmental problems. It shares
tropical climate variability. Proceeding of the theoretical concepts with many other fields, such
National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 105, as political economy, cultural ecology, environ-
12154–12158. mental sociology, anthropology, socialist ecology
Steig, E., Schneider, D., Rutherford, S., Mann, M., and Marxist theory, common property theory,
Comiso, J., & Shindell, D. (2009). Warming of green materialism, critical environmental history,
the Antarctic ice-sheet surface since the 1957 ecofeminism and feminist development studies,
International Geophysical Year. Nature, 457, rural land use and peasant studies, and postcolo-
459–462. nial and critical development theory.
Stoeve, J., Serreze, M., Drobot, S., Gearheard, S.,
Holland, M., Maslanik, J., et al. (2008). Arctic sea Themes and Goals in Current Research
ice extent plummets in 2007. Eos, Transactions of
the American Geophysical Union, 89(2), 13–14. Political ecology research consists of a diverse
Stroeve, J., Holland, M., Meier, W., Scambos, T., & array of themes. These can loosely be categorized
Serreze, M. (2007). Arctic sea ice decline: Faster into four areas:
than forecast. Geophysical Research Letters, 34,
L09501.
1. The first overarching goal of political ecology
United Nations Environment Programme. (2007).
is to explore the reasons behind environmental
Global outlook for ice and snow. Arendal,
degradation and marginalization, based on an
Norway: UNEP/GRID.
understanding of the ecological situation as a result
United Nations Environment Programme. (2008).
of its larger context in political economy. Political
Global glacier changes: Facts and figures. Arendal,
ecology provides a comprehensive analytical tool
Norway: UNEP/GRID.
to reconceptualize three aspects of environmental
Witze, A., (2008). Losing Greenland. Nature, 452,
problems. First, the social construction of environ-
798–802.
mental problems is analyzed. Environmental
change is usually termed a problem or crisis where
''&% P O LI T I CAL E COL OG Y

it affects human interests adversely. Political ecol- power structures. Political ecology seeks to high-
ogy challenges the apparent causes of environ- light the conflict over resources as much as it
mental problems and argues that most, if not all, reveals the struggle over meaning. It raises ques-
environmental problems are not primarily ecolog- tions such as “Whose environment?” and “Whose
ical but in fact rather social problems. Prominent power or knowledge?” and analyzes the conflict-
examples are land cover change and loss of biodi- ing values, perceptions, knowledge, and discourses
versity, soil erosion, air and water pollution, fam- that reflect the underlying power relations.
ines, floods, deforestation, land degradation, and 4. The fourth goal of political ecology is to
desertification. Second, uneven exposure and vul- understand the social and political dynamics that
nerability in environmental crises are analyzed. emerge from changes in environmental conditions
Environmental problems are often perceived by and regimes. This research analyzes the power
the socioeconomic dimensions of their impact on dynamics of movements, shifts, or imbalances in
society, not by their ecological significance. This resource distribution and ecological justice and
indicates underlying influences of power, access, provides insights that are often attributed to social
and representation on the construction of envi- change in a broader sense. At the same time, envi-
ronmental problems. Resource deprivation is not ronmental movements, advocacy, and resistance
a uniform process. Environmental problems such are themselves subject to internal power forces
as degradation and scarcity of resources receive that socially construct environmental narratives
much more attention when powerful elites are and their critiques.
affected rather than vulnerable groups. Third,
unequal power relations regarding resource access These themes can be explored on multiple spa-
are analyzed. tial and temporal scales with varying scope.
2. The second goal of political ecology focuses Applications range from the relatively broadscales
on the social definition and political implementa- of sociocultural meaning (e.g., the Western con-
tion of environmental conservation. This work cept of national parks) to short-framed political
aims at the social construction of conservation analyses (e.g., the passing of a new environmental
and nature itself. It challenges our understanding law), from long-term research on sociopolitical
of concepts such as “nature,” “wilderness,” “nat- issues (e.g., toxic waste disposal in marginalized
ural resources,” “sustainable resource use,” and regions) to social research on rural practices and
“aesthetic landscape,” asking how they are con- livelihoods (e.g., customary access rights in rain
structed and reinforced by powerful hegemonic forest communities).
structures in society and how they affect our reg- Overall, one of the most central contributions
ulation of land use and protected areas. The use of political ecology is its call for a heightened
and protection of natural environments are awareness of power inequalities and their impact
socially defined (e.g., “resource,” “sustainable on nature-society systems. The approach empha-
use,” “scientific forestry,” “illegal harvesting,” sizes the multilevel pervasiveness with which
“poaching,” “invasive logging”) and underlie the power relations shape and reinforce resource
powerful paradigms that are derived from and access and control, benefit distribution, and over-
reinforced by cultural practices and social norms. all livelihood security. It offers a theoretical level
of revisiting and questioning social assumptions
3. The third goal is to understand the actors to explore how concepts such as “sustainable
and interests of environmental conflict in the larger use,” “natural resources,” or “equal access rights”
context of power struggles. Actors and their roles become defined and reinforced by the dominant
in conflict may be driven by gender, class, race, power structures in society.
ethnicity, or other dynamics in society. Political
and economic elites have historically aimed to
justify resource use systems that were character-
Early Colonial and Ecological Critiques
ized by highly unequal access and user rights.
Marginalized groups may be able to challenge the Political ecology is commonly referred to as a new
elite claims and seek ways to overcome the existing research field, but it has very old roots. Some early
 P OLIT IC A L EC OLO G Y ''&&

European explorers and geographers criticized the explorer, and activist Peter Alexeivich Kropotkin.
racist hegemonic structures and growing inequali- He was arguably one of the first political ecolo-
ties as the underlying forces of environmental gists. His pathbreaking work Mutual Aid: A Fac-
destruction and colonial exploitation, often based tor in Evolution, published in 1902, presented
on their own observation. In his classic Cosmos biological data that indicated that the central
(1858), the German geographer and world- mechanism in natural selection is not competition
renowned explorer Alexander von Humboldt but cooperation. In an often uncertain and diffi-
coined the term inequality of fortunes and called cult biophysical environment, it is cooperation
for equal land use and employment opportunities among individuals that offers the best collective
between indigenous peoples and colonial powers. benefit to ensure survival. His findings challenged
The French geographer Elisee Reclus criticized social Darwinist ideas, criticized the implicit read-
the colonial exploitation of his time even more ing of social hierarchies into the natural world,
openly in his work The Earth: A Descriptive His- and thus repoliticized our thinking of human-
tory (1871). He suggested revolutionary political environment processes.
actions as a legitimate evolutionary mechanism to
overcome inequities in hegemonic structures. In
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, however,
Interdisciplinary Influences
most human-environment research had become
more formalized and was dominated by rather Modern political ecology has emerged with mul-
reductionist approaches that catered to the need tifaceted roots in various fields, most notably
of Eurocentric colonial expansion for cartography political economy and cultural ecology. The
and physical geography. approaches of political ecology often have a his-
Political ecology suggests a strong reference to torical component that shares concepts or focus
ecology, a linkage that has been critiqued from with environmental history. Nevertheless, the
various perspectives. Over time, ecological con- term political ecology created a new unifying
cepts became major influences on numerous label for a research approach that had long been
fields, including health, development studies, evolving in various academic disciplines, although
environmental history, geography, economic pro- concerned with large variations in concept, focus,
cesses, and cultural ecology. The study of ecologi- and scale.
cal processes emerged in the mid 19th century, at Political ecology shares with political economy
a time when evolutionary research gained impor- the interest in the interaction between individu-
tance. Charles Darwin’s evolution theory trig- als, their material transactions in society, and the
gered a wave of debate across the social sciences natural world. Political economy also assumes
to explore possible parallels to human processes. that society and nature are socially constructed to
The evolutionary biologist and geographer Alfred a significant degree but otherwise deemphasizes
Russel Wallace immediately opposed the emerg- any natural processes or the environment per se.
ing notions of social Darwinism and became an Environmental economics, on the contrary, has
advocate of social justice and nonracist resource developed elaborate tools that seek to quantify
rights. At the core of the debate was the role of environmental services and externalities. Although
individual competition in evolutionary strategies these have been contested, they help develop a
as opposed to the role of social cooperation: larger economic framework but do not as ade-
While the “survival of the fittest” principle quately capture the underlying reasons, interests,
emphasized the ubiquitous importance of indi- and consequences of nature-society interactions
vidual interests behind all societal decisions, the as political economy helps grasp. The writings of
latter called for a balancing, ecosystem-level Karl Marx experienced a revival through politi-
approach to better understand the full interac- cal ecology for their conceptual lens on the socio-
tions between communities of organisms. political links between environmental degradation
One early scholar who addressed the problem- and social oppression, and this opened a new
atic implications of Darwin’s theory for the social debate on the underlying structural concerns over
sciences was the Russian philosopher, geographer, economic production and resource depletion.
''&' P O LI T I CAL E COL OG Y

Neo-Marxism manifested itself as an influential Some of the earliest and most prominent scholars
theoretical contribution to early-stage political of the field in fact did not identify themselves as
ecology from the late 1970s to the mid 1980s. It part of the movement and were rather situated by
reflected the broader intellectual context at the others in retrospect. This made the emergence of
time for new radical theories seeking to recon- the field difficult to grasp and define, which con-
ceptualize existing problems through new ana- tinues until today.
lytical lenses. The modern wave of political ecology can be
Political ecology is also significantly influenced described as a confluence of several sources of
by cultural ecology. Cultural ecology had thought. New critiques in cultural ecology had
emerged since the 1950s as a multidisciplinary increasingly opened up toward previously under-
approach across geography and anthropology to theorized sociopolitical determinants of human
help understand how human societies affect and environment use. This development was embed-
adapt to their local environments—how cultural ded in a larger paradigmatic shift through the
practices and institutional arrangements evolve 1970s, with merging environmental and social
around resource use. Major works are associated movements. Escalating environmental degrada-
with the American geographer Carl Sauer, who tion and livelihood crises in the developing coun-
also pioneered the modern tradition of cultural tries, unforeseen local adversities from conservation
geography in which environmental determinism efforts, and worldwide disagreement over possible
was inverted into focusing on the role of humans solutions had made the growing global debate an
in changing the landscape, not the other way increasingly politicized one. Voices for social jus-
around. tice increasingly joined the ecological concerns
In the 1960s and early 1970s, cultural ecology and raised the societal critique of global socioeco-
attempted to explore the future of human popu- nomic and political structures to a new level. Post-
lations and their material activities through colonial resource use and industrial exploitation
ecologically based models such as energy flow were increasingly identified as part of the prob-
modeling and system analysis. These models lem. Political ecology formed as a critical response
sought to explain adaptation and change as pre- particularly to two popular notions at the time.
dictable outcomes of processes within the mod- First, it criticized neo-Malthusian beliefs that envi-
eled closed ecosystems, but exactly because of ronmental destruction and global resource deple-
this, they failed to acknowledge that the local cul- tion were the result of overpopulation. Second,
tural and ecological systems studied were in fact new political ecology voices challenged the glob-
the result of larger sociopolitical dynamics on a ally favored technocratic practice of technology-
global scale. From a political ecology perspective, based solutions that approached environmental
this apolitical and homeostatic systems approach problems as a merely technical matter, not as a
is the central conceptual flaw of cultural ecology. complex social system.
The term political ecology emerged diffusely as
a concept to grasp the new waves of environmen-
talist and social movements, in loose reference to
Modern Reemergence Since the 1970s
political economy and cultural ecology. It first
Political ecology has been recognized as an aca- appeared in the writings of the journalist Alex
demic field for only a few decades, and it contin- Cockburn, the anthropologist Eric Wolf, and the
ues to grow and be refined. The term political environmental scholar Grahame Beakhurst. The
ecology was coined in the 1970s and received first works in the academic realms of the field
wider use in the 1980s and 1990s, when a grow- called for new concepts to explore the missing
ing circle of scholars started to identify them- link between environment and society. They
selves as political ecologists. Political ecologists criticized the strong dominance of apolitical
come from various academic backgrounds, such approaches in environmental research, the lack of
as development studies, geography, political sci- postcolonial awareness in relation to it, and the
ence, environmental studies, human ecology, limited application of alternative and radical
anthropology, and environmental sociology. thinking to conceptualize the growing threat of
 P OLIT IC A L EC OLO G Y ''&(

resource depletion and overpopulation. These does not offer a normatively derived framework
works were among the first in what was later to assess environmental processes or outcomes.
termed Third World political ecology. For the same reasons, political ecology is also
In the 1980s, the term political ecology was incapable of offering one big representative story
explored and enriched by key scholars such as or unified approach in response to current envi-
Piers Blaikie, Michael Watts, and Suzanna Hecht. ronmental debates.
The research on power relations and human- Others, however, see the incongruent, hetero-
environment interaction increased significantly, geneous nature of the field as possibly its greatest
most prominently on land degradation issues, as virtue because it reflects the ideas of political
book-length texts by Piers Blaikie and Harold ecology at its very core. It pays tribute to its
Brookfield contributed significantly to the con- philosophical roots of pluralism, nonhierarchical
solidation and formalization of the emerging discourse, and the teleological apprehension with
research field. which political ecology challenges all underlying
Until the 1990s, the core focus of political ecol- connotations in the construction of knowledge
ogy research remained in rural, agrarian, and and opinion for any political or academic dis-
Third World contexts. Political ecology slowly course. Regardless, many critics agree to a cer-
grew beyond its original core concern of Third tain extent that the emergence of the field
World contexts and into a broadened, more mirrored an eclectic time of paradigmatic shifts
theoretically consolidated and deepened school in the social sciences, making way for the exuber-
of thought that now increasingly addressed ant growth of nongoverned academic diversity
resource management and access to environmen- and multidisciplinarity.
tal resources, explored among others by Nancy Significant criticism emerged over what politi-
Peluso and Karl Zimmerer. New streams comple- cal ecology failed to address or addressed in
mented and diversified the field. research very late. Political ecology has been criti-
cized for concentrating on land-centered research
in its early phase and for failing to address air
quality or water management sufficiently. The
Critiques and New Directions
discipline also initially remained silent on gender
Political ecology has been critiqued on various issues and feminist geography approaches and
levels over the decades. Its growth was rather needs to extend its theoretical tools to include
iterative in nature due to constant exploration, research on the human body and health issues,
elaboration, and reinvention of the field. Until urban contexts, and organizations and institu-
today, a substantial part of its literature continues tions in political-ecological conflicts. Others point
to be written in neighboring fields that form a out that although political ecology is centrally
heterogeneous and dynamic area of research concerned with sociopolitical dynamics else-
rather than a coherent new field with clearly iden- where, it failed to address the internal politics of
tified boundaries. Political ecology remains, in the emerging field. In general, a wider shift toward
consequence, a fragmented and often incoherent discourse-oriented analyses in the social sciences
field of research. since the 1990s has led to calls for more political
The disparate character of the field is often ecology–based research on the power dynamics in
regarded as its central weakness. Some regard the the generation of knowledge, the social construc-
disparate nature of the field as a weakening fea- tion of inquiry, and teleological questions of
ture in need of a unifying voice and self-attributing motives and objectives in science and its possible
coherence to move beyond the early stages of a merits and risks in technology-based applications.
new field. It has been argued that the term politi- In the future, this opens up themes such as the
cal ecology is too broad to capture all its different expanding applications of geospatial methods
streams and nearly dissolves itself by trying to do and their construction of knowledges, shifting
so. It lacks consistent depth across the field, can- nature-society power relations through public
not determine its own conceptual boundaries, fails participation tools, ecological modernization, and
to agree on a coherent theoretical framework, and new debates on alternative political ecologies.
''&) P O LI T I CAL E CONOMY

The critical debate on the future of political

ecology thus indicates significant potential beyond
POLITICAL ECONOMY
the traditional realms of environment-related
Political economy is a field of research and a
research. Ultimately, political ecology is not about
body of theory concerned with the integrated
nature. The initial references to ecology are increas-
study of political and economic decision mak-
ingly contested, suggesting that political ecology
ing. It analyzes the behavior of political agents
needs to break away from a possibly outdated
who make decisions in the presence of institu-
understanding of ecological concepts and dynam-
tional and economic opportunities and con-
ics. Some argue that nature-specific foci are in fact
straints. Political economy has attracted
an early development stage of the discipline. The
growing interest within the social sciences, since
theoretical application of political ecology has
the standard paradigm in economics of fully
started to widen beyond environmental issues and
rational economic agents has failed to explain
into the broader realms of sociopolitical research,
the continued prevalence of underdeveloped and
ranging from postcolonial theory to urban plan-
even stagnating economies throughout the
ning and HIV/AIDS. Political ecology offers a mul-
world. Similarly, political scientists have increas-
tiscalar set of analytical tools to deconstruct social
ingly recognized the need to take economic con-
norms and unravel the underlying power struc-
straints into account in analyzing political
tures in a wider context, and it is receiving grow-
behavior. Political economy is currently one of
ing attention from other society-related research.
the most intense fields of social science research.
Conny Davidsen Many of the major recent theories in political
economy consider geography to play a key role
See also Agroecology; Class, Nature and; Conservation; in understanding economic and political out-
Critical Studies of Nature; Cultural Ecology; Deep comes. This entry first describes the field of
Ecology Movements; Ecofeminism; Ethnicity and political economy and then provides an over-
Nature; Feminist Political Ecology; Gender and Nature; view of some key areas of research: general geog-
Human Ecology; Industrial Ecology; Landscape Ecology; raphy, biogeography, disease environment,
Malthusianism; Marxism, Geography and; Nature; country size, natural resources, and trade.
Nature-Society Theory; Neo-Malthusianism; Political
Economy; Political Economy of Resources; Population
and Land Degradation; Population and Land Use; Race Key Concepts in Political Economy
and Nature; Social Construction of Nature
In the older literature—for instance, the works of
Adam Smith, David Ricardo, Thomas Malthus,
and Karl Marx—political economy referred to a
Further Readings more general analysis of how production was
organized within states. Sometimes, political
Blaikie, P., & Brookfield, H. (1987). Land economy was even used as a synonym for “eco-
degradation and society. New York: Methuen. nomics.” Some variants today are still Marxist
Bryant, R. L. (1992). Political ecology: An emerging inspired. The current use of the term political
research agenda in Third World studies. Political economy is, however, typically more narrowly
Geography, 11(1), 12–36. confined to an interdisciplinary analysis of poli-
Peet, R., & Watts, M. (2004). Liberation ecologies tics and economics. It is often indistinguishable
(2nd ed.). New York: Routledge. from the field of public choice theory, associated
Robbins, P. (2004). Political ecology: A critical with prominent scholars such as James Buchanan
introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell. and Gordon Tullock. Public choice was for
Zimmerer, K., & Bassett, T. J. (2003). Political decades considered to be a “school of thought”
ecology: An integrative approach to geography on the side of mainstream economics, but as
and environment-development studies. New York: most of its key ideas (self-interested, optimizing
Guilford Press. political agents that act under institutional
constraints) are now considered to be part of
 P OLIT IC A L EC ONOM Y ''&*

standard economic theory, the field is usually General Geography

referred to as political economy.
A typical feature of modern political econ- At least since antiquity, people have been aware
omy models is to assume the presence of self- that geographical conditions have a major impact
interested political agents who aim to remain in on political and economic processes in society. In
power and who try to maximize their own util- one of the first historical treatises ever written—
ity or the financial rewards for their own party The Histories by Herodotus—there are numerous
or constituency. In this sense, political economy references to the specific geography of the many
increasingly shares the fundamental assumptions places visited and how these conditions have
made in microeconomics, where models are affected societies. Most premodern philosophers
based on utility-maximizing individuals who are and scholars also developed theories on the polit-
constrained by economic circumstances or stra- ical impacts of geography, for instance, Plato,
tegic political limits rather than by morals or Machiavelli, and Montesquieu.
ideology. Political economy is further closely In modern times, a central work on the politi-
related to the field of institutional economics, cal economy of geographical conditions is Karl
which analyzes the importance of formal and Wittfogel’s book Oriental Despotism, published
informal rules of behavior for economic out- in 1957. Wittfogel developed his theory about
comes, such as norms of cooperation, private “hydraulic empires,” that is, how many of the
property rights, courts, parliamentary systems, early civilizations were founded on the need to
and constitutions. Political economy is more control flooding and to construct irrigation facili-
focused on the interactions between political ties on the fertile river plains of the Nile, the
agents, their institutional framework, and eco- Euphrates and the Tigris, the Indus, and the
nomic constraints. In recent years, game theory Yangtze and the Hwang Ho, the two major Chi-
has often been used for analyzing these interac- nese rivers. The sophistication and scale of these
tions. As in economics, there has also been an operations led to the emergence of centralized
increasing orientation toward empirical work. bureaucracies, economic specialization, social
The field reached a prominent position in social stratification, and the rule of autocrats who were
science with major publications such as Anthony often worshipped as gods. Tribute from unfree
Downs’s economic theory of democracy (1957), peasants or forced labor formed the basis of the
and even more so with James Buchanan and Gor- wealth and power of a small ruling elite. Accord-
don Tullock’s book The Calculus of Consent ing to the hydraulic hypothesis, there is a direct
(1962). In that work, the authors analyze the vot- link between geography (fertile river plains in
ing systems in constitutional democracies and semiarid areas) and political economy. Many
argue that there is an important trade-off to be writers have proposed that a link can still be
made, in the sense that near-unanimity voting traced from these early conditions of statehood to
rules presumably have little external costs (few more recent autocratic rule in Egypt, Iraq, and
voters suffer damage from the chosen policy), China. The hydraulic hypothesis has been criti-
whereas there are likely to be substantial deci- cized by scholars on Chinese history, who argue
sion-making costs before such a policy can be that the nature of despotic rule in ancient Egypt
unanimously agreed on. Another key work from and Mesopotamia in fact had little in common
the same period is Mancur Olson’s The Logic of with Chinese history. Furthermore, theory of a
Collective Action, published in 1965, which pres- particular type of Oriental, riverine despotism
ents a theory of how small interest groups can misses the fact that the huge Indian subcontinent
obtain a disproportionately large influence over is fragmented and has not hosted major empires
government policies. Recurring topics in the for long periods.
political economy literature over the years have In the tradition of the hydraulic hypothesis,
been rent-seeking politics, interest group behav- many scholars have contrasted the old riverine
ior, politically induced business cycles, the study empires with the political economy of Europe.
of bureaucracy and corruption, and the impact of Europe has no large fertile river plains, and its
constitutions on economic outcomes. general fragmented geography, with several
''&+ P O LI T I CAL E CONOMY

mountain ranges, peninsulas, large islands in Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies.
the Mediterranean, indented coastlines, and hard- His basic argument is that regions experiencing
wood forests, contributed to a continent that an early transition to agriculture, civilization, and
naturally featured a multitude of political core statehood gained a head start and an initial
areas. By the same logic, geographically extensive advantage over other regions that was still pres-
empires were difficult to sustain in the longer run, ent when the race for colonies started around
which is one of the reasons why the earliest civili- 1500. This longer experience of statehood
zations did not arise in Europe. This geographical explained why political units from Western Eur-
fragmentation led to intense military and eco- asia could colonize America, Africa, and large
nomic competition between smaller political parts of Asia, which in turn shaped the broad
units. The tax tribute needed to finance wars contours of the international dispersion of
could be tolerated by the majority of the popula- wealth and power. Hence, to understand Western
tion only after the executive power had commit- hegemony, one must understand why some areas
ted to limiting its power over its citizens. This in adopted agriculture earlier than others. Accord-
turn implied an economy that was more dynamic, ing to Diamond’s hypothesis, the main reason for
open to new ideas, and fostered several “proto- an early transition is to be found in the greater
capitalist” episodes even in preindustrial Europe. access to suitable plants and animals for domesti-
This view of the benefits of a fragmented, cation in, for instance, the Middle East and along
competitive Europe is argued by some to be the Chinese rivers. The Americas also had inde-
a “Eurocentric” analysis in that it does not give pendent centers of agricultural origin based on
an accurate account of history. Europe has, for plant domestication in, for instance, the Andean
instance, hosted some very powerful political highlands and Mexico, but the absence of suit-
units, such as the Roman and Frankish empires, able draught animals put substantial constraints
and its military competition has also been enor- on military technology, as well as on economic
mously costly in terms of capital and human lives. development. It also meant that the native popu-
Some studies also indicate that living standards or lation had not developed any resistance against
levels of technological sophistication were not the microbes (of animal origin) that the Spanish
substantially higher in Europe before AD 1500 brought on their arrival, which led to the death of
and that the source of European economic and tens of millions of people from smallpox and
political prominence is really to be found in the other diseases.
internal institutional and political changes that
colonization brought about. The impact of colo-
nization on European countries’ political econ-
Disease Environment
omy was further quite diverse. In the Netherlands
and in the United Kingdom, the inflow of revenue The geography of disease is another factor
from the colonies strengthened mainly the mer- believed to have had a significant impact on colo-
chant class, who in turn demanded more political nial policy and hence on subsequent political and
power, a realignment of policy toward free trade, economic developments. According to the theory
and strengthening of property rights. In Spain, proposed by Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson,
however, the inflow of bullion from America led and James Robinson, the disease environment
to inflation, an even more autocratic executive, partly determined whether European colonists
increased government expropriation of private chose to settle and build European-style commu-
property, and eventually a bankrupt government. nities or resorted to unproductive extraction of
natural and human resources. In tropical areas
such as Western Africa, mortality among Euro-
peans as a result of illnesses such as malaria and
Political Ecology
yellow fever prevented colonization of the conti-
A very influential and more recent theory of the nent for centuries. Instead, white merchants
long-run political economy of the world is offered resorted to slave trading until the late 19th cen-
in Jared Diamond’s famous 1997 book Guns, tury. The colonization of Africa witnessed a
 P OLIT IC A L EC ONOM Y ''&,

large-scale exploitation of its human and natural colonies, where borders often have not been the
resources. Where the climate was more similar to result of the type of rational calculations sug-
that of Europe—as in the temperate “settler col- gested above. Jeffrey Herbst argues that for
onies” of South Africa, Australia, the United Africa, colonial borders are often quite unnatu-
States, and Canada—institutions were installed ral, crossing in the middle of ethnic as well as
that were based on private property rights and environmental zones. An important part of Afri-
governments’ responsibility to an electorate. As a ca’s political problems since independence stem
result, the political economy in these colonies from the fact that most countries are states with-
acquired features similar to those of, for instance, out nations in the European sense. Still, Herbst
the United Kingdom. In large parts of Africa, on argues that African borders also are an asset
the other hand, the extractive institutions created in governments’ state-making ambitions and in
by the colonists prevail even now. According to their attempts at broadcasting power from a core
the theory, the disease environment can thus to a peripheral part of their territory.
partly explain the pattern of rent seeking, cor-
ruption, and patronage politics that still consti-
tutes a major hindrance to African economic
Natural Resources
development.
Empirical studies have repeatedly demonstrated
that natural resource abundance has a significant
negative effect on economic growth. This effect
Country Size
has become commonly known as the “curse of
The size of political units has been an object of natural resources,” where natural resources are
intense study among political philosophers since often defined as primary products, including oil,
antiquity. Both Plato and Aristotle believed that minerals, and agricultural products. One poten-
the typical Greek city-state, with roughly 5,000 tial explanation for this curse is the “Dutch dis-
free men, was the ideal size of a political unit. ease,” in which a booming natural resource
Montesquieu also warned that large countries sector draws labor away from the manufacturing
were more likely to host accumulated wealth, sector and causes an appreciation of the real
which could easily became the object of preda- exchange rate, as occurred in the Netherlands
tory struggles, and that socially optimal policies after discovery of a large natural gas field in
would be the exception since governments must 1959. The negative effects on both the manufac-
devote all their energies to balancing numerous turing sector and international trade are thought
separate interests. to be responsible for the poor growth perfor-
Country size should, however, in the long run mance of resource-rich countries in this case.
be endogenously determined by geography as well Another potential problem associated with natu-
as by institutional, economic, and military factors ral resource abundance is the reallocation of
and events. Alberto Alesina and Enrico Spolaore resources away from productive activities and
proposed a theory where the optimal country size toward rent seeking. Rent seeking can take many
is determined through a trade-off between econo- forms, from tariff protection and corruption to
mies of scale in public goods provision, on the outright appropriation. In the extreme, the desire
one hand, and preferences for heterogeneity in to control the rents from natural resources can
such goods, on the other. Large countries on aver- lead to armed conflict and civil war. The primary
age have a lower per capita cost of public goods result of increased rent-seeking activities is a
such as defense, it was argued. Large countries, decline in productivity, which in turn has a nega-
however, also contain a greater number of con- tive impact on economic growth.
flicting interests and groups. Their hypothesis The potential causes of such a “resource curse”
further predicts that countries tend to be smaller are generally poor policies rather than natural
under democratic and free trade regimes. resource abundance per se. Support for this claim
Alesina and Spolaore’s framework has been can be found in a number of empirical studies
criticized for not being applicable to former that demonstrate that countries with sufficiently
''&- P O LI T I CAL E CONOMY

strong institutions are able to escape the resource trade. Europe, composed to a great extent of pen-
curse. Therefore, natural resource abundance insulas and large islands and with several large,
only appears to constitute a curse in countries navigable rivers, is characterized by a high degree
where the quality of the institutions is low. of natural openness to trade. In contrast, Africa
It is also possible that resource abundance has has little coastline relative to its geographical
a direct impact on the quality of institutions that area, many landlocked countries, and few navi-
are established in resource-rich countries. A low gable rivers, with the Sahara acting as a large
level of property rights protection allows the rul- natural barrier. As a result, Africa is character-
ing elite to appropriate a greater portion of the ized by a low degree of natural openness to trade.
country’s natural resource rents. Therefore, the These geographical differences can account for
ruling elite in a resource-rich country may have some of the observed differences in trade open-
the incentive to retain weak institutions or even ness exhibited by the two continents and may as
weaken them further. This, in turn, makes it less such contribute to the differences in the quality of
likely that resource-rich countries will develop their political institutions.
sufficiently strong institutions to escape the Even within Europe, there is reason to believe
resource curse. that geography has had an important effect on
trade, which has carried over to political institu-
tions. Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and
James Robinson argue that Atlantic trade was
Trade
largely responsible for the rise of Western Europe
International trade has long been linked to eco- between the years 1500 and 1850. Atlantic trade
nomic growth and development. More recently, not only brought about economic growth but also
however, research has turned its attention to the acted as an impetus to significant institutional
effect of international trade on political variables change. Therefore, European countries with
such as corruption and rule of law. There are two access to the North Atlantic gained an advantage
avenues through which trade can influence politi- in both economic and institutional terms.
cal variables. The first is indirect, via higher
national incomes. Empirical evidence has shown Ola Olsson and Heather Congdon Fors
that countries that are more open to trade tend to
have relatively higher national incomes. National See also Class, Geography and; Class, Nature and;
income is in turn positively associated with stron- Colonialism; Critical Geopolitics; Critical Human
ger political institutions, as richer countries can Geography; Decolonization; Dependency Theory;
afford to invest more in improving their institu- Development Theory; Diamond, Jared; Economic
tional framework. The second avenue through Geography; Environment and Development;
which trade can affect institutions is direct. Pro- Environmental Justice; Feminist Geographies; Feminist
ponents of this view argue that international trade Political Ecology; Gender and Geography; Globalization;
acts as a disciplinary measure; countries that Governance; Harvey, David; Inequality and Geography;
engage in trade are induced to improve their insti- Justice, Geography of; Labor, Geography of; Law,
tutions in order to be competitive on the interna- Geography of; Malthusianism; Marxism, Geography
tional stage. and; Nature-Society Theory; Neoliberalism; New
Geography is believed to play an important International Division of Labor; Political Ecology;
role in determining the extent to which a country Political Economy of Resources; Political Geography;
is open to international trade. A country’s level of Poverty; Race and Nature; Radical Geography;
“natural openness” depends to a great degree on Regulation Theory; Resource Geography; Scale, Social
its geographical characteristics, such as length of Production of; Segregation and Geography; Social
coastline, remoteness, and island status. Further- Geography; Socialism and Geography; State;
more, transportation costs are significantly Sustainable Development; Trade; Uneven Development;
affected by geography. Access to the sea or navi- Urban and Regional Development; Urban Geography;
gable rivers has historically been very important Walker, Richard; Watts, Michael; Wittfogel, Karl;
for trade, while natural barriers act to hinder World-Systems Theory
 P OLIT IC A L EC ONOMY OF R ESOUR CE S ''&.

Further Readings
exploitation and development and underdevel-
opment in the global economy. This entry will
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson, J. (2005a). focus on the latter factor, the political economy of
Institutions as the fundamental cause of long term resources.
growth. In P. Aghion & S. Durlauf (Eds.),
Handbook of economic growth (pp. 385–464).
Amsterdam: Elsevier. Dependency Theory and the
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., & Robinson, J. (2005b). World Systems Approach
The rise of Europe: Atlantic trade, institutional
change and economic growth. American
Dependency and world systems theories explain
Economic Review, XCV, 546–579.
economic development in various parts of the
Alesina, A., & Spolaore, E. (2003). The size of
world at different times in history. In the 1960s,
nations. Cambridge: MIT Press.
dependency theory and the world systems
Buchanan, J., & Tullock, G. (1962). The calculus of
approach used the terms core and periphery to
consent. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
describe and analyze global political and eco-
Diamond, J. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates
nomic systems. According to both theories, core
of human societies. New York: W. W. Norton.
countries have high levels of industrial produc-
Jones, E. (1981). The European miracle. Cambridge,
tion capacity, use advanced technologies, and
UK: Cambridge University Press.
dominate international trade, while the periphery
Olson, M. (1965). The logic of collective action.
describes agrarian societies and those with mod-
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
est industrial infrastructures, which largely serve
Olsson, O. (2005). Geography and institutions:
core country resource and market needs. The core
Plausible and implausible linkages. Journal of
holds political and economic power over the
Economics, 10(Suppl. 1), 103–128.
periphery, which is reflected in control over trade
Persson, T., & Tabellini, G. (2003). The economic
and finance. This pattern was particularly preva-
effects of constitutions. Cambridge: MIT Press.
lent under colonial rule, when, for example, trans-
Wittfogel, K. (1957). Oriental despotism: A
portation systems were developed mainly to
comparative study of total power. New Haven,
provide the core countries access to the resources
CT: Yale University Press.
and markets of the periphery. This situation for-
mally ended with decolonization following World
War II, but the legacy of colonialism lives on in
many parts of the world, and dependency in terms
of trade and finance assures the core of continued
POLITICAL ECONOMY economic and political dominance. The semiper-
iphery, with its newly emerging economies, has a
OF RESOURCES higher level of autonomy and has experienced
significant economic development over the past
Political economy refers to interdisciplinary stud- few decades based on the comparative advantage
ies drawing on economics, law, history, and polit- of low-cost labor and, in some cases, abundant
ical science to explain how political institutions, resources.
the political environment, and economic systems The world systems approach examines core-
affect the factors of production, namely, labor, periphery relations as the functional evolution of
land, and resources. Originally, political economy the world capitalist economy. The needs and
focused on the conditions under which produc- problems of the underlying system of economic
tion and consumption were organized within and and political relations is its focus. Dependency
among nation states. Thomas Malthus, Adam theory adopts the standpoint of the periphery to
Smith, David Ricardo, and Karl Marx were pro- examine the functioning of core-periphery inter-
ponents of this tradition. Today in geography, actions. Its adherents developed an extensive
political economy refers to neo- and post-Marxian explanation of comprador elites in the periphery
interpretations of labor, land, and natural resource who facilitate colonial or neocolonial interests.
'''% P O LI T I CAL E CONOMY OF RE SO UR C ES

development has led critics to question the desir-

Economic Globalization and Resources
ability of economic globalization.
During the past quarter-century—guided by neo-
liberal economic and political theory—global
Resources and Sustainable Development
investment production and foreign trade increased
rapidly. The World Trade Organization, the Economic development of the periphery and semi-
International Monetary Fund, and the World periphery forces the poor in these countries to
Bank have promoted neoliberal policies to spur bear the brunt of unsustainable growth. Severe
economic globalization. However, the major damage to ecosystems that support local liveli-
players behind the increase in worldwide resource hoods has been widely noted. In response, local
exploitation and economic production are multi- communities increasingly protest against the entry
national corporations. of large mining and oil companies and other for-
The rise and dominance of multinational eign businesses. Conflicts in the Niger Delta and
corporations are closely related to advanced the Amazon rain forest are examples of the effects
technological development (in communication of global-scale exploitation of resources. Liveli-
and transportation in particular) and advanced hood-linked environmental consequences include
global corporate management aided by free trade depleted soils, deforested lands, polluted ground-
regimes. As a consequence, economies of scale water, ecosystem destruction, climate change, and
and marketing and the exploitation of resources extinction of species and ways of life.
have expanded geographically. Traditionally In response, core countries and multinational
(under colonial regimes), core-country industrial corporations have sought a remedy in the idea of
corporations would invest in resource extraction sustainable development, defined by the World
in countries of the periphery and process resources Commission on Environment and Development
as raw materials in factories in the core country. as development that meets the needs of the pres-
Today, global markets create a new geographical ent generation without compromising the ability
division of labor whereby core corporations not of future generations to meet theirs. The proposal
only invest in raw materials extraction (through suggests that economic growth can be sustained
mining or from plantations) but also relocate while averting or reducing many environmental
labor- and resource-intensive manufacturing to and livelihood threats. International programs
peripheral countries where low-cost labor and and treaties ranging from the Millennium Devel-
sometimes less restrictive environmental regula- opment Goals to the United Nations Framework
tions prevail. In pursuit of growth and profit, Convention on Climate Change attest to the
multinational corporations contract with local popularity of the idea.
mining companies, plantation owners, or agri- The experience with the practice of sustainable
businesses to secure raw materials and establish development has left many to doubt its efficacy.
finance and trade networks to move not only The problem of climate change illustrates some of
materials but also their economic value to the the dilemmas related to the promise of sustainable
global market. development. Among these is the fact that the con-
Today, multinational corporations invest in tinued economic growth of the core countries has
countries that still have large deposits of coal or so far exacerbated the buildup of greenhouse gases.
other cheap energy sources to be used in process Despite the rapid introduction of so-called clean
manufacturing of aluminum, iron, steel, cement, and green technologies, in the new century, the
and concrete and in paper and pulp production. largest source of greenhouse gas emissions by far
China, India, Brazil, and Russia (in the semiper- are the core countries of North America and Europe
iphery) are among the countries of interest, and Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. On a per
and their economies have been growing rapidly. capita basis, this bloc averages emissions in excess
Also, corporate capital uses cheap labor in coun- of 15 tons/yr. (year), while the peripheral countries
tries with few regulatory controls to operate a of Asia, Africa, and Latin America average less
global assembly line for the production of elec- than 3 tons/yr. The requirement to avert further
tronic information technologies. This pattern of warming is reduction of the world per capita
 P OLIT IC A L GEOGR A PH Y '''&

average to 3.3 tons. Recent research has shown

that this target can only be met if the United States Knox, P., Agnew, J., & McCarthy, L. (2008). The
and other core countries dramatically lower their geography of the world economy (5th ed.).
emissions over the next 10 to 20 yrs.—a task that London: Hodder & Stoughton.
requires a shift to “steady-state” rather than Schreuder, Y. (2009). The corporate greenhouse.
growth-based economies. Additionally, the only London: Zed Books.
mechanism to date to regulate greenhouse gas Wallerstein, I. (2004). World-systems analysis.
emissions focuses on countries but, significantly, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
not multinational corporations. Yet many of the World Commission on Environment and
decisions that affect the volume of greenhouse gas Development. (1987). Our common future.
emissions have been made by corporate capital Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Retrieved
acting beyond the reach of governments. Failure January 22, 2010, from www.worldinbalance.net/
to address the so-called corporate greenhouse intagreements/1987-brundtland.php
compromises the world’s ability to address the
most comprehensive threat to livelihoods and the
health of the planet.
The field of political economy of natural POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY
resources has now embarked on a search for a
genuinely equitable and sustainable future. There Political geography is concerned with the inter-
is increasing interest in “bottom-up” strategies play of politics and geography. Precisely how the
proposed by civil society to construct a postglo- geographical informs the political, as well as how
balist political economy in which the geography the political informs geography, is open to discus-
of economy, politics, and the environment is cen- sion, interpretation, and debate. For instance, at
tered on empowered communities rather than on the turn of the 20th century, political geography
global capital and technologies. was preoccupied with explaining how the physi-
cal and environmental characteristics of the Earth
Yda Schreuder and John Byrne
shaped and dictated the world of the great pow-
See also Common Pool Resources; Dependency Theory; ers of Europe, but over time, such explanations
Development Theory; Ecological Economics; Energy would be rejected. At the beginning of the 21st
Resources; Globalization; Mining and Geography; century, political geography is far more diverse in
Nonrenewable Resources; Petroleum; Political Economy; its subject matter, more cosmopolitan in extent,
Population, Environment, and Development; Renewable and open to examining a range of questions con-
Resources; Resource Economics; Sustainable cerning, for example, territory, sovereignty, iden-
Development; Underdevelopment; Uneven Development; tity, and power at the supra- and subnational
World-Systems Theory scales of analysis. Despite these shifts, contempo-
rary political geography remains engaged with
fundamental questions about the complementary
Further Readings linkages between geography and politics.

Byrne, J. B., Kurdgelashvili, L., & Hughes, K. (2008).

History of Political Geography
Undoing atmospheric harm: Civil action to shrink
the carbon footprint. In P. Droege (Ed.), Urban
Dg^\^ch
energy transition (pp. 27–53). Oxford, UK:
Elsevier Science. As one of the three traditional pillars of human
Dicken, P. (2007). Global shift (5th ed.). New York: geography, social or cultural and economic
Guilford Press. geography being the other two, political geogra-
Frank, A. G. (1967). Capitalism and phy can trace its historical roots to the German
underdevelopment in Latin America. New York: geographer, Friedrich Ratzel. In 1887, Ratzel
Monthly Review Press. published Politische Geographie, in which he
introduced the idea that the size of a state is a
'''' P O LI T I CAL G E OG RAPHY

measure of its cultural prowess. Moreover, for serve the German state. The most prominent Ger-
societies to survive and prosper, territorial expan- man geopolitician was Karl Haushofer, who is
sion at the expense of weaker states was con- credited with developing and promoting the idea of
sidered to be a natural and necessary process. the “pan-region.” According to the German school
Ratzel used the term Lebensraum, or living space, of geopolitics established by Haushofer, the world
to describe such areas of expansion. Making such could be divided into four autarkic, or self-sufficient,
direct and causal linkages between environment, pan-regions (i.e., Pan-America, Eur-Africa, Pan-
society, and culture was not uncommon in the Russia, and the East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere),
field of geography, which at the time was primar- with Germany acting as the ruling state of the
ily found in European universities, and such Eur-African pan-region. Though Haushofer had
approaches were in fact considered to be scien- connections with the Nazi leadership, the influ-
tific in nature. ence of his geopolitical ideas and visions on Nazi
Paralleling Ratzel’s writings and ideas concern- expansionism remains debatable.
ing the organic nature of states were those of the Concurrently, the American geographer Isaiah
English geographer Sir Halford Mackinder. In his Bowman engaged in a political geography that
1904 work, The Geographical Pivot of History, was more concerned with taking stock of the
Mackinder established the underpinnings for his world’s political problems than promoting the
heartland theory, which states, “Who rules East national interest, though he was not entirely neu-
Europe commands the Heartland/Who rules the tral, since he was chief geography advisor to the
Heartland commands the World-Island [i.e., Eur- U.S. government in the years following World
asia]/Who rules the World-Island commands the War I. Bowman authored The New World: Prob-
World” (p. 186). Mackinder’s heartland theory lems in Political Geography in 1921. His work
was used to illustrate the geostrategic threats that covered an enormous range of topics—many of
the British Empire faced, namely, from Germany which are just as salient at the beginning of the
and Russia. Subsequently, in the aftermath of 21st century as they were at the beginning of the
World War I, Mackinder would apply his ideas 20th—such as border issues and disputes around
as he and other geographers were consulted about the world, the political geography of natural
the redrawing of national borders in Europe at resources, and the status of ethnic minorities.
Versailles. Despite Bowman’s efforts to distinguish political
geography as scientific and objective, versus a
geopolitics driven by state interests and ambi-
<Zdeda^i^XhVcY>ih8g^i^Xh
tions, the enterprise of political geography would
Though Ratzel and Mackinder are often con- be tainted by its association with geopolitics, in
sidered to be the founding fathers of political particular, the geopolitics of the Third Reich.
geography, it was their use and application of Political geography and geopolitics remained
geography to serve the national interest that led very uneasy bedfellows throughout the Cold War.
to the development of what the Swedish geogra- Due, in part, to the damning associations that
pher Rudolf Kjellén called “geopolitics.” Primar- geopolitics had with Nazi aggression and atroci-
ily concerned with territorial disputes and claims ties, political geography quickly faded into the
between Norway and Sweden, Kjellén was the background in both policy and academic circles.
first to use the term to describe the practice of With little innovative or substantive research
creating geographical justifications in the pursuit emerging to support or to advance thinking in the
of national goals. Considered to be an integral subfield during this period, political geography
component of political geography today, geopoli- was relegated to the classroom. Perhaps the most
tics emerged in the early 20th century as a tool to notable exception to the retreat of political geo-
justify and shape foreign policy. graphy during this period came from the works of
During the interwar period of the 20th century, the French-trained geographer Jean Gottman. The
several Germans were drawn to the ideas devel- central premise underlying Gottman’s work was
oped by Ratzel and Mackinder, and they devel- that state formation, and the system of states at
oped a particular type of geopolitics that aimed to large, was a function of centripetal and centrifugal
 P OLIT IC A L GEOGR A PH Y '''(

social forces. The integration of the state system attempt to explain democratic outcomes from a
was therefore determined by the degree to which geographic perspective. Several political geogra-
these competing forces balanced each other out. phers began to concern themselves with explain-
Gottman can be considered ahead of his time, ing voting patterns, assessing the geographical
because his work did little to resuscitate or revive influences on voting (e.g., neighborhood effects),
the subfield, though it would later be considered and evaluating how votes are translated into seats
pathbreaking by many. This is not to say that across a democracy. Though elections can indeed
political geography, and in particular geopolitics, be characterized as the ideal political geographic
disappeared entirely during the Cold War; rather, event to examine with spatial analysis, the politi-
it was being practiced by policymakers, academ- cally charged atmosphere of the 1960s would also
ics, and others, who were careful not to invoke the have profound and lasting impacts on the social
term geopolitics. In its place, an entirely new set of sciences, political geography included.
stylized terms and ideological concepts emerged,
for instance, “the Truman doctrine,” the “strat-
Eda^i^XVa:Xdcdbn
egy of containment,” and “domino theory.”
Though such ideas were clearly grounded in geo- The sociopolitical movements, unrest, and
graphically informed foreign policies and strate- upheavals that swept across the United States and
gies, at the time, they were not considered to be Europe in the late 1960s ushered in notable intel-
geopolitical or geopolitics per se. lectual changes in both British and American uni-
versities during the 1970s. Perhaps the most
influential change in political geography came
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with the adoption of political-economy approaches
It was not until the 1960s that political geogra- across the social sciences, based on Marxist
phy began to emerge from its marginalized posi- thought, to understand and explain the historical
tion, especially when compared with its bases, conflicts, and consequences of capitalism.
counterparts, social and economic geography. Such approaches allowed political geographers to
Drawing from developments and advances across reorient, reexamine, and reevaluate questions in
geography and other social sciences, but most political geography in intellectually innovative
notably political science, political geographers and engaging ways. From core-periphery rela-
began to move beyond providing descriptions of tionships to the inequalities and inequities that
the geographic distribution of states and invento- the capitalist world economy produced, the top-
ries of their attributes. In large part motivated by ics that Marxist political economy addressed
what is referred to as the quantitative revolution spawned and invigorated an entire generation of
in social science, geographers began to apply sta- so-called radical geographers. Moreover, such
tistical techniques and quantitative methods to radical approaches provided an attractive alter-
their own research. Moreover, it was during this native for many who found the spatial analytic
period that theories to explain spatial patterns approach too staid and limited in theoretical
and behavior were constructed and used to guide power. Despite differences and divisions concern-
research. The blending of quantitative methods ing how political geography was to be engaged
and location theory spawned what is referred to in, the beginning of the 1980s marked a resur-
as spatial analysis, which in turn attracted many gence of interest in the subfield.
new geographers to the discipline.
One topic within political geography that was
EdhibdYZgc^hbVcYEdhihigjXijgVa^hb
identified to be especially well suited for such
spatial analyses was elections. Though electoral Just as political economy approaches to under-
geography can trace its roots back to the ecologi- standing the world economy transformed the
cal analyses of the French geographer Andre Sieg- social sciences in the 1970s, the diffusion of
fried and his work in the Ardeche region of so-called postmodern and poststructuralist per-
France, it was not until the 1960s that political spectives in the late 1980s and early 1990s
geographers began to systematically analyze and attempted to reorient and challenge modes of
''') P O LI T I CAL G E OG RAPHY

inquiry, thinking, and knowing across the social Political Geography in the 21st Century
sciences. In particular, notions of objectivity and
the singular nature of theory in social science This trend of examining and analyzing issues
were questioned, as was the neutrality of lan- beyond and below the scale of the nation-state
guage and discourse. Though criticized for their continues within political geography at the begin-
failure to extend or contribute to knowledge in ning of the 21st century. Events such as the terror-
itself, such approaches were embraced by several ist attacks against the United States in September
political geographers. One of the most notewor- 2001, the subsequent “war on terror,” the rise of
thy developments within political geography religious fundamentalism, ongoing ethnic con-
during this period was the development of “crit- flicts, and the increase in the number of demo-
ical geopolitics.” Concerned with how and why cratic elections held around the world have indeed
geopolitical discourses are constructed by elites, served to reinforce the significance of political
and practiced and understood vis-à-vis foreign geography. Furthermore, the social reactions to,
policy, the emergence of critical geopolitics and political consequences of, these events have
marked the reclamation of the term geopolitics also generated new and notable areas of interest
by political geographers and also permitted for political geographers. For instance, the events
political geographers to shed much of the bag- surrounding the terrorist attacks of September
gage once associated with German geopolitics. 2001 and the wars waged in Iraq and Afghanistan
continue to raise several questions about the
nature of democracy, territory, sovereignty, and
I]ZGdaZd[i]ZCVi^dc"HiViZ
identity as well as unforeseen issues regarding citi-
Notwithstanding discussions about how social zenship, privacy, and individual human rights.
science, including political geography, should be Complementing these “political” questions are
practiced, the dramatic transformation of the those related to “geography,” which arguably
world political map during the late 1980s and represents a relatively new thematic area for
1990s provided much fodder to renew interest in political geographers in the 21st century. In part
and expand research and extend thinking on due to the development and rapid diffusion of
matters of great relevance to the subfield. The geographic information technology, namely, geo-
end of the Cold War, marked by the fall of the graphic information systems (GIS), the global
Berlin Wall, the collapse of communism across positioning system (GPS), and remote sensing
Eastern Europe, and the subsequent disintegra- (RS), environmental issues and awareness have
tion of the Soviet Union, not only altered the bal- indeed reentered political geography, and public
ance of world power but also forced many—and discussion more generally. Though there may be
especially political geographers—to reflect on a relatively high level of consensus regarding
and reexamine their worldviews. Similarly, the whether or not climate change and global warm-
emergence of new political arrangements and ing are indeed occurring, the politics of climate
economic realities across the globe, for instance, change and global warming—or what can be
the creation of a multinational coalition to wage done about them, who will do it, and where it
war in the Persian Gulf and the consolidation of will be done—remains far more uncertain, if not
the European Union, raised questions about the contested. Similarly, conflicts over scarce natural
role and future of the nation-state. With the resources, such as water, land, and oil, are becom-
diverging processes of, on the one hand, geo- ing more common, not only between states but
economic integration (e.g., the European Union) also at the supra- and substate levels. Finally, the
and, on the other, geopolitical disintegration application of geographic information technol-
(e.g., the break-up of the Soviet Union, war in ogy itself, to watch over individuals and groups,
the Balkans), political geographic research tack- to monitor the environment, to measure natural
led more and more questions beyond the tradi- resources, to control public and private spaces,
tional “global,” “nation-state,” and “local/urban” and to wage and sustain war, also raises a host of
scales of analysis and focused more on the politics new and unexpected political geographic ques-
of nonstate actors and groups. tions, consequences, and concerns.
 P OLY C HLOR INA T ED BIP HENY LS (P C B s) '''*

It can be surmised that contemporary political See also Agnew, John; Anarchism and Geography;
geography is both a broad and a deep field of Antiglobalization; Borders and Boundaries; Citizenship;
inquiry, like its progenitor, geography. Whether or Cold War, Geography of; Colonialism; Communism and
not the diversity of subject matter and approach in Geography; Critical Geopolitics; Cultural Geography;
political geography is its greatest strength, or most Decolonization; Democracy; Domino Theory; Electoral
noteworthy shortcoming, remains open to discus- Geography; Geopolitics; Globalization; Haushofer, Karl;
sion. Nevertheless, perhaps one of the most signifi- Hegemony; Human Geography, History of; Identity,
cant developments within political geography over Geography and; Imperialism; Law, Geography of;
the past century is the recognition that knowledge, Military Geography; Nation; Nationalism; Political
understanding, and geography itself are histori- Ecology; Political Economy; Race and Empire; Ratzel,
cally contingent. In other words, to understand the Friedrich; Redistricting; Resistance, Geographies of;
concepts, objects, and subjects of political geogra- Sovereignty; State; Supranational Integration; Territory;
phy, an awareness of the sociohistorical context Terrorism, Geography of; Urban Policy; War,
from which they emerged and in which they exist Geography of; World-Systems Theory
is central. A parallel development that is just as
significant is the expansion of the subfield beyond
the Anglophonic realm. In this regard, political Further Readings
geography is currently far more cosmopolitan,
diverse, and inclusive in terms of those who prac- Agnew, J. (2002). Making political geography.
tice it, what it is concerned with, and how it is London: Arnold.
engaged in than at any other time in history. Agnew, J., & Corbridge, S. (1995). Mastering space:
The circumstances, events, and approaches dis- Territory, hegemony and international political
cussed above have also led to the rediscovery of economy. London: Routledge.
political geography, and geography at large. Some Agnew, J., Mitchell, K., & Toal, G. (Eds.). (2007).
come to political geography fairly knowledgeable A companion to political geography. New York:
about its history and methods, while others are far Wiley-Blackwell.
less aware of its evolution and implications. Though Cox, K., Low, M., & Robinson, J. (Eds.). (2007).
recent discussions about the environment and geog- The SAGE handbook of political geography.
raphy as they relate to politics are unlikely to invoke Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
the particular ideas of Ratzel or his contemporaries, Flint, C., & Taylor, P. (2007). Political geography:
it is not uncommon to come across ideas in the mass World-economy, nation-state and locality.
media or popular science that suggest environmen- New York: Prentice Hall.
tal determinism. In this respect, has political geogra- Gallaher, C., Dahlman, C. T., Gilmartin, M., &
phy come full circle in a little more than a century, Mountz, A. (2009). Key concepts in political
with relatively little to offer, and are we doomed to geography. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
repeat history? On the contrary, and as alluded to Ó Tuathail, G. (1996). Critical geopolitics.
above, at no other time in history have political Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
geographers been more keenly aware of and more
actively engaged with understanding how geogra-
phy shapes and informs politics and, conversely,
how politics shapes and informs geography. It is
precisely this understanding that makes contempo-
POLYCHLORINATED
rary political geography a vital and key component BIPHENYLS (PCBS)
of geography. From long-standing questions about
the geopolitics of inter- and intrastate conflict to Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a class of
critical approaches to how scales of analysis are odorless, liquid, synthetic organic chemicals con-
themselves politicized, political geography will con- taining chlorine, hydrogen, and carbon that per-
tinue to be a vibrant and engaging enterprise. sist in the environment following use. PCBs have
many applications, including dielectric fluid in
Michael Shin electrical capacitors and transformers, hydraulic
'''+ P O P ULA R CU L TU RE , G E OG RAPHY A ND

fluids and lubricants, flame retardants, plasticiz- Following years of PCB dumping by paper mills
ers, and carbonless copy paper. PCBs have been into the Fox River and Green Bay, Wisconsin, a
manufactured and used worldwide since their natural resource damage assessment was con-
introduction in 1927, with Monsanto controlling ducted, leading to a settlement in 2004 of $60
the U.S. market since 1935 and accounting for million in compensation and restoration costs.
half the global production. Additional PCB dumping, causing concern over
PCBs have been widely used for more than 75 fish and shellfish contamination, has been wide-
years, with about 1.65 million tons of cumula- spread in the Great Lakes region. High levels of
tive production worldwide. These chemicals have PCBs have even shown up in native peoples and
several advantages: fire resistance, low electrical wildlife in Northern Canada and Alaska due to
conductivity, high resistance to thermal break- long-distance transport. Most recently, nine pig
down, and high chemical stability. Unfortunately, farms in Ireland had used PCB-contaminated
due to their persistence, bioaccumulation, and feed, resulting in the withdrawal and disposal of
biomagnification, they can cause several adverse pork-containing products purchased in Ireland
health effects as they collect in fatty tissues in between September and December 2008.
humans and other exposed animals in both ter-
Barry D. Solomon
restrial and aquatic systems. These include liver
and immune system disorders, irritation of the
See also Chemical Spills, Environment, and Society;
skin and eyes, reproductive and developmental
Chlorinated Hydrocarbons; Environmental Justice;
effects, and probably several types of cancer.
Waste Incineration
The United States banned the manufacturing,
processing, distribution, and use of PCBs with the
passage of the Toxic Substance Control Act in
1976. Internationally, PCBs are one of nine chem- Further Readings
icals slated for elimination by the 2001 Stock-
holm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, Visser, M. J. (2007). Cold, clear, and deadly:
which took effect in May 2004 and will be fully Unraveling a toxic legacy. East Lansing: Michigan
implemented by 2025. Despite these efforts, large State University Press.
volumes of PCBs still exist in the environment.
Disposal options include incineration, ultrasound,
irradiation, chemical and thermal treatment, and
special landfills for PCB-contaminated sediments
and articles.
PCBs have been implicated in several major
POPULAR CULTURE,
incidents of environmental contamination. Prob- GEOGRAPHY AND
ably the first major case was in 1968 in Kyushu,
Japan, where nearly 1,800 residents fell ill after The term popular culture is often used colloqui-
eating Kanemi rice bran oil (yusho) contaminated ally and by commentators in ways that are com-
with PCBs. Subsequently, more than 50 people plex and contradictory. Common to all definitions,
died. A similar incident occurred in Taiwan in though, is the idea that popular culture is associ-
1979. In several areas of the United States, thou- ated with mass consumption. Popular culture can
sands of chickens and hogs had to be slaughtered thus be seen to include everything from maga-
because they ate PCB-tainted feed. General Elec- zines, movies, and television to Internet phenom-
tric (GE), a large user of PCBs, dumped 1.3 mil- ena such as Facebook and MySpace. Popular
lion pounds of the chemicals into the Hudson culture generally refers to the field of material cul-
River, New York, from 1947 until 1977. An early ture and practice that is associated with everyday
case of environmental justice involved the cre- people, usually in opposition to “high” culture,
ation, in 1982, of a landfill for PCB-contaminated which refers to the material culture and practice
soil in rural Warren County, North Carolina, a associated with socioeconomic elites. Alterna-
predominantly poor African American community. tively, popular culture can refer to a globalizing
 P OP ULA R C ULT UR E, GEOGR A P HY A N D ''',

Western culture that is seen in opposition to local (in “Miss Sarajevo,” 1995), was the performance
folk cultures. In either case, popular culture is popular or high culture? While aesthetic quality is
usually framed in negative terms, although this purportedly the criterion on which such a distinc-
has changed in the social sciences and humanities tion is based, in reality, it has more to do with
over the past few decades. market segmentation. The more popular a cul-
Geography has engaged with popular culture tural artifact becomes, the more “debased” it is
in two ways. In the first, popular culture is theo- perceived to be. Thus, the aesthetic assessment of
rized as a commodity, with a few sites emerging culture should be understood to be just as much
as sites of production, complemented by broader about identity and subjectivity as it is about the
patterns of consumption. In the second formula- cultural artifact itself.
tion, popular culture is theorized as a purveyor of
ideology, with geographers considering the mes-
Popular Geographies of
sages and ideologies contained within it—either
Production and Consumption
as a source of anxiety and danger or as a tool for
creating communities. This entry first examines The use of the term popular culture masks a great
the origins of popular culture and then discusses variety of strands within consumerist culture. For
the popular geographies of production and con- example, within popular culture, there exists a
sumption. It then explores the ways popular cul- strand of artisanal popular culture, which consists
ture is theorized in opposition to folk culture as of the more popular versions of high culture, com-
part of the larger analysis of globalization and plete with a focus on the auteur and the individual
concludes with a look at poststructuralist producer. As an example, one could easily turn to
approaches to popular culture and its meaning. Stephen King’s novels or the graffiti of London’s
Banksy. Another strand of difference to be found
within popular culture is that of the mass media—
Origins of Popular Culture
such as television, magazines, music, radio, and
In its original usage, popular culture was pejora- some of the more traditional aspects of the Inter-
tive, referring to the culture of the masses, which net. These are generally the most corporate of
was seen as normatively inferior to that of socio- popular culture artifacts, requiring large institu-
economic elites (high culture). This social deni- tions to prepare and distribute material on a regu-
gration and devaluation by and large continue to lar basis. A final strand worth noting is
the present day in popular discourse and to a cer- participatory popular culture, which includes
tain extent in academic discourse as well. How- fashion, sports, and the aforementioned Web 2.0
ever, as cultural authority has been increasingly phenomena. What unites this strand is the more
undermined in Europe and North America since active role of the consumer (or participant); rather
the 1960s, the line between popular and high cul- than just consuming a prepackaged product, the
tures has become increasingly difficult to define. participant shapes the activity itself.
Indeed, the rise of technologies associated with These three strands of popular culture reflect var-
Web 2.0 (including user-generated fare) has osten- ious scales of production, with the mass media gen-
sibly led to a process of aesthetic democratiza- erally at the macroscale, artisanal popular culture at
tion, with fans now exerting more and more the mesoscale, and participatory culture produced in
control over creative processes, and even populist and through consumers’ bodies. However, these
cultural commentators such as Rolling Stone scales are simply categories and do not reflect the
magazine and MTV are losing their authority. interconnections between scales in the production of
This relationship between high and popular cul- popular culture; for instance, while fashion is inti-
ture, however, is not static. High culture draws mately connected to bodies and individual stylistic
inspiration from popular culture and vice versa, choices, it is also connected to corporate design and
thus blurring the distinctions between them. This distribution networks. Networks such as these,
is most apparent when these two form of culture although relatively stable, are always shifting in an
share a medium. When opera legend Luciano effort to maintain the popularity on which their
Pavarotti performed alongside the rock band U2 products are based. Thus, while certain cities have
'''- P O P ULA R CU L TU RE , G E OG RAPHY A ND

Captain America, foreground, and Spiderman greeted many Pentagon-assigned service members and their
children on April 28 for the unveiling of a custom comic book for members of the armed services. One of the
oldest and most recognizable superhero characters in American comic books, Captain America sprang from the
wartime political culture during World War II.
Source: Tech. Sgt. Cherie A. Thurlby, United States Air Force (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=31325).

emerged as command-and-control centers for the The distribution of popular culture around the
popular culture industries, such as Los Angeles, New world has been eased by several rounds of time-
York City, London, Paris, Milan, Cairo, Mumbai, space compression. The earliest of these relevant to
and so on, this centrality is contingent on the ability popular culture was the invention of the printing
of these centers to market difference from other press, which boosted the distribution of copies of
“exotic” destinations. For instance, denim jeans the Bible in vernacular languages and in turn
have become de rigueur around the world despite boosted literacy rates. Thus was the market for
their origins in the American West. Similarly, reggae pamphlets and other literature constructed. While
music from the Caribbean has become commodified this initial foray into mass media took quite some
and sold around the world by record companies time to get under way, its impacts are still manifest
based in the United States and elsewhere. today. In a world with rapidly innovating media,
 P OP ULA R C ULT UR E, GEOGR A P HY A N D '''.

such as radio, television, and the Internet, that are incorporative of all cultures, while other regions
used to distribute popular culture (and news about are defined by their particularity and uniqueness.
popular culture), public and private spaces alike Thus, either perspective can be understood as
are colonized and commercialized. This has led to engaging in Orientalism, in which the West is con-
concerns over the content and impact of popular sidered progressive and tolerant, while the remain-
culture even as it becomes nearly impossible to ing regions of the world are relegated to their
geographically remove oneself from its grasp. particular “ethnic” pasts. Globalization in this per-
spective can be seen as contributing to the discur-
sive elevation of the West above other parts of the
Globalization of Popular Culture
world through this claim to universalism. A criti-
Linked to these concerns is a long-standing tradi- cism of that claim is that the inclusion of others’
tion within the subdiscipline of cultural geography. cultures comes only on the terms of the West and
For many decades, cultural geographers have ana- its consumers. This criticism is most often leveled
lyzed the impact of time-space compression on at the United States, which, as the global economic
cultural forms around the world. This time-space hegemon, has been asserting its desire for free trade
compression is often referred to as globalization. and increased globalization over the past several
Globalization is itself a much debated term, but in decades. When this criticism is leveled at one coun-
this context, it is couched as shifts in labor and try in particular (such as the United States), or at
other markets resulting from the transportation an elite few, that country is charged with cultural
and communication revolutions and consequent imperialism, because it is seen as constructing an
changes in the global division of labor. Certainly in artificial centrality in another country’s social life;
the West, and to a lesser extent in other parts of whereas imperialism makes a country dependent
the world, goods from various parts of the world on trade with its colonizer, cultural imperialism
are on sale and at low prices heretofore impossible. makes a country dependent on its relationship with
This not only has economic implications but also the hegemon for self-understanding. Thus, the dis-
has implications for perceptions of heterogeneity/ tribution of popular culture is about much more
homogeneity and cultural distinctiveness. than markets—it is about identity, subjectivity,
Popular culture itself has come to reflect these and intellectual decolonization.
changes, not only outsourcing production of cul- In the popular/folk culture dichotomy, the dif-
tural artifacts to sites of lower wages and regula- ference is expressed through temporality, with
tion but also seeking commodifiable difference to popular culture being modern and folk culture
market and sell, as described above. Some believe being premodern or traditional. Modern social
that this growth of a “global culture” is a norma- scientists have long anticipated (while the subal-
tive good, leads to declines in ethnic and reli- terns have feared) the final eradication of folk
gious intolerance, and heads off conflict through culture at the hands of a rapidly globalizing (West-
increased interaction with cultural “others.” Obvi- ern) popular culture. However, this horizon of
ous examples include the growth of the practice of cultural homogeneity seems as far away as ever.
yoga in the West as a form of exercise and medita- Explanations tend to incorporate as an assump-
tion and the growth of “ethnic” restaurants in tion that market domination creates cultural
small towns. Others view this as the co-optation homogeneity, but this has simply not turned out
of folk cultures, which are local, relatively stable to be true. This assumption overly conflates con-
cultures that are distinct from outside cultures. sumption with culture. Indeed, culture far exceeds
These cultures find themselves essentialized and consumption, including religion, language, diet,
frozen in a premodern position of “exotic-ness.” ritual, and so on. Thus, even if two people watch
An obvious example of this is the new genre of the same Will Ferrell movie, their reasons for
“world music,” which depends on its “exotic” watching the movie may be quite different. For
inputs to differentiate it from domestic music instance, watching Will Ferrell could be a way to
production. Both of these perspectives, the posi- demonstrate youth, economic class, or something
tive and the more pessimistic, are linked in that else entirely. In other words, the cultural meanings
they view the cosmopolitan West as universal, or that the movie is laden with still vary according to
''(% P O P ULA R CU L TU RE , G E OG RAPHY A ND

geography; thus, globalization of popular culture Antonio Gramsci, who was writing at roughly
artifacts is not necessarily the same as American- the same time as Adorno and Horkheimer (but
ization. The domination of popular discourse by whose work became available in English much
the frame of globalization for the past 20 years later through translation), was a communist jailed
has led to the equation of popular culture with the during the Fascist era in Italy. He turned his atten-
commodities that are consumed. However, as this tion to the apparent ability of the capitalist state
last example hints, popular culture is not just arti- to forestall the communist revolution that Marx
facts but what is done with them—identities are had argued was inevitable. He argued that the
performed and meanings are inscribed. capitalist state produced a hierarchy in which
bourgeois culture was superior to that of the
masses. Thus, workers were alienated from their
Meaning and Ideology in Popular Culture
own culture as they sought to associate themselves
Much as the original printing press led to political culturally with more privileged groups. Gramsci’s
shifts within the world of Christianity (i.e., the theory of hegemony was thus very similar to that
Reformation), new media technologies have often of Adorno and Horkheimer in that it theorized
led to anxiety on the part of authorities, who popular culture to be a placebo that duped people
feared that their alienation from flows of informa- into fundamentally irrational behavior (in that
tion would undermine their power. For example, they ignored their own interests). The key differ-
the rise of new technological platforms at the ence between these two theories, however, is that
nexus of information and entertainment (such as hegemony implies some degree of compromise—
instant messaging, video-to-phone downloads, elites have to make their culture interesting and
etc.) has generated a rash of concern by parents recognizable to the lower classes. In both cases,
about the messages that their children are receiv- however, the denigration of popular culture can
ing, in part because the technological competence be understood as a weapon used to alienate work-
of parents is often less than that of their children. ers from their own popular culture. Gramsci ar-
Similarly, governments have often used propa- gued that the communist revolution would remain
ganda on their own or other populations but on hold until an independent popular culture
feared their own population’s susceptibility to the could foster an “authentic” class consciousness.
same. This governmental desire to control the The next major rethinking of ideology and
mediation of geopolitical content led to some of popular culture began in the 1960s with a school
the first academic studies of audiences and the of thought that has come to be known as Cultural
media. Inherent in this framing of “the problem” Studies. It takes as a starting point that popular
was an understanding of audiences as fundamen- culture is important and relevant but generally
tally accepting of propaganda, based on the then eschews the pessimism that is associated with ear-
recent success of Nazi and Fascist propaganda in lier views of popular culture. Most of the work
Europe. Fear of a similar communist ascendancy associated with Cultural Studies now has moved
animated the Frankfurt School, a collection of away from structural accounts, although Marx-
scholars including Theodor Adorno and Max ism remains a strong influence. However, post-
Horkheimer. Their analysis of the “culture indus- structural theorists have taken center stage and
try,” the aggregation of entertainment-focused have begun to change the working assumptions
corporations that claim to respond to consumer of popular culture, namely, that the audience is a
desires but instead produce (and standardize) passive recipient of others’ ideologies. For exam-
those self-same desires, adopted the same perspec- ple, Michel de Certeau has argued that institu-
tive of passive audiences as the earlier studies of tions (e.g., Adorno and Horkheimer’s culture
propaganda did but used it to advance an argu- industry and Gramsci’s capitalist state) enact
ment about capitalism and the way in which it is strategies to achieve their goals, while individ-
perpetuated. They argued that the effect of the uals, who are by definition more nimble than
culture industry was increased consumer passivity institutions, enact tactics to achieve their own
in the face of injustice, drawing parallels to the goals. In the context of popular culture, this means
“bread and circuses” of ancient Rome. that consumers of popular culture can take it and
 P OP ULA R C ULT UR E, GEOGR A P HY A N D ''(&

rework it into something useful to them, taking

Further Readings
the parts that they like, leaving others, or perhaps
re-imagining the whole thing. An often cited Adorno, T., & Horkheimer, M. (2002). Dialectic of
example is the rise of “slash” fan fiction, in which enlightenment: Philosophical fragments (G. Noerr,
(presumably) heterosexual characters from popu- Ed. & E. Jephcott, Trans.). Palo Alto, CA:
lar culture (e.g., Kirk and Spock from Star Trek, Stanford University Press. (Original work
Xena and Gabrielle from Xena: Warrior Princess) published 1944)
are rewritten by fans as being in homosexual rela- Anderson, B. (1991). Imagined communities:
tionships with each other. Often this is done Reflections on the origin and spread of
against the express wishes of the copyright hold- nationalism. New York City: Verso Books.
ers, and it illustrates the problem with the propa- Billig, M. (1995). Banal nationalism. Thousand
gandistic model of audiences—it simply does not Oaks, CA: Sage.
explain the complexity of audience responses. Crothers, L. (2006). Globalization and American
Audience responses, however, are not random popular culture. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
and instead are rooted in interpretive communi- Littlefield.
ties that are often geographic in origin. David Liv- de Certeau, M. (1984). The practice of everyday life.
ingstone’s work on the re-interpretation of theory Berkeley: University of California Press.
as it travels has argued that there are two particu- Dittmer, J. (2005). Captain America’s empire:
lar geographies to the interpretation of texts (and Reflections on identity, popular culture, and post-
this can be broadly extended to include all forms 9/11 geopolitics. Annals of the Association of
of popular culture). The first, cartographies of American Geographers, 95(3), 626–643.
textual reception, generally refers to differences in Dittmer, J. (2010). Popular culture, geopolitics, and
the interpretation of texts between regionally identity. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
based cultural/linguistic communities. The second, Dodds, K. (2003). Licensed to stereotype: Popular
cultural geographies of reading, refers to the struc- geopolitics, James Bond and the spectre of
turing elements found in the processes of meaning Balkanism. Geopolitics, 8, 125–157.
making among networked identities (university Gans, H. (1999). Popular culture and high culture:
students, evangelical Christians, etc.). Reading is An analysis and evaluation of taste. New York:
thus not an isolated act but rather one that occurs Basic Books.
in a social context. Therefore, the meanings that Gramsci, A. (1971). Selections from the prison
are available to any given reader are limited by the notebooks. New York City: International
social context in which that reading is undertaken. Publishers.
This tension between the conceptualizations of Kitchin, R., & Kneale, J. (Eds.). (2005). Lost in
popular culture as a structuring force on identi- space: Geographies of science fiction. London:
ties, and simultaneously as a cultural resource to Continuum.
be used tactically by consumers as a way of per- Livingstone, D. (2005). Science, text and space:
forming their own identities, is a realm of ongoing Thoughts on the geography of reading.
work by geographers. Transactions of the Institute of British
Geographers, 30, 391–401.
Jason Dittmer Norcliffe, G., & Rendace, O. (2003). New
geographies of comic book production in North
See also Art and Geography; Consumption, Geographies America: The new artisan, distancing, and the
of; Cultural Geography; Cyberspace; Everyday Life, periodic social economy. Economic Geography,
Geography and; Film and Geography; Folk Culture and 79, 241–264.
Geography; Food, Geography of; Hybrid Geographies; Sharp, J. (2000). Condensing the Cold War: Reader’s
Media and Geography; Orientalism; Postmodernism; Digest and American identity. Minneapolis:
Spaces of Representation/Representational Spaces; University of Minnesota Press.
Symbolism and Place; Television and Geography; Text/ Storey, J. (2003). Inventing popular culture: From
Textuality; Video Games, Geography and; Virtual folklore to globalization. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Geographies
''(' P O P ULA TION AND L AND D E G R A DA T ION

POPULATION AND Migration

LAND DEGRADATION Rural to urban migration, or urbanization, is an
especially prevalent trend in developing countries.
The debate about population and land degrada- An urban increase of 44%, from 28% to 29%,
tion has spanned decades, if not longer, with con- has been noted in northeast and southeast Asia
trasting perceptions of whether people are victims and is predicted to reach 59% by 2025. An esti-
of land degradation or land is a victim of anthro- mated 1 billion people reside in informal urban
pogenic influences. While the debate rages on, the settlements around the world, with no proper
impacts of land degradation on human well-being housing or basic services, which has contributed
and development are self-evident. Land degrada- significantly to urban and suburban spread and
tion is commonly defined by the United Nations uncontrolled land transformation. High concen-
Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) trations of the urban population reside along
as the reduction or loss of biological and eco- coastal areas, exerting undue pressure on coastal
nomical productivity and of the complexity of and marine ecosystems. While these direct causes
terrestrial ecosystems. This includes soils, vegeta- of land degradation are important, it is the for-
tion, other biota, and the ecological, biogeochem- mal urban settlements that have been shown to
ical, and hydrological processes that operate exert greater pressure indirectly on land.
within ecosystems. This definition does not char- The multifaceted relationship between migra-
acterize degradation as entirely anthropogenic, tion, urbanization, and, in turn, environmental
despite unsustainable land use by humans being a change leads to natural disasters and land and eco-
key driver of land degradation. system degradation, while consequently changing
land use and the demand for ecosystem services.
For example, the persistent shift from cereal to ani-
Population Growth mal products and the recent move toward biofuels
Human population growth has been cited as a lead- add to the demand for increased farm production,
ing factor in land degradation and environmental with unfavorable consequences for farmland rather
change in general. Global population increased than forestland. Negative impacts of urbanization,
from 5 billion in 1987 to 7 billion in 2009, an aver- such as pollution, have been detrimental to human
age annual growth rate of 1.4%, with Africa and health. In Africa, it has been argued that children
West Asia recording particularly high growth rates living in sub-Saharan cities in slums are more likely
(Figure 1). This increase in population, together to die from waterborne diseases than are rural chil-
with the increase in the gap between the rich and dren. Ultimately, the population burden on natural
the poor, in the relative access to goods, and in resources and sustainability may increase as popu-
income-earning opportunities, has led to increased lations increase.
demand for food and energy, putting pressure on While population increase is a key driver of
available environmental resources such as freshwa- land use change and degradation, it is not the
ter, fisheries, agricultural land, and forests. only factor involved. Economic development,
Population changes are further influenced by poverty, and globalization are but some of the
forced and economic migration, which in turn exacerbating factors driving unparalleled land use
affects settlement patterns, resulting in migrant change and degradation. Globalization alone has
refugees who are internally displaced. An esti- economic, environmental, technological, politi-
mated 25 million people have been forced to cal, and cultural dimensions, creating not only
migrate as a result of environmental factors, with new opportunities but threats as well.
approximately 200 million threatened by dis-
placement not only from environmental factors
The Population and Land
but for political and ethnic reasons as well. An
Degradation Debate
estimated 2 billion people depend on dry lands
that bear a legacy of land degradation, and 90% Population growth has resulted in increased
of them live in developing countries. demand for agricultural productivity, higher
 P OP ULA T ION A ND LA ND DEGR A DA T IO N ''((

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5
Billions

2.0

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007

Asia and the Pacific Africa Europe Latin America and the Caribbean
North America West Asia

Figure 1 Population growth by region

Source: United Nations Environment Programme. (2007). Global Environment Outlook: Environment for development
(GEO-4; Figure 1.4, p. 21).

incomes, and changes in consumption patterns. Poverty also is a major cause of land degrada-
Inequitable land distribution, a legacy of colonial- tion, with population growth and poverty mutu-
ism and societal/cultural conflicts, has exacerbated ally reinforcing each other to bring about a spiral
the problem. While the causes of this multifaceted of degradation. The neo-Malthusian hypothesis
phenomenon have been contentious, the growth warns about the risks and impacts of population
of the human population and the increase in growth outstripping the natural resource demand
anthropogenic influences receive the most blame for food and shelter. The neo-Malthusian theory
for the current state of land degradation, espe- further regards population growth and the envi-
cially in developing countries, where a significant ronment to be in conflict, with the quest for food
portion of the population is dependent on subsis- security coming at huge inevitable environmental
tence farming. costs, ultimately leading to an escalation in land
''() P O P ULA TION AND L AND D E G R A DA T ION

degradation, a decline in agricultural productivity,

Land Degradation Impacts
and greater food insecurity. The argument effec-
on Human Populations
tively states that the world would literally run out
of food unless drastic steps are taken to protect Land degradation as a global development issue
the environment from people. Simultaneously, directly affects the natural resource base that sup-
common property tenure systems also exacerbate ports subsistence livelihoods, agriculture, and
the use of common property resources, leading to manufacturing, limiting development opportuni-
overuse and degradation due to practices such as ties for current and future generations. For exam-
overgrazing. People (especially the rural poor) ple, deforestation and biodiversity loss affect
have been blamed for misusing the resources at income from tourism and contribute to food inse-
their disposal for short-term gains. Such land mis- curity, challenging the eradication of extreme
use is accentuated within the coping strategies poverty and hunger, the first Millennium Devel-
employed in the face of food insecurity. opment Goal. Nevertheless, unlike climate
In contrast to the Malthusian view, food secu- change, land degradation is for the most part
rity and the environment are considered to be politically invisible and ignored, with most of the
complementary and interdependent, with a countries that ratified the United Nations Con-
healthy natural resource base providing food vention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) not
security. Population increase and income growth formally addressing it. This inaction in tackling
are argued to drive technological inventions such land degradation has resulted in a collective his-
as agricultural intensification to solve food pro- torical legacy from which recovery will be diffi-
duction constraints, thus achieving environmen- cult (if not impossible).
tal and economical sustainability. It is further Land degradation manifests through various
argued that the neo-Malthusian perception disre- processes including loss of vegetation, soil ero-
gards the potential for economic development sion leading to loss of fertility, deterioration of
within sustainable environments when confronted the physical structure, and loss of soil biodiver-
with rapid population growth, assuming that sity. Also included is soil compaction, which
agroecological zones have limited carrying capac- leads to reduced infiltration and increased run-
ities. Population growth, food security, and a off salinity and sodicity. Downstream effects of
healthy natural resource base are viewed as inter- degradation processes include water pollution,
dependent and mutually reinforcing for positive siltation of watercourses and reservoirs, and loss
gain to both. of animal and plant diversity, leading to loss of
ecological function within the affected ecosys-
tem. In turn, land degradation is viewed as a
8VhZHijYn/BVX]V`dh!@ZcnV
precursor of and a trigger for natural disasters
Machakos, Kenya, is a case in point with such as landslides.
respect to the intertwined nature of population Globally, land use and land cover changes
growth, food security, and land degradation. In tend to increase and accelerate land degrada-
Machakos, despite a sixfold increase in popula- tion, especially in less developed countries. Land
tion over roughly 50 years, there was a fourfold use change has both negative and positive effects
per capita increase in agricultural output while on human well-being and on the provision of
controlling and reversing land degradation of ecosystem services. Positively, the increase in
natural resources. While the success of Machakos food and forestry products has resulted in
has been attributed to financial aid and invest- increased income and secure livelihoods for
ments, traditional conservation practices such as many. Negatively, land degradation, biodiver-
terracing were made compulsory for agriculture, sity loss, and disturbances of biophysical cycles
first by the government then by the farmers them- (e.g., water and nutrients) are unfavorable for
selves. Agricultural intensification occurred in the human welfare in many regions. Reduction in
areas of high population and high land potential, the quality and quantity of ecosystem goods and
proving that population growth does not neces- services through land degradation negatively
sarily jeopardize the environment. affects access to material resources, eventually
 P OP ULA T ION A ND LA ND DEGR A DA T IO N ''(*

leading to the inability of people to live lives mountains are home to many unique cultures,
they value. which are threatened by the loss of ecosystem
The effects of soil erosion, particularly in the services such as water conservation and regula-
tropical regions where the majority of the popula- tion; provision of food, fuel, and fiber; cultural
tion resides, could reduce agricultural yields, richness; and diversity. Mountains are also home
resulting in increased food insecurity, famine, and to significant biodiversity, which may be lost
poverty, as well as forced migration, especially through land degradation. For example, in the
for impoverished people in poor countries. The United Nations University’s Pamir Mountains
demand for more food production may contrib- project sites in Central Asia, the flora contains a
ute to overexploitation of good agricultural soil unique mix of boreal, Siberian, Mongolian, Indo-
and expansion into wooded and marginal areas Himalayan, and Iranian elements, including at
that are highly susceptible to degradation. Human least 5,500 known species of vascular plants,
activities such as clearing of woodlands, logging, 1,500 of which are endemic.
firewood collection, and charcoal production lead Degraded lands require more resources to
to deforestation, a component of land degrada- manage them. Poor people do not, however, have
tion. Studies have revealed that the highest rates the resources due to unfavorable economic
of deforestation occur in areas where hunger is returns from agricultural production and pov-
prevalent. erty, which may constrain rural people from
Land degradation impacts, leading to a possi- investing in environmentally sustainable prac-
ble decline in forest products and wild foods, tices and soil conservation.
increase the levels of poverty and malnutrition,
especially since these resources are harvested
often as coping strategies in the face of droughts,
Conclusion
floods, and diseases such as the human immuno-
deficiency virus and acquired immune deficiency Confronting the complex phenomenon of land
syndrome (HIV/AIDS). Although the poverty and degradation requires a global response aimed at
degradation nexus has been a subject of debate, it increasing the productivity of land ecosystems
still is a factor exacerbating land degradation in and making sustainable agricultural production a
developing countries. priority, particularly in view of the urgent need
While agricultural intensification has resulted for adaptation to climate change and biodiversity
in more food being produced per hectare than protection. These responses need to take into con-
previously, this has been at great environmental sideration the multifaceted nature of land degra-
costs in the form of loss of habitat and biodiver- dation and provide solutions that are not only
sity, less soil water retention, disturbance of the about stabilizing population growth but also
biogeochemical cycle, increased soil erosion lead- include more livelihood options and capacity
ing to nutrient depletion, salinity, eutrophication, building through equity in opportunities and the
pollution from agrochemicals, and so on. Salinity distribution of environmental benefits and
is induced by irrigation and by the replacement of improvement in tenure and governance rights,
natural vegetation by crops and pastures that use among other factors.
less water, resulting in increased groundwater
infiltration. These processes have led to hazards Julia Mambo
from floods, dust, pests, and landslides.
Land degradation is acute in mountainous See also Deforestation; Desertification; Developing
regions, characterized by steep slopes, which World; Environmental Services; Environment and
allow high rates of soil erosion, and heavy rain- Development; Forest Degradation; Global
fall, resulting in the loss of water retention capac- Environmental Change; Hunger; Land Degradation;
ity and conservation, nutrient depletion, and Malthusianism; Neo-Malthusianism; Peasants and
landslides. This problem is exacerbated by the Peasantry; Population and Land Use; Population,
poor and marginalized societies often residing in Environment, and Development; Poverty; Soil
these areas. Apart from their ecosystem functions, Degradation; Soil Erosion
''(+ P O P ULA TION AND L AND U SE

featureless plain. At market equilibrium, all house-

Further Readings
holds, which are assumed to be identical, attain
Devereux, S., & Maxwell, S. (Eds.). (2001). Food
exactly the same level of “utility” (satisfaction
security in sub-Saharan Africa. Rugby, UK:
received from consuming a good or service), so
Practical Action Publishing.
the rent gradient reflects the trade-off between
Eswaran, H., Lal, R., & Reich, P. F. (2001). Land
location and the cost of travel to and from the
degradation: An overview. In E. M. Bridges, I. D.
central business district. Meanwhile, a corre-
Hannam, L. R. Oldeman, F. W. T. Pening de Vries,
sponding density gradient emerges as a result of
S. J. Scherr, & S. Sompatpanit (Eds.), Responses to
households occupying greater amounts of space
land degradation. Proceedings of the second
toward the urban fringe. To maintain a fixed level
international conference on land degradation and
of utility, households consume more land through
desertification, Khon Kaen, Thailand. New Delhi,
substitution with other goods as rent declines. The
India: Oxford University Press.
density gradient, and, with it, development, ends
Tiffen, M., & Mortimore, M. (2008). Environment,
altogether once locational rent reaches zero, and
population growth and productivity in Kenya:
the highest and best use of land is for agriculture
A case study of Machakos District. Policy
or some other natural resource–oriented activity.
Development Review, 10(4), 359–387.
Somewhat more formally, the theory underpin-
United Nations Environment Programme. (2007).
ning the models of population and land use
Global Environment Outlook: Environment for
assumes that households have a common utility
development (GEO-4). Retrieved December 29,
function, say U(z,s), which contains a composite
2008, from www.unep.org/geo/geo4/report/
good, or numeraire, z, and urban space, or land,
GEO-4_Report_Full_en.pdf
s. An individual household’s budgetary constraint
is determined by its income, y, less the cost of
travel, k, between the central business district and
its location at radial distance, d:

POPULATION AND LAND USE y k(d) = z + r(d)s,

The neoclassical economic model of population where k(d) is a continuous function that increases
and land use originates from von Thünen’s theory with d and r(d) is the locational rent per unit of
of agricultural land use, wherein the “highest and space at d. Within this framework, households
best use” of land depends on the cost of trans- maximize their utility by choosing some combi-
porting the various crops it can yield to a central nation of the numeraire and land, subject to their
marketplace. Because different candidates (crops) particular—spatially explicit—budgetary con-
have different transport costs—and offsetting straint. The outcome of this choice is a house-
market values—those with relatively high (low) hold’s bid-rent, R(d,u), which is the maximum
transport costs end up being produced close to price it is willing to pay for land at distance d
(far from) the marketplace. So, for example, if while maintaining a fixed level of utility, u. Sim-
tomatoes cost more to transport than wheat, ply put, bid-rent is the most that a household’s
tomato farmers will outbid wheat farmers for members are willing to pay per unit of space to
locations adjacent to the marketplace. secure the right to occupy their location of choice,
In the 1960s, William Alonso, Edwin Mills, given that they derive happiness from both the
and Richard Muth (jointly credited but working land and other forms of consumption. In addition
independently) generalized the Thünen theory of to land prices, bid-rent yields a household’s opti-
agricultural land use to a theory of modern human mal amount of land consumption, or lot size,
settlement patterns. The framework describes a 6(d,u), which is what ultimately gives the built
locational rent gradient that falls away from its environment its character (Figure 1).
peak around a business district located at the cen- Figure 1 illustrates how the bidding process
ter of a circular region with a dense transporta- translates into a physical pattern of settlement. It
tion network that is situated on an otherwise flat, displays the marginal rate of substitution, described
 P OP ULA T ION A ND LA ND US E ''(,

the numeraire than households located farther

out. Together, these basic precepts make up the
z
so-called monocentric model of urban form, and
they readily generalize more elaborate polycentric
y – k(d1) models having multiple business districts.
John I. Carruthers, Selma Lewis,
Gerrit Jan Knaap, and Robert N. Renner

y – k(d2) Authors’ note: This entry is adapted from Carruthers,

Lewis, Knaap, and Renner (2009).

See also Models and Modeling; Thünen Model; Urban

Land Use; Urban Sprawl
u

(d1, u) 
(d2, u)
s

(d1, u) 
(d2, u)
Further Readings

Alonso, W. (1964). Location and land use: Toward a

Figure 1 The bid-rent process and land use general theory of land rent. Cambridge, MA:
Source: Carruthers, J. I., Lewis, S., Knaap, G. J., & Renner, Harvard University Press.
R. N. (2009). Coming undone: A spatial hazard analysis of Anas, A., Arnott, R., & Small, K. A. (1998). Urban
urban form [Electronic version]. Papers in Regional Science.
Retrieved February 28, 2010, from www3.interscience.wiley spatial structure. Journal of Economic Literature,
.com/journal/122455515/abstract. 36, 1426–1464.
Brueckner, J. K. (1987). The structure of urban
equilibria: A unified treatment of the Muth-Mills
model. In E. S. Mills (Ed.), Handbook of regional
by an indifference curve (the arc) for a fixed level
and urban economics (Vol. 2, pp. 821–845).
of utility, u, between the numeraire, z, and land, s,
Amsterdam: North-Holland.
plus the budget constraints (the dashed lines) and
Brueckner, J. K. (2000). Urban sprawl: Diagnosis and
corresponding consumption bundles (the dotted
remedies. International Regional Science Review,
lines) associated with two households located at
23, 160–171.
distances d1 and d2 from the central business dis-
Brueckner, J. K., & Fansler, D. A. (1983). The
trict, where d1 < d2. Because the cost of travel to
economics of urban sprawl: Theory and evidence
and from the central business district, k(d), is lower
on the spatial sizes of cities. Review of Economics
at d1 than it is at d2, the net income of the house-
and Statistics, 65, 479–482.
hold located at d1 is greater than the net income of
Carruthers, J. I., Lewis, S., Knaap, G. J., & Renner,
the household at d2, or y k(d1) > y k(d2). The
R. N. (2009). Coming undone: A spatial hazard
two budget constraints, which must be tangent to
analysis of urban form [Electronic version]. Papers
the indifference curve for their respective house-
in Regional Science. Retrieved February 28, 2010,
holds to each achieve utility level, u, show that
from www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/
(a) the bid-rent, which is equivalent to the slope of
122455515/abstract
the budget constraint, for the household located at
Fujita, M. (1987). Urban economic theory: Land use
d1 is greater than the bid-rent for the household
and city size. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge
located at d2, or R(d1,u) > R(d2,u), and (b) the opti-
University Press.
mal lot size for the household located at d1 is less
Mills, E. S. (1971). Studies in the structure of the
than the optimal lot size for the household located
urban economy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins
at d2, or 6(d1,u) > 6(d2,u).
University Press.
In short, households located closer to the cen-
Muth, R. F. (1969). Cities and housing. Chicago:
ter of a region pay a higher price per unit of land
University of Chicago Press.
and, so, consume less of it by substituting more of
''(- P O P ULA TION D E NSITY

POPULATION DENSITY (or inhabitable) portion of Earth’s surface. This

concept relates directly to population density, in
that a cutoff density of 1 person/km2 (approxi-
Population density is an arithmetic average
mately 2.5 persons/mi.2 [square mile]) is fre-
expressing the number of people, animals, or
quently employed. Below this density level, human
plants per unit of area for a given spatial unit. For
groups typically exist as widely scattered hunters,
example, Denmark has an average of 121 per-
gatherers, or herders and lack permanent settle-
sons/km2 (square kilometer), and the island of
ments. The major nonecumene areas clearly relate
Manhattan has 27,267 persons/km2. Population
to climate and specifically to areas of desert cli-
density is an important indicator of the ecological
mate (e.g., the Sahara, outback Australia) or high-
relationship between populations and natural
latitude areas with insufficient growing seasons
resources. In human populations, density has
for agriculture (e.g., the Canadian north, Siberia).
important impacts on the way people live and
Exceptions occur in the lowland tropics (e.g.,
interact and on the efficiency and environmental
Amazonia, interior Africa), where tropical dis-
impact of their settlements.
eases and poor transport access have deterred
agricultural settlement, at least until recently.
Another low-latitude exception is the Tibetan
Density in Ecology plateau, which mostly exceeds 4,000 meters in
The defining theme of the science of ecology is elevation.
the distribution and abundance of organisms— The world’s major population concentrations
that is, their population densities. Ecologists and were all initially based on subsistence sedentary
biogeographers have developed concepts and agriculture, with rural population densities rang-
methods for the analysis of density patterns appli- ing from 25 to 500 persons/km2 or more. The
cable to individual animal and plant populations three great islands of mankind (a term coined by
(e.g., species) and to interacting populations the North American geographer William Bunge)
within a given area. They have developed and are in East Asia, South Asia, and Europe. After
refined the inherently geographical notions of several millennia of agricultural expansion, their
range, carrying capacity, competition for limits are now clearly shaped by climate and
resources, ecological niche, habitat, invasion, suc- terrain. Smaller concentrations of more than
cession, and dispersal. Ecologists examine both 25 persons/km2 occur in southeast Asia, West
the effects of environment on animal/plant popu- Africa, the Central African highlands, and the
lation densities and the impacts of population highlands of Mexico, Central America, and South
densities on the environment (particularly on America. Their limits are partly related to the
food resources and competing populations). physical environment, but they are also shaped
Ecological perspectives on density have been by factors such as farming technology, warfare,
applied in anthropology, sociology, and human transport access, and disease. Both Edward Ack-
geography; to examine human evolution and dis- erman and Ester Boserup have provided authori-
persal; to assess the density impacts of hunting, tative reviews of the environmental, economic,
gathering, and agricultural systems; and to study technological, and cultural factors shaping world
spatial competition and conflict between human and regional density patterns.
groups. The Chicago School of human ecologists Rather than using crude (arithmetic) density,
(Park, Burgess, and others) applied ecological population geographers prefer to calculate rural
notions of competition, invasion, and succession to density levels based on the amount of arable
patterns of ethnic and racial groups in large cities. land available (variously termed agricultural,
physiological, or nutritional density). Factoring
in land quality and agricultural practices, the
maximum density, or carrying capacity, of the
Global and Rural Population Densities
land may then be assessed. Though criticized as
The term ecumene is derived from the ancient a crude application of Malthusian thinking,
Greek word oikoumene and refers to the inhabited more applicable in biogeography than in human
 P OP ULA T ION DENSITY ''(.

Figure 1 As shown in this satellite image of Earth’s city lights from NASA’s Visible Earth project, the brightest
areas of Earth are the most urbanized but not necessarily the most populated. For example, compare Western
Europe with China and India.
Sources: Data courtesy of Marc Imhoff of NASA GSFC and Christopher Elvidge of NOAA NGDC. Image by Craig Mayhew and
Robert Simmon, NASA GSFC. http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1438.

geography, the notion of carrying capacity has measurement, it is frequently employed to officially
recently been recast in the language of environ- identify and delimit urban and rural areas. For
mental sustainability. Overpopulation (unsus- example, the U.S. Census Bureau defines “urban-
tainability) is signaled by malnutrition, land ized areas” as contiguous census units with a mini-
degradation, and net out-migration (e.g., the mum population density of 1,000 persons/mi.2 and
American Dust Bowl of the 1930s or the rice ter- a total population of at least 2,500. Canada uses
races of Luzon today). Conversely, underpopu- approximately the same density threshold (400 per-
lated regions may have larger landholdings and sons/km2) but a minimum total population thresh-
more prosperous farmers but densities insuffi- old of only 1,000. Japan’s “densely inhabited
cient to develop community ties or to justify the districts” are delimited using a density threshold of
supply of essential government services. National 4,000 persons/km2, reflecting that nation’s much
governments have frequently sponsored mass higher densities in both rural and urban areas.
migrations to underused agricultural frontiers to Prior to 1900, cities everywhere were com-
relieve population pressure in their core areas pact, and the typical urbanite lived in an apart-
(e.g., the “transmigrations” from Java to Borneo ment or rooming house, at a neighborhood
and from the Brazilian Nordeste to Amazonia). density exceeding 10,000 persons/km2. Automo-
bile commuting greatly extended the city and
allowed much lower densities. From 1945 until
recently, suburban extensions of the North
Urban Population Densities
American city typically comprised detached
Half the world’s population is now urban, and these houses at 10 to 15 houses/ha (hectare) of resi-
urbanites live at very high densities on a small frac- dential land. With about 3.5 people per family,
tion of the world’s land area. Density is seen as a net population densities in these suburbs are
key attribute of urban life, and owing to its ease of 3,500 to 5,000 persons/km2, and gross densities
'')% P O P ULA TION, E NVIRONME NT, A ND DEV ELOP MENT

(computed using all the developed land) are only

Further Readings
2,000 to 3,000 persons/km2. In “exurban” areas
on the rural-urban fringe, the need to separate Ackerman, E. (1959). Population and natural
wells from on-site septic fields keeps lot sizes in resources. In P. Hauser & O. Duncan (Eds.), The
the 0.2- to 0.5-ha range, so that the net popula- study of population: An inventory and appraisal
tion densities in subdivided areas fall below (pp. 621–648). Chicago: University of Chicago
1,000 persons/km2. Press.
Urban gross population densities decline from Boserup, E. (1981). Population and technological
the center toward the periphery for historical rea- change: A study of long-term trends. Chicago:
sons (the impact of automobile commuting) and University of Chicago Press.
also in response to land value (central land is Hanski, I. (1999). Metapopulation ecology. Oxford,
more valuable and should be used more inten- UK: Oxford University Press
sively). Colin Clark demonstrated that the density Millward, H., & Bunting, T. (2008). Patterning in
gradient for large cities may be modeled with urban population densities: A spatiotemporal
considerable accuracy by a negative exponential model compared with Toronto 1971–2001.
function, and Bruce Newling refined his statisti- Environment and Planning A, 40, 283–302.
cal model to include a central density “crater.” It
has been shown that in North American cities the
overall gradient has declined through time, peak
density levels have declined and moved away
from the center, and the central density crater has POPULATION, ENVIRONMENT,
deepened and enlarged.
Suburban density clusters are a recent feature AND DEVELOPMENT
of urban density patterns. They are typically
coextensive with areas of multiple-family hous- Geographers have a long-standing interest in the
ing and are aligned to transit routes. Land use patterns and processes associated with human
and transport planners have deliberately fos- population growth and distributions, the impacts
tered the development of such high-density clus- of population on the environment, and sustain-
ters and corridors to improve the viability of able development. Human population growth has
mass transit and reduce automobile commuting. increased exponentially over the past 150 yrs.
The policy is known as transit-oriented devel- (years) and is significantly affecting native ecosys-
opment (TOD). Planners are also concerned to tems through the exploitation of freshwater, ara-
minimize urban sprawl onto agricultural lands ble lands, forests, and oceans. There is great
by using a two-pronged strategy: (1) raising interest in addressing these challenges through
density levels in new greenfield developments sustainable development in all world regions.
(“densification”) and (2) reversing the decline
of inner-city densities through upzoning and
Population
infill development (“redensification”). Not only
do such smart-growth policies minimize the size The world’s population was half a billion in 1650
of the urban footprint, but they also support and reached 1 billion in 1804. By 1927, the popu-
transit usage, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, lation had doubled to 2 billion, and it reached
and reduce the per capita costs of urban services 3 billion in 1959. In 2009, there were 6.8 billion
(roads, water supply, sanitary sewers, police, people on the planet, and the world’s population
fire protection, etc.). is projected to reach 9 billion by 2050. This rapid
increase in human population can be attributed
Hugh Millward primarily to a dramatic decrease in the death rate,
to technological advances, and to migration. The
See also Carrying Capacity; Ecological Mapping; Land average life expectancy of people in developed
Use Planning; Population and Land Use; Population countries has increased from 47 to 77 yrs. in the
Geography; Urban Sprawl past century, while the average life expectancy in
 POP ULA T ION, ENV IR ONMENT , A ND DEV ELOP MEN T '')&

developing countries has increased from 30 to urban areas), which has resulted in couples hav-
55 yrs. Advancements in technology, especially in ing families that are less than replacement size.
agriculture due to the Green Revolution (the However, China adds 514,000 new people every
1960s), have resulted in greater food availability. month because of the momentum built into
The advent of hybrid seeds with a range of envi- the age profile, and it is projected to add another
ronmental tolerance and the use of fertilizers have 100 million people by 2050.
increased the production of crops, while food dis- There can be no question that the world’s pop-
tribution methods improved both regionally and ulation would be higher if it were not for the
globally to satisfy demand. Improved sanitation efforts of national and international public health
(i.e., drinking water, waste management) and and family planning organizations. Family plan-
vaccinations for diseases (e.g., measles and small- ning programs currently focus on local control
pox) have also significantly contributed to the that is sensitive to cultural beliefs, with an empha-
increase in the size of the world’s population and sis on access-based contraception distribution,
in life expectancies. The migration of people to and they primarily target women. Couples in
new regions of the world and increases in urban Thailand, South Korea, Taiwan, and China often
populations have resulted in cities with extremely have just one or two children so that they can
high population densities over the past 200 yrs., provide more prosperity for themselves and their
especially in Asia. Indeed, currently, over 50% of children. Most efforts to lower birth rates through
the world’s population lives in cities. steps such as improving the status of women and
The world’s population and growth rates are providing better education, more social security,
not evenly distributed around the globe. Until and better and more productive jobs result in a
1900, most of the world population resided in higher standard of living.
temperate regions. However, there has been a
dramatic increase in the world’s population in
tropical regions and a significant increase in urban
Environment
populations in the past 100 yrs. Geographically,
Asia comprises 60% of the world’s population, The environment includes all living and nonliving
Africa 14%, Europe 11%, North America 8%, things that occur on Earth. The human use of the
and South America 6% (Figure 1). environment and associated nonrenewable
The six most populated countries in 2009 resources have increased significantly over the
were China with 1.3 billion people, India with past 150 yrs. The impacts of population growth
1.2 billion people, the United States with 307 on the environment are a function of the numbers
million people, Indonesia with 240 million peo- of people being added; the income or affluence of
ple, Brazil with 199 million people, and Pakistan the population; the science and technology that
with 176 million people. sustain populations, especially in urban areas;
Models by the World Bank, the United Nations and the capacity of the environment to provide
Population Division, and the Population Refer- renewable and nonrenewable resources. However,
ence Bureau project population growth to reach a the exponential growth rate in human population
minimum of 9 billion people on the planet by is greatly stressing the world’s environmental
2100 if couples continue to have children at the resources. Human population growth is related to
current rate. The reason why the world’s popula- the availability of natural resources such as fresh-
tion is projected to exceed 9 billion to 10 billion water, arable land, forests, and fisheries and the
people is the momentum built into very young quantity of wastes, air pollution (especially in
age profiles. For example, half of the population large cities), and greenhouse gas emissions (espe-
in sub-Saharan Africa or Mexico is below 18 yrs. cially in the United States and China).
of age. Couples would have to have only one As a result of the increase in human popula-
child for the next 30 yrs. to stabilize at the cur- tion, water pollution and depletion have had a
rent levels. This pattern holds true even for coun- significant impact on fresh water. Water quality
tries such as China, which has had a one-child in almost all major riverways on Earth is increas-
policy since the 1970s (though only enforced in ingly undrinkable due to increases in sediment,
'')'
Persons/sq km
<2
2–10
11–40
41–100
101–500
> 500

Figure 1 Global population density (per square kilometer), 1994

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service.
 POP ULA T ION, ENV IR ONMENT , A ND DEV ELOP MEN T '')(

human and animal wastes, and agricultural, The extent of human use of ecosystems varies
industrial, and household pollutants. Freshwater around the globe. Over the past 150 yrs., native
lakes have been affected in many regions of the ecosystems in Mediterranean climates, temperate
world by increased levels of salt, depletion for grasslands, deciduous forests, and tropical dry
agricultural irrigation, and water pollution from forests have undergone great alteration for agri-
sewage. Many freshwater lakes are also undergo- culture, timber production, and urbanization,
ing eutrophication due to increased nutrients, while other native ecosystems such as tundra,
which significantly changes the chemical and deserts, and tropical rain forests near the equator
biological composition of lakes. Aquifers and have remained largely intact. However, in all
freshwater lakes in many regions of the world world regions, there has been an exponential
have also been significantly reduced due to the increase in the rates of species extinction and
demand for freshwater for agriculture and drink- endangerment. Freshwater fish, amphibians, large
ing purposes. mammals, and species endemic to islands have
It is currently estimated that 37% of Earth’s been the most adversely affected, and all species
land surface is covered by agriculture. Three agri- could be affected by projected rapid increases in
cultural crops—rice, wheat, and corn—feed a global temperatures.
majority of the world’s population. Indeed, rice
alone feeds two thirds of humanity and provides
Development
over 50% of the calories needed for 1.6 billion
people to survive. These subsistence crops are Development geography is the study of the Earth
generally planted as monoculture in areas with with reference to the standard of living or the
rich soils and low topographic relief. Another quality of life of the world’s people. The Earth
environmental impact of agriculture is the can be divided into regions with high human
increased use of fertilizers and pesticides associ- development (e.g., North America, Europe),
ated with certain crops. Fertilizers used to increase medium human development (e.g., Asia), and low
the yield of annual crops such as sugarcane can human development (e.g., West and Central
be transported to freshwater systems, and pesti- Africa) (Figure 2).
cides used on crops such as tomatoes and cotton High human development occurs in countries
can poison both people and soils. There has been that are industrialized and that have low popula-
a significant expansion of export crops such as tion growth and infant mortality rates and high
coffee, bananas, and palm oil, which are gener- per capita income. Low human development
ally planted as monoculture and have resulted in occurs in countries with low levels of industrial-
the conversion of native ecosystems such as tropi- ization, very high population growth and infant
cal forests. The harvesting of timber has also mortality rates, and low per capita income. How-
resulted in the conversion of native forests into ever, the increase in population and natural
monoculture plantations of select timber species. resource use is currently not sustainable in most
Oceans have been heavily exploited over the regions of the world. There is currently great
past 100 yrs., and global consumption of fish has interest in development and sustainability in all
doubled since 1973. Fishing techniques such as regions of the world to maintain a state in which
trawling, use of drift nets, and long lining have population and natural resource use rates are sus-
resulted in the dramatic reduction of densities of tainable at the local, regional, and global spatial
most marine mammals, reptiles, and fish. Cur- scales. Development has resulted in improved
rently, 32% of the world’s fisheries stocks have lifestyles and livelihoods for a majority of people
collapsed, and 39% are overexploited. Other in the countries with high human development.
nearshore habitats such as extremely diverse coral However, one-child and two-children families in
reef ecosystems have also been significantly developed countries burn the most fossil fuels and
affected. Over one third of the planet’s coral reefs, inefficiently dispose of the most waste. Indeed,
which combined cover an area the size of British the United States contains only 4.5% of the
Columbia, have been degraded by increased sedi- world’s population but accounts for 23% of the
ment runoff, water pollution, and overfishing. world’s energy consumption, while developing
'')) P O P ULA TION, E NVIRONME NT, A ND DEV ELOP MENT

Figure 2 Three levels of development geography of the world

Source: Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:UN_Human_Develpment_Report_2007_(1).svg and available from
http://hdr.undp.org/en/reports/global/hdr2007-2008.
Note: Green = high human development; yellow = medium human development; orange = low human development.

countries such as India contain 18% of the world Nations or the World Bank, have mandated trea-
population and account for only 4% of the world’s ties and security arrangements to accommodate
energy consumption. If everyone in the world had and protect the well-being of all sovereign nations.
the same level of consumption as the population Conferences on improving the status of women,
of the United States, it is estimated that it would achieving population stabilization, protecting
take the natural resources and land area of five biodiversity, and accommodating the rapid spread
Earths. Since it is currently not possible for all of technology have resulted in global charters,
countries to achieve high development standards regulations, and accords. International treaties
without outstripping natural resources, develop- such as the Montreal Protocol on Substances that
ment in general focuses on improving sustainabil- Deplete the Ozone Layer have significantly
ity in countries with high and medium development reduced the release of chemical pollutants that
and increasing the quality of life via food, educa- affect the ozone layer, and significant advances
tion, and social justice in low-development coun- have been made via the Kyoto Protocol to the
tries, where more than 850 million people face United Nations Framework Convention on Cli-
hunger and food insecurity. mate Change to address issues of global warming
To achieve these goals of sustainable develop- and climate change. There has been progress on
ment, international institutions and governments the enforcement of population and environmen-
have tried to address the balance of population tal treaties related to deforestation, protection of
growth and natural resource use in ways that biodiversity, and the law of the seas, though much
reduce the impact of the human population on more is needed.
Earth’s natural resources. International institu- Within countries, environmental legislation,
tions, often under the auspices of the United incentives, and enforcement are important tools
 P OP ULA T ION GEOGR A PH Y '')*

for working toward sustainability at regional and with the geographic distribution of people, their
local spatial scales. Several geographical tools, composition in terms of age and gender, and the
such as censuses, geographic information systems, three main processes that determine an area’s
and satellite imagery, can be used for monitoring population growth, namely, fertility, mortality,
and assessing the status of populations and the and migration. While the boundary between
environments as related to sustainable develop- population geography and demography has
ment. Although stabilizing human population become blurred, population geographers con-
growth and sustainable development of Earth’s tribute significantly to population studies and/
natural resources are still significant challenges or demography in their own unique way by
that current and future generations will have to offering a geographic perspective to the study of
face, there have been significant advances in ideas population.
and policies over the past 50 yrs. to meet these While demographers measure and analyze
global challenges. demographic data with an emphasis on time, his-
torians trace the evolution over time of such data,
Thomas Gillespie and Robert Welch Gillespie
and sociologists seek the causes of the trends in
demographic analysis and their repercussions on
See also Developing World; Environment and
societal processes, population geographers focus
Development; Land Degradation; Malthusianism;
on the characteristics of population distributions
Neo-Malthusianism; Population and Land Degradation;
that change in a spatial context and why those
Population Density; Population Geography; Soil
changes take place. The population geographer
Degradation; Sustainable Development; Sustainable
uses geographic tools and techniques such as pop-
Development Alternatives; United Nations Environment
ulation density maps and hatch, choropleth, iso-
Programme (UNEP)
line, and dot maps to show the ways in which
factors of population change such as fertility,
mortality, and migration are distributed in space
Further Readings and attempts to explain those distributions by a
careful examination of the underlying processes.
Berger, L. R., & Hager, M. C. (2008). Visualizing In short, population geography can be defined
environmental science (2nd ed.). New York: as a systematic and regional analysis of area
Wiley. patterns of population distribution, composition,
De Blij, H. J., & Murphy, A. B. (2003). Human migration, and growth, as well as their causes
geography: Culture, society, and space (7th ed.). and the effects they have on cultural and eco-
New York: Wiley. nomic landscapes. This entry briefly examines the
Ehrlich, P. R., Ehrlich, A. H., & Holdren, J. P. roots and growth of population geography, the
(1978). Ecoscience: Population, resources, contents of population geography, and its future
environment (3rd ed.). San Francisco: W. H. prospects.
Freeman.
United Nations Development Programme. (2007).
Human development report 2007/2008. Retrieved Roots and Growth of Population Geography
June 12, 2009, from http://hdr.undp.org/en/ The benchmark in the development of population
reports/global/hdr2007-2008 geography is often cited as the 1950s, after Glenn
Trewartha gave his presidential address in 1953
to the Association of American Geographers.
However, the roots of population geography can
POPULATION GEOGRAPHY be traced back several centuries earlier. While
Trewartha’s address was a defining moment in
Population geography asks two basic questions the development of population geography as a
about the distribution of people, namely, subdiscipline of geography, there were before him
“Where?” and “Why there?” In other words, others who had been working in this field else-
population geography is specifically concerned where, particularly in Germany, France, Britain,
'')+ P O P ULA TION G E OG RAPHY

and Russia. These precursors to the modern sub- geography as a subdiscipline of geography was
discipline of population geography concentrated the development of human geography. Friedrich
on the examination of population statistics, pop- Ratzel is usually credited with establishing this
ulation mapping, and the study of human ele- subdiscipline of geography in Germany, which he
ments in geography. termed Anthropogeographie in 1842. Although
By the 1800s, the discipline of geography had Ratzel is depicted as the founder of the environ-
experienced great improvements in its methods, mental deterministic school in geography, he
such as the introduction of statistical methods, brought into the limelight the study of population
quantitative indices, and better cartographic tech- and its characteristics and the relationship
niques. These improvements required the exis- between people and their environment and how
tence of high-quality data, which were in short the two interact to shape each other. The French
supply at that time. Thus, geographers and car- school of thought (geographie humaine) in the
tographers throughout Europe, and particularly late 19th century also contributed greatly to the
in Germany, banded together to begin compiling growth of human geography. This school
and evaluating different sources of quantitative espoused a more moderate approach to the inter-
data. The leading geographic and cartographic pretation of human-Earth relationships and suc-
center was the Geographische Anstalt Justhus ceeded in redirecting other geographers to the
Perthes in Gotha, Germany. These data were then study of population and its characteristics and
used to compile maps that depicted, among other impact on the environment.
things, the sizes of settlements with respect to Although the roots of population geography go
their population. These early private efforts at back to the 1800s, it was not until the 1950s that
compiling data were then taken up by the League the term population geography came into vogue.
of Nations and later the United Nations and the Many credit the emergence and recognition of
member states of these institutions. However, the population geography as a new field within geo-
seeds of population geography had been sown in graphical studies to the influential statement of
these early periods, and to this day, geographers Trewartha in 1953. In his presidential speech to
continue to supplement government statistics by the Association of American Geographers in 1953,
gathering their own population data during field Trewartha noted that population geography had
investigations. been a neglected aspect of the discipline of geogra-
With the growing availability of population- phy. He pointed out that population was a pivotal
related data, population geographers perfected element in human geography and that its contin-
their mapping techniques to show global and local ued neglect would seriously affect the develop-
population distributions. While this topic contin- ment of the discipline. Initially, the response by
ues to remain the central focus of population geographers to Trewartha’s clarion call was luke-
geographers, other population characteristics were warm, and it took years for this subbranch of
also being mapped as early as the 1820s. For geography to develop into what it is today.
example, maps of literacy, crimes, and marriages Between the 1950s and 1960s, other develop-
in France and England appeared during the 1820 ments occurred that gave impetus to population
to 1870 period. During the interwar years, Euro- geography. For example, the tremendous prolif-
pean geographers concentrated on producing eration of population data since the 1950s with
population maps at national or continental levels, the formation of the United Nations and the reg-
with special reference to Europe. Many of these ular census taking by most countries provided
maps attempted to portray the localities of differ- pertinent data on births, deaths, mobility, mar-
ent ethnic groups in Europe. This preoccupation riages, divorces, and so on. The rise of demogra-
with generating population maps went on well phy to a separate discipline in the 1950s also had
into the 1960s. In short, population maps have a a stimulating impact on the rise of population
long history, dating back from the 1800s to the geography. Demography has developed a rich
present-day global, national, and regional atlases. body of highly sophisticated methods for popula-
The third important development that contrib- tion analysis, which greatly enriched research
uted greatly to the development of population in population geography and the wider field of
 P OP ULA T ION GEOGR A PH Y ''),

population studies. The rapid growth of the geography are concerned with the same subject
global population since the end of World War II matter, namely, the study of human populations.
heightened the need to examine population issues Both disciplines are quantitative in their approach
closely. Geographers, demographers, and other and rely heavily on statistical data. However, in
scientists began to wonder about the implications spite of the blurring of subject material and
of rapid population growth on food and nutri- approaches between the two fields, the main dif-
tion, deforestation and habitat destruction, air ference is that demographers continue to place
and water pollution, depletion of energy and min- emphasis on time, whereas geographers empha-
eral resources, and other social, economic, and size analysis using geographic units or space as
environmental ills. the major vehicle within which to place popula-
It was not until the appearance of several influ- tion characteristics.
ential textbooks on population geography in the
mid 1960s that this component of geography
Population Geography Courses
became recognized as a full-fledged component of
the discipline, a component that could offer fruit- Population geography has become well entrenched
ful avenues of research and teaching. These books in many departments of geography at institutions
included Pierre George’s Géographie de la popu- of higher learning, particularly in North America
lation, published in Paris in 1965; John Innes and Europe. The content of such courses has been
Clarke’s Population Geography, published in shaped by the recognition that the scientific study
1965; Jacqueline Beaujeu-Garnier’s Geography of human populations is an interdisciplinary
of Population, published in 1966; and Wilbur endeavor that involves disparate disciplines,
Zelinsky’s A Prologue to Population Geography, including demography, sociology, anthropology,
published in 1966. These textbooks offered a psychology, political science, economics, biology,
major stimulus to the emergence of the discipline and others. However, the three main components
of population geography. Although none of these or processes of population change remain central
books by themselves succeeded in comprehen- to the content of population geography syllabi.
sively covering the content of population geogra- These are fertility, mortality, and migration.
phy, together they offered a holistic treatment of In population geography syllabi, these three
the content and methodology of population geog- components form the basis for an examination of
raphy, which at this early point in time was con- more specific topics, such as sources of population
cerned with the distribution of population and data, population growth and change, population
understanding the geography of a wide range of structure/composition and spatial distribution,
population phenomena. theories of population change (e.g., the Malthu-
Since then, a number of influential textbooks sian and Marxist perspectives and demographic
on population geography have appeared in North transition theory), population processes (e.g., pat-
America, Europe, and elsewhere in the world. terns and trends in fertility and mortality, migra-
For example, in North America, two influential tion and mobility), and the relationships between
textbooks on population have endured the test of population on the one hand and the environment,
time: Gary Peters and Robert Larkin’s Popula- food supply, and other socioeconomic factors on
tion Geography: Problems, Concepts and Pros- the other.
pects, first published in 1979 and now in its 8th Much of this content goes back to Trewartha’s
edition, and John Weeks’s Population: An Intro- vision for population geography, in which he
duction to Concepts and Issues, now in its 10th viewed a discipline that was more systematic in its
edition. Weeks’s book illustrates the synergy and treatment of population. Trewartha essentially
blurring of boundaries between population geog- advocated a descriptive approach that was to
raphy and demography in North America and is include other aspects of population such as social,
widely used in population geography courses as cultural, and economic characteristics. His vision
well as demography courses, bringing in the saw the study of population geography being
much needed cross-fertilization between the two divided into three main areas of research, namely,
disciplines. Indeed, demography and population historical population geography, population
'')- P O P ULA TION G E OG RAPHY

numbers, and qualities and regional distribution. and quantitative methods, many of which were
Historical population geography would examine being developed in the discipline of demography.
the regional variations in population growth and Topics of research in this area included popula-
decline over time, while population numbers tion concentration or dispersal, population den-
would examine gross patterns of numbers, fertil- sity, urban population segregation, population
ity and mortality dynamics, population density, flows, and so on. The second area of research was
and migration. Regional population geography describing demographic change via the use of the
would examine population characteristics such as population balancing equation and spatial demog-
race, nationality, sex, age, health, and other socio- raphy. A good example here is the tracking of the
economic characteristics such as religion, educa- centroid of the U.S. population over time and in
tion, occupation, family structure, urban/rural space. The third area was explaining demographic
residence, and cultural customs. The unifying fac- changes in space and in time, such as age-sex dis-
tor for the three areas of inquiry and teaching was tributions, population growth, and the major
to be the region. While Trewartha emphasized variables of population change, fertility, mortal-
systematic description in his vision of population ity, and migration. Using positivist and empirical
geography, other scholars have refined his vision approaches, population geographers contributed
to broaden the field to an examination of dynamic significantly in the areas of demographic transi-
rather than static spatial processes. Although the tion theory and theories of migration. One of the
methods of approaching the study of population greatest contributions of population geographers
geography have changed over time, the substan- to population studies was a greater understand-
tive topics outlined by Trewartha continue to form ing of migration and the forces that cause people
the basis for population geography today. to move.
The 1980s and 1990s saw both continuity and
critical reflections on population geography’s
Research Foci in Population Geography
research directions. During this period, research in
Population geographers have been active in population geography focused on four main areas,
research and publications. Their geographic with migration dominating the volume of research.
approach offers the spatial perspective that exam- While research on migration differentials, migra-
ines population variables cartographically (via tion systems, and regional and international migra-
the use of maps and now geographic information tion continued, population geographers began to
systems) and/or statistically in an attempt to engage in critical debates about the geopolitics of
examine the underlying factors that explain the mobility, the racialized and gendered nature of
exhibited spatial patterns of the variables, be it migration, immigrant labor markets, and so on.
fertility, mortality, or migration. Two main The other three areas of research focus included
phases of research foci can be discerned, namely, issues of reproduction and health inequality, the
the 1950s to 1970s and the 1980s to 1990s. implications of aging, and population and the
During the 1950s and 1970s, research in environment. In the post–September 11, 2001,
population geography concentrated on the period, population geographers have been moving
examination of four topic areas. The first was into new areas of research, such as population
the description of demographic structures in geo- movements as they relate to national security, neo-
graphic space using empirical and positivist liberalism, the transnational migrant in an era of
approaches. Population geographers believed that globalization, and geopolitics.
to create scientific knowledge about demographic
structures in space, there was a need to produce
The Future of Population Geography
the evidence through field observations and
descriptions of population phenomena. Through Population geography has done well over the past
the positivist approach using the scientific method, 50 years. From its inception, it experienced steady
the empirically observed trends would lead to the growth and development, with undergraduate
affirmation or negation of hypotheses. The observed and graduate-level courses being developed
patterns were summarized via the use of maps at colleges and universities in Europe, North
 P OP ULA T ION P Y R A M I D '').

America, and elsewhere. The elevation of popula- such as social constructivism, poststructuralism,
tion geography to one of the official specialty postcolonialism, and structuration theory is
groups within the Association of American Geog- becoming common in population geography.
raphers in the 1970s meant its acceptance as a
Ezekiel Kalipeni
significant part of geography.
In spite of these successes, population geogra-
See also Demographic Transition; Fertility Rate;
phers began to be critical of their discipline and
Hunger; Malthusianism; Migration; Mobility;
to cast self-doubt on population geography’s
Mortality Rate; Natural Growth Rate; Neo-
effectiveness and contributions to scientific and
Malthusianism; Population and Land Degradation;
social inquiry. Two main contending camps
Population Density; Population, Environment, and
appeared on the scene. The first advocated main-
Development; Population Pyramid; Trewartha, Glenn;
taining the status quo, arguing that the discipline
Urbanization; Zelinsky, Wilbur
was sound and did not need to be tampered with.
The second camp wanted population geography
to expand its methodologies and approaches to
include other perspectives and be more conceptu- Further Readings
ally inclusive. The argument here was that popu-
lation geography should not solely rely on Bailey, A. (2005). Making population geography:
empirical and positivist approaches in research Human geography in the making. London:
but rather adopt a mixed- and pluralistic-methods Hodder Arnold.
approach. What, for example, were the boundar- Gober, P., & Tyner, J. (2003). Population geography.
ies between population geography and other In G. Gaile & C. Willmott (Eds.), Geography
fields such as medical geography, spatial ecology, in America at the dawn of the 21st century
demography, and population studies? The launch (pp. 185–199). Oxford, UK: Oxford University
in 1995 of the International Journal of Popula- Press.
tion Geography and its subsequent change in Peters, G., & Larkin, R. (2005). Population
name in the mid 2000s to Population, Space and geography: Problems, concepts and prospects
Place brought into sharp focus these divisions. (8th ed.). New York: Kendall/Hunt.
The broad coverage and the publication of six Trewartha, G. (1953). The case for population
issues a year appears to have favored those in geography. Annals of the Association of American
favor of a pluralistic coexistence within the field. Geographers, 43, 71–97.
Indeed, this journal is advertised as offering an Weeks, J. (2007). Population: An introduction
energetic forum to debate, inform, and review the to concepts and issues (10th ed.). Belmont,
latest developments in areas such as population CA: Wadsworth.
and society, fertility, mortality and migration,
quantitative and qualitative methods of popula-
tion analysis, aging populations, census analysis,
spatial demography, population policies, theory
and population, population distribution and POPULATION PYRAMID
change, and population and development.
The pluralist approach in population geogra- Except for total size, the most important demo-
phy appears to be the future trajectory of this graphic feature of a population is its age-sex
subdiscipline. This notion implies the existence of structure. The age-sex structure affects the needs
a varied group of population geographers who are of a population as well as the supply of labor;
committed to interrogating population issues therefore, it has significant policy implications.
using varied methodologies and theoretical A rapidly growing population implies a high
approaches. Indeed, a good number of population proportion of young people under the working
geographers are deploying new theoretical age. A youthful population also puts a burden on
approaches that go beyond positivist and empiri- the education system. When this cohort enters the
cal approaches. Today, research using approaches working ages, a rapid increase in jobs is needed to
''*% P O P ULA TION PYRAMID

Kenya—2009 United States—2009

Age
100+
95–99
90–94
85–89
80–84
75–79 Male Female
70–74
65–69
60–64
55–59
Male Female 50–54
45–49
40–44
35–39
30–34
25–29
20–24
15–19
10–14
5–9
0–4
3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 .5 0 .5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Population (in millions)

Figure 1 Population pyramids for developing countries typically exhibit a wide base, reflecting high fertility
rates, while those in economically developed parts of the world portray a population more evenly distributed
across age groups.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, International Data Base. www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/country.php.

accommodate it. In contrast, countries with a developing countries having high crude birth
large proportion of older people must develop rates, with a young average age and relatively few
retirement systems and medical facilities to serve elderly. Natural growth rates in such societies
them. Therefore, as a population ages, its needs tend to be high.
change from schools to jobs to medical care. In contrast, the pyramid for economically
The age-sex structure of a country or region developed countries, including the United States,
can be conveniently summarized or described describes a slowly growing population. Its shape
through the use of population pyramids. They is the result of a history of declining fertility and
are divided into 5-year age groups, the base rep- mortality rates, augmented by substantial immi-
resenting the youngest group, the apex the old- gration. With lower fertility, fewer people have
est. Population pyramids show the distribution entered the base of the pyramid; with lower mor-
of males and females of different age groups as tality, a greater percentage of “births” have sur-
percentages of the total population. The shape of vived until old age. In short, the structure of the
a pyramid reflects long-term trends in fertility population pyramid closely reflects the stage of
and mortality and the short-term effects of “baby the demographic transition in which a country is
booms,” migrations, wars, and epidemics. It also positioned.
reflects the potential for future population growth
or decline. Barney Warf
Two basic, representative types of pyramid
may be distinguished (Figure 1). One is the squat, See also Demographic Transition; Fertility Rate;
triangular profile. It has a broad base, concave Mortality Rate; Natural Growth Rate; Population
sides, and a narrow tip. It is characteristic of Geography
 P OR T OLA N C HA R TS ''*&

Further Readings compensatory adjustment in the spacing of lati-

tude lines (e.g., as is achieved in a Mercator projec-
Yaukey, D., & Anderton, D. (2001). Demography: tion). This projection, and the accompanying
The study of human population. Long Grove, IL: system of navigating by dead reckoning along a
Waveland Press. compass heading as one traversed a conceptually
placeless ocean, was suitable for trans-
Mediterranean travel, where north-south distances
are relatively small, currents and tides are minor,
PORTOLAN CHARTS magnetic variation is insignificant, and storms are
rare during the sailing season. However, attempts
to transfer this projection and its corresponding
Portolan charts were produced in Mediterranean technique of navigation to longer-distance ocean
lands primarily during the 13th through 16th voyages would be disastrous, and thus, it seems
centuries. Originally single-sheet maps that were likely that the frequent presence of rhumb lines on
drawn on rolled scrolls of sheepskin and used by 17th-century world maps was purely decorative
sailors in the Mediterranean region, they were or, perhaps, was intended to reference an earlier
soon joined by portolan atlases that typically cov- era of Mediterranean voyaging.
ered the Atlantic coast of Europe and the Black Despite the break between the navigational prac-
Sea as well as the Mediterranean and that likely tices enabled by and reflected in the portolan chart
served a more decorative function. In both for- and those in later maps, some scholars have noted
mats, however, portolan charts are striking for that portolan charts nonetheless embody a per-
their relatively “modern” appearance and their spective that prefigures modern conceptions of ter-
apparently accurate representation of coastlines, ritory and mobility. As on a modern map, the
leading the early 20th-century cartographic histo- ocean on a portolan chart is typically devoid of
rian Charles Beazley (1904) to call portolan charts emotive, natural, or human signifiers (e.g., sea
“the first true maps” and to assert that “in them, monsters, ships, toponyms). Instead, the ocean is
true cartography, the map-making of the civilised represented as an empty space that can be ratio-
world, begins” (p. 161). nally crossed by sailors following geometric logic
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the and the natural law of magnetic north. In this
portolan chart is the network of rhumb lines— sense, the portolan chart established the norm of
usually colored red, green, and/or brown—that the ocean as an easily crossable but empty (or non-
cross over ocean space and in some cases continue exhaustible) and hence nonpossessable space,
across land space. Together with a portolan—a which was later to be codified by 17th-century
list of directions for sailing from one port to jurists such as Hugo Grotius and which has gone
another along a coastline—these rhumb lines on to inform the modern law of the sea. Likewise,
were used for navigation. For instance, a sailor the coastline on portolan charts is represented as a
wishing to cross the Mediterranean could find his series of destinations (names written along the
source and destination cities on the portolan coastline) whose social significance is buttressed
chart, note the rhumb line whose angle corre- with numerous flags. Here, too, a modern norm is
sponded to the angle of a line drawn between the prefigured, as civilization is associated with nam-
two cities, determine the corresponding compass ing and political territorialization. Behind the
heading, and then sail by dead reckoning along coastline, the interior—especially on Iberian porto-
that heading until he reached the opposite coast. lan charts—is depicted as a fecund space of oppor-
On reaching the coast, assuming that the boat did tunity, filled with bustling human settlements and
not land precisely on target, the sailor could use exotic nature, prefiguring a colonial mindset where
an accompanying portolan to navigate coastwise the interior of distant lands—the space to be
to reach his ultimate destination. encountered after an ocean voyage—is presented
Portolan charts also are notable for their sim- as inaccessible yet ripe with opportunity (as well as
plistic projection, in which longitude lines are dangers). Finally, islands on portolan charts are
drawn as straight, parallel lines without any represented as territorially unified entities wherein
''*' P O R T O L AN CHARTS

Map of the Western Mediterranean from a portolan atlas by Battista Agnese, ca. 1544
Source: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division. Available at http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gnrlagn.html.

the seemingly incontrovertible boundary between immune to possession. These idealized divisions,
land and sea is used to naturalize a political bound- expressed so succinctly in the portolan chart, went
ary between the internal space of the state and the on to guide the spatiality of the modern era.
outside space beyond its control. This depiction
Philip E. Steinberg
foreshadowed the ideal of the territorial state that
was to become a political (and cartographic) norm
See also Cartography, History of; Map Projections;
on land in the centuries that followed.
Mercator, Gerardus; Oceans
In short, while Beazley might well be accused of
ethnocentrism in his identification of certain maps
as being “true” and in associating them with a
singular “civilization,” his broader point—that Further Readings
the spatial conceptions inscribed in the portolan
chart foreshadowed perspectives on space that Beazley, C. (1904). The first true maps. Nature,
were to inform emergent systems of exploration, 71(1833), 159–161.
colonialism, and merchant capitalism—is well Campbell, T. (1987). Portolan charts from the late
taken. Long celebrated for their beauty and “accu- thirteenth century to 1500. In J. Harley &
racy,” portolan charts should also be appreciated D. Woodward (Eds.), The history of cartography
for the ways in which they inscribed ideas about (Vol. 1, pp. 371–463). Chicago: University of
divisions between fixity and movement, land and Chicago Press.
ocean, and territory and an external space that is
 P OR T S A ND MA R IT IME T R AD E ''*(

Maritime transportation rests on the existence

Lanman, J. (1987). On the origin of portolan charts. of regular itineraries, better known as maritime
Chicago: Herman Dunlap Smith Center for the routes. They draw arcs on Earth’s water surface,
History of Cartography, Newberry Library. as intercontinental maritime transportation tries
Mollat du Jourdin, M., & de la Roncìere, M. (1986). to follow the great circle distance. Maritime trans-
Sea charts of the early explorers. London: Thames portation operates in a space that is at the same
& Hudson. time geographical with respect to its physical
Steinberg, P. (2005). Insularity, sovereignty, and attributes, strategic by virtue of its military impor-
statehood: The representation of islands on portolan tance, and commercial in its usage. While geo-
charts and the construction of the territorial state. graphical considerations tend to be constant in
Geografiska Annaler, B 87, 253–265. time, strategic and especially commercial consid-
erations are much more dynamic. For instance,
strong industrial growth in Pacific Asia has been
accompanied by a surge in port activities along
P ORTS AND M ARITIME the Chinese coast as well as growth along trans-
Pacific and trans-Indian Ocean shipping routes.
T RADE Shipping has traditionally faced two drawbacks.
It is slow, with speeds at sea averaging 15 knots
The enduring characteristic of maritime transpor- (26 kilometers per hour). Second, delays are
tation is its ability to move large quantities of encountered in ports where loading and unloading
cargo over long distances. This activity is shaped take place. The latter may require several days of
by the maritime geography of the world, mainly handling when break-bulk cargo (that which is not
the configuration of oceans, coasts, seas, lakes, containerized) is involved. These drawbacks are
and rivers. Where possible, the construction of particularly constraining when goods have to be
canals, channels, locks, and dredging have facili- moved over short distances or when shippers
tated maritime circulation and reduced the dis- require rapid service deliveries. However, technical
continuity imposed by geography. improvements tend to blur the distinction between
bulk and break-bulk cargo, as both can be unitized
on pallets and increasingly in containers. For
A Fundamental Role in Global Trade
instance, it is possible, and increasingly common,
Maritime transportation is as old as global trade, to ship grain and oil, both bulk cargoes, in contain-
and historically, the scope and extent of long- ers. Maritime shipping is dominated by bulk cargo,
distance trade were determined by developments such as petroleum, minerals, and grains, which
in maritime transportation technology. Between combined account for roughly 70% of total ton-
the 16th and 19th centuries, the galleon was the miles shipped. These flows supply the world’s
linchpin of long-distance colonial trade, and the energy generation, manufacturing, and food trans-
refinement of sailing technology led to fast clipper formation systems. The share of break-bulk cargo
ships in the mid 19th century, which essentially is decreasing steadily, mainly because of container-
reflected the optimal in wind-propelled maritime ization. Consequently, the amount of containerized
technology. Clipper ships were, however, short- freight has grown substantially, and the majority of
lived and were supplanted by steamships, which the global shipment of manufactured goods is now
led to a remarkable specialization of ship function carried in containers; the 20-foot-equivalent unit,
with liners, battleships, cargo ships, tankers, and or TEU, is a common measure of volume.
containerships, to name just a few. Yet the role of
maritime transportation in the movement of pas-
Ports: Valuable Resources
sengers is marginal; it is almost exclusively the
domain of freight. International trade and seaborne Although the physical geography of the world
trade are thus interrelated. In 2006, seaborne conveys a staggering amount of coastline, only a
trade accounted for about 90% of global trade in limited amount is effectively suitable for port
terms of volume and 70% in terms of value. operations. Port terminals handle more freight
''*) P O R T S A ND MARITIME TRAD E

than all other types of terminals combined. To the economies of scale applied to maritime ship-
perform their role, port infrastructures jointly ping, the smaller the number of ports that are
have to accommodate transhipment activities both able to handle such ships.
on ships and on land. They are points of conver-
gence between land transport and maritime sys-
Maritime Gateways and Hubs
tems. Considering the operational characteristics
of maritime transportation, the location of ports The current geography of ports and maritime
is constrained to a limited array of sites, mostly trade has been the most transformed by contain-
defined by geography. Most ports, especially those erization, since it permitted an entirely new class
that are ancient, owe their initial emergence to of ships, new companies (or the transformation
their site, as the great majority of harbors take of existing companies), new port locations, new
advantage of a natural coastline or a natural site networks, and new flows.
along a river. The suitability of port sites continu- For a long period, the world’s most important
ally changes with technical changes in maritime ports were North American (e.g., New York) and
shipping and coastal urbanization. Such sites have Western European (e.g., Rotterdam). Container-
become valuable and rare resources. ization completely changed the world’s commer-
cial geography with the emergence of an array of
new port locations (Figure 2). This geography
A Matter of Scale
indicates a high level of traffic concentration
The principle of economies of scale is fundamen- around large port facilities, the top ones being
tal to the economics of maritime transportation Pacific Asian ports along the Tokyo-Singapore
because the larger the ship, the lower the cost per corridor. As export-oriented economic develop-
unit transported. This trend has particularly been ment strategies took shape, the number of con-
apparent in bulk and containerized shipping. For tainers handled in Pacific Asian, notably Chinese,
instance, the evolution of containerization, as ports surged in volume. There is also an emerging
indicated by the size of the largest available con- geography of container ports characterized by a
tainership, has been a stepwise process (Figure 1). specialization in which some act as gateways and
Changes are often rather sudden and correspond some as hubs. Gateway ports command the access
to the introduction of a new class of container- of large manufacturing or market regions. Hong
ship. Since the 1990s, two substantial steps took Kong, Los Angeles, and Rotterdam are notable
place. The first step involved a jump from 4,000 examples. Hub ports (or offshore hubs) act as
to 8,000 TEUs, effectively moving beyond the intermediary locations where containers are tran-
“Panamax” threshold. This threshold is particu- shipped between different segments of the global
larly important, as it indicates the physical capac- maritime transport system. Singapore and Dubai
ity of the Panama Canal and thus has for long are among the most prominent.
been an important operational limitation in mari- The conventional bulk shipping network is
time shipping. The second step took place in the point-to-point, with two ports directly serviced
2000s, as the maximum size reached the 13,000- and with the ship coming empty for the backhaul
to 14,000-TEU level. This is essentially a “Suez- (the return voyage to the port of origin). This sys-
max” level, or a “new Panamax” class, that is, tem typically reflects the pattern of oil, mineral,
the largest size of ship that will be able to pass and grain shipping, with origins corresponding to
through the expanded Panama Canal after it is extraction regions and destinations being large,
completed in 2014. From a maritime shipper’s urbanized regions. Containerized shipping per-
perspective, using larger containerships is a mitted the emergence of new networks, namely,
straightforward process, as it conveys economies pendulum services. They involve a set of sequen-
of scale and thus lowers costs per TEU carried. tial port calls along a maritime range, commonly
From a port terminal perspective, such ships bring including a transoceanic service from ports in
intense pressures in terms of infrastructure invest- another range and structured as a continuous
ments, namely “portainers.” Thus, the matter of loop. Their purpose is servicing a market by bal-
economic scale leads to a paradox—the greater ancing the number of port calls and the frequency
 P OR T S A ND MA R IT IME T R AD E ''**

14,000
E “Emma” Class
(12,500 TEU)
12,000

10,000
S “Sovereign” Class
(8,000 TEU)
8,000
R “Regina” Class
(6,000 TEU)
6,000

L “Lica” Class
4,000 (3,400 TEU)

2,000

0
1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Figure 1 The largest available containership, 1970–2007 (in TEUs [20-foot-equivalent units])
Source: Data compiled by Jean-Paul Rodrigue and T. Notteboom.

of services. For instance, pendulum services in patterns of container shipping. As exemplified

between Asia and Europe have on average 8 to 10 by Figure 2, the new geography of production
containerships assigned and involve 8 to 12 port entails a new geography of distribution and its
calls. Most transatlantic pendulum services have 6 related flows. Because of a global trade structure
to 8 containerships and involve 6 to 8 port calls. A characterized by imbalances, this structure implies
pendulum service is fairly flexible in terms of the its own new sets of flows. Many containers are
selection of port calls, particularly on maritime moved empty, generating no income but carrying
ranges that have nearby and competing ports a cost that must be assumed in one way or the
grouped as regional clusters (e.g., the North Amer- other. Either full or empty, a container takes the
ican east coast, Western Europe). This implies that same amount of space on a ship or in a storage
a maritime company may opt to bypass one port yard and takes the same amount of time to be
to the advantage of another if its efficiency is not transhipped. For instance, there are three times as
satisfactory and if its hinterland access is problem- many full containers moving from Asia to the
atic. The shipping network consequently adapts United States as there are from the United States
to reflect the changes in market conditions. to Asia. In 2005, about 70% of the slots of con-
The global shift in the location of manufactur- tainerships leaving the United States were empty,
ing activities as well as changes in supply chain with major container ports such as Los Angeles
management have led to new flows of maritime handling large amounts of empty containers.
shipping. Flows of raw materials handled by Other major maritime trade routes, such as the
maritime shipping have adapted, and emerging Asia-Europe segment, are facing a similar but less
manufacturing clusters have seen significant acute imbalance. Thus, production and trade
growth. However, new flows are mostly evident imbalances in the global economy are clearly
''*+ P O R T S A ND MARITIME TRAD E

TEU (2008)
1 to 2 M
2 to 4 M
4 to 6 M

6 to 10 M

More than 10 M

Figure 2 Traffic at the 50 largest container ports, 2006

Source: Containerization International. Cartography by author.

reflected in imbalances in physical flows and between the maritime segments of global trade
transport rates. For trans-Pacific trade, it costs and inland freight distribution. Global port oper-
more per TEUs for eastbound flows than for ators, such as APM (Denmark), DPW (Dubai),
westbound flows, making freight planning a com- HPH (Hong Kong), and PSA (Singapore), have
plex task for container shipping companies. For been active in acquiring a portfolio of terminal
Asia-Europe flows, westbound rates are higher assets in almost all the major ports of the world.
than eastbound rates. Some, such as APM, are a direct subsidiary of a
maritime shipping company—Maersk, the world’s
largest, in this case. Thus, a growing convergence
Maritime Shipping Companies
between maritime shipping, ports, and inland
and Port Operators
operations enables large private conglomerates to
The maritime transport industry is one of the achieve a level of control over global supply
most globalized industries in term of ownership. chains. This is particularly important as global
Maritime shipping companies and the majority of trade is more than a matter of capacity; it is also
the largest port terminals are privately owned or concerned about the timeliness and reliability of
operated. Such large assets must be efficiently man- the distribution.
aged, which entails extensive capital requirements. The emergence of global private operators marks
The trend in recent years has been a convergence a reversal in the trend of considering ports to be
 P OSIT IONA LITY ''*,

public entities, since many became inefficient and

unable to cope with market pressures. The top five
POSITIONALITY
terminal operators account for about half of the
world’s port container throughput. In an era char- Positionality is the notion that personal values,
acterized by lower levels of direct public involve- views, and location in time and space influence
ment in the management of transport terminals, how one understands the world. In this context,
specialized companies involved in the management gender, race, class, and other aspects of identities
of port terminals are finding opportunities at the are indicators of social and spatial positions and
global level. They tend to be horizontally integrated are not fixed, given qualities. Positions act on the
entities focusing on terminal operations in a variety knowledge a person has about things, both mate-
of locations. The main tool used by global port rial and abstract. Consequently, knowledge is the
operators to gain control of port terminals has product of a specific position that reflects particu-
been concession agreements. A concession agree- lar places and spaces.
ment is a long-term lease involving the requirement Issues of positionality challenge the notions
that the concessionaire undertakes capital invest- of value-free research that have dismissed
ments to build, expand, or maintain the cargo- human subjectivity from the processes that gener-
handling facilities, equipment, and infrastructure. ate knowledge and identities. Consequently, it is
The range of port terminals controlled by port essential to take into account personal positions
holdings covers several of the largest freight mar- before engaging in research, especially qualitative
kets. As globalization permitted the emergence of research. Consideration of the positioning of those
large multinational corporations managing assets engaged in the production of knowledge reveal
in a variety of locations, global port holdings are a that research is always and inevitably shaped by
similar trend concerning the management of port the actions and values of the researcher. There-
terminal assets. This has been a very profitable fore, truly value-free research, if not impossible, is
business, with substantial positive impacts in the at least nearly impossible to obtain; the research-
efficiency of ports and maritime trade. er’s circumstances of life, his or her personal
beliefs, and the mere fact of being a member of a
Jean-Paul Rodrigue
society position the researcher in specific places
See also Economies of Scale; Globalization; Oceans; and spaces and shape his or her values, assump-
Trade; Transportation Geography tions, priorities, and ethics. This notion makes the
idea of having an independent position from
which one can freely and fully observe the world
Further Readings or be detached from the circumstances taking
place in the research arena particularly unlikely.
Levinson, M. (2006). The box: How the shipping Confronted with issues of positionality, scholars
container made the world smaller and the world and researchers have responded in different ways.
economy bigger. Princeton, NJ: Princeton One strategy that attempts to address the issue of
University Press. positionality in the context of conducting research
Nottebbom, T. (2004). Container shipping and ports: is the use of the third person in reports, notes,
An overview. Review of Network Economics, 3, interviews, questionnaires, and other research-
86–106. related manuscripts. For researchers, writing in the
Rodrigue, J.-P., Comtois, C., & Slack, B. (2006). The third person aims to establish an outside view and
geography of transport systems. London: a detached position, and therefore an objective
Routledge. tone. However, this practice has been frequently
Slack, B., & Fremont, A. (2005). Transformation of criticized. From the critic’s standpoint, writing is
port terminal operations: From the local to the much more than a set of facts or statements,
global. Transport Reviews, 25, 117–130. because it also deals with representing and inter-
Stopford, M. (1997). Maritime economics (2nd ed.). preting the researched subjects. In that context,
London: Routledge. each work affiliates itself with other works and
with specific groups and institutions, and in doing
''*- P O S I T I ONAL ITY

so, such works and positions can create not only involves understanding how labels (such as race,
knowledge but also the reality that they consciously ethnicity, and gender) are being constructed and
or unconsciously seem to describe. Consequently, represented through judgments made with the
every author must locate herself or himself in what purpose of “othering.” Therefore, no production
she or he writes and be aware of the kind of narra- of knowledge can ever dismiss or disclaim its
tive voice, images, themes, and motifs adopted in author’s involvement and positionings.
her or his text. This is not simply a problem of To be effectively self-reflective and fully locate
finding a position but also the question of selecting themselves in their research, it is essential that
which texts are the ones best suited for the research. researchers understand the differences between
In this notion, location is as important as aware- the positions of insider and outsider. Sharing the
ness of personal positions. There is a strategic loca- same background or similar identity, having things
tion that describes the author’s position in a text, in common, or simply having an affinity with the
but there is also a strategic position that analyzes researched subject(s) can influence the research
the way in which different modalities of the text outcomes. On the one hand, such insider positions
(i.e., symbols used in the text, types of text, and can facilitate the collection of data, communica-
textual genres) materialize among themselves and tion, movement, and so on. On the other hand,
thereafter in the culture at large. such a position can be somewhat problematic, as
Another strategy researchers use to acknowl- personal positions can restrict the development of
edge their positionality is self-criticism. Scholars the research by providing only a partial view and
and researchers use self-criticism to locate biases of by not allowing the researcher to reflect on views
both inclusion and exclusion. In this context, that are opposed to her or his own. Likewise, fail-
researchers dismiss the notion of value-free research ure to understand the differences between posi-
and recognize that claims to objectivity and neu- tions as insider and outsider can misdirect the
trality serve only to make biases and human sub- potential research results, the production of
jectivity invisible. Making the researcher’s biases knowledge, and the formation of identities. Nev-
visible through a self-reflexive understanding of his ertheless, given the difficulty involved in the task
of her positioning and fieldwork relations can help of completely understanding the self, it may be
the researcher avoid invalid generalizations. This virtually impossible to be completely self-reflexive
approach requires a commitment to understanding and fully aware of self-positionings.
how the values and subjectivity of the researcher
Luis Sánchez
are part of the construction of knowledge.
These issues of positionality suggest that there See also Ethics, Geography and; Feminist Geographies;
is always a relationship between the researcher Fieldwork in Human Geography; Gender and Geography;
and the researched. This relationship deals with Humanistic Geography; Interviewing; Orientalism;
power and interpretation, as the researcher is in Qualitative Methods; Phenomenology; Situated Knowledge
the position of interpreting the lives of others.
From this perspective, it is essential to draw atten-
tion to the ways in which representations do not Further Readings
merely reflect social reality but are also constitu-
tive of it. The politics of positionality demand Hay, I. (Ed.). (2005). Qualitative research methods in
that attention be paid to the structures of power human geography. Oxford, UK: Oxford
that privilege certain voices while silencing others University Press.
and endorse some points of view while dismissing McDowell, L. (1992). Doing gender: Feminism and
others. In other words, researchers cannot ignore research methods in human geography.
the problematic nature of what representation Transactions of the Institute of British
involves. As part of an in-depth self-reflection, Geographers, 17, 399–416.
one must know how to position oneself before Rose, G. (1997). Situated knowledge: Positionality,
drawing the line that makes the distinctions reflexivities and other tactics. Progress in Human
between “us” and “them.” Positionality is not Geography, 21, 305–320.
just acknowledging personal positions; it also
 P OST C OLONIA LI S M ''*.

POSITIVISM “post” in “postcolonialism” suggests that the era

is finished, but as many scholars have pointed
out, postcolonialism (like other “posts”) might be
See Logical Positivism better viewed as a process of alteration with lin-
gering colonial links. Postcolonial theorists
actively work toward achieving more accurate
and sensitive historiographies and representa-
tions, an equitable distribution of resources, and
POSTCOLONIALISM a rethinking and restructuring of Western knowl-
edge production. However, to assume that such a
Postcolonialism is a vast and diverse area of study goal has ever actually been, or ever will be,
that seeks to examine the experiences of peoples achieved is misguided.
and places—colonized and colonizers alike—both Scholars working on postcolonialism use post-
during and following the period of formal colo- colonial theory to refer to the wide range of ideas
nialism. By using postcolonial theory, postcolo- that form the core of postcolonial studies. The
nial studies attempt to lend voice to the colonized works of foundational thinkers such as Edward
and offer alternative interpretations of the pro- Said, Homi Bhabha, and Gayatri Spivak, among
cess of colonization and the experiences of colo- others, have been particularly central to the field.
nialism and empire. They also seek to challenge Postcolonial studies have used these theories in a
the naturalized assumptions of Western power variety of ways, from work on political economy
and knowledge while creating space for alterna- to identity and sport studies. Postcoloniality refers
tive (and equally valid) knowledges and power to the condition of living in a period of time after
dynamics. colonialism. This incorporates everything from
While postcolonial studies originated in the material conditions, including the frequently
fields of literary and cultural studies, they have unequal distribution of resources, to the less
since become interdisciplinary engagements that material realms, such as the ways in which newly
bridge the humanities and social sciences, includ- independent peoples perceive their own identities.
ing human geography. This entry offers an over- In addition to the creation of new words, postco-
view of the various meanings of postcolonialism, lonial scholars have also debated whether or not
postcolonial theory, postcolonial studies, and the word postcolonialism should be hyphenated
postcoloniality, followed by an exploration of the and even whether the single word postcolonial-
historical development and critiques of postcolo- ism does justice to the multiple, varying postcolo-
nialism. These include the critique of postcolonial nialisms in existence throughout the world.
representational analyses’ immateriality, the
debatable strength of real-world applicability of
postcolonial critiques, and the question of the
real beneficiaries of postcolonial destabilizations. Historical Development
It concludes with an examination of the subfields Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978) is frequently
within geography that have employed a postcolo- cited as the most influential work in the rise of
nial framework. postcolonial theory. Said employed a Foucaul-
Postcolonialism’s breadth has aided in the dian framework to critique Orientalist discourse,
development of multiple, sometimes hotly debated exposing the ways in which “the West” repre-
forms of the term postcolonialism itself. In a very sented “the Orient” as barbaric, irrational, and
basic and literal sense, postcolonialism refers to “Other.” Part of Said’s influence on postcolonial
the period of time following colonialism, or the theory has been to encourage a continued focus
postindependence time period. However, this on the critique of discursive representations.
simplified notion ignores the continued connec- Investigations of textual representations within
tivities, dependencies, exploitations, and forms of colonial and postcolonial discourses examine
neo-imperialism that persist between the formerly not only how places, peoples, and things are
colonized states and their former colonizers. The represented but also who is allowed to do the
''+% P O S T C OL ONIAL ISM

representing and the ways in which this is done.

Critiques of Postcolonialism
Representational analyses have examined colo-
nial power within governmental bodies and Postcolonialism and postcolonial theory have had
within official discourses, but they have also their fair share of critiques. Some have voiced
included less formalized, cultural institutions concern that postcolonial studies are overly pre-
and popular discourses. Because it can be argued occupied with “the West” at the expense of the
that all representations require a degree of essen- rest of the world. For instance, it has been asked
tialism and are therefore inherently flawed, the whether postcolonial theories actually reflect the
question of the possibility of equitable represen- desires of colonized, formerly colonized, and sub-
tations arises. Spivak’s (1988) answer to this altern peoples or if they merely serve the interests
issue was strategic essentialism, or the acknowl- of self-conscious academics located in the global
edgment of the need for some simplified reduc- North. Most postcolonial texts are written and
tion in the representations of peoples and places published in English, inspiring some to argue for
for a particular political agenda. publication in the languages of those people
Postcolonialism developed most extensively in whom postcolonial studies claim to represent.
the 1980s and 1990s, but a number of the schol- Critics have challenged the notion of postcolonial
ars and activists who influenced those working studies’ ability to destabilize and decenter Euro-
within a postcolonial framework predated this pean geographic knowledges, stating that instead
period. Frantz Fanon’s work on colonialism in they merely reposition the same knowledges at
Algeria and the Caribbean and the work of the the center. The call for increased appreciation of
Martinique author Aimé Césaire have remained difference is viewed by some as a return to stag-
important texts within the field. More recent nant liberal multiculturalism. Additionally, post-
influences have included Homi Bhabha’s work on colonial studies have tended to be dominated by
race and hybridity and Gayatri Spivak’s Marxist- Anglophonic geography and largely concerned
feminist assessment of postcolonial and subaltern with British imperialism. This recognition has
studies. Although some have considered it to be resulted in calls to investigate imperialisms and
separate from postcolonial studies, the field has colonialisms located elsewhere.
also been influenced by the work of the Subaltern Postcolonial studies’ origin in literary and cul-
Studies Collective. This group, composed primar- tural studies has also led to a critique from disci-
ily of historians, has read Indian history against plines within the social sciences that these textual
the grain, seeking to rethink and rewrite history and discursive analyses lack materiality and sacri-
from below or from the position of the silenced fice substance in their focus on the immaterial.
subaltern subject. Because postcolonial theory was in its origin influ-
Key topics of consideration within postcolonial enced by poststructuralist and postmodern French
studies have included historical projects that theory, it has been argued by others that the very
revisit the colonial archives to highlight the ways core of postcolonial theory contradicts its stated
in which the perceived separation of the cultures aims of pluralizing knowledges and power regimes.
and institutions of the metropole and the periph- Among other critiques of postcolonialism is its
ery can be contested. Said’s “contrapuntal read- perceived simplicity. Just as postcolonialism’s
ing” critically examined the Western literary meaning, “after colonialism,” has been problema-
canon to point out the silencing of colonial peo- tized, the creation of dichotomous categories of
ples and the concealment of the darker side of “colonizer” versus “colonized” has recently been
colonialism. Scholars working within the realm critiqued for its lack of attention to multifaceted
of postcolonialism have also employed a critical hybridities and complicated identities not only
Marxist framework to display the unequal distri- between, but also within, those categories.
bution of political and economic power and
resources within the postcolonial world, in addi-
Geography’s Postcolonial Subfields
tion to the hybrid forms of colonialism, imperial-
ism, and neocolonialism that persist throughout Postcolonial theory within the discipline of
the world today. geography has gained wide purchase. Although
 P OST C OLONIA LI S M ''+&

postcolonialism has obviously been popular of heritage has also been a focus for geographers
across academia, Said’s discussion of the devel- attending to the specificity of place and group
opment of “imaginative geographies” piqued identities. Others within geography have studied
geographers’ interest. Postcolonial geographers transnational migrations and the diasporas that
have investigated the spatiality of colonialism, have frequently followed and, in some cases,
empire, and postcolonialism from a number of helped perpetuate postcolonial linkages between
different vantage points. One of the greatest former colonial powers and their colonial states.
impacts of postcolonialism on geography has These linkages have also been the central focus of
been the acknowledgment of geographers’ postcolonial critiques of tourism and other cul-
involvement in the colonial project. This recog- tural entities, such as sport. Tourism geographers
nition that geography has been complicit in have stressed the economic and cultural influ-
imperial projects historically (and, some would ences and dependencies that continue today and
add, today) has led to calls to decolonize the dis- the continuation of colonial practices of leisure
cipline. Proponents have called for the incorpo- by Western travelers.
ration of voices outside the metropole as well as Critical development geographers have also
a move away from the Eurocentric geographies recently employed postcolonial theory in their
frequently cited in colonial contexts. Historical critiques of uneven distributions of wealth, polit-
geographers interested in disciplinary history ical and cultural power, and resources. Work in
have been particularly interested in the creation this field, as well as investigations of political
of imperial maps, the exoticization of colonized economy, has ranged from a challenging of the
places, the imaginative geographies constructed preferred nomenclature over time—from Third
about those places, and the racist and determin- World/First World and periphery/core to less
ist treatment of peoples there. Cartographers developed/more developed and, most recently,
have worked to critique and rethink the normal- global South/global North, to critiques of the
ized Western map and the collection, representa- overwhelming domination of the World Bank
tion, and dissemination of various knowledges and the International Monetary Fund by the
of spaces and places. Western, former colonial powers. Like the work
Feminist and critical historical geographies have done in postcolonial literary studies, critical
attempted to account for the inconsistencies and development geographies have sought to chal-
silences present even within the colonial powers, lenge Western ideas of “progress” and “moder-
noting the lack of inclusion of other voices save nity.” Actions such as the forced privatization of
that of white males as well as the nonstandard social services in the global South in the name
historical accounts, such as travel diaries. Feminist of modernity have been used to expose the neo-
scholars have also criticized what they consider colonialism being perpetuated by Western states
premature self-congratulation regarding the inclu- and multinational companies. Reactions to the
sion of alternative voices. By critiquing postcolo- policies of Western development organizations
nialism from within, postcolonial feminists have have included both non-Westerners and radical-
sought to occupy a paradoxical position both activist Westerners. These anticolonial acts of
within and without the genre. Postcolonial femi- solidarity have become another example of anti-
nist geographies have also been particularly atten- colonial struggles in a world engaged with many
tive to methodological considerations, including forms of postcolonialism.
self-reflexivity and the negotiation of power
dynamics in research praxis. Victoria S. Downey
The latter part of the 20th century saw a height-
ened interest in identity politics throughout many See also Antiglobalization; Colonialism; Developing
academic disciplines. Geographers working World; Discourse and Geography; Globalization;
within a postcolonial framework took up identity Gregory, Derek; Hybrid Geographies; Imperialism;
and heritage to understand how postcolonial peo- Orientalism; Other/Otherness; Poststructuralism; Race
ples, from both the metropole and the periphery, and Empire; Representations of Space; Social
view themselves. The celebration and reclamation Darwinism; Subaltern Studies
''+' P O S T I N D U STRIAL SOCIE TY

Further Readings
dominant social binary of capital and proletarian
classes.
Gandhi, L. (1998). Postcolonial theory: A critical Initial references to the idea of the postindus-
introduction. New York: Columbia University trial society include David Riesman’s (1958)
Press. interpretation of the term to connote leisure
Jacobs, J. (2003). Introduction: After empire? rather than work and an earlier invocation of
In K. Anderson, M. Domosh, S. Pile, & postindustrial society as a hoped-for return to
N. Thrift (Eds.), Handbook of cultural geography artisanal workshop vocations by the British Guild
(pp. 345–353). London: Sage. Socialist Arthur Penty (Old Worlds for New: A
King, A. (2003). Cultures and spaces of postcolonial Study of the Post-Industrial State) in 1917. The
knowledges. In K. Anderson, M. Domosh, S. Pile, definitive usage was established by Daniel Bell in
& N. Thrift (Eds.), Handbook of cultural his seminal work The Coming of Post-Industrial
geography (pp. 381–397). London: Sage. Society (1973). Before committing to postindus-
Power, M. (2003). Rethinking development trialism as a descriptor of change, Bell had exper-
geographies. New York: Routledge. imented with the idea of alternatives such as the
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage “knowledge society,” the “information society,”
Books. and the “professional society,” and he also gave
Schwarz, H., & Ray, S. (2000). A companion consideration to Dahrendorff’s thesis of a post-
to postcolonial studies. Malden, MA: Blackwell. capitalist society in Class and Class Conflict in an
Spivak, G. (1988). Can the subaltern speak? In Industrial Society (1959). Bell’s (1973) preference
C. Nelson & L. Grossberg (Eds.), Marxism and for postindustrial society as a descriptor of social
the interpretation of culture (pp. 271–313). transformation was derived from his sense that
Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan.
we are in the midst of a vast historical change in
which old social relations (which were property
bound), existing power structures (centered on
narrow elites), and bourgeois culture (based on
POST-FORDISM notions of restraint and delayed gratification) are
being rapidly eroded. (p. 37)

See Flexible Production The sources of this historic “upheaval” are

acknowledged as scientific and technological but
“are also cultural, since culture, I believe, has
achieved autonomy in western society” (p. 37).
POSTINDUSTRIAL SOCIETY According to Bell’s formulation, the five dimen-
sions or components of postindustrial society are
Postindustrial society represents a major concep- the following:
tual underpinning of geography and geographi-
cal discourses, with particular salience for social, 1. Economic sector: The change from a goods-
economic, and urban geography as well as for producing to a service economy
allied disciplines and fields. Initially framed by 2. Occupational distribution: The preeminence of
the American sociologist Daniel Bell as a forecast the professional and technical class
of social change and as an explanation of social
3. Axial principle: The centrality of theoretical
tendencies among advanced societies and states
knowledge as the source of information and of
during the wrenching experiences of industrial
policy formulation for the society
restructuring in the latter half of the 20th cen-
tury, the idea of the postindustrial society was 4. Future orientation: The control of technology
also positioned as a critique of Marxist theories and technological assessment
of production, labor, and social class formation 5. Decision making: The creation of a new
and, more specifically, Marx’s insistence on a “intellectual” technology
 P OST INDUST R IA L SOC IE TY ''+(

Bell (1973) acknowledged a debt to Colin extent deplored), expressed in political values,
Clark, who postulated that income growth would social attitudes, housing choices (locations, styles,
lead to the expansion of services, and asserts that forms of tenure), lifestyles, and behaviors. An
the “simplest characteristic of a post-industrial early marker of class change in the city was the
society is that the majority of the labor force is no infiltration of professionals and managers into
longer engaged in agriculture or manufacturing the old residential neighborhoods of the inner
but in services” (p. 15). Bell made a crucial dis- city, producing an insistent social upgrading and
tinction between the menial, low-value service displacement trajectory. This process generated
employment that characterized developing societ- in turn both a policy crisis and an important new
ies such as India and the specialized, knowledge- urban discourse of gentrification, pioneered by
intensive services that increasingly define advanced Ruth Glass in her study of occupancy change in
societies. These include occupations in health, London. By the 1990s, the process of manufac-
education, research, and government and pro- turing collapse had essentially run its course in
vided the basis for a “new intelligentsia” and, in many cities, with the postindustrial city now char-
turn, the “pre-eminence of the professional and acterized by a dominant “new middle class” of
technical class” (p. 15). elite service workers, including highly paid bank-
Bell’s prediction of a secular decline in indus- ing and financial workers, producer service pro-
trial production and the laboring classes, and the fessionals, entrepreneurs, and knowledge economy
ideological shift implied in this transition, workers, fulfilling in large part Bell’s prophecy.
achieved a powerful resonance within the aca- At the local scale, this new middle class evinced a
demic and policy communities as well as fierce preference for a more “livable” and “convivial”
contestation. Criticisms of postindustrialism city than that represented by the industrial city,
included opposition to the notion of an expan- with its manifest conditions of exploitation, mate-
sionist, autonomous service sector decoupled rialism, segregation, and alienation. But in prac-
from manufacturing and industry. More specifi- tice, this postindustrial, sociopolitical constituency
cally, scholars affirmed that the fastest-growing, enabled the state-supported dislocation of manu-
most knowledge-intensive, and most deeply pro- facturing and allied workers in urban districts,
fessionalized service industries were those most intensifying professionalization tendencies and
intimately linked to production: the so-called pro- pressures for social polarization.
ducer services. Other scholars, notably those More recently, the rise of the putative “cre-
associated with variants of Marxism, objected ative class” postulated by Richard Florida and
strenuously to the ideological tenor and policy his followers presaged a new chapter in the evo-
implications of a postindustrial agenda, which lution of postindustrial society. This creative
implied a discounting of the value of industrial class represented the social correlate of the cul-
labor, class, and communities and a correspond- tural economy and workforce, seen as following
ing privileging of the interests of capital, epito- “neo-Bohemian” housing and lifestyle patterns
mized by the neoliberal state regimes of Margaret distinct in some respects from those of the new
Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. middle class, much as the behaviors of the latter
Over the past three decades, the original constituted a departure from those of the indus-
emphasis on the nation-state as the unit of analy- trial classes. But others contest this proposition
sis for the study of postindustrial society has been of a quasi-autonomous creative class, instead
adapted by social, urban, and economic geogra- asserting that cultural workers were always
phers to apply principally to the urban-regional encompassed within the parameters of the new
scale and, indeed, to measures of social change at middle class and indeed were acknowledged as
the district, community, and neighborhood scales. constitutive elements of Bell’s postindustrial
The rise of the services class, and more particu- society. This contemporary debate underscores
larly the managers and professionals who occu- the continuing relevance of Bell’s postindustrial
pied the higher echelons of the postindustrial theory for urban studies.
economy, implied far-reaching changes in
advanced cities, as Bell predicted (and to some Thomas A. Hutton
''+) P O S T M O D E RNISM

See also Class, Geography and; Development Theory; was used as an identifier of a new style that was
Education, Geographies of; Flexible Production; different from and, indeed, critical of modernist
Information Society; Innovation, Geography of; design, which had risen to prominence in the
Knowledge, Geography of; Producer Services 20th century but whose focus on the adoption of
functionality, efficiency, and separation from the
past had by the 1960s become subject to wide-
spread criticism. It was at this time that archi-
Further Readings tects such as Peter Eisenman, Frank Gehry, Peter
Johnston, and Robert Venturi began to create
Bell, D. (1973). The coming of post-industrial society: new architectural designs that were promoted as
A venture in social forecasting. New York: Basic being more in tune with and, indeed, learning
Books. from the performance of everyday human life.
Florida, R. (2004). The rise of the creative class. New The rectilinearity and standardization character-
York: Basic Books. istic of modernist architecture were replaced by
an emphasis on diverse surfaces, textures, and
forms, which often combined elements from both
contemporary popular culture and a range of
prior architectural styles.
POSTMODERNISM The ideas circulating within architecture
began to infuse academic studies of urban design
The term postmodernism appeared in academic and social life, notably through the work of
geography in the late 1980s, although it had been Christopher Jenks and Frederick Jameson, and
circulating earlier in several disciplines and profes- in the late 1980s, geographers began to make
sions. The term is often used in two different ways. reference to the term postmodernism. In many
First, it designates an object of study whereby of these studies, the term was not only applied
researchers examine some feature that is seen to to the design of particular buildings but also
be postmodern in style, character, or design. Com- used to characterize whole cities. Edward Soja,
monly identified postmodern objects include for instance, presented Los Angeles as the quint-
buildings, cities, cultures, societies, and econo- essential postmodern city because it was com-
mies, although this last object is often described posed of a plethora of urban forms reflective of
using the related term post-Fordist. The clustering a series of different divisions and fractures that
of such postmodern objects together may be seen came together to produce a collage of fragmen-
to imply that people are, in at least some places in tary images and experiences. David Harvey made
the world, living in a distinctive epoch or condi- a similar argument, albeit generalizing it to a
tion of postmodernity. The other way that the range of North American cities that he suggested
term postmodernism is often used is to imply an exhibited postmodernity through numerous cul-
approach (or as it has also been described, atti- tural signs and images that constituted a sort of
tude, method, or sensibility) to viewing and under- messy social collage, or pastiche, of meanings
standing the world and how it operates. within which there was no apparent order. Post-
This entry briefly outlines how these two views modern architects, artists, filmmakers, and other
of postmodernism arose and considers how they cultural image makers were, in effect, codifying
interconnect in the work of two geographers, and representing a condition of social life that
David Harvey and Michael Dear. The entry also was already being experienced by many urban
examines the impact of postmodernism, identify- inhabitants.
ing three contrasting interpretations. Harvey’s work, while clearly centered on cit-
ies, clearly illustrates how postmodernism could
be identified in all manner of objects. At least
Postmodernism as Object
two features tie these postmodern objects
One of the fields where postmodernism emerged together. First, they are seen in some sense or
initially was in architecture, where the term other as new objects that can be contrasted with
 P OST MODER NI S M ''+*

something that went before and that was desig- Postmodernism as Attitude
nated as modern. The “post” prefix in part
therefore encompassed notions of temporal An emphasis on complexity and fluidity is also
change, with postmodernism being viewed, in characteristic of “postmodernism as attitude,”
part, as a periodizing concept, although this although these descriptors are here applied to the
usage was contested by a series of authors who conduct of finding out about the world as well as
argued that the term should not necessarily to the character of that world, or to put it more
imply a clean break with modernism but could formally, postmodernism involved radically dif-
also be viewed as a continuation, albeit in a ferent epistemologies and ontologies from those
slightly new form. previously enacted within geography.
A second aspect of postmodern objects is that
they are seen to be highly complex and fluid, in
EdhibdYZgcDcidad\^Zh
contrast to what went before, which was seen to
be regular and largely static in form. In relation- Connecting ideas of complexity and fluidity
ship to buildings and urban form, postmodernism identified in various postmodern objects to the
was seen to involve a movement from redevelop- research process, postmodernism as attitude
ment focused on the construction of large rectilin- stressed at least two lines of ontological argu-
ear buildings and street layouts with clear and ments. First, it was argued that modernist
static divisions of land use, often bearing no rela- approaches tend to draw on “metanarratives”
tion to earlier forms of development, to regenera- or “grand theories.” Metanarratives can be seen
tion whereby existing buildings were often as “big stories” that serve to organize phenom-
modernized rather than replaced and new build- ena or events into some seemingly meaningful
ings were slotted into the fabric of existing build- temporal order or pattern, centered around some
ings, both physically and symbolically, with many central principle or plot, such as the growth of
drawing on local building styles that were com- knowledge/reduction of ignorance or false belief,
bined, sometimes quite ironically, with other, the realization of the human spirit, increasing
more modernistic and globalized elements. The control of nature, or emancipation from social
result was a complex mix or pastiche of architec- control. All these narratives have been influen-
tural styles and land use, often within a complex, tial in geography at points in the recent past: the
multilayered street plan that involved multiple first of these, for example, underpinning positiv-
and changeable use of space. ist approaches to geography; the second, many
Complexity and fluidity are also evident within strands of humanistic geography; and the third
other postmodern objects. Attention has been and fourth forming elements of Marxist
drawn, for instance, to the multiplicity, change- approaches as well as a range of more liberal
ability, and hybridity of identities in contempo- perspectives.
rary pop music; leisure, recreation, and tourism; Many metanarratives involve grand theories,
films and television programs; and the marketing which are claims to understand how the world
and purchase of consumer commodities. Some operates through the identification of concepts
scholars have also drawn attention to organiza- viewed as corresponding or referring to some
tional changes in economic production whereby central mechanisms or processes considered as
so-called post-Fordist economies have seen the propelling phenomena and events within much
rise of flexible and just-in-time production, often of the world. So, for instance, many positivist
oriented to the production of niche and fashion approaches drew on concepts such as economic
products, and how these are connected to the rationality and profit maximization, humanistic
cultural changes associated with postmodernism. geographies on notions such as authenticity and
Most prominent in this respect was David Har- belonging, and Marxism on concepts such as
vey’s book The Condition of Postmodernity, modes of production and class struggle. While
published in 1989, which argued that postmo- identifying quite different key concepts, and
dernity was the product of a shift in capitalism therefore often being seen as quite incompatible
toward flexible accumulation. with each other, these approaches arguably all
''++ P O S T M O D E RNISM

shared a similar ontological stance in that the A second ontological concern of postmodern-
world is seen to be conditioned or ordered ism closely associated with its concern to avoid
according to some central logic. grand theory is a concern with difference. In part,
Postmodernism as attitude expresses, mini- this involved questioning of the assumption made
mally, skepticism about the value of metanarra- within many modernist perspectives that expla-
tives and grand concepts and often complete nation relied on seeking out the similarities
rejection, as in Michael Dear’s (2000) claim that between events, objects, or processes and suggest-
the ideal of postmodernism is for a philosophical ing that such approaches often resulted in crucial
culture “free from the search for ultimate founda- aspects of situations being overlooked. Moreover,
tions of everything” (p. 35). Such a view, often it involved questioning of the categories of differ-
characterized as a relativist position in which there ence that entered into the accounts being created,
are no singular, absolute truths but rather a range suggesting that these were often far more diverse,
of different and equally valid perspectives, complicated, and fluid than was often presup-
attracted considerable criticism, particularly in the posed in modernist theories. Chris Philo, in a dis-
late 1980s and early 1990s, when even some of cussion of postmodernism in rural geography, for
the advocates of postmodernism expressed con- example, suggested that people had largely been
cern. However, it is clear that strands of postmod- portrayed as essentially similar to each other, and
ernist arguments have come to be widely accepted to those who were studying them, in that there
within geography, even among those who would was an implicit focus on people who were white,
not explicitly consider themselves to be postmod- male, middle class, middle-aged, able-bodied,
ernist. From the late 1980s, for instance, there has sound minded, and heterosexual. He suggested
been a growing recognition of the disorderly and that this focus on “the same” needed to be sup-
contingent within geographical studies and how plemented by a study of “neglected others,” peo-
many aspects of the social and physical worlds do ple who were, in one way or another, different
not seem to fit within some overarching logic or from the societal norm.
structure. There has been increasing resistance to The study of “others” formed a focus for much
the notion of developing general and hierarchical geographical work in human geography from the
ontologies, whereby some features or processes late 1980s, with Michael Dear, one of the earliest
are seen to be more significant, more foundational proponents of postmodernism in geography,
than others. In contrast, postmodernism can be arguing in his book The Postmodern Urban Con-
seen to imply nonhierarchical and localized ontol- dition that postmodernism has had a liberating
ogies, whereby events, phenomena, and processes effect on previously marginalized voices, includ-
emerge because of the particular relationships that ing women, people with disabilities, gays and
come to exist between all manner of elements that lesbians, people of color, and the economically
are copresent within particular times and spaces. and socially disadvantaged. There has been an
Such a viewpoint creates a new, more humble role enlarging portfolio of people studied by human
for theory, as explanations cannot be specified in geographers, although concern has been expressed
advance of a particular study or transferred about practicalities, the ethics and politics of
directly from one context to another. It also cre- studies of “the other,” and the possibility that
ates a stronger role for description than had been postmodern ontologies and epistemologies are
the case in many earlier, modernist perspectives, not fully compatible with the projects of other
with attention being drawn, for instance, to perspectives that have sought to give voice to
notions of thick description and local knowledges neglected groups and interests, such as feminism,
as advanced by the anthropologist Clifford Geertz, postcolonialism, and queer theory. Attention has
as well as increasing attention being paid to the also been drawn to “differences within the same,”
value of qualitative research methods, which argu- that is, how people who might be seen in many
ably can be seen as part and parcel of a postmod- respects to fit into a societal group may in some
ernist approach to geography, just as quantitative respects be quite different from others in that
methods had become widely equated with positiv- group. Hence, for instance, one impact of post-
ist philosophies. modernism has been to foster attention on the
 P OST MODER NI S M ''+,

differences between women, a focus that has often draw implicitly on mimetic or correspon-
been described as characteristic of postmodern dence theories of truth, whereby the truth or fal-
feminism and/or postfeminism. sity of concepts is seen to reflect the degree to
which they accurately align with/reflect the phe-
nomena to which they refer, a range of writers
EdhibdYZgc:e^hiZbdad\n
associated with poststructuralism, including Bau-
In relation to epistemology, postmodernism drillard and Derrida, have questioned whether
can be considered as involving a rejection of, or concepts have any linkage to anything beyond
at least a movement away from, modern views other concepts or signs.
on knowledge. At least since the European As well as stressing the problems of representa-
Renaissance, and probably well before, the tion, postmodern discussions of epistemology
acquisition of knowledge has been widely seen have also highlighted the situatedness of knowl-
as emancipatory, holding, at least potentially, edge: how knowledge is always constructed from
prospects of freedom from social and natural a position somewhere within society. This view is
constraints. This viewpoint was quite explicitly contrasted with the objectivist position of many
articulated in the European Enlightenment of modernist epistemologies that situated the
the 17th and 18th centuries and can be seen to researcher as ideally being some disembodied
infuse the metanarratives that have informed viewer surveying a world from which he or she
many of the philosophical perspectives that have, had become detached. Not only was this posi-
as noted earlier, been processed through geogra- tioning criticized as being impossible to realize,
phy through the course of the 20th century. but in the 1990s, a series of other, explicitly situ-
However, a key strand of the postmodern cri- ated positionings came to be advanced, including
tique of grand narratives has been to question, calls to view things “from below,” “from the
and in some cases completely reject, Enlighten- margins,” “from the inside-out,” “from the
ment perspectives, not only highlighting that streets,” “from the borders or contact zones,”
acquisition of knowledge frequently does not and “from the in-between,” as well as through
seem to lead to emancipation from necessity and “traveling” and “nomadism.” As well as these
social control but also, in the work of people calls for particular spatialized epistemologies,
such as Jean-François Lyotard, Michael Fou- there were also more general calls for geographers
cault, and Jacques Derrida, su