TERRITORIAL AND ENVIRONMENT STUDIES

Transcription

1 TERRITORIAL AND ENVIRONMENT STUDIES Environment and Sustainable Tourism Space diversity and Intercultural Geography 1th period: October nd period: November-December 2017

2 2nd module Space Diversity and Intercultural Geography Federica Burini Stephanie Pyne

3 Course Time Table Wednesday 12:00-15:00 pm Thursday 08:00-11:00 am 3

4 Course Bibliography 1) E. Casti, Reflexive cartography, A New Perspective in Mapping, Elsevier, Amsterdam, ) T. Oakes, P. Price, The Cultural Geography Reader, London and New York : Routledge, Parts * Other readings will be distributed in class 4

5 Course Syllabus 1 ST PART FEDERICA BURINI 1. COURSE INTRODUCTION 2. NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE NEW CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 3. CARTOGRAPHIC REPRESENTATION FOR INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE 4. COLLABORATIVE MAPPING IN AFRICA AND IN EUROPE 5. TERRITORY, ETHNICITY, RACE 6. FROM ROOTS TO ROUTES 2 ND PART STEPHANIE PYNE 1. BEYOND CULTURE : GENDER, CLASS AND PUBLIC SPACE 2. LANDSCAPE AS A SEMIOTIC SYSTEM : GEOGRAPHIES OF EXCLUSION 3. INDIGENOUS GEOGRAPHIES 4. ABORIGINAL TOURISM

6 INTRODUCTION: FROM HUMAN TO CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY: EMERGENCE OF A DISCIPLINE Friedrich Ratzel Anthropogeographie Paul Vidal de la Blache Possibilisme Genre de vie Carl Otwin Sauer Morphology of landscape 1. Emergence of cultural geography 2. The German school 3. The French school 4. The American school

7 1. EMERGENCE OF CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY AS A DISCIPLINE CONTEXT : THE AGE OF «DISCOVERY» The Cantino World Map (1502) incorporates new geographical information based on four series of voyages: Columbus to the Caribbean, Pedro Álvarez Cabral to Brazil, Vasco de Gama followed by Cabral to eastern Africa and India, and the brothers Corte-Real to Greenland and Newfoundland. * 15th to 17th century : Period of intense exploration of the world by European powers * Made possible by improvements in technology : better ships, navigation tools, mapping techniques, etc. * Accounts from distant lands and maps spread with the help of the new printing press, ushering a new age of scientific and intellectural inquiry.

8 CONTEXT : THE AGE OF «DISCOVERY»

9 Encounter with new cultures poses a series of philosophical questions to Western society * Timucua Indian men meeting settlers in Florida (circa 1562) * Culture : The idea that the humanity of human beings is expressed in the distinctive practices that they adopt as solutions to the challenges of existence, and of their environment. * There are infinite varieties of solutions to the challenges posed by human existence. * Paradox of englightment : Human dignity is understood to be rooted in the universal human capacity for reason. Yet when people engage in cultural practices that are unfamiliar or disturbing to the European observer, they appear irrational and thus undeserving of recognition and respect.

10 Amerigo Vespucci Awakens a Sleeping America Johanes Stradanus (1600)

11 WORLD MAP OF COLONIALISM IN * Enlightenment and the challenge of cultural pluralism : Tension between universalistic concepts such as human rights and the realities of cultural diversity. * Liberalism : All individuals share a capacity for reason and self-government. The theory of developmental history, however, modifies this universalism with the notion that these capacities only emerge at a certain stage of civilization. * Colonialism : The White Man s Burden

12 BRITISH HIGH IMPERIALISM (19TH CENTURY) «The White man s burden» Rudyard Kipling 1899 Take up the White man s Burden Send forth the best ye Breed Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives need To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild Your new caught sullen peoples Half devil and half child

13 WORLD MAP OF EMPIRES AND COLONIES IN

14 2. The German school * From (physical) geography to anthropogeography * Naturvölker / kulturvölker : natural races and cultural races are set apart by their historical progress. * Links with the evolutionary ecology of Charles Darwin (1859) Friedrich Ratzel ( ) * Environmental determinism : Idea that the environment (soil, landforms, climate, etc.) determines the patterns of human culture and societal development. An area's physical characteristics are believed to have a strong impact on the psychological outlook of its inhabitants. These varied outlooks spread throughout a population and define the behavior and culture of a society. Related to the idea of Lebensraum (Living space) : A people that successfully adapted to one location would proceed naturally to another. This expansion to fill available space was a natural and necessary feature of any healthy species. CAN BIOLOGY AND POLITICAL RATIONALITY BE LINKED IN THIS WAY?

15 3. The French school Like Ratzel, he recognizes the impact of the environment on human societies but takes a different approach Paul Vidal de la Blache ( ) * Premise to his work: there is a strong correlation between a social fact and a geographical fact. The task of the cultural geographer is to study this system of relations. Key concepts

16 HOLISM: The distinctive contribution of geography is that it tackles geographical and social phenomena as a whole. «[L]es plantes s'organisent physiologiquement pour s'accommoder aux influences ambiantes d'après l'altitude, les intempéries, la sécheresse, la chaleur humide. Non seulement elles modifient [ ]leurs organes extérieurs, mais elles se combinent entre elles de façon à se répartir l'espace. Dans ces groupements, qui sont [ ] la physionomie du paysage, chaque plante s'est arrangée avec ses voisines pour avoir sa part de sol, de lumière, de nourriture. Les êtres viennent s'associer et s'unir, trouvant avantage et profit dans les conditions déterminées par la présence des autres.» Paul Vidal de la Blache ( ) «Plants get organized physiologically to adapt to the ambient influences according to elevation, weather, drought, humidity. Not only do they modify their outer features, they harmonize between one another so as to divide up and occupy space. In these groupings, which are the face of the landscape, every plant has settled with its neighbours to have its part of ground, light, food. Beings come to join and to unite, finding advantage and profit in the conditions determined by the presence of the others.» Des caractères distinctifs de la géographie (1913)

17 HOLISM: The distinctive contribution of geography is that it tackles geographical and social phenomena as a whole. Paul Vidal de la Blache ( ) «Une forêt est une sorte d'être collectif où coexistent, dans une harmonie provisoire et non à l'épreuve des changements, des arbres, des végétaux de sous-bois, des champignons et une foule d'hôtes également attitrés, insectes, termites, fourmis. Ainsi les choses se présentent à nous en groupes organisés, en associations régies par un équilibre que l'homme dérange incessamment ou, suivant les cas, redresse, en y portant la main. L'idée de milieu, dans ces expressions diverses, se précise comme corrélative et synonyme d'adaptation. Elle se manifeste par des séries de phénomènes qui s'enchaînent entre eux et sont mis en mouvement par des causes générales. C'est par elle que nous sommes incessamment ramenés à ces causes de climat, de structure, de concurrence vitale, qui donnent le branle à une foule d'activités spéciales des formes et des êtres.» Des caractères distinctifs de la géographie (1913)

18 POSSIBILISM : In opposition to determinism. Counters a linear, theleological view of human «progress» and «development.» There are many possible outcomes to the interaction between human societies and their environment Paul Vidal de la Blache ( ) «A geographical unit does not result from simple considerations of geology and climate. It is not an object that is already given by nature. We must begin with this idea that a region (contrée) is a reservoir where various potentials lay dormant : if their seed was deposited by nature, the use of these potentials depends on Man. It is he who, molding these energies, brings out a region s individuality. He establishes links between scattered features. To the fluctuating effects of local circumstances, he substitutes a systematic arrangement of strengths. The result is that the region acquires its specific character and becomes, in the long run, like a medal imprinted with the image of a people.» La personnalité géographique de la France (1941)

19 GENRE DE VIE (related concept : «terroir») Mode of subsistence developed over time from the resources of the local environment that is occupied and used by a human population. Collective organization with the aim of producing and maintaining the social, economic and religious life of a group in a given geographical space. * «Tableau de la géographie de la France» : Establishes regional geography and regional monographs as a key contribution of cultural geography. * Political dimensions of his work : Diversity of landscapes is not a threat to political unity. These various traits are brought together to shape the contours of a nation.

20 4. The American school Son of German immigrants. Taught at the University of California Berkeley. Strongly influenced by the work of European geographers. Referring to the work of Vidal de la Blache : «The regional monographs that proceeded from his school expressed far more adequately than had been done before the full form content and structural relation of the landscape, finding in the cultural landscape the culminating expression of the organic area. In these studies, the position of man and his works explicitly is that of the last and most important factor and forms in the landscape.» Carl Otwin Sauer ( ) The Morphology of Landscape, 1925

21 LEGACY OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL FOR CONCEPTUALISING THE RELATIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE AND PLACE A HUMANIST AND CRITICAL APPROACH «A good deal of the meaning of area lies beyond scientific regimentation. The best geography has never disregarded the aesthetic qualities of landscape, to which we know no approach other than the subjective.» Carl Otwin Sauer ( ) AN ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH Through culture, humans exploit natural forms, alter them and, in many cases, can go as far as to destroy them.

22 The Cultural Turn Context The 1973 oil crisis and the new wave of neo-liberal globalization These economic and political changes permeated into the recesses of ordinary people s lives. Not only in universities, but also in the media and in private encounters, virtually everyone, everywhere became increasingly conscious of the problem of creating meaning in situations in which so many of the parameters of economic, political and social life had shifted. It was in this climate of general consciousness of the problem of finding meaning and value that the so-called cultural turn occurred amongst intellectuals in all of the social sciences, and not only in the West. (1)(Doing Cultural Geography, 1)

23 The Cultural Turn General Trend in Academia By cultural turn, it was implied that the accumulations of ways of seeing, means of communicating, constructions of value, senses of identity should be taken as important in their own right, rather than just a by-product of economic formations (Doing Cultural Geography, 1). Suddenly culture became intellectually fashionable as a starting point for interpretation, whereas it had hitherto been seen as lacking in rigour (Doing Cultural Geography 1).

24 The Cultural Turn Geography Through the 1980s, all of the sub-disciplines of human geography came to be conscious of the cultural dimensions of their field of study: more concern with practices, identity, exclusion and inclusion, and the notion of culturally or socially constructed knowledge: economic geographers discovered embeddedness of local economies in local social practices; political geographers became aware of new nationalisms and notions of identity in boundary formation and exclusion; urban geographers turned their attention to lifestyle and they became enthusiastic about cultural regeneration of cities; the countryside was rethought as a cultural construction, as was nature itself.. (DCG 2)

25 NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE «NEW» CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY New cultural geography Don Mitchell Culture as semiotics Clifford Geertz James Duncan Peter Jackson 1. Challenges to early concepts 2. Superorganicism and its critics 3. Culture as power 4. Culture as a semiotic system

26 NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE «NEW» CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 1. CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY : CHALLENGES TO EARLY CONCEPTS i) Modernisation * The tools with which humans transform the environment are changing due to mechanisation. * Environmental adaptation through techniques can no longer explain the diversity of human presence and diffusion across the globe. * The idea of cultural centers (foyers) and diffusion is complicated by new modes of cultural transmission.

27 NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE «NEW» CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 1. CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY : CHALLENGES TO EARLY CONCEPTS ii) Urbanisation * The genre de vie approach is not quite suitable to analyse urban environments. * «Ethnographic» societies are disappearing across the globe thanks to their increasing exchanges with and presence in the city. New analytical concepts are needed

28 NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE «NEW» CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 1. CULTURE AND GEOGRAPHY : CHALLENGES TO EARLY CONCEPTS iii) Discourses and representations * The ways in which people think about the world and talk about the world has an impact on the production of landscapes. * Beyond techniques and the resources of the environment, the ideas that people have about nature, the universe, god or other cultures has a material impact on the shape and use of landscapes. * These ideas also have an impact on the distribution of human societies across the earth s surface.

29 NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE «NEW» CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 2. CRITIQUE : THE SUPERORGANIC APPROACH TO CULTURE * Culture belongs to human groups, not individuals * Culture, as an entity, stands above individuals * The whole, not the part, is the determining factor in culture Jim Duncan University of Cambridge «The superorganic mode of explanation in cultural geography reifies the notion of culture assigning it ontological status and causative power. This theory of culture was outlined by anthropologists Alfred Kroeber and Robert Lowie during the first quarter of the twentieth century, later elaborated by Leslie White, and passed on to Carl Sauer and a number of his students at Berkeley. In this theory culture is viewed as an entity above man, not reducible to the actions of individuals, mysteriously responding to laws of its own. Explanation, it is claimed must be phrased in terms of the cultural level not in terms of individuals.» The Superorganic in American Cultural Geography (1980)

30 NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE «NEW» CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 2. CRITIQUE : CULTURE IS TREATED AS «BLACK BOX» 3 major consequences i) Environmental determinism is replaced with cultural determinism Ii) Culture seems much more homogenous than it really is: «The favorite image of the romantic ethnographer is a seamless superorganic unit within whose collective embrace the individual simply disappears into a cloud of mystic harmony.»

31 NO SUCH THING AS CULTURE? THE «NEW» CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY INTERCULTURAL GEOGRAPHY 2. CRITIQUE : CULTURE IS TREATED AS «BLACK BOX» 3 major consequences iii) This perspective results in a reification of culture: «In short the world described by the cultural geographers is a world in which the individual is largely absent, consensus prevails, deviance is ignored; it is a world untouched by intracultural conflict.»

32 FROM ROOTS TO ROUTES Tree / rhizome Time-space compression Roots / routes Diaspora Multiculturalism 1. From roots to routes 2. Time-space compression 3. Mobility 4. Travel 5. From culture to multiculturalism

33 From roots to routes (Stuart Hall). Changing the terms of cultural analysis Movement Dwelling Mediation Travel Territorializing / deterritorializing Immigration Diasporas Hybridity Translation

34 «Natives, people confined to and by the places to which they belong, groups unsullied by contact with a larger world, have probably never existed.» (James Clifford, p. 319 Reader) Mediation Movement Travel Territorializing / deterritorializing Immigration Diasporas Hybridity Translation Dwelling

35 CULTURE IDENTITY PLACE A tree-like model or a rhizomatic model?

36 Is there a geography to time-space compression? Is mobility experienced differently depending on gender, race, class? Some experiences of mobility

37 What about forms of mobility? The mobility of tourism is not the same as the mobility of immigration, displacement, etc. Some experiences of mobility