John Morrill (ed.)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263129
- eISBN:
- 9780191734861
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263129.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the ...
More
To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the disciplines that fall within the Academy's compass. The Academy proposed the discipline and the universities nominated their preferred speakers. Those selected were drawn from Britain, Europe and the USA, and they rose magnificently to the challenge, while interpreting it in a way specific to their discipline. The eight chapters (plus four commentaries) span the disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, from the history of art to international relations and geography. These are reflections on the stability and instability of the ways in which we organize knowledge and on how far the academic community can and should be involved in the shaping of public policy.Less
To mark its centenary in 2002, the British Academy invited leading universities around the UK to host public lectures on the current state of and future prospects for a cross section of the disciplines that fall within the Academy's compass. The Academy proposed the discipline and the universities nominated their preferred speakers. Those selected were drawn from Britain, Europe and the USA, and they rose magnificently to the challenge, while interpreting it in a way specific to their discipline. The eight chapters (plus four commentaries) span the disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences, from the history of art to international relations and geography. These are reflections on the stability and instability of the ways in which we organize knowledge and on how far the academic community can and should be involved in the shaping of public policy.
Naghmeh Sohrabi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199829705
- eISBN:
- 9780199933341
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199829705.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, World Literature, Prose (inc. letters, diaries)
This book focuses on travelogues by Iranians traveling to Europe in the nineteenth century. It argues for an interpretive framework that moves away from an overemphasis on the destinations of travel ...
More
This book focuses on travelogues by Iranians traveling to Europe in the nineteenth century. It argues for an interpretive framework that moves away from an overemphasis on the destinations of travel (particularly in cases where the destination, such as Europe, signifies larger meanings such as modernity) and that historicizes the travelogue itself as a rhetorical text in the service of its origin’s concerns and developments. Within this framework, this book demonstrates the ways in which travel writings from Iran to Europe were used to position Qajar Iran (1794–1925) within a global context—that is, narration of travel to Europe was also narrating the power of the Qajar court even when political events were tipped against it—and relatedly, how both travel to Europe and also translations of travel narratives into Persian should be included in our understanding of the importance of geography and mapping to the Qajars, especially during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In this process, it also reexamines the notion that Iranian modernity was the chief outcome of Iranians traveling in and writing about Europe.Less
This book focuses on travelogues by Iranians traveling to Europe in the nineteenth century. It argues for an interpretive framework that moves away from an overemphasis on the destinations of travel (particularly in cases where the destination, such as Europe, signifies larger meanings such as modernity) and that historicizes the travelogue itself as a rhetorical text in the service of its origin’s concerns and developments. Within this framework, this book demonstrates the ways in which travel writings from Iran to Europe were used to position Qajar Iran (1794–1925) within a global context—that is, narration of travel to Europe was also narrating the power of the Qajar court even when political events were tipped against it—and relatedly, how both travel to Europe and also translations of travel narratives into Persian should be included in our understanding of the importance of geography and mapping to the Qajars, especially during the latter half of the nineteenth century. In this process, it also reexamines the notion that Iranian modernity was the chief outcome of Iranians traveling in and writing about Europe.
Jon Hegglund
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199796106
- eISBN:
- 9780199932771
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199796106.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, World Literature
This book argues that many Anglophone modernist and postcolonial authors have often functioned as geographers manquéés, advancing theories of space, culture, and community within the formal ...
More
This book argues that many Anglophone modernist and postcolonial authors have often functioned as geographers manquéés, advancing theories of space, culture, and community within the formal structures of literary narrative. Reading a diverse body of work by Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, James Joyce, Graham Greene, Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid, and Amitav Ghosh alongside writings of geographers and other intellectuals, this book finds a persistent imagining of other orders of geographical and geopolitical space that question or deny the ontological primacy of the territorial nation-state. Many twentieth-century Anglophone writers, the book argues, do far more than dramatize the conflicts of characters and communities within a static frame of geographical and social space; rather, these writers treat geographical space as a primary element of novelistic form. This geographical self-consciousness, or metageography, manifests itself in the novel as a structural tension between two codes of realism: the novelistic, which projects a mimetic space of human characters and invididualize plots, and the cartographic, which understands space as a quantitative, formal abstraction. In negotiating this tension, modernist and postcolonial writers employ a spatial irony as a way to both draw upon the novel's powers of mimetic representation while also critiquing the geopolitical orders of space into which the novel's individual narratives must inevitably fit.Less
This book argues that many Anglophone modernist and postcolonial authors have often functioned as geographers manquéés, advancing theories of space, culture, and community within the formal structures of literary narrative. Reading a diverse body of work by Joseph Conrad, E. M. Forster, James Joyce, Graham Greene, Jean Rhys, Jamaica Kincaid, and Amitav Ghosh alongside writings of geographers and other intellectuals, this book finds a persistent imagining of other orders of geographical and geopolitical space that question or deny the ontological primacy of the territorial nation-state. Many twentieth-century Anglophone writers, the book argues, do far more than dramatize the conflicts of characters and communities within a static frame of geographical and social space; rather, these writers treat geographical space as a primary element of novelistic form. This geographical self-consciousness, or metageography, manifests itself in the novel as a structural tension between two codes of realism: the novelistic, which projects a mimetic space of human characters and invididualize plots, and the cartographic, which understands space as a quantitative, formal abstraction. In negotiating this tension, modernist and postcolonial writers employ a spatial irony as a way to both draw upon the novel's powers of mimetic representation while also critiquing the geopolitical orders of space into which the novel's individual narratives must inevitably fit.
Con Coroneos
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198187363
- eISBN:
- 9780191674716
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198187363.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century Literature and Modernism, European Literature
Recent literary and cultural criticism has taken a spatial turn. This book locates this development within the opposition between a space of things and a space of words, tracing various aspects of ...
More
Recent literary and cultural criticism has taken a spatial turn. This book locates this development within the opposition between a space of things and a space of words, tracing various aspects of its emergence from the geopolitical idea of ‘closed space’ which developed in the early 20th century to the influence of Saussurean linguistics in contemporary criticism and theory. The focus of the study is the work of Joseph Conrad, in whom the opposition between a space of words and a space of things is strikingly figured. Part I deals with several versions of closed space to raise questions about the relations between geography, language, and interpretation. Part II deals with the agitation around finitude and the limit, and the desperate attempt to discover in the resources of language a means of liberation. Through these ideas the book explores some of the more disreputable, marginal, or unglimpsed elements in modernism — including the rise of spy fiction, anarchist geography, the spiritualist movement, the invention of artificial languages, the history of laughter, and solar energy. Among the figures drawn into dialogue with Conrad are John Buchan, Woolf, Joyce, Peter Kropotkin, René de Saussure (brother of the famous Ferdinand), Henri Bergson, the filmmakers George Méliès and Carol Reed and, in particular, Michel Foucault — this ‘nouvelle cartographe’ as Gilles Deleuze described him — whose anxious negotiation with spatial ideas touches the book's deepest understanding.Less
Recent literary and cultural criticism has taken a spatial turn. This book locates this development within the opposition between a space of things and a space of words, tracing various aspects of its emergence from the geopolitical idea of ‘closed space’ which developed in the early 20th century to the influence of Saussurean linguistics in contemporary criticism and theory. The focus of the study is the work of Joseph Conrad, in whom the opposition between a space of words and a space of things is strikingly figured. Part I deals with several versions of closed space to raise questions about the relations between geography, language, and interpretation. Part II deals with the agitation around finitude and the limit, and the desperate attempt to discover in the resources of language a means of liberation. Through these ideas the book explores some of the more disreputable, marginal, or unglimpsed elements in modernism — including the rise of spy fiction, anarchist geography, the spiritualist movement, the invention of artificial languages, the history of laughter, and solar energy. Among the figures drawn into dialogue with Conrad are John Buchan, Woolf, Joyce, Peter Kropotkin, René de Saussure (brother of the famous Ferdinand), Henri Bergson, the filmmakers George Méliès and Carol Reed and, in particular, Michel Foucault — this ‘nouvelle cartographe’ as Gilles Deleuze described him — whose anxious negotiation with spatial ideas touches the book's deepest understanding.
Ash Amin and Patrick Cohendet
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199253326
- eISBN:
- 9780191698125
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253326.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
This book demonstrates the importance of the role of knowledge in firms and economies. The authors clarify the theoretical debates on the production and use of knowledge in organizations, and examine ...
More
This book demonstrates the importance of the role of knowledge in firms and economies. The authors clarify the theoretical debates on the production and use of knowledge in organizations, and examine the challenges that face those managing knowledge at different levels of the organization. They develop the notion of ‘community’ within the context of the firm and explore the ways in which these communities learn and produce new knowledge, positing from this emphasis a challenging model of distributed governance of knowledge within and beyond firms. Using insights from academic disciplines including economics, science and technology studies, cognitive sciences, economic geography, and management science, the authors use analytical argument and empirical cases to develop a new theorization of knowledge formation and management, and in turn a new conception of the firm.Less
This book demonstrates the importance of the role of knowledge in firms and economies. The authors clarify the theoretical debates on the production and use of knowledge in organizations, and examine the challenges that face those managing knowledge at different levels of the organization. They develop the notion of ‘community’ within the context of the firm and explore the ways in which these communities learn and produce new knowledge, positing from this emphasis a challenging model of distributed governance of knowledge within and beyond firms. Using insights from academic disciplines including economics, science and technology studies, cognitive sciences, economic geography, and management science, the authors use analytical argument and empirical cases to develop a new theorization of knowledge formation and management, and in turn a new conception of the firm.
Milada Anna Vachudova
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- April 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780199241194
- eISBN:
- 9780191602382
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199241198.003.0003
- Subject:
- Political Science, European Union
The empirical variation between the political trajectories of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, on the one hand, and Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, on the other, is striking in the early ...
More
The empirical variation between the political trajectories of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, on the one hand, and Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, on the other, is striking in the early 1990s. The presence or absence of an opposition to communism strong enough to take and hold power in 1989 put the first group of states on the road to liberal democracy, and the second group on the road to illiberal democracy. This chapter compares the two groups of states in three areas: the nature of the opposition to communism and of the regime change in 1989; the political, economic, and national policies of the first post-communist governments; and the quality of the left alternative available to voters after1989.Less
The empirical variation between the political trajectories of Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, on the one hand, and Romania, Bulgaria, and Slovakia, on the other, is striking in the early 1990s. The presence or absence of an opposition to communism strong enough to take and hold power in 1989 put the first group of states on the road to liberal democracy, and the second group on the road to illiberal democracy. This chapter compares the two groups of states in three areas: the nature of the opposition to communism and of the regime change in 1989; the political, economic, and national policies of the first post-communist governments; and the quality of the left alternative available to voters after1989.
Peter J. Taylor
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0011
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
This chapter describes how the concept of geographical scale has been handled in British geography over the last century. With geography meaning, literally, ‘writing about the Earth’, it would seem ...
More
This chapter describes how the concept of geographical scale has been handled in British geography over the last century. With geography meaning, literally, ‘writing about the Earth’, it would seem that the matter of scale should be largely settled: geographers are the ‘global scientists’. In practice this has not been the case and, in fact, the global has been a relatively neglected scale of geographical analysis. Most geographers have spent most of their time ‘writing about their country’ and those from Britain have been no exception. This chapter explores how and why this privileging of the national scale has operated in a century of British geography. It also discusses geographical scale as a social construction, commercial geography and political geography, geography for national and local planning, urban geography, glocalisation and world cities.Less
This chapter describes how the concept of geographical scale has been handled in British geography over the last century. With geography meaning, literally, ‘writing about the Earth’, it would seem that the matter of scale should be largely settled: geographers are the ‘global scientists’. In practice this has not been the case and, in fact, the global has been a relatively neglected scale of geographical analysis. Most geographers have spent most of their time ‘writing about their country’ and those from Britain have been no exception. This chapter explores how and why this privileging of the national scale has operated in a century of British geography. It also discusses geographical scale as a social construction, commercial geography and political geography, geography for national and local planning, urban geography, glocalisation and world cities.
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195305197
- eISBN:
- 9780199783519
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195305191.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Geography and institutions are the two main contenders to explain the fundamental causes of cross-country differences in prosperity. The geography hypothesis — which has a large following both in the ...
More
Geography and institutions are the two main contenders to explain the fundamental causes of cross-country differences in prosperity. The geography hypothesis — which has a large following both in the popular imagination and in academia — maintains that the geography, climate, and ecology of a society’s location shape both its technology and the incentives of its inhabitants. This essay argues that differences in institutions are more important than geography for understanding the divergent economic and social conditions of nations. While the geography hypothesis emphasizes forces of nature as a primary factor in the poverty of nations, the institutions hypothesis is about man-made influences. A case is developed for the importance of institutions which draws on the history of European colonization.Less
Geography and institutions are the two main contenders to explain the fundamental causes of cross-country differences in prosperity. The geography hypothesis — which has a large following both in the popular imagination and in academia — maintains that the geography, climate, and ecology of a society’s location shape both its technology and the incentives of its inhabitants. This essay argues that differences in institutions are more important than geography for understanding the divergent economic and social conditions of nations. While the geography hypothesis emphasizes forces of nature as a primary factor in the poverty of nations, the institutions hypothesis is about man-made influences. A case is developed for the importance of institutions which draws on the history of European colonization.
Judith Pallot
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198206569
- eISBN:
- 9780191677212
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198206569.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History
This book concludes that, notwithstanding the larger than expected numbers of peasant households coming forward to adopt the Stolypin Land Reform, the likelihood that an agricultural advance in ...
More
This book concludes that, notwithstanding the larger than expected numbers of peasant households coming forward to adopt the Stolypin Land Reform, the likelihood that an agricultural advance in Russia would be based on the farms formed under the reform's provisions was limited. There were alternatives that might have done as much, or more, to increase peasant farm productivity, as has been observed by a number of historians. After 1910, the principal government effort in agriculture passed to agrotechnological measures which reached numbers of peasant households far in excess of those who could be reached through programmes targeted solely on enclosed farms. As for the peasants, their preferred solution to their problems remained, as it always had been, the black repartition, as was so obviously demonstrated in 1917. This book also shows that, in understanding the peasants' responses to the Stolypin Land Reform, both history and geography matter.Less
This book concludes that, notwithstanding the larger than expected numbers of peasant households coming forward to adopt the Stolypin Land Reform, the likelihood that an agricultural advance in Russia would be based on the farms formed under the reform's provisions was limited. There were alternatives that might have done as much, or more, to increase peasant farm productivity, as has been observed by a number of historians. After 1910, the principal government effort in agriculture passed to agrotechnological measures which reached numbers of peasant households far in excess of those who could be reached through programmes targeted solely on enclosed farms. As for the peasants, their preferred solution to their problems remained, as it always had been, the black repartition, as was so obviously demonstrated in 1917. This book also shows that, in understanding the peasants' responses to the Stolypin Land Reform, both history and geography matter.
Meric S. Gertler
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199545490
- eISBN:
- 9780191720093
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199545490.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies, Knowledge Management
The geographical literature on communities of practice suggests that geographical proximity should not be confused with relational proximity, and that the latter is more important in determining how ...
More
The geographical literature on communities of practice suggests that geographical proximity should not be confused with relational proximity, and that the latter is more important in determining how easily specialized knowledge can be jointly produced and shared through distributed innovation processes. However, the existing body of work has not specified the critical determinants of relational proximity, and the conditions under which we should expect it to be achieved effectively at a distance. This chapter reviews recent findings from a number of case studies in which distributed teams participating in joint problem-solving projects have attempted to engage in long-distance learning and knowledge translation, with varying degrees of success. Effective distanciated learning is shown to depend on the degree of social affinity between economic actors, and this affinity is comprised of several different dimensions: linguistic, educational, experiential, occupational, organizational, industrial, and institutional. The frictional effects of distance are also shown to depend on the types of knowledge supporting innovation in each case, with synthetic and symbolic forms of knowledge the least amenable to distanciated learning.Less
The geographical literature on communities of practice suggests that geographical proximity should not be confused with relational proximity, and that the latter is more important in determining how easily specialized knowledge can be jointly produced and shared through distributed innovation processes. However, the existing body of work has not specified the critical determinants of relational proximity, and the conditions under which we should expect it to be achieved effectively at a distance. This chapter reviews recent findings from a number of case studies in which distributed teams participating in joint problem-solving projects have attempted to engage in long-distance learning and knowledge translation, with varying degrees of success. Effective distanciated learning is shown to depend on the degree of social affinity between economic actors, and this affinity is comprised of several different dimensions: linguistic, educational, experiential, occupational, organizational, industrial, and institutional. The frictional effects of distance are also shown to depend on the types of knowledge supporting innovation in each case, with synthetic and symbolic forms of knowledge the least amenable to distanciated learning.
Robert J. Bennett and Alan G. Wilson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0014
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
This chapter discusses the main trends and the most prominent focuses of research regarding geography as an applied discipline. It concentrates on the contributions of geographers in Britain and the ...
More
This chapter discusses the main trends and the most prominent focuses of research regarding geography as an applied discipline. It concentrates on the contributions of geographers in Britain and the applied developments in human geography. The development of physical geography and earth sciences has been particularly influential on the development of applied geography at various stages. The chapter also examines regional planning and policy, town and country planning, land use planning and other specific fields.Less
This chapter discusses the main trends and the most prominent focuses of research regarding geography as an applied discipline. It concentrates on the contributions of geographers in Britain and the applied developments in human geography. The development of physical geography and earth sciences has been particularly influential on the development of applied geography at various stages. The chapter also examines regional planning and policy, town and country planning, land use planning and other specific fields.
David M. Smith
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0021
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
Social concern, or relevance, was one of the main themes in human geography during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Preoccupation with the areal differentiation of life on earth, ...
More
Social concern, or relevance, was one of the main themes in human geography during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Preoccupation with the areal differentiation of life on earth, which had dominated the discipline until the 1960s, gave way to an emerging sense of responsibility for improving the human condition. An apparent lack of social concern on the part of the new numerical human geography helped to provoke the ‘radical’ reaction of the 1970s. Inequality and social justice became central issues, as the role of values in geography was explicitly recognised. The 1990s saw a broader ‘moral turn’, involving explorations of the interface between geography and ethics. British geography and geographers played a prominent part in the discipline's orientation towards ethics and social concern. The proliferation of issues of social concern prompted a rethinking of social geography.Less
Social concern, or relevance, was one of the main themes in human geography during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Preoccupation with the areal differentiation of life on earth, which had dominated the discipline until the 1960s, gave way to an emerging sense of responsibility for improving the human condition. An apparent lack of social concern on the part of the new numerical human geography helped to provoke the ‘radical’ reaction of the 1970s. Inequality and social justice became central issues, as the role of values in geography was explicitly recognised. The 1990s saw a broader ‘moral turn’, involving explorations of the interface between geography and ethics. British geography and geographers played a prominent part in the discipline's orientation towards ethics and social concern. The proliferation of issues of social concern prompted a rethinking of social geography.
Oren Yiftachel
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199244904
- eISBN:
- 9780191600050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199244901.003.0012
- Subject:
- Political Science, Comparative Politics
Oren Yiftachel argues that consociational patterns of authority among elites, the restricted state authority, and the internal boundaries for rival communal groups open up a possibility of ...
More
Oren Yiftachel argues that consociational patterns of authority among elites, the restricted state authority, and the internal boundaries for rival communal groups open up a possibility of maintaining state borders intact with high levels of democratic stability. The author focuses on three bi‐ethnic states: Lebanon from 1943 to 1985, Cyprus from 1960 to 1974, and Belgium from 1963 to 1993. Theoretically, the author brings together discussion of public policy towards ethnic groups —particularly accommodation and consociation—and the role of ethnic geographies that highlight special factors of state integrity and cohesion.Less
Oren Yiftachel argues that consociational patterns of authority among elites, the restricted state authority, and the internal boundaries for rival communal groups open up a possibility of maintaining state borders intact with high levels of democratic stability. The author focuses on three bi‐ethnic states: Lebanon from 1943 to 1985, Cyprus from 1960 to 1974, and Belgium from 1963 to 1993. Theoretically, the author brings together discussion of public policy towards ethnic groups —particularly accommodation and consociation—and the role of ethnic geographies that highlight special factors of state integrity and cohesion.
Michael Williams and Ron Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
Geography straddles the main divide within academic life, with the humanities and social sciences on the one side and the natural and life sciences on the other. The discipline's roots lie in both ...
More
Geography straddles the main divide within academic life, with the humanities and social sciences on the one side and the natural and life sciences on the other. The discipline's roots lie in both traditions, but as it evolved into a fully-fledged research discipline in the second half of the twentieth century, so a split became increasingly apparent between physical geography and human geography. This book explores the history of British geography, focusing on the long period before its formal institution as an academic discipline within the country's universities as well as the process of institutionalisation. It discusses various themes, including the environment and place; space, maps and mapping; geography as ‘useful knowledge’; and physical geography.Less
Geography straddles the main divide within academic life, with the humanities and social sciences on the one side and the natural and life sciences on the other. The discipline's roots lie in both traditions, but as it evolved into a fully-fledged research discipline in the second half of the twentieth century, so a split became increasingly apparent between physical geography and human geography. This book explores the history of British geography, focusing on the long period before its formal institution as an academic discipline within the country's universities as well as the process of institutionalisation. It discusses various themes, including the environment and place; space, maps and mapping; geography as ‘useful knowledge’; and physical geography.
Michael Williams
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
The historical element and human action are implicit in the idea of the landscape. Such combinations, in various guises, often go under the name of historical geography. More latterly, the meaning of ...
More
The historical element and human action are implicit in the idea of the landscape. Such combinations, in various guises, often go under the name of historical geography. More latterly, the meaning of ‘history’, in its broadest sense, has been scrutinised closely because of the implicit subjective meaning embedded in any account of the past. Within geography, one of the earliest and most distinctive contributions to humanised landscapes came from the ‘Aberystwyth School’ of historically oriented human geography, which had an emphasis on anthropology and human ecology, and the western parts of Britain. As the l930s wore on, two figures emerged who were to dominate the debate about history in geography — Carl O. Sauer in the United States and H. C. Darby in Britain. There are basically two approaches to understanding past humanised landscapes — the reconstruction of these landscapes from consistent and comprehensive sources, and the mapping of relict features. Increasingly, both approaches combine history, archaeology, palaeobotany, and other disciplines.Less
The historical element and human action are implicit in the idea of the landscape. Such combinations, in various guises, often go under the name of historical geography. More latterly, the meaning of ‘history’, in its broadest sense, has been scrutinised closely because of the implicit subjective meaning embedded in any account of the past. Within geography, one of the earliest and most distinctive contributions to humanised landscapes came from the ‘Aberystwyth School’ of historically oriented human geography, which had an emphasis on anthropology and human ecology, and the western parts of Britain. As the l930s wore on, two figures emerged who were to dominate the debate about history in geography — Carl O. Sauer in the United States and H. C. Darby in Britain. There are basically two approaches to understanding past humanised landscapes — the reconstruction of these landscapes from consistent and comprehensive sources, and the mapping of relict features. Increasingly, both approaches combine history, archaeology, palaeobotany, and other disciplines.
Martin Schöneld
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- May 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780195132182
- eISBN:
- 9780199786336
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195132181.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This chapter explores Kant’s second book, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755). Section 1 describes the context of the book and Kant’s critique of static and anthropocentric ...
More
This chapter explores Kant’s second book, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755). Section 1 describes the context of the book and Kant’s critique of static and anthropocentric conceptions of nature by the Pietists, Physico-Theologians, Newton, and Wolff. Section 2 describes the goal of Kant’s teleology, its naturalized thrust toward well-ordered complexity or “relative perfection.” Section 3 examines the means of Kant”s teleology, the dynamic interplay of attractive and repulsive forces. Section 4 analyzes the application of teleology to cosmic phenomena such as the solar system, Wright’s earlier stipulation, Laplace’s later conjecture, and the eventual confirmation of Kant’s nebular hypothesis. Section 5 explores Kant’s arguments for life, humanity, and reason as products of cosmic evolution. Section 6 discusses Kant’s “static law” — that the mean planetary density determines the biospherical potential of reason — and its incongruity with the racism in Physical Geography (1756-60) and Beautiful and Sublime (1764). Section 7 describes Kant’s dynamic cosmology, explicates his “phoenix”-symbol, and discusses his various scientific aperçus.Less
This chapter explores Kant’s second book, Universal Natural History and Theory of the Heavens (1755). Section 1 describes the context of the book and Kant’s critique of static and anthropocentric conceptions of nature by the Pietists, Physico-Theologians, Newton, and Wolff. Section 2 describes the goal of Kant’s teleology, its naturalized thrust toward well-ordered complexity or “relative perfection.” Section 3 examines the means of Kant”s teleology, the dynamic interplay of attractive and repulsive forces. Section 4 analyzes the application of teleology to cosmic phenomena such as the solar system, Wright’s earlier stipulation, Laplace’s later conjecture, and the eventual confirmation of Kant’s nebular hypothesis. Section 5 explores Kant’s arguments for life, humanity, and reason as products of cosmic evolution. Section 6 discusses Kant’s “static law” — that the mean planetary density determines the biospherical potential of reason — and its incongruity with the racism in Physical Geography (1756-60) and Beautiful and Sublime (1764). Section 7 describes Kant’s dynamic cosmology, explicates his “phoenix”-symbol, and discusses his various scientific aperçus.
Jamie Peck
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199580576
- eISBN:
- 9780191595240
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199580576.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This chapter examines the range of popular and academic meanings of neoliberalism, including its associations with the ‘Washington Consensus’ and with ‘Thatcherism’, as a prelude to proposing a ...
More
This chapter examines the range of popular and academic meanings of neoliberalism, including its associations with the ‘Washington Consensus’ and with ‘Thatcherism’, as a prelude to proposing a political-economic definition of the phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on the uneven development of neoliberalism across geographical space and the temporal evolution of neoliberal ideology and practice. Neoliberalism has not diffused in an invariant form, but instead has developed in a geometric fashion, through the increasing global interpenetration of its contextually specific ‘local’ forms. The ontology of neoliberalism is presented here in terms of an evolving web of relays, routines, and relations of market-oriented political practices. In turn, this calls for a methodological strategy which draws attention, simultaneously, to the ‘connective tissues’ of the neoliberalization process and its conjuncturally specific manifestations. An adequate analysis of neoliberalism must therefore entail an historical geography of the phenomenon.Less
This chapter examines the range of popular and academic meanings of neoliberalism, including its associations with the ‘Washington Consensus’ and with ‘Thatcherism’, as a prelude to proposing a political-economic definition of the phenomenon. Emphasis is placed on the uneven development of neoliberalism across geographical space and the temporal evolution of neoliberal ideology and practice. Neoliberalism has not diffused in an invariant form, but instead has developed in a geometric fashion, through the increasing global interpenetration of its contextually specific ‘local’ forms. The ontology of neoliberalism is presented here in terms of an evolving web of relays, routines, and relations of market-oriented political practices. In turn, this calls for a methodological strategy which draws attention, simultaneously, to the ‘connective tissues’ of the neoliberalization process and its conjuncturally specific manifestations. An adequate analysis of neoliberalism must therefore entail an historical geography of the phenomenon.
Ron Johnston and Michael Williams (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
These chapters in this book trace the evolution of British geography as an academic discipline during the last hundred years, and stress how the study of the world we live in is fundamental to an ...
More
These chapters in this book trace the evolution of British geography as an academic discipline during the last hundred years, and stress how the study of the world we live in is fundamental to an understanding of its problems and concerns. The principal themes covered in this volume are those of environment, place and space, and the applied geography of map making and planning. The book also addresses specific issues such as disease, urbanization, regional viability, and ethics and social problems.Less
These chapters in this book trace the evolution of British geography as an academic discipline during the last hundred years, and stress how the study of the world we live in is fundamental to an understanding of its problems and concerns. The principal themes covered in this volume are those of environment, place and space, and the applied geography of map making and planning. The book also addresses specific issues such as disease, urbanization, regional viability, and ethics and social problems.
Andrew Cliff and Peter Haggett
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0016
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
Over the course of the last century, the confused landscape that lies on the marchland of two very ancient subjects — geography and medicine — has been explored from several directions. Occasionally, ...
More
Over the course of the last century, the confused landscape that lies on the marchland of two very ancient subjects — geography and medicine — has been explored from several directions. Occasionally, scientists and practitioners from the hugely powerful medical state have travelled confidently into geographical terrain. Less often and less confidently, a scholar or two from the smaller neighbour has wandered into medical country. This chapter describes some of the terrain explored, the body of knowledge that has grown up around these contacts, and the extraordinary growth of research activity that has occurred in the last couple of decades. The chapter is confined to the twentieth century and is constrained geographically to ‘British’ research. In concentrating on the geography of disease distributions, this chapter surveys only some small part of the wider field of overlap between geography and medicine. It also discusses epidemiology and epidemiological modelling in Britain, cancer mapping, tropical diseases, atlases and the emergence of medical geography.Less
Over the course of the last century, the confused landscape that lies on the marchland of two very ancient subjects — geography and medicine — has been explored from several directions. Occasionally, scientists and practitioners from the hugely powerful medical state have travelled confidently into geographical terrain. Less often and less confidently, a scholar or two from the smaller neighbour has wandered into medical country. This chapter describes some of the terrain explored, the body of knowledge that has grown up around these contacts, and the extraordinary growth of research activity that has occurred in the last couple of decades. The chapter is confined to the twentieth century and is constrained geographically to ‘British’ research. In concentrating on the geography of disease distributions, this chapter surveys only some small part of the wider field of overlap between geography and medicine. It also discusses epidemiology and epidemiological modelling in Britain, cancer mapping, tropical diseases, atlases and the emergence of medical geography.
Ken Gregory
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197262863
- eISBN:
- 9780191734076
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262863.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
The evolution of physical geography in Britain over the last 100 years cannot be divorced from developments elsewhere, and by the year 2000 it had become increasingly difficult to distinguish ...
More
The evolution of physical geography in Britain over the last 100 years cannot be divorced from developments elsewhere, and by the year 2000 it had become increasingly difficult to distinguish physical geography from other disciplines. Some periods have shown a net gain, during which British physical geography assimilated and responded to trends developed elsewhere, whereas in others British trends provided a lead (especially reflecting the inspiration given by particular individuals) that has been perceived to be internationally influential. Whereas nineteenth-century geography was more holistic in character, it is ironic that for much of the twentieth century it became increasingly reductionist, with the development of many separate sub-fields succeeded by trends, very evident at the millennium, of a discipline seeking holism again — clearly linking with environmental science. The foundations of twentieth-century British physical geography included a major component derived from geology.Less
The evolution of physical geography in Britain over the last 100 years cannot be divorced from developments elsewhere, and by the year 2000 it had become increasingly difficult to distinguish physical geography from other disciplines. Some periods have shown a net gain, during which British physical geography assimilated and responded to trends developed elsewhere, whereas in others British trends provided a lead (especially reflecting the inspiration given by particular individuals) that has been perceived to be internationally influential. Whereas nineteenth-century geography was more holistic in character, it is ironic that for much of the twentieth century it became increasingly reductionist, with the development of many separate sub-fields succeeded by trends, very evident at the millennium, of a discipline seeking holism again — clearly linking with environmental science. The foundations of twentieth-century British physical geography included a major component derived from geology.
