GEOG 3300
Space, Place & Scale
Department of Geography
Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies
York University
Fall Term 2011-2012
Week 9
Wild Places
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
1
Wild Places
• When we talk about wild places, we are also having a
discussion about nature and culture and the places they
intersect.
• We tend to think and speak of ‘natural’ or wild places as if
they must remain separate from cultural or cultivated
spaces: as if they are binary opposites.
• Wild places elicit contradictory sentiments: reverence and
terror; fear and wonder. Why? [19th century Romanticism]
• In Landscape and Memory (1995), Simon Schama calls this
sentiment “ delightful horror”. Tellingly, Schama begins a
chapter with this comment: “It was when his lapdog, Tory,
got eaten by a wolf that Horace Walpole began to have
serious reservations about Mont Cenis.” (447)
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
2
Nature and Culture
• ‘Nature’ refers not only to natural objects (trees, rocks, flora and
fauna) but also to the concept of nature and its origins and
implications. (Neil Evernden, The Social Construction of Nature)
• ‘Nature’ enfolds a paradox: the rational (‘laws of nature’) paired
with the savage (‘natural laws’; e.g., the nature that the poet
Tennyson described as “red in tooth and claw”)
• In western thought, ‘nature’ is consistently measured against its
opposite: the cultivated, or culture.
• An interesting paradox occurs when we call something “wild”
• Wild must be measured against something: something cultivated,
tame, rational, human. Nature is the West’s ultimate ‘Other.’
• This brings us back to the old ‘culture-nature’ duality we’ve
encountered before.
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
3
‘Purifying’ Ontological Categories
• In the playful ‘anthropology of science’ We Have Never
Been Modern, philosopher Bruno Latour suggests that we
‘purify’ ontological categories (such as nature and culture)
by eliminating objects that call their separation into
question.
• Examples? Spatial implications?
• Our fetish with hygiene and germ-killing; our discomfort
with wild animals (e.g., feral cats) in urban spaces; social
unease about homelessness; disgust at scavenging or
“dumpster diving;” concealment of waste; taboos against
public expressions of (visceral, animal) sexuality – unless it
is ‘sterilized’
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
4
Breaching Ontological Categories:
Feral Cats, Homelessness, Bottle Picking and
Dumpster-Diving
• In ‘Feral Cats and the City’ (2000), Griffiths et al argue that
westerners’ attitudes toward animals involve a “dialectic of
desire and disgust.”
• This dialectic is informed, among other things, by
‘domesticity.’ (pets: neutered, regulated, ‘inside’)
• Feral cats call this dialectic into question, because they
“occupy a zone somewhere else on the domestic-wild
spectrum,” “transgress the boundary between civilization
and nature” and occupy an “interstitial space.”
• Cockroaches, rats, bedbugs? Eyebrow mites? Spiders?
[Charlotte’s Web]
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
5
Transgressing the ‘Purity’ of Urban (or rural)
Places
• Urban environments as ordered, contained: what belongs
or do not belong.
• Ambivalence about nature means these categories are in
flux: anything that transgresses any given order (feral cats,
homeless people, rats, cockroaches) creates tension and
breaches the inherent brittleness of out dualities.
• Cloke et al (2000) argue that a similar ‘ordering’ occurs in
rural places. Homelessness (for example) is ontologically
separated from discourses on rurality.
• Cloke et al argue that our definitions of homelessness
require revision. [City of Toronto defines homelessness quite broadly]
• ‘Rural’ forms of homelessness in cities? Colonies in the Don
Valley?
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
6
‘Unpurifiying’ Our Ontologies:
Living with Nature
• Peters (1979; discussed in Griffiths et al) suggests we
“make room for” weeds – what else might we
accommodate?
• Acknowledge that ontological categories cannot be
‘purified’
• How we deal with waste; difference; anything
undomesticated
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
7
Transforming Nature into Culture:
the Caged Tree
• Artist Tony Urquhart’s tree sequence discussed by Gary
Michael Dault in Cells of Ourselves (Porcupine’s Quill, 1989)
illustrates one expression of ambivalence about nature,
and the lengths we go to in our efforts to transform it into
culture and in doing so, to conceal its ‘wild’ origin.
• How do these transformations affect the places in which
they occur?
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
8
The tree, caged as a sapling, is not a “pure gift” anymore; it is
boxed, imprisoned, captured by our gaze. What kind of place is
this?
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
9
As it grows, the
tree breaches
its enclosure
but remains
imprisoned by
it.
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
10
As some point the tree is sacrificed to its enclosure. At what
point does it become a ‘machine for living’?
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
11
Going Wild in the Land
• In Getting Back Into Place (1993), Edward Casey discusses the
uneasy relationship between culture and nature, and suggests
that we might find some way of “negotiating the middle realm”
through activities like walking and guiding.
• Casey’s instruction (following Thoreau and Muir) is simply “to walk
out of a domestic and local culture.” (247) – to leave it
temporarily or perhaps permanently.
• This, he says, gives us a new perspective, opens up new
panoramas through which we may re/view culture and the
human spaces we occupy and inhabit.
• The word “saunter”, Casey suggests, refers originally to being
“sans terre”, or being at home nowhere or everywhere. [note
subtle nod to psychogeography here]
• At this point, we are (perhaps) able to see the earth not just as a
space but as the place of all places.
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
12
Critical Essay (Term Paper)
• Reminder that you will write a critical term essay of 10-12
pages, due on 6 December 2011.
• Opportunity to write about any theme or issue that interests
you, as long as it develops an understanding of some
aspect of space/place/scale.
• Must be informed by a theoretical approach / contextual
literature.
• Must be analytical rather than merely descriptive (take an
opinion, and/or apply the theoretical concepts to a new
experience or setting).
• Recommendation: choose a specific subject, theme,
place, or experience
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
13
Outline and Annotated Bibliography
• Due 17 November 2011 (note new due date); worth 10% of
your final grade.
• 1-2 page outline introducing your topic and the main
cases examples or arguments you will use to explore it.
• Your paper may (and probably will) change after you
submit the outline: the purpose of submitting an outline is
to receive feedback well before submitting the final paper.
• Annotated bibliography: at least five scholarly sources –
write 50-100 words about each source, offering a brief
overview of the work and indicating its anticipated
relevance to your work.
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
14
GEOG 3300 Term Paper:
Suggestions for Organization
Section
Content
Pages
1
Introduction: thesis statement (explain what you are writing about,
how you will do so, and why it is important or meaningful),
summary of arguments you will use
1 or 2
2
Context / background: brief explanation of theoretical
perspective(s) that inform your paper. Where does this
perspective ‘fit’ in the literature/debates on SPS?
2 to 3
3
Analysis: A thoughtful, complete exploration of your subject
(using evidence and examples) that justifies / fulfills your
thesis statement.
5 to 7
4
Conclusion.
1 at most
Don’t forget to choose an interesting title and provide full references
and notes as necessary. Yes, you can use “I”.
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
15
Your Topics?
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
16
Finding Scholarly Articles
• Scott Library homepage: http://www.library.yorku.ca
• Under eResources, click on “Find articles by subject”
• (for example) Geography Research Guide:
http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/rg/tb/Geog.jsp
• Note that there is also a “Toronto Resources” subject
guide: http://www.library.yorku.ca/ccm/rg/pt/Toronto.jsp
• A shortcut is to use JSTOR (Journal Storage) by typing
JSTOR into the “Title Quick Search” box at the top right
corner of the Library main page. Alternatively, you can
type “Scholars Portal” or “Proquest” into the same box. This
will take you directly to these scholarly journal databases /
search engines.
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
17
Other Acceptable Sources
• Please note that your paper should be informed by one or
more scholarly/critical perspectives. This means you will
mainly use scholarly books and articles.
• It is also okay to use non-scholarly sources to supplement
your scholarly material (e.g., newspapers, if you want to
do a content analysis, diaries, journals, memoirs, weblogs,
policy documents, statistical data), as long as you
interpret them in the context of the scholarly literature.
• Wikipedia: is not really a ‘source’ at all. Like a dictionary, it
can be a useful place to start your research. Do not use
Wikipedia as a reference in your essay.
• Personal interviews (if applicable)
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
18
Further Considerations:
• Because your paper will be fairly short (10-12 pages), you
will not have room to take on a big subject.
• Accordingly, be specific and clear and focused.
• Begin your paper with a solid, strong thesis statement.
• Have an opinion.
• Define your terms and concepts.
• Have some fun.
• Please don’t hesitate to use the first person (“I”) if it seems
appropriate.
• Cite your sources properly and include full bibliographic
information.
Week 9
3 November 2011
GEOG 3300 | Space, Place & Scale
Copyright © Amy Lavender Harris
19