Historical Development of
Cultural Geography
Stephen McFarland
Geography + Cultural Studies
“The insertion of spatial concepts into social
theory has not yet been successfully
accomplished…The junction between geography
and social theory is one of the crucial flash
points for the crystallization of new conceptions
of the world and new possibilities of active
intervention.”
–David Harvey
Harvey- History of Geography
• The history of geography is tied up with the history of our
society.
• Changing societies make changing demands for geographic
knowledge.
• Defining Geography: “Geography records, analyzes and
stores information about the spatial distribution and
organization of those conditions (both naturally occurring
and humanly created) that provide the material basis for
the reproduction of social life. It promotes conscious
awareness of how such conditions are subject to continuous
transformation through human action.”
• Geographers as generalists, “synthesizers of knowledge in
its spatial aspect”
Harvey- Bourgeois Geography
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
Mapping, surveying
Systematic description of Earth’s surface
Spatial variations in ways of life (culture)
Geopolitics- spheres of influence
Quantitative study of population,
infrastructure for rational planning
6) Ideology
Harvey- People’s Geography
• Against Positivism (uncovering hidden
assumptions and biases)
• Calling out racism, sexism, prejudice
• Challenging role of geography in imperialism,
social control, exploitation
• Marxism, anarchism, humanism, advocacy,
“geographic expeditions”
Harvey on neutrality
“Geographers cannot remain neutral. But they can strive
towards scientific rigor, integrity, and honesty. The
difference between the two commitments must be
understood. There are many windows from which to view
the same world, but scientific integrity demands that we
faithfully record and analyze what we see from any one of
them. The view from China looking outwards or from the
lower classes looking up is very different from that from
the Pentagon or Wall Street. But each view can be
represented in a common frame of discourse, subject to
evaluation as to internal integrity and credibility.”
Mitchell- Cultural Geography
“A Critical Introduction”
• “the goal is to explore the struggles that make
"culture," to show how they get worked out in
particular spaces and places - in particular
landscapes - and to show how struggles over
"culture" are a key determinant, day in and
day out, in the ways that we live our lives”
• “Materialist and Marxist”
Mitchell’s Standpoint
• “I have an agenda”
• “my primary goal has been to show how
"culture" is never any thing, but is rather a
struggled-over set of social relations, relations
shot through with structures of power,
structures of dominance and subordination.
Such a position (like any intellectual position)
comes with its own set of blinkers.”
Mitchell’s Aim
• [My] focus is on cultural struggle, on the
imposition of social control through "cultural
means,“ and on the construction of and
resistance to the cultural spaces that define
social life in different settings.
Mitchell Ch.1: Culture Wars
• Battles over cultural identity reflect and shape
geographies
• “Culture is socially constructed through all
manner of contests and cooperations over the
materials that make up our lives– places, jobs,
pictures, foods, art, histories, ethnicities,
sexualities” (p. 12)
Mitchell- Defining Culture
• Culture as total “way of life”
• Culture as “structure of feeling”
• Culture as “what’s left when you subtract
economic, political, and social” from human
activity
• Culture as the symbolic
Mitchell- 6 Ways of thinking about Culture
1) Culture is the opposite of nature
2) Culture is a way of life
3) Culture is the processes by which a way of life
develops
4) Culture as set of markers defining group
membership
5) Culture is the way patterns, processes and
markers are represented
6) Culture as a hierarchical ordering of ways of life
Mitchell- History of Cultural Geography
• Environmental determinism- The natural
features of the earth’s surface shape human
culture
• Carl Sauer- agency of “man” on earth: “Culture is
the agent, the natural area is the medium, the
cultural landscape the result”
• Wilbur Zelinsky- Superorganicism: culture as
unified, semi-independent force over and above
people
• 1970s critiques: where is power? Where is
difference? What about cities? Modern life?