The Dictionary of Human Geography (131 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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mortality
The incidence of death, or rate of dying, in a population. Along with fERTlLlTY, this controls natural increase which, together with migration, completes the balancing equation that is used in demography to assess population growth, decline and age compos ition. Exploring national and regional vari ations in crude death rates, infant mortality rates, infanticide and LlfE expectancy has increased understandings of epidemiological transitions (Omran, 1983), uneven develop ment and gender discrimination (Rafiq, 1991) (see health geography; medical geog (NEW PARAGRAPH) RAPHY). AjB (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Weeks (1999, ch. 4). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
multiculturalism
An ideology and state policy that seeks to establish a model of gov ernance to permit the coexistence of cultur ally diverse populations. Its distinctive feature is a respect for cultural DlffERENCE and, in contrast to assimilation, support for the maintenance of old world cultures. While not new, cultural diversity assumes its accentuated current profile from the large movements of documented and undocumented workers from the global South to the depleted labour MARkETS of the global North (see migration; NORTH SOUTH). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Multiculturalism is not an inevitable policy response to cultural diversity; in western europe, while the UK invoked some commit ment to multiculturalism, France?s republican model rejected reference to pre existing immi grant cultures in favour of assimilation to a putatively egalitarian national citizen, while the German tradition of ius sanguinis, or ethnic exclusivity (see ethnicity), envisaged tempor ary guest workers rather than permanent im migrants. The UK, the Netherlands and the Scandinavian states would most readily have described themselves as multicultural nations, though there has been some back pedalling of late. More complete multicultural commit ment occurs in Australia and especially Can ada, the only country with a Multiculturalism Act and which includes multicultural rights within its constitution. (NEW PARAGRAPH) In an important respect, all states are multi cultural inasmuch as they include culturally distinct minorities. But the existence of demo graphic multiculturalism is no basis for assum ing that institutional and legal recognition of diversity will occur. A necessary development is, at minimum, a tolerance of ethnic differ ence, and more positively a respect and wel coming of cultural diversity that may lead to HeRltaoe multiculturalism, where the state celebrates diversity with grants to permit the expression and survival of folk cultures, including literature, dance and religion. In the USA, the principal manifestation of multi culturalism has been the often controversial use of Spanish as a heritage language of instruction in schools in some districts with concentrations of Latino immigrants. But heritage multiculturalism offers no protection of cmzEnsrnp rights, and a more mature development is a rights based multiculturalism that offers legal protection against group based discrimination, where minorities can claim rights in such fields as anti racism, social service delivery, employment equity, poLicing and immigration policy. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Despite its liberal objectives, multicultural ism has attracted considerable criticism. The political right fears the escalation of an idEn tity politics that fragments the national project (Huntington, 2004: see also nation state; nationalism). The political left, in contrast, challenges the existence of a veil of cultural equality that conceals structures of economic inequality, and suspects that multi culturalism has been co opted as a vehicle to promote neo liberal trade and investment (Mitchell, 2004b; see neo liberalism). To this, Ghassan Hage (1998) has charged that multiculturalism in Australia has become a tool of an older white elite to divide new im migrants, thereby maintaining traditional pol itical privileges. But following September 2001 and subsequent terrorist attacks in Europe and Asia, such intellectual challenges have been superseded by a populist and media barrage that has falsely blamed multicultural ism for nurturing hostile criminal and terrorist cells within the matrix of tolerated cultural difference. In the present decade, multicul turalism is a policy forced on the defensive (Joppke, 2004). dl (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Mitchell (2004b); Parekh (2000). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
multidimensional scaling (MDS)
Methods for simplifying matrices of distances between a set of points, while as far as possible retain ing their relative ordering (i.e. of the distances between the observations). Developed by psy chologists for identifying similarities among individuals on a wide range of attitudes (the distances measure how much each pair differ on a set of attitudinal scales), MDS locates the individuals in a smaller number of dimensions than the original scales, so reducing a multidi mensional situation to more comprehensible proportions (cf. factor ANALysis). MDS has been adapted for simplifying maps on the basis of, for example, the time taken to travel between two points rather than the distance between them. Rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Gatrell (1983). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
multilateralism
Foreign policy actions in volving agreements, treaties and co operative actions between more than two states. In contrast to actions by single states (unilateral ism) or between two states (bilateralism), multilateralism involves international treaties between many parties or regional agreem ents between groups of neighbouring states. Multilateralism is often a strategy advocated by medium sized states hoping to shape inter national agreements in their favour in the face of the greater power of large states. The term is sometimes used derisively by power brokers in the great powers, and as a term of virtue and aspiration by those anxious to limit the capabilities of great powers to act unilaterally. (NEW PARAGRAPH) But in fact superpowers and great powers frequently use multilateral institutions; in deed, the USA used its power after the Second World War to establish many multilateral institutions, especially through the Bretton Woods financial arrangements and alliances such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza tion (NATO), which in turn were useful in the pursuit of its hegemonic international goals (Latham, 1997). Multilateralism is often dir ectly linked to such institutions. Ruggie (1993, p. 14) suggests that the term ?multilateral? is best understood as ?an adjective that modifies the noun ??institution.'' What distinguishes the multilateral form from others is that it coord inates behavior among three or more states on the basis of generalized principles of conduct.? This suggests that multilateralism is frequently also about building norms or rules that guide state conduct. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Currently, the most high profile multilateral institutions are the United Nations (UN) and the world trade organization (WTO), which deals with most international trade in the global economy. Given that these organ izations provide legitimacy for states, and act to censure and sanction those that violate the multilateral codes of conduct, great powers frequently use these institutions to justify their actions. The USA's use of the UN in 1990 and 1991 to justify military intervention in Iraq during the first Gulf War, and the invocation of the alliance commitments under NATO in the aftermath of the terror ist attacks on 11 September 2001, illustrate that multilateralism has many uses even for superpowers. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Multilateralism in European history is usu ally traced to the ?Concert of EUROPE? arrange ments set up after Napoleon's final defeat in 1815. Designed to produce the peaceful resolution of conflicts, the Concert facilitated diplomatic agreements and, despite notable lapses such as the Franco Prussian war of 1870 1, managed to maintain relatively peaceful relations between the European powers for a century. This system was shat tered by the First World War in 1914 and replaced by the League of Nations, which in turn was replaced in 1945 after the Second World War by the UN in a further attempt to establish a multilateral institution to prevent war between states. The UN now includes all the states in the system as members. Among the multilateral norms that the UN system has established as ground rules for international conduct three are of particular importance: territorial integrity (see TERRlTORy); non intervention; and sovereign equality among states (see sovERElGNTy). In combination, these have produced a territorial order of for mally sovereign states in the aftermath of the decolonization of the European empires. This multilateral norm has also effectively fixed the boundaries of states, creating a (rela tive) territorial permanence to the world pol itical map (Zacher, 2001). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Ironically, however, just as state borders are becoming increasingly fixed, and thus a major source of international conflicts is being re moved, many major problems are spilling over those borders and require concerted inter national co operation. In recent decades, multilateral action by international social movements and campaigns on human rights, global warming and a host of other predica ments confronting what is sometimes de scribed as global civil sociETy have injected new norms into the international system and thereby added a further dimension to multilat eralism (see also cosmopolitanism). Argu ments about humanitarian intervention in the face of state failure and environmental disas ters have suggested a more activist stance for international institutions in the face of human suffering, and in the process challenged the UN norm of non intervention. Advocates insist that all states have a responsibility to protect their citizens and that, in extreme cases when they obviously fail to do so, inter vention from abroad is justified (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, 2001): a claim that is controver sial precisely because it overrides the territorial integrity principle of the UN. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Simultaneously, in the aftermath of 11 Sep tember 2001, the Bush administration in the USA frequently preferred to act alone in a unilateral manner, and refused multilateral co operation on such matters as the Inter national Criminal Court and the Kyoto Proto col on climate change. This stance makes multilateral action more difficult on many issues, and yet, given the increasing number of international agreements on numerous mat ters, multilateralism as a foreign policy ap proach has now become a widely accepted and routine diplomatic practice. But in the process territorial sovereignty has become a more fluid principle in international reLa tions (Agnew, 2005b). sd (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Ruggie (1993). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
multi-level models
quantitative methods that can analyse research problems with a complex data structure. In a hierarchical structure, the lower level unit is nested in one and only one unit for example, people in neighbourhoods in a two level structure, and people in neighbourhoods in regions in a three level structure. Other examples are repeated measures of individuals as in a panel study (cf. longitudinal data analysis) and a multivariate design when there is more than one response variable, so that it is possible to model several aspects of individual behaviour simultaneously. There are two types of non hierarchical structure. In a cross classified de sign, lower units may nest within more than one set of higher level units, so that pupil per formance may be affected by individual, school and neighbourhood characteristics (cf. neighbourhood effect). Both schools and neighbourhoods are higher level units, but they are not nested within each other. The remaining type is a multiple membership model in which lower level units are affected by more than one higher level unit, so that people?s voting behaviour may be affected by the different households and neighbour hoods they have been members of, with a weight proportional to the relative time spent in each. It is possible to combine these struc tures in a rich fashion, so that spatial modeLs (e.g. geographicany weighted regression) can have a hierarchical structure in which in dividuals are affected by the area they live in, and a multiple membership relation by which they are affected by spillover effects from nearby neighbourhoods (see ecometrics). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Such models can handle continuous and categoricaL data responses and variables and, indeed, interactions between predictor variables at each level of the structure (cf. measurement). In terms of specification, in addition to the usual regression coefficients that estimate the mean (or fixed) relationship across all structures, there is considerable de velopment of the random stochastic part of the model (see stochastic process) so that it is possible to separate between individual from between neighbourhood variation and, in deed, to allow a variable to have a differential effect on the outcome in different neighbour hoods. Because of this specification, these are also known as random coefficient or mixed models (fixed and random). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Multi level models are increasingly being used in social science research, as they have a number of advantages. Technically, they can model complex data dependencies, including spatial and temporal correLation, and there by give correct standard errors for the fixed estimates; this is particularly important for variables measured at the higher level. They also allow explicit modelling of heterosce dasticity at any level of the model. Substan tively, by modelling simultaneously at the micro and macro levels, they overcome the atomistic fallacy of modelling individuals and ignoring context, as well as the ecoLogicaL fallacy, of not modelling at the individual level. Most importantly, they can incorporate an element of context so that there does not have to be a single relationship fitted for all times and places, so that the class effects on individual voting can be allowed to vary from place to place (Jones, Johnston and Pattie, 1992). kj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Jones (1991); Jones and Duncan (1998). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
multiple nuclei model
A model of intra urban land use patterns developed by Chauncy Harris (1914 2003) and Edward Ullman (1912 76: see Harris and Ullman, 1945) that combines and extends the features of the earlier zonal models and sectoral models of the CHICAGO school. Rather than being based on a mono nuclear city, this model has land use patterns organized around several nodes (see figure), on the argument that different uses cluster together (in some cases to share special ized facilities) and wish to avoid other uses, thereby creating a number of nuclei around which the city is organized. Rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Harris (1997). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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