The Dictionary of Human Geography (33 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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core-periphery model
A model of system atic patterns of uneven deveLopment in the geography of human activity, based on uneven distribution of power within and between societies. Cores and peripheries can be analysed at a variety of geographic scaLes, including uneven regional development within national economies and uneven development at a global scale. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The development of cores and peripheries within national economies was a topic of con siderable concern to national development planners and urban and regional geographers in the early post Second World War period. Particularly in developing countries, unbal anced growth between dominant, typically highly primate, urban centres and agrarian regions of the country led to a variety of exer cises in promoting regional and secondary city development (see dual economy). However, the strength of existing economic cores and the failure of many decentralization projects has led in recent decades to less enthusiasm for state policies that attempt to overcome core periphery structures at a national level, while uneven development is increasingly seen as central to the dynamics of capitaLism (Smith, 2008 [1984]). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The notion of cores and peripheries at a global scale is associated with the work of a variety of deveLopment economists, but has been an especially pronounced feature of approaches such as dependency theory (Frank, 1967) and woeld systems analysis (Wallerstein, 1979). Assessments of core periphery dynamics at a global scale have typ ically taken national states and economies as important constituents of the global system, and have thus identified some states as being part of the global core and others as part of the global periphery. Core states are those with the highest value added industrial manufac turing and service sectors, while peripheral states are more dependent on agricultural and raw materials exports and, more recently, on lower value added manufactured goods. world systems theorists identify states that are semi peripheral in that their exports comprise a mix of higher and lower value added goods (Wallerstein, 1979, pp. 66 94). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Many core periphery models, such as that of Andre Gunder Frank, connect core periphery structures at a national scale with the global core periphery structure (Frank, 1967, pp. 8220). In particular, such models have seen primate cities in developing countries as nodal points connecting national economies to the global system, and as ?suction pumps? from which surplus is siphoned out of peripheral societies and into global circuits of capital (Armstrong and McGee, 1985). Recent pro cesses of globalization have called into ques tion the degree of coherence of national political economies, making the variants of core periphery theory that hinge on a hierarchy of states more problematic. But the models that emphasize crucial roles for cities in the devel oping world retain considerable relevance. jgI (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Armstrong and McGee (1985); Frank (1967); Smith (2008 [1984]); Wallerstein (1979). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
corporatization
The spread of business objectives, methods and discourses into the non profit and state sectors of society. Schools and universities, hospitals, welfare offices and so on are increasingly held to the operating standards of private enterprise, despite differing reasons for their existence, resources and relationship to society. Talk of ?cost centres?, ?customers?, ?products?, ?mar kets? and even ?profitability? (in relation, for example, to university spin offs of private companies) grows more common. Non business organizations should strive for effi ciency and respond to changing social needs. But the meaning of efficiency and responsive ness in these organizations ought perhaps to be evaluated on different grounds than we would apply to a corporation. ESch (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Steck (2003). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
correlation
The degree of association between two or more variables. In statistical analyses, correlation coefficients varying (NEW PARAGRAPH) between +/ 1.0 are measures of the good ness of fit of a relationship: a value of 1.0 indicates a perfect relationship. If values less than 1.0 are squared, they indicate the propor tion of the variation in one variable than can be accounted for statistically by the other(s): a correlation of 0.8 indicates that 0.64 of the variation can be accounted for. Positive correlations indicate that as one variable increases in value, so does the other: negative correlations that as one increases in value, the other decreases. In several variants of the general linear model, notably regression analysis, the correlation between two variables is denoted by r and the (multiple) correlation among three or more variables by R. A correl ation coefficient is merely an indicator of covariation among two or more variables and is not a measure of causality, although a high correlation may have important theoret ical implications. rj (NEW PARAGRAPH)
cosmography
The unified study of the Earth in relation to the heavens, cosmography arises from geocentric assumptions and a belief in homologies between the spatial order of terrestrial and celestial spheres. The spher ical geometry of celestial poles, great circles, hemispheres and ecliptic can be projected on to both Earth and sky and illustrated by the armillary sphere, whose spherical lattice of the five great circles, poles, axis and colures makes it the symbol of cosmographic science (still to be found on the flag of Portugal). Mathematical cosmography had practical significance for oceanic navigation, and early in modern europe cosmographers were often influential court appointees (Fiorani, 2005). Cosmographic order has given rise in many belief systems to ideas of divinely ordered, cosmic harmony, reproduced at varying scales, including the human micro cosm, and to attempts to steer influences believed to flow through the cosmos, often by manipulating cosmographic diagrams and images. Descriptive cosmography was the classi fication and description of the contents of the created cosmos, assumed to have an order that reflected mathematical relations. Incorporating both the mathematics of order and description of contents, cosmography eludes easy definition and courts intellectual incoherence. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cosmographic science peaked in early mod ern Europe, where cosmographies took the form of illustrated books and maps that may be regarded as precursors of the modern atlas. Cosmographies became increasingly encyclo paedic in seeking to systematize spatially and (NEW PARAGRAPH) illustrate the whole of universal knowledge. The dazzling ?marvels? of the worlds newly encountered by Renaissance Europeans meant that cosmography often failed to distinguish reality from fable, and the cosmographic pro ject?s grand synthetic goals became increas ingly unwieldy (Grafton, 1992; Lestringant, 1994). Cosmography?s assumption of a closed universe meant that acceptance of Copernicus? world system, especially after Galileo and Newton, led to its decline as an active field of knowledge, being replaced by astronomy and geography as distinct enquiries (see also geography, history of), although mathematical cosmography remained a crit ical science during the eighteenth century establishment of accurate meridians on an oblate globe and the development of geodetic survey (Edney, 1993). Non Western and pre modern cosmologies find graphic expression in diverse cosmographic maps and diagrams (see cartography, history of). dco (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Besse (2003); Cosgrove (2006a). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
cosmopolitanism
Across the centuries, pol itical philosophers and social commentators have argued over the desirability and possibil ity of social organization and affiliation on a cosmopolitan scale. Cosmopolitans, blaming nationalism for many of the ills of the world, have argued that universal attachments and rights offered at transnational scale are desirable for human progress and emancipa tion. For example, the ancient Greeks empha sized the global responsibility of the citizen, while during much of modernity the cosmo politan ideal has been driven by Kant?s desire for governments to have obligations beyond their own territories (Delanty, 2005b). In contrast, Adam Smith stressed the role of sym pathy as a bridge between individuals and among nations in a world differentiated by market laws, and the French revolution sought to extend the principles of liberty, equality and fraternity as universal values, while Marx insisted on the necessity of a socialist commons under the guidance of the international workers? movement. (NEW PARAGRAPH) In recent years, the cosmopolitan ideal has evolved in new directions, to include proposals such as global government, binding inter national charters, corporate social responsi bility, enhanced human rights, global environmental stewardship and various inter national commitments to poor countries, as a response to growing international inequality and planetary damage (Held and Koenig Archibugi, 2003). Global citizenship and political action in general has come to be placed at the heart of the cosmopolitan ideal as a necessary adjunct to the process of glob alization in economic, social, institutional and cultural life, involving the rise of planetary organization, transnational flows and cross national interdependencies. Global citizenship and global government are seen to be required by the rise of global society. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The critics of cosmopolitanism have long argued, however, that collective affect and affiliation have always depended on strong ter ritorial loyalty and identification, as have the processes and institutions of political expression and action, most commonly around ethno national communities. Thus, cosmopolitan ideals have been judged to be elitist, as reflec tions of only the values and cultural practices of intellectuals, the itinerant upper echelons and territorially disaffected minorities, with mass or majority affiliation held to be gathered around enduring national and local communities. The critics past and present have also dismissed the cosmopolitan ideal as utopian, naive or unworkable, on the grounds that it is a fictive aspiration that fails to excite affect and loyalty on the ground, that in a world ordered around local, national and regional sovereignty its institutional proposals have little chance of uptake and survival, and that as a symbol of progress it is undermined by a human condition that is increasingly wary of universalistic or teleological aspirations (Bauman, 2003). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Undercutting these normative disputes, lies the claim that contemporary social reality is becoming thoroughly cosmopolitan, regard less of questions of consciousness. Ulrich Beck (2004), for example, stresses the need to distinguish cosmopolitanism as a credo from cosmopolitanization as a multidimensional process of trans territorial transformation that demands more than national or state centred response. Beck provides four examples. The first is ?risk cosmopolitanism?, a fear shared by all around the world of heightened risk mili tary, climatic, epidemiological, environmental, sociobiological viewed as a global threat that requires new commonalities and intercon nected action. Consequently, the second is a ?postnational politics? driven by a global sense of unlimited threats and uncertainties that are much harder to identify and calculate on the basis of traditional state measures, forcing new approaches to inter state regulation and the rise of many non state policy networks. The third example he gives is the globalization of inequality as a consequence of entangled national andtransnational processes (from state welfare decisions to global neo LiBeraLism and the acts of transnationaL corporations and financial institutions); a phenomenon requiring transnational interventions, but all too fre quently treated by national elites as a domestic issue (see also transnationaLism). Finally, Beck refers to ?banal cosmopolitanism? based around the everyday consumption of products and images from around the world, and the increasing formation of cultural practices and affiliations through world engagement. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The sum of these few examples of a multi dimensional process is the claim that ?the experiential space of separate national soci eties, each with its own uniform language, identity and politics, is becoming more and more of a myth?, as what counts as national becomes ?in its essence increasingly trans national or cosmopolitan? (Beck, 2004, p. 153). This does not in any way mean that we are all becoming cosmopolitans, but it does question how far accounts of what goes on within nations can afford to ignore the world at large. These considerations have prompted some geographers to revisit the history of geography (see geography, history of), not to condemn its contributions tout court but to offer nuanced readings of its engagement with cosmopolitan ideals (Cosgrove, 2003; cf. Harvey 2000a), while others have sought to energize the contemporary project of a crit icaL human geography by reflecting on the implications of cosmopolitanism for ethics (e.g. Popke, 2007) and for political action (e.g. Gidwani, 2006). aa (NEW PARAGRAPH)
cost structure
The division of the total cost of production into its constituent parts, or the cost of individual inputs. For example, the cost structure of the iron and steel industry would indicate absolute (or relative) amounts of expenditure on iron ore, coking coal, lime stone, labour, capital equipment and so on. The cost structure thus reveals whether a par ticular activity is material intensive, capitaL intensive, labour intensive and so on, with respect to expenditure on inputs. This infor mation can provide an initial clue to the inputs likely to have the greatest bearing on the loca tion of the activity in question. Dms (NEW PARAGRAPH)
cost-benefit analysis
An analytical proced ure for the comprehensive, frequently ex ante, economic evaluation of major public sector projects, embracing their full positive and negative societal consequences, sometimes over the range of project options and geo graphical scaLes (e.g. Turner, Adger and Doktor, 1995). As such, cost benefit analysis (commonly ?CBA?) covers a wider range of con siderations than the profit and loss accounting of private sector decision making. Originally applied to public river and harbour projects in the USA, CBA?s contemporary uses extend to such diverse issues as urban air quality, dam and irrigation schemes, refuse recycling, medical and veterinary procedures, transport deregulation, roadway maintenance, disposal of hazardous waste, energy generating and conservation and job creation schemes (Armstrong and Taylor, 2000; see also Mishan and Quah, 2007). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cost benefit analysis involves three stages. First, costs and benefits associated with public projects have to be identified, including intangible externaLities such as noise, habi tat loss, poLLution and raising human heaLth and lifespans. Second, these must be quantified, including their discounting to a common base date, since the various costs and benefits can arise over very different time periods. Finally, the resulting cost benefit ratios are incorporated into the decision mak ing, or project evaluation, stage, alongside political and other judgmental inputs (Turner, 2007). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Economists differ as to the best application of these general principles in particular cases, and over the validity of the exercise as a whole. Defining all costs and benefits is one such: how to be comprehensive without double counting. Not all variables have an obvious market value, and some ?estimates? may be little more than guesses. The discount rate can also be crucial to the outcome, and endangers undervaluing the welfare of future generations. Finally, distributional issues are important a $1 million benefit to poor (NEW PARAGRAPH) residents from one freeway route should out weigh the same gain to rich citizens from an alternative. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Recent extensions of cost benefit analysis to large scale environmental issues, such as gLoBaL warming, are now at the forefront of international debate (Stern, 2007) but have proved particularly controversial. Not only are such potential environmental changes irreversible, but the cost and benefits vary internationally, raise sharp ethical valuation judgements (e.g. over Landscape, wildlife and human life) and questions of inter and intra generational fairness the already poor are likely to suffer most, while the future generations who feel the sharp end of global (NEW PARAGRAPH) changes may also have the technology to combat them. agh (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Elins (2000). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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