The Dictionary of Human Geography (46 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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discourse analysis
The analysis of dis course; methodologies for studying the pro duction and meaning of discourses. Discourse analysis involves a wide array of approaches to the construction and interpretation of mean ing. These approaches understand language as a social practice, and are concerned with language use beyond the semantic units that are the domain of linguistics. The differences between the approaches to discourse analysis depend on the extent to which they (a) under stand themselves to be a formal method ology (hence the sometimes capitalized term ?Discourse Analysis?) as opposed to a critical interpretative approach; and (b) the extent to which the formal components and properties of linguistic representations, as opposed to the social practices made possible by language, are the primary concern (NEW PARAGRAPH) The more formal, methodological approaches that comprise Discourse Analysis focus on the structure of spoken or written texts, and confine their study to those texts often in terms of content analysis leaving questions of context and how much can be inferred from the linguistic data to others (see van Dijk, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . One prominent approach deals with the role that metaphors play in social life, and highlights the frames of reference through which problems are understood; for example, ?war? versus ?crime? in the struggle against terrorism, or ?choice? in the debates about public services and reproductive rights (Lakoff and Johnson, 2003 [1980]). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), exem plified in the work of Fairclough (2001), extends the range of interpretive concern beyond the structures of language to the social and political context. While beginning with an analysis of language texts, CDA also includes the processes of text production, distribution and consumption in its approach. Finally, CDA is concerned with the way in which sociocultural practice is comprised of discur sive events. As such, CDA argues that lin guistic and social resources are controlled institutionally and access to them is unequal. (NEW PARAGRAPH) While CDA extends the concern with language to the social, it perhaps does not go as far as more interpretive and less formal approaches to discourse analysis. Allied with the conception of discourse as performative, these approaches largely shun the idea of discourse analysis as a specific methodo logy, because they argue that all analysis (NEW PARAGRAPH) necessitates an encounter with the discursive given the impossibility of apprehending an extra discursive realm beyond language and other modes of representation (see Howarth, Norval and Stavrakakis, 2000). Here, although few ofthese authors would pre sent their thought in these terms, Roland Barthes? examination of mythologies, Jacques Derrida?s notion of deconstruction and Michel Foucault?s account of genealogy would all count as critical analyses ofdiscourse, even if they could not be understood as Discourse Analysis. Nor is this broadly defined critical approach to discourse limited to ques tions of language or text (even if they are under stood as social practices). As Rose (2007 (NEW PARAGRAPH) ) makes clear, discourse analysis is an important methodology for the study of visual culture (see visual methods). dca (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Fairclough (2003). See also the journal Discourse and Society. (NEW PARAGRAPH)
disease, diffusion of
An area of medical geography that is concerned with mapping and modelling the spread of infectious dis eases and their causative agents (e.g. viruses, bacteria and protozoa) over space and through time. The approach is characterized by the application of quantitative techniques to decipher the spatial and temporal properties of epidemic waves in terms of their timing, intensity, rate and geographical corridors of spread (descriptive models), and to apply this understanding to the prediction of future dis ease distributions (predictive models). Particular concern with the topic stems from a need to intervene in the spread of epidemic waves (e.g. through the implementation of quarantine or vaccination) as part of public health policy Geographical interest in the spread of infec tious diseases was stimulated by a broader disciplinary concern with spatial diffusion that followed from the influential studies of Torsten Hagerstrand in the 1950s (see Haggett, 2000). Within the tradition of diffu sion modelling initiated by Haagerstrand, geog raphers have sought to identify the nature of the diffusion processes by which infectious dis eases are propagated spatially, and to incorpor ate elements of these processes into formal mathematical models of epidemic transmis sion. Two basic types of spatial diffusion process have received particular attention in the literature. A contagious process describes the wave like spread of a disease from its point of introduction to geographically proximal centres. Alternatively, a hierarchical process describes the spread of a disease through an ordered sequence of classes or places (e.g. an urban settlement hierarchy). Spatial diffusion processes of the contagious, hierarchical and related forms have been modelled for a wide variety of diseases in different historical and geographical settings; the classic studies of Pyle (1969) on cholera in the nineteenth century USA and Cliff, Haggett, Ord and Versey (1981) on measles in twentieth century Iceland are illustrative of the work undertaken. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Mathematical models of epidemic diffusion processes can be divided into two broad types. In time series models the past record of a disease in a regional system is used to model its future behaviour. In process based models the person to person transmission of an infectious agent is simulated according to the parameters of the disease and the population at risk. Cliff, Haggett and Smallman Raynor (1993, pp. 359 410) provide a review of the principal categories of model, along with a summary of their relative merits as tools for epidemic fore casting. The insights offered by such model ling approaches are increasingly being used in the monitoring and control of vaccine preventable diseases, with the prospect of the construction of global early warning systems for the transmission of pandemic events. msr (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cliff, Haggett, Ord and Versey (1981); Pyle (1979). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
Disneyfication
A process through which a place becomes marketed primarily as a tourist destination, through standardized landscape symbolization. The term derives from the Walt Disney theme parks that originated in California in 1955. Disneyland offered highly organized space with themed areas, united by the central ?Main Street? (Avila, 2004). It celebrates order, cleanliness and predictability as part of the tourist in playground experience (Sorkin, 1992a; Avila, 2004). Sorkin (1992a, pp. 216 17) argues that Disney spaces cele brate travel and consumerism in a simulated experience and landscape that mimics reality, but is never quite real. The term ?Disneyfication? suggests a critique of this commodification of place. dgm (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Warren (1994). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
distance decay
The attenuation of a pattern or process with distance from a central point. (NEW PARAGRAPH) double log models single log models (NEW PARAGRAPH) Its importance in the evolution of spatial pat terns was enshrined inTobler?s (1970) famous ?first law of geography?: ?everything is related to everything else but near things are more related than distant things?. Distance decay relationships underpin much of the work on spatial structures undertaken within spa tial analysis and spatial science, because the costs of spatial interaction are related to the distance travelled (cf. gravity model). Empirical studies have identified a range of distance decay relationships in which the degree of attenuation with distance is much greater in some situations than others (see figure), in part because of the characteristics of the geometric configurations of the spatial structures within which they are set (Cliff, Martin and Ord, 1975 6). rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Sheppard (1984); Taylor (1971). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
districting algorithm
A computer procedure for defining the boundaries of electoral con stituencies. Such procedures became widely used in the USA after the outlawing of malap portionment in Congressional Districts and other constituencies in the 1960s: they are deployed to explore the number of ways in which constituencies can be defined which meet ?equal population? and other criteria (cf. gerrymandering; redistricting). rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Altman, MacDonald and McDonald (2005). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
division of labour
The separation of tasks within the labour process and their allocation to different groups of workers. Two forms are commonly identified: (NEW PARAGRAPH) Social division of labour the division of workers between product sectors (e.g. ?car workers? or ?textile workers?). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Technical division of labour the division of the production process into tasks, and the specialization of workers in one or a small number of these (e.g. managers, supervisors and assembly workers). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The division of labour tends to be greater in more complex and industrialized societies and is a central component of the production sys tems of fordism. On the other hand, the puta tive emergence of post fordism has been associated with more flexible forms of work organization and the limited re integration of previously separated tasks (cf. flexible accumulation). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Other applications of the concept of the division of labour include: (NEW PARAGRAPH) Gender division of labour in which spe cific jobs are assigned to men or women: in Western societies nurses tend to be women, and coalminers men. This ex tends beyond paid employment, so that unwaged domestic labour is largely performed by women (see gender; patriarchy). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cultural division of labour according to the theory of internal colonialism (Hech ter, 1975), regional minorities bear the same relationship to the majority as a colony does to the metropolitan power under colonialism. The periphery sup plies the core with raw materials and la bour, forming a division of labour between the minority and majority cul tures (see core periphery model). (NEW PARAGRAPH) The cultural division of labour may be seen as a special instance of: (NEW PARAGRAPH) Ethnic division of labour in colonized and other ethnically divided societies, employment is frequently stratified according to ethnicity. (NEW PARAGRAPH) International division of labour charac teristically, less developed countries pro duce raw materials and developed countries produce manufactured goods. More recently, a new international div ision of labour has involved the devel opment by transnational corporations of production facilities in less developed countries. Initially, such facilities con centrated on routine and lower skill manufacturing tasks. Subsequently, tech nological advances and the availability of large numbers of higher skill (but still relatively low paid) workers in poorer countries have seen a major growth in the outsourcing of business and profes sional services to countries such as India. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The international division of labour is a special case of: (NEW PARAGRAPH) Spatial division of labour a concept developed by Massey (1984) involving the concentration of particular sectors and/or production tasks in specific geo graphical areas. (NEW PARAGRAPH) According to Sayer (1995), the significance of the division of labour in the organization of (NEW PARAGRAPH) economic activity has been systematically underestimated. He argues that the complex ities of modern industrial economies are such that they cannot feasibly be centrally planned, and nor can the social division of labour be abolished. For Sayer, this means that tradi tional Marxist approaches to geographical change (see marxism) must be rethought to recognize that the political challenges posed by the division of labour would not disappear with the transition to a post capitalist society (see also Sayer and Walker, 1992). jpa (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Massey (1995a). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
domestic labour
Work that is done in and around the home: activities such as house work, food preparation, childcare and the care of disabled, sick and ageing household and family members. Domestic labour is the focus of much feminist scholarship because women tend to do this work, regardless of whether or not they have part or full time paid employ ment. This has implications for the location, type and hours of many women?s paid employ ment, and is an important factor contributing to the persistence of women?s ghettoization in ?female dominated occupations?, and the dis parity between men?s and women?s wages (Hanson and Pratt, 1995: see feminism; femi nist geographies). Whilst many women in industrialized countries do this ?double shift? of domestic labour and paid employment, some middle class women hire other women typically racialized, working class women or migrants from the global South to do this work for them (Momsen, 1999; Pratt, 2004). gender oppression is thus layered on to other forms of social and geopolitical domination. In some cases, domestic labour is then stretched over very great distances, as women caring for middle class children in the global north strive to mother their own children still residing in the global south, through daily or weekly emails and telephone calls (NEW PARAGRAPH) Domestic labour is ambivalently valued in feminist analyses, viewed simultaneously as a burden and constraint, and as invaluable practices of care and social co operation. Feminists have developed different strategies to remedy the unequal gender division of domestic labour. One strategy is to un gender domestic labour, by striving towards equal contributions by men and women, as well as more collective options such as socialized childcare. A second, complementary, approach is to revalue domestic labour by demonstrating (NEW PARAGRAPH) its importance to the economy. Within marx isM, domestic labour is seen as necessary to the social reproduction that supports and sus tains economic production; periodically, marx ist geographers have had to be reminded of this importance (Mitchell, Marston and Katz, 2004). Other attempts to bring domestic labour within the economy to make it more visible and highlight its value have included ?wages for housework? campaigns, and efforts to include questions about domestic labour on questionnaires related to national censuses. The latter allow the extent and worth of such labour to be measured and potentially figured into calculations of national economic activity, such as gross national product (Domosh and Seager, 2001, p. 45). Cameron and Gibson Graham (2003) argue that the second set of strategies (which they characterize as ?adding on? and ?counting in?) ?fall short of generating a feminist politics of transform ation? (p. 151), because they seek to include domestic labour within existing ways of think ing about the economy, rather than using domestic labour as a vehicle for thinking about the economy differently. Rather than incorporating domestic labour into a broader conception of the capitalist economy, these authors urge that domestic labour be rethought within a diverse economy of MARKET/non market, paid/unpaid, capitalist/ non capitalist relations. England and Lawson (NEW PARAGRAPH) caution that the category itself main tains troubling conceptual borders by reinfor cing a distinction between domestic and other kinds of work. gp (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Domosh and Seager (2001). (NEW PARAGRAPH)

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