Norton, W. (2005). Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, and Inequalities. Oxford University Press, Don Mills.

Readings: Chapter 3 of Norton – Feminism; The Cultural Turn; The Mode of Representation

Session 6: Theoretical approaches to the geography of culture and environment – Part 2

September 25, 2013

1) Overview of feminism;

2) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at TEDxE Talk (30 mins);

3) Intro to the cultural turn and the mode of representation;

4) Instructions for ethics exercise.

Boer Women’s Memorial, S Africa

What is Feminism?

1. the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes

2. organized activity on behalf of women's rights and interests

Works against patriarchy

3. social organization marked by the supremacy of the father in the clan or family, the legal dependence of wives and children, and the reckoning of descent and inheritance in the male line; broadly : control by men of a disproportionately large share of power

4. a society or institution organized according to the principles or practices of patriarchy

- Merriam Webster Dictionary

1st Wave: • beginning in the late 18th Century• fight for equal right and opportunities for women• criticized for viewing the male model as the norm [to aspire

towards]

Feminism

Feminism

2nd Wave:• between 1960 and 1980

• possible to identify the sources of oppression

• men’s ability to control women’s reproductive choices, capitalism

• worked towards societal changes beyond the redistribution of rights (challenged the social construct - patriarchy)

• recognition that oppression is rooted in mental and cultural processes

photo: duke.edu

Feminism

3rd Wave:

•emerged in the 1980s

•concerned with multiple forms of oppressions and inequalities (including gender as a social construct)

•critiqued for only representing the white middle-class voice

photo: theguardian.com

Post-colonial feminism

Response to feminism as a concept based solely on the experiences of white Western women

*Argues against putting the experiences of “women” together into one group based on gender without paying attention to other contexts such as culture, social class, ethnicity, or sexuality.

brings in conscience of these aspects

Affect of feminism on geography

Political basis for critique

Many practices in geography allowed for the invisibility of women – i.e., gendered experiences were not accounted for in research

Provided a deeper analysis of gender beyond “inborn sex”

Questioned the context of knowledge knowledge is situated (in a worldview etc.) need to be reflexive

Important to contextualize the meaning of the prefix “radical” (favoring drastic reforms)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWc

Video: We should all be feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at TEDxE

Questions for reflection:

1) The title of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s presentation is We should all be feminists. What exactly does she mean by this?

2) Reflect on the quote, “Culture does not make people, people make culture.” What does Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie mean by this? How does that fit with what we have been learning about the approaches to cultural geography? Explain.

3) Is patriarchy only a ‘women’s issue’? Explain.

The cultural turn

Beginning in the 70s social scientists made culture the primary focus of contemporary debates further shift away from positivism

Emphasis on language because this is where meaning could be found

Postmodernism, Poststructuralism, Postcolonialism

The problem with “post”, especially in the colonial form

- Many scholars contend that we can never be fully is a “post” colonial context because colonization has not ended but has merely changed forms and continues to exist in current structures (structural violence)

Modernism (or Enlightenment Humanism) PostmodernismExistence of stable, coherent “self”, independent of culture and society.

The “self” is a myth and largely a composite of one’s social experiences and cultural contexts. The "self" is an Ideology.

Reason and science provide accurate, objective, reliable foundation of “knowledge”

Reason and science are Ideologies in the Marxist sense; myths created by man.

Reason transcends and exists independently of our existential, historical, cultural contexts; it is universal and “true”.

There is no universal, objective means of judging any given concept as “true”; ALL judgments of truth exist within a cultural context (cultural relativism).

Reason and human independence/freedom are inherently linked; just laws conform to the dictates of Reason. We hold these truths to be self evident…

The application of pure Reason (predicated Cartesian Radical Skepticism) disproves the universal nature of a priori human freedom. Independence/Freedom are Western Ideologies used to colonize foreign cultures (ie Belgian Congo, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan)

Because it is universal, Reason can help us overcome all conflicts.

Reason is no more universal than is any other culture’s definition of “truth”.

Science is the paradigm of all true knowledge.

Science is Ideology.

Source: University of Idaho

Structuralism and Post-structuralism

The Grand Narrative!!

The mode of representation

How knowledge is represented

Sought to understand the intertextuality of issues – e.g., *Quote pg. 94-95

ALL text is part of a PARTICULAR view point (not universal).

Trouble with the need to represent the world to others (the goal of cultural geography)

- hermeneutic method- study of discourse

Conducting research

Marxism, feminism, the cultural turn have shaped the direction of cultural geography

constructionism: identity is socially constructed

awareness of the politics of difference

contextualism: how knowledge is constructed

Studying society: structuration theory (Giddens): focuses on links between human agents and social structures.

Giddens’ Theory of Structuration (Source: Brooks et. al 2008)

Brooks, L., Atkinson, C., & Wainwright, D. (2008). Adapting Structuration Theory to understand the role of reflexivity: Problematization, clinical audit and information systems. International Journal of Information Management, 28(6), 453-460.

Instructions for ethics exercise – treatment of the natural world

Students will engage in a conversation (not necessarily debate) on the following questions:

1. What are the reasons for and against zoos and other forms of animal interpretive centres (e.g., aquariums, fenced animal parks) in our society?

2. What are the ethical considerations surrounding such institutions?

Instructions:

• Conduct internet-based research using at lease 3 different sources (in addition to reading the text)

• Record the sources and bring to class as notes and citations or print outs

• Be prepared to engage with your peers and chart your ethical discussion

Session 7: Innovations in research in the field of cultural and environmental geography

Guest: Mya Wheeler-Wiens Sense of place research in Northwest Ontario

September 26, 2013

Lake of the Woods, NW Ontario

Norton, W. (2005). Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, and Inequalities. Oxford University Press, Don Mills.

Readings: Chapter 3 of Norton – Conducting Research; Studying Scoiety