1. Dr. Susan P. Mains Geography
GE21001 Dynamic Human Worlds Economic Geography Lecture 1 How do human geographers investigate space, economics, power and inequality?
Dr. Susan P. Mains
Geography

2. Lecture Outline Defining Space Society-Space & Inequality
Approaches to space, economics, power and inequality—some examples
Useful Reading:
Susan J. Smith “Society-Space,” Chapter 2 of Introducing Human Geographies, 2nd Edition by Cloke et al., p18-33.

3. Defining Space Space and society
Previously: “regard spatial arrangements as a more or less straightforward reflection of social divisions” (Smith 2009, 18)
More complex, multiple relations & processes
Diversity of approaches in human geography

4. Defining Space Space and society
Moving from more “fixed” ideas about space and differences between places
descriptionpatternsrelative space
Towards understanding power and space
Why places were where they were?
How different individuals/institutions used and related to spaces in varying ways

5. Defining Space
“Space and time (or space-time) are now seen as being ‘produced’ or ‘constituted’ through action and interaction”
(Derek Gregory, 2000, p. 771, The Dictionary of Human Geography, Blackwell).

6. Defining Space
2) “Space and time cannot be held fast in fixed compartments, measured intervals or regular geometries”
(Derek Gregory, 2000, p. 772, The Dictionary of Human Geography, Blackwell).

7. Defining Space
3) “productions of space are inseparable from productions of NATURE”
(Derek Gregory, 2000, p. 772, The Dictionary of Human Geography, Blackwell).

8. Defining Space Space and social practices are intertwined
They are dynamic
Material and social
Rhythm and feel of the same space may vary (e.g., movements of people in cities )
Physically spaces may be in close proximity, but economically worlds apart

9. Princes Street Gardens & Castle, Edinburgh

10. Trafalgar Square, London

11. Jakarta, Indonesia

12. Space and Place Place giving space meaning
Emotional attachments, experiences
Places are dynamic and relational
“Sense of place”
Stories, events, identities linked to places

13. Places are “Happening”!
Place is an event in that sense too... There can be no assumption of pre-given coherence, or of community or collective identity. Rather the throwntogetherness of place demands negotiation.
Doreen Massey, For Space (2005)

14. Space, Power and Inequality
Critical: challenging positivist “objective” researcher
Research is a product of society
Different forms of knowledge & data
Questioning abstraction & reduction

15. Space, Power and Inequality
World is socially constructed
Shaped by experiences
Political perspectives
Access to information
Books, television news, government policies, social campaigns
Challenging taken-for-granted notions of space

16. Space, Power and Inequality
Some examples of topics using a Marxian approach:
Don Mitchell--landscapes of migrant workers in California
David Harvey--cinema and changing economic relations
Doreen Massey--spatial divisions of labour in landscape

17. Space, Power and Inequality

18. Combining Marxist & Feminist Approaches: Socialist Feminism
Urban planning: where are the different individuals or households?
E.g., the difficulties for a working class single mother to access paid work, while locating childcare, accessing public transportation and maintaining a suitable income without having to travel lengthy distances daily.

20. Homeless Women’s Meal Program, D.C.

21. “Social networks in time and space: Homeless women on Skid Row” Annals of the AAG Vol.80, No.2 (1990)
Jennifer Wolch