Cultural Geography Notes (Geog 2811)

Page 1 — What is Cultural Geography?

• Core questions:

  • How do people and places form cultural identities and cultural landscapes?

  • What is a geographic expression of culture in landscapes?

  • Is Cultural Geography concerned with local and global links?

  • How does it relate to traditional and newer conceptual bases and its relationship with other disciplines in the social sciences?

• Cultural Geography (Cultural Geo):

  • Examines what landscapes are located where, why they are where they are, and what the significance of place-to-place variation is

• Comparison to other geographies:

  • How does it compare to Social Geography?

  • Social Geo is concerned with social relations, identities, and inequalities

  • Human Geography (Human Geo):

  • Includes analysis of gender, class, cultures, sexuality, ethicality, and the differences that exist within and between cultures

• Core definition: Cultural Geo is the study of the ways in which space, place, and landscapes shape culture at the same time that culture shapes space, place, and landscape

• Cultural Geo in Human Geo:

  • A pragmatic concern: practical and sensible

  • A central concern in scholarly discourse in the study of Human Geo

  • Transferred from traditional to new Cultural Geo reflecting a conceptually varied understanding and meanings

Page 1 — Cultural Expression in Landscapes & Links

• Cultural landscapes are seen as expressions of culture in the landscape; they reflect the interaction between people and their environment

• Landscapes may carry cultural meanings and represent social relations, power, and identity

• Cultural geography asks how landscapes become recognisable as cultural spaces and how culture is produced through spatial arrangements

Page 2 — Doing Cultural Geography: Traditional vs. New

• Traditional approach:

  • Landscape school: Identifies cultural groups, their views of the outside world, and their landscapes

• The “New” Cultural Geography and the Landscape School:

  • Sauer: landscapes created by a cultural group (landscape transformation)

  • Cultural landscape: geographic area identified by cultural groups, including landscapes, animals, music, etc.

  • Cultural landscapes developed from the natural landscape

  • Evolution of the visible material landscape

  • Reference: Sauer (1925) The Morphology of Landscape

• Sauer's key ideas:

  • Rejected environmental determinism: human activities are not controlled solely by the environment

  • Favored landscapes over regional geography

  • Criticized Regional Geography

  • Focused on landscape as a combination of physical geography and human impacts (the cultural landscapes)

  • Cultural impacts prompt cultural change

  • Culture can function as a cause of landscape

• Why traditional CG can be problematic for Human Geography (HG):

  • Identifying groups of people:

  • People and groups identified by language, religion, and ways of life

  • Such groupings led to the creation of regional landscapes in the areas they occupy

  • Cultural and landscapes are treated as uncontested terms in classical cultural geography

• Other cultural identities:

  • Given varied identities, there are struggles to maintain a cultural identity

  • Example: Gypsy/ Roma populations in the UK who are stigmatized, ridiculed, and living outside the mainstream society and space in Britain

  • Policy example: In 1994, an Act released local authorities from the obligation to provide sites for mobile populations and introduced laws penalizing those found in open areas without permission

• Unequal worlds:

  • Geographers study variation from place to place; differences in people and landscapes

Page 2 — Distinctions in Development & New Cultural Geography

• Distinction between less and more developed worlds as reflected by the Brandt Line in comparative levels

• New Cultural Geography:

  • Emergence of a humanist approach emphasizing the uniqueness of human phenomena, focus on human experiences, and respect for individual freedom and dignity

  • Influence of feminist perspectives

  • Emphasis on the cultural turn: culture becomes central to economy and politics in cultural studies

Page 3 — Humanism, Feminism, and the Cultural Turn

• What is Humanism?

  • An approach to the study of humans and human behaviors that prioritizes the fact of being human

  • Modern humanism evolved in the 19th century due to conflict with science

  • Claims: knowledge cannot be derived solely from science

  • Humans are free to act; they choose and have respect for freedom and dignity

• What is Feminism?

  • In Geography, not a single theory or methodology

  • Originated as a radical political critique of the practice in Geography

  • Brought attention to the invisibility of women as both practitioners in the field and objects of inquiry

  • Challenge: historically centered on women's concerns

  • Need to incorporate gender as a variable in geographical studies alongside cultural and ethnic ideas; understanding gender roles and relations

• Cultural Turn:

  • Places increased emphasis on culture, downplaying other considerations/aspects

  • In the 1970s, a movement among scholars in humanities and social sciences placed culture at the center of contemporary debates

  • This marked a substantive shift in society and an analytical shift in academia

• Four Traditional Challenges (in relation to culture and society):

  • Culture

  • Cultural and Social

• Nature, Landscape, and Cultural Landscapes:

  • Nature

  • Landscape

  • Cultural Landscapes

  • Providing a Context

Page 4 — Synthesis: Nature, Culture, and Context in Cultural Geography

• Landscape and Cultural Landscapes provide a context for understanding how culture is expressed in physical space

• The interplay between nature, landscape, and culture shapes both material and symbolic dimensions of places

• Cultural geography seeks to connect micro-level place-based phenomena with macro-level social, economic, and political processes

Key terms and references (recap)

• Cultural Geography: study of how space, place, and landscapes shape culture and how culture shapes space, place, and landscapes

• Landscape School (Sauer): landscapes created by cultural groups; landscape as a product of cultural transformation

• Cultural Landscape: the geographic area shaped by a culture, including its landscapes, fauna, music, etc.

• Environmental determinism: the idea that environment alone determines human action; Sauer rejects this

• Brandt Line: a conceptual line distinguishing more developed and less developed countries

• Humanism: emphasis on human-centric explanations of behavior and dignity/freedom of individuals

• Feminism in Geography: critique of gender invisibility; integration of gender as a variable in geographic analysis

• Cultural Turn: shift toward culture as central to social sciences and humanities, especially in 1970s

• 1994 Act (UK): reduced local authorities' obligation to provide sites for mobile populations and introduced penalties for open-area non-permission

1925: Sauer, The Morphology of Landscape
1994: UK Act related to mobile populations