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radical geography. part four: Myths and Metageography. geographic mythmaking. What does this sign say about the myth/ mystique some people in New York would like to create about the place? How might the sign make the people there feel?. geographic mythmaking.
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radicalgeography part four: Myths and Metageography
geographic mythmaking What does this sign say about the myth/ mystique some people in New York would like to create about the place? How might the sign make the people there feel?
geographic mythmaking Sense of place differs from geographic mythmaking when there is an effort on the part of people/ states/ corporations to create a specific narrative about a place. This effort isn’t always put forth by one entity as a conscious calculation – California has been a mythic place in the U.S. imagination, but not because of one specific effort (panning for gold in the 1800s, a land of sunshine and growth during the 1930s, LA fitness and 1980s sneakers, beaches and bikinis, etc.) – the “edge of Western civilization”, the American Dream in its most concentrated form – it has multiple narratives, but perhaps a central theme
geographic mythmaking “The recent history of the Asia-Pacific region has been converted into a myth, or sacred narrative, which invites the fulfillment of a certain kind of future, rather than just explaining and justifying one version of an ideologically contested past.” – Alexander Woodside
geographic mythmaking Pacific Rim as Euro-American construct “At the turn of the century, then Secretary of State John Hay declared that the Mediterranean was the "ocean" of the past, the Atlantic the ocean of the present, and the Pacific the ocean of the future. The Pacific future is imminent. We hear daily reports of increased trade, immigration, and cultural exchange with Pacific Rim nations, especially those in the Asian sector.” -- Linda Wojtan “The Pacific Rim prophetic culture in its current form could probably not survive an abrupt cataclysmic termination of the extraordinary prolonged boom global capitalism has enjoyed since World War II.” -- Woodside
geographic mythmaking When Space becomes Time When the supporters of today’s form of globalisation are questioned about why, if it is such a progressive force, there is still so much poverty and inequality in the world; you ask about Mozambique, say, or Honduras, they are likely to reply: Do not worry, they are behind, give us time, they will catch up. The whole variegated and unequal geography of the world is being reorganised into a historical queue. Geography is being turned into history, space is being turned into time. What’s more, there is only one historical queue - one model of development. And it is one defined by those “in the lead”, the most powerful voices (the ones who designed the queue in the first place). – Doreen Massey, “Is the World Really Shrinking?”
geographic mythmaking However, it’s not just corporate interests that engage in geographic mythmaking. Anyone can engage with geographic imagination. In Auroville, India, people from around the world are creating a “city of human unity.”
states and non-states What is a state? Are states a kind of geographic myth? They each have their narrative, their story. Right now, there are192 UN member-states, and possibly about 203 sovereign states
states and non-states Clearly, we didn’t have these states thousands of years ago, when humans were migrating across the land
states and non-states Clearly, states could have formed much differently than they did (this vodka ad ran in Mexico)
states and non-states Freddy Heineken (beer tycoon) proposed this layout of 75 European states because he thought everyone would work well together with smaller states
states and non-states States have been around for several centuries – the modern European state system was established with the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Scholars argue (though with some contention) that this treaty established 1. The principle of the sovereignty of states and the fundamental right of political self determination 2. The principle of (legal) equality between states 3. The principle of non-intervention of one state in the internal affairs of another state (yes, from wikipedia)
example: Iraq • History of Iraq (obviously an ancient civilization) – during WWI, the British & French divided West Asia in a 1916 agreement
example: Iraq T.E. Lawrence’s proposed divisions of the Middle East/ West Asia
example: Iraq • the modern Iraqi territorial boundaries were determined in the 1920s • Britain granted Iraq independence in 1932 • Britain continued to invade / occupy it during the 1930s • if U.S. military commanders had paid attention to the cultural geography of Iraq, they might have had better luck with their invasion
example: Kosovo • had been living as a UN-administered zone since 1999 • declared independence from Serbia in Feb. 2008 • currently recognized as a state by 62 out of 192 countries
example: Kosovo The green countries are those that recognize Kosovo. Is there a pattern here?
non-states There are also numerous unrecognized states – lands in limbo.
states and non-states Recognising the limitations of states, some geographers have looked at the world in terms of World Cities
metageography What are some other ways of looking at the world? Metageography: “the set of spatial structures through which people order their knowledge of the world: the often unconscious frameworks that organize studies of history, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, or even natural history.” If states may not really exist, what about continents? Are they cultural constructs? World regions? Is the way in which we look at the world totally flawed? How can we improve it?
metageography Issues with the nation-state / continent / supra-continental block paradigm: • Jigsaw-puzzle view of the world • Assumption that geographic phenomena are necessarily and neatly hierarchically ordered
conceptualizing the world How do you see the world?
