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Cultural Geographies: Session 3

Cultural Geographies: Session 3. Critical reactions to humanistic studie s Introduction Critical approaches to culture: a re-appraisal The Marxist reaction to humanistic studies The symbolic versus the material Culture as the epiphenomenon of economic activity

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Cultural Geographies: Session 3

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  1. Cultural Geographies: Session 3 Critical reactions to humanistic studies Introduction Critical approaches to culture: a re-appraisal The Marxist reaction to humanistic studies The symbolic versus the material Culture as the epiphenomenon of economic activity Culture as the epiphenomenon of class struggle Cultural materialism Feminist and postmodern reactions

  2. Critical approaches to culture: a re-appraisal • Follows symbolic approach in seeing culture as 'webs of meanings' which people spin out and and drawn upon • Sees culture linked to the exercise of 'power' • The study of culture seen to be the study of 'cultural politics' whereby "different cultural discourses engage each other in a constant struggle for power" (Cosgrove, 1994, p. 112) • Associated with Marxist, feminist and postmodern/post-structural/post-colonial approaches to cultural geography

  3. The Marxist reaction to humanistic studies • Both emerged as reactions to 'spatial science' • Different objections: Humanistic geography: the 'objectification' and peopleless character of human geography Radical/ Marxist geography: lack of attention to inequalities and the role of power in creating geography • Disagreements between them: The symbolic versus the material The agency of the human individual versus constraints imposed by socialstructure

  4. The symbolic versus the material • Marxism seen to highly 'materialist': e.g. described as 'historical materialism' 'An analytical method that emphasises the material basis of society, and looks to the historical development of social relations to comprehend societal change' (Smith, 1994, p. 250) • Term was used by Karl Marx to differentiate his work from German idealists • Marx rejected notion that ideas or culture is the driving force of social change

  5. The symbolic versus the material • Marxism seen to highly 'materialist': e.g. described as 'historical materialism' • Term was used by Karl Marx to differentiate his work from German idealists • Marx rejected notion that ideas or culture is the driving force of social change 'In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men [sic] say, imagine, conceive, nor from what men narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in their flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real-life process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process ... Life is not determined by consciousness but consciousness by life' (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 4)

  6. The symbolic versus the material • Marxism seen to highly 'materialist': e.g. described as 'historical materialism' • Term was used by Karl Marx to differentiate his work from German idealists • Marx rejected notion that ideas or culture is the driving force of social change 'In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men [sic] say, imagine, conceive, nor from what men narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in their flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real-life process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process ... Life is not determined by consciousness but consciousness by life' (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 4)

  7. The symbolic versus the material • Marxism seen to highly 'materialist': e.g. described as 'historical materialism' • Term was used by Karl Marx to differentiate his work from German idealists • Marx rejected notion that ideas or culture is the driving force of social change 'In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men [sic] say, imagine, conceive, nor from what men narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in their flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real-life process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process ... Life is not determined by consciousness but consciousness by life' (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 4)

  8. The symbolic versus the material • Marxism seen to highly 'materialist': e.g. described as 'historical materialism' • Term was used by Karl Marx to differentiate his work from German idealists • Marx rejected notion that ideas or culture is the driving force of social change 'In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men [sic] say, imagine, conceive, nor from what men narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in their flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real-life process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process ... Life is not determined by consciousness but consciousness by life' (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 4)

  9. The symbolic versus the material • Marxism seen to highly 'materialist': e.g. described as 'historical materialism' • Term was used by Karl Marx to differentiate his work from German idealists • Marx rejected notion that ideas or culture is the driving force of social change 'In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men [sic] say, imagine, conceive, nor from what men narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in their flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real-life process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process ... Life is not determined by consciousness but consciousness by life' (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 4)

  10. The symbolic versus the material • Term 'ideology' often used to summarise Marx's argument about culture • Ideology understood in variety of ways • Descriptive - set of beliefs • Pejorative - False consciousness • Epiphenomenal - derived from something else (see Thompson, 1990; Jackson, 1989 ch. 3) • All three senses used by Marx

  11. The symbolic versus the material 'In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men [sic] say, imagine, conceive, nor from what men narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in their flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real-life process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process ... Life is not determined by consciousness but consciousness by life' (Marx, 1970 , p. 4) • Quote is from The German ideology = pejorative use • 'development of the ideological reflexes' = descriptive use • ideological reflexes seen as 'echoes of ... life process' and 'consciousness being determined by life' = epiphenomenal use

  12. Marxism and the epiphenomenal concept of culture • Concept of culture as an epiphenomena at the heart of the 'symbolic' versus 'material' argument • Marx saw the symbolic being determined by action; idealists action determined by the symbolic • Marx saw key actions being 'political-economic' in character • 2 epiphenomenal conceptions • Symbolic epiphenomenon of modes of economic activity • Symbolic epiphenomenon of class struggle

  13. Culture as an epiphenomenon of modes of economic activity • 'Economic base' and 'cultural/ideological superstructure' 'cultural products like literature, painting, poetry and drama - and landscape - and the aesthetic and moral values with which these are concerned, become mere outgrowths of material productive activity, to be understood only by direct reference to the mode of production which happens to dominate the society in which they are produced" (Cosgrove, 1984, p. 55) • Clearest expression = 'Althusserian' or 'structural' Marxism • Althusser = French Marxist

  14. Legitimation Ideological Symbolic space Communication Integration Political-Juridical Institutional space Domination - Regulation Consumption space Consumption Economic Spatial transfers Circulation Production space Production Social structure Spatial structure Althusserian/ structural Marxism • Society = a 'social formation' composed of 'structures'

  15. Causal structures Surface appearance Surface appearance Legitimation Ideological Symbolic space Communication Integration Political-Juridical Institutional space Domination - Regulation Consumption space Consumption Economic Spatial transfers Circulation Causal structure Production space Production Social structure Spatial structure Althusserian/ structural Marxism

  16. Althusserian/ structural Marxism • Movement away from structural Marxism, but many Marxists still read culture from the economy • Processes linking culture and economy • Legitimation • Communication • Commodification • Reification • Dissimulation

  17. Structural Marxism: a humanistic critique • Duncan and Ley (1982) - claimed structural Marxists adopted a 'superorganic' view of culture (and the economy) • Duncan and Ley argue that this: • reduces people to 'agents of wholes' (reification) • ignores how actions create structures (functionalism) • 'collapse[s] the range of social experiences to the outworkings of deep economic structures' (economic reductionism) • Conclude that there are 'real silences' in Marxist work 'in the realms of cultural relations and everyday experience' (Duncan and Ley, 1982, p. 39).

  18. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists 'the way the argument is advanced ... to the conclusion that Marxist explanation in geography ignores human practice is by failing to mention that Marxists regard struggle between classes as the primary source of historical change ... Given the long-standing Marxist emphasis upon human actions in the production of historical outcomes, we regard the posing by Duncan and Ley of terms like 'capital' ... as 'reified entities' with causal power over individual actions, as a fundamental misrepresentation of the place of human agency in Marxist geography and theory' (Chouinard and Fincher , 1983, p. 141).

  19. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists 'the way the argument is advanced ... to the conclusion that Marxist explanation in geography ignores human practice is by failing to mention that Marxists regard struggle between classes as the primary source of historical change ... Given the long-standing Marxist emphasis upon human actions in the production of historical outcomes, we regard the posing by Duncan and Ley of terms like 'capital' ... as 'reified entities' with causal power over individual actions, as a fundamental misrepresentation of the place of human agency in Marxist geography and theory' (Chouinard and Fincher , 1983, p. 141).

  20. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists 'the way the argument is advanced ... to the conclusion that Marxist explanation in geography ignores human practice is by failing to mention that Marxists regard struggle between classes as the primary source of historical change ... Given the long-standing Marxist emphasis upon human actions in the production of historical outcomes, we regard the posing by Duncan and Ley of terms like 'capital' ... as 'reified entities' with causal power over individual actions, as a fundamental misrepresentation of the place of human agency in Marxist geography and theory' (Chouinard and Fincher , 1983, p. 141).

  21. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists 'the way the argument is advanced ... to the conclusion that Marxist explanation in geography ignores human practice is by failing to mention that Marxists regard struggle between classes as the primary source of historical change ... Given the long-standing Marxist emphasis upon human actions in the production of historical outcomes, we regard the posing by Duncan and Ley of terms like 'capital' ... as 'reified entities' with causal power over individual actions, as a fundamental misrepresentation of the place of human agency in Marxist geography and theory' (Chouinard and Fincher , 1983, p. 141).

  22. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists 'the way the argument is advanced ... to the conclusion that Marxist explanation in geography ignores human practice is by failing to mention that Marxists regard struggle between classes as the primary source of historical change ... Given the long-standing Marxist emphasis upon human actions in the production of historical outcomes, we regard the posing by Duncan and Ley of terms like 'capital' ... as 'reified entities' with causal power over individual actions, as a fundamental misrepresentation of the place of human agency in Marxist geography and theory' (Chouinard and Fincher , 1983, p. 141).

  23. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists 'the way the argument is advanced ... to the conclusion that Marxist explanation in geography ignores human practice is by failing to mention that Marxists regard struggle between classes as the primary source of historical change ... Given the long-standing Marxist emphasis upon human actions in the production of historical outcomes, we regard the posing by Duncan and Ley of terms like 'capital' ... as 'reified entities' with causal power over individual actions, as a fundamental misrepresentation of the place of human agency in Marxist geography and theory' (Chouinard and Fincher , 1983, p. 141).

  24. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists 'the way the argument is advanced ... to the conclusion that Marxist explanation in geography ignores human practice is by failing to mention that Marxists regard struggle between classes as the primary source of historical change ... Given the long-standing Marxist emphasis upon human actions in the production of historical outcomes, we regard the posing by Duncan and Ley of terms like 'capital' ... as 'reified entities' with causal power over individual actions, as a fundamental misrepresentation of the place of human agency in Marxist geography and theory' (Chouinard and Fincher , 1983, p. 141).

  25. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley Argue that Duncan and Ley: • over-emphasise the significance of Althusser's structuralism within Marxism • misrepresent the arguments made by Marxists • i.e. Marx did give central place to human agency, but saw people acting as 'classes' not individuals • Culture seen as determined by class struggles

  26. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley • Culture seen as determined by class struggles: 'The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationship grasped as ideas" (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 64).

  27. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley • Culture seen as determined by class struggles: 'The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationship grasped as ideas" (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 64).

  28. Chouinard and Fincher (1983): a Marxist response to Duncan and Ley • Culture seen as determined by class struggles: 'The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationship grasped as ideas" (Marx and Engels, 1970 , p. 64). • Culture is an epiphenomenon of class relations

  29. Culture as an epiphenomon of class • Can be connected to culture as an epiphenomenon of mode of production classes are positions within relations of production • Studies of class cultures often have different 'process focus' and concepts, plus link to mode of production not always made • Process focus: the production of culture and ideology through social institutions such as political parties, the media, the 'arts' and education • Concept focus: • 'cultural politics' or 'culture wars': culture as a struggle for power • 'hegemony'

  30. Culture as an epiphenomenon of class • Process focus: the production of culture and ideology through social institutions • Concept focus: • 'cultural politics' or 'culture wars': culture as a struggle for power • 'hegemony' • 'the power of a dominant class to ... create acquiescence among subordinate groups through the power of persuasion as opposed to the power of coercion through the use of physical force' (Jackson, 1989, p. 52-3) • - Associated with Antonio Gramsci

  31. Dominant class Hegemony the acceptance of the beliefs of the powerful Counter-hegemony the rejection of the beliefs of the powerful Intermediate class Hegemony Counter-hegemony Subordinate class Social classes, hegemony and counter-hegemony

  32. Culture as an epiphenomenon of class ? • Jackson's 'Maps of meaning': • Demonstrates difference between 'cultural politics approach' and 'classical' concept of culture. • In process distances itself some humanistic studies • Illustrates how culture can be linked into class struggle • But • Sees definition of classes as problematic • Applies concept of hegemony to social groups defined in relation to, gender, ethnicity and sexuality • Sees the cultural as constitutive of, rather than merely, a derivative of power

  33. Culture as an epiphenomenon of class ? • Jackson's 'Maps of meaning': • Sees definition of classes as problematic • Applies concept of hegemony to social groups defined in relation to, gender, ethnicity and sexuality • Sees the cultural as constitutive of, rather than merely, a derivative of power • Adopts a 'cultural materialist approach': • Culture seen to be determined but 'not in relation to a static mode of production' • Culture seen to be a key part of human geographical experience • Culture determined by 'multiple forces of determination, structured in particular historical [and geographical] situations' (Jackson, 1989, p. 36)

  34. Feminist reactions to humanistic studies Rose (1993)'Feminism in geography' • Humanistic geographers ignore the experiences of women and elevate men's experiences of place into 'universal truths' • E.g. Concepts of 'belonging' and 'dwelling' see the home as a place of rest, of recreation and re-creation • Maybe a male experience of home but for women the home is often a site of exploitation, repression and confinement

  35. Feminist reactions to humanistic studies Rose (1993)'Feminism in geography' • Humanistic geographers ignore the experiences of women and elevate men's experiences of place into 'universal truths' • Humanistic geographers use a 'masculinist' understanding of the 'feminine' as an 'unknowable other' and apply it to culture • Senses of place described as being formed around 'emotions' and 'feelings; the understanding of place seen to require 'sensitivity' and the limits of 'reason' • Women often described as more emotional, more sensitive, less rational

  36. Post modern reactions to humanistic studies • 'Postmodernism as object' and 'Postmodernism as attitude' (Cloke et al., 1991). • Both of relevance to cultural geography Postmodern objects • New cultural style • Appears in range of cultural products: Architecture Music TV and cinema Philosophy and academic studies • Style of 'pastiche'.

  37. Postmodern reactions to humanistic studies Postmodern attitude "an alertness to the many differences that distinguish one person or event or process or whatever from another" (Cloke et al, 1991, p. 171) • Argued that much of geography (including humanistic) has neglected difference • Modernist geography represents the world as if it is populated by people who are 'the same' as academics • Argue for the study of 'neglected others' 'who stand outside the societal 'mainstream', those who are not male, white, heterosexual, middle-class, middle-aged, able-bodied and sound-minded' (Philo, 1992)

  38. Summary points • Discussing 'critical approaches' to culture within geography • Main focus has been on Marxist approaches to culture • Highlighted differences with humanistic geography • Discussed the concept of ideology: • Descriptive, false consciousness, epiphenomenal • Highlighted 2 senses of the epiphenomenal within Marxism: • Economic practices and processes (legitimation, commodification • Class struggle (hegemony) • Discussed some later developments in critical approach

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