Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
by disenchantment with the world, the loss of confidence in scientific progress, and
a radical individualism critical of all forms of authority. For Jean-François Lyotard,
postmodernism is “the end of grand narratives” [LYO 79]. Since the 1980s, many
American geographers and urban planners have claimed to be followers of
postmodern thought. This is the case for both the Los Angeles School at UCLA and
for practitioners of the New Urbanism. Political ecology is also a stream of
postmodern thought.
R
Red lining
: Initiated by the National Housing Act of 1934, the creation of
“residential security maps” encouraged this practice, widespread for a long time, for
segregating the housing market by limiting access to credit. Red lining was designed
to maintain property values by preventing the settlement of blacks in neighborhoods
and school districts of the northeast where school segregation was not practised and
so to avoid panic sales and white flight. In this way, black ghettoes were built and
gradually expanded in S. cities. Denounced by black activists in Chicago in the
1960s, the practice was outlawed by the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the
Community Reinvestment Act of 1977. The latter forbids discrimination in access to
credit. Founded in Chicago in 1973, Shorebank specializes in mortgages for
minorities who suffer discrimination.
Rednecks
: A stereotype originally applied to poor immigrant settlers of Irish or
Scottish origin in the Appalachian Mountains and southern uplands. Rednecks are
generally of rural stock, poorly educated, and very religious, mostly Baptists. The
rednecks are renowned for their high proportion of military engagement. The term
can just as easily be used pejoratively, and it can be a source of pride.
Redwood
: A generic term to describe a tree, the bark of which is red, of which
the giant sequoias of the cypress family are the pride of the Pacific regions both for
their great height and their exceptional longevity. The Redwood National Park in
Northern California (45,500 ha) preserves 45% of remaining giant sequoias in the
United States.
Residential Economy
: According the theory of the basic economy, [SOM 16],
modified and expanded by such American authors as Homer Hoyt [HOY 54], and
Douglas North [NOR 55], local development is a function of new revenues entering
a territory, which is to say, basic income. According to Laurent Davezies
([DAV 08]), a French economist, direct compensation of local production is but one
way to capture local added value. As an economy develops the production base
