Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
27
Political spaces and representation
within the state
Ron Johnston
regional geographers may perhaps be trying to
put boundaries that do not exist around areas
that do not matter.
characteristics, usually flows: the goal is to define
areas dominated by a particular flow pattern—
usually focused on a node (hence the alternative
term 'nodal region'). The outcome is a set of
regions (which may not each comprise single
contiguous blocks of territory), each focused on a
particular core— such as the hinterland of a
shopping centre or market town and the
commuter-shed of a factory or industrial estate.
From Kimble on, some geographers have
argued that both types of region are largely
irrelevant in the contemporary world, because of
the growing interconnectedness of life, frequently
expressed in relatively vague concepts such as
'globalisation' and 'the global village'. Against this,
it is argued that regions are crucial elements of the
structuring of economic, social, cultural and
political life, for three main reasons:
(Kimble 1951:159)
'Region' is one of the commonest words in the
geographical lexicon, adopted by adherents to a
range of different philosophies within the
discipline as a key concept with which their area
of study can be identified. Much effort has been
expended on the definition of regions, a great deal
of it
ad hoc
. To some, defining and describing
regions is the highest form of the geographer's art
(Hart 1982), whereas to others, like Kimble (1951),
regions are largely irrelevant, geographers'
constructions of reality rather than reality itself:
those constructions may become reality, however,
as illustrated in this chapter.
Two major types of region have been identified.
Formal regions
are relatively homogeneous areas on
one or more predetermined characteristics—
whether physical (such as climatic regions), human-
made (social areas, say), or both (landscapes). Their
definition involves determining the salient criteria,
mapping those over the selected area and defining
the boundaries around the separate regions, either
subjectively, using a single identifier (such as the
number of frost-free days per annum), or by
statistical procedures based on the analysis of
variance, in which the units within each region are
more like each other than they are like the units in
adjacent regions. The result is a mosaic of areas, with
each relatively homogeneous internally.
Functional
regions
are defined on a more limited range of
1
Regions (or places, or localities) provide the
contexts within which most people are
socialised, particularly although not only during
the early years of their lives. We learn to be
people in contexts that are both culturally and
territorially defined, and from those among
whom most of our daily interactions take place.
Local cultures are spatially constrained—at a
variety of scales—and their structuration (i.e.
their creation and continual recreation) is the
basic cause of the complex mosaic of cultural
regions that comprises the contemporary world.
2
Although information technology allows the
rapid movement of ideas and abstract
commodities (such as money) around the world
