Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Hybrid geographies
One of the most central questions in geography, the
relationship between Nature and Culture, is addressed in
the British geographer Sarah Whatmore's study of hybrid
geographies. The central argument is that nature and
culture are not antitheses but are closely interconnected.
These various and intimate connections are best studied
by investigating the attachments, skills, and intensities of
differently embodied lives rather than by reference to major
academic issues or corporate management. 'The politics of
global ecology are necessarily more plural and partial than
a global vision that maps a universal subject, the “we” of
humanity onto a fi nite terrain.'
The theme of the relation between human and non-human is
pursued in some of the case studies that make up the topic.
A section on 'The Wild' questions the ways in which animals
are managed in nature. A designation of Wild, or wilderness,
does not seem to have served animals well; they are caught up
in networks of regulation and wildlife management that serve
human rather than non-human interests. On the example of
genetically modifi ed (GM) foods, Whatmore sees 'food scares'
as the outcomes of the threadbare trust that exists between
growers, suppliers, and consumers. The plea is for a stronger
voice for those who understand agri-food production and
consumption as a science in the chain of decisions that leads
from fi eld to plate.
of development is short, the spatial scale of the landscape is
manageable, and, most importantly, the age of the terrain is
known or can be dated. This last aspect is particularly important
and has led to the chronosequence concept: the idea that distance
from the glacier front represents the age and hence the stage
of development of the landscape. In other words, space can be
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