Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Jean Baudrillard's use of the imagery of signs and symbols in
the American landscape, such as billboards and some types of
architecture, is now a more valid representation of a 'region'. A
qualitative and impressionistic approach that allows meanings to
be read into the 'text' is preferred to one that involves empirical
description, data, and measurement. As a counterpoint,
Christopher Butler, the Oxford historian, describes Baudrillard's
assertion of the essential unreality of the culture in which we live
as outrageous. Clearly, there is room for debate! The progress
of the region can be traced from the notion of differentiation of
territory, to environment and
genre de vie
, to the functional space
of regional science and the meanings of place and social relations
in social and cultural approaches. Regional geography vies with
the issue of the 'local' in a globalizing world, and this is one of the
many areas in human geography where the evolution of thinking
has provided radical change.
