Social Theory In Geography

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Cresswell 1996

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Cresswell is associated with moral geography, or how certain behavior may be judged as appropriate or inapporpriate, and how assumptions about proper roles in spaces can produce judgements. "Putting somthing in its place", where things belong and where they don't. See place as a combination of the spatial and the social. Specifically, he is associated with geographies of exclusion or transgression. In In Place/Out of Place, he looks at various heretical groups (graffitti artists in NYC, hippie groups at Stonehenge) and shows how defining these groups as out of place serves to associate them with lower moral standing. His point is that space and place construct orders of proper behavior and propriety, or highlight what is assumed to be "natural" behavior in a place. Through looking at transgressions, he argues, we get a better sense of what is assumed to be morally proper behavior.

Hint 1

Cresswell, T. (1996) In Place/Out of Place. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

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Gregson & Rose 2000

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This paper is concerned with exploring the potential of performance and performativity as conceptual tools for a critical human geography. We begin by emphasising the importance of recog- nising the different ways in which performance can be theorised, and their very different critical effects. We then argue that, although the geographical literature is apparently characterised by two contrasting discussions of performance (those of Goffman and of Butler), these accounts form a consensus around Goffman. By contrast, and along with Butler, we maintain that performance is subsumed within and must always be connected to performativityöthat is, to the citational practices which produce and subvert discourse and knowledge, and which at the same time enable and discipline subjects and their performances. But we also take Butler elsewhere, arguing that spaces too need to be thought of as performative, and that more needs to be made of the complexity and instability of performances and performed spaces. To illustrate our general arguments, but also to show how they work out rather differently in the specificities of particular social practices, we draw on two very different pieces of research which we have separately been involved in: a study of community arts workers and projects in Edinburgh and another on car-boot sales as alternative spaces of consumption. We conclude the paper by arguing for the necessity of extending our arguments to encompass academic performances and performativity, reflecting on our own production, both through particular academic performances of our respective research projects and this paper.

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Gregson, N. and Gillian Rose (2000) Taking Butler Elsewhere: performativities, spatialities and subjectivities. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space. 18 (4): 433-

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Allen 2003

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Explores posing a research question, wonders whether how you pose the question anticipates its answer. Explores two philosophical viewpoints that address the role of language in research question generation. Richard Rorty, philosophical pragmatist, is hopeful that new vocabularies can allow us to describe things we haven't before. But he believs that language is all there is, and it is simply a tool for redescription and rethinking. Things become true because they are useful. Michel Foucault argues that our own discourses, and what has already been said, limits our ability to ask new questions. The positive spin is that by recognizing discursive constraints we can conduct ourselves differently. The two both believe that vocabularies and discourses have become entrenched. Also looks to Edward Said's idea of beginnings (1978), wherein he argues that there are already thoughts, relationships and practices at work which are rarely acknowledged.

Hint 3

Allen, J. (2003). A Question of Language. Using Social Theory: Thinking Through Research. M. Pryke, G. Rose and S. Whatmore. London, Thousand Oaks, Sage

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Clark 2003

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Looks at the "not yet worked through" research question as critical point in research process. Looks at Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze, who share Rorty's idea of the free play of language, challenge the idea that thought should mirror the outside world, but believe in the potential of opening to an "outside". Deleuze says that thought should be invensive because it is open to a world which is experimental and generative. Derrida challenges the idea, like Rorty, that there can be convergence between the world and the world, although he is not as extreme in Rorty's assessment of their separation. Thinks that language is generative rather than just descriptive. Many people read Derrida as saying that language is inescapable, but also more subtly states that writing hinges on a connection with reality.

Hint 4

Clark, N. (2003). The Play of the World. Using Social Theory: Thinking Through Research. M. Pryke, G. Rose and S. Whatmore. London, Thousand Oaks, Sage.

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Rose 2003

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Looks at how research questions can be intelligible and familiar. Looks at Elizabeth Grotz and Luce Irigaray, both concerned about radical newness as well as how our existing understandings constrain that process. Also tries to include embodiement, and the tendency to assume a male body if any body at all in philosophy. Feminist philsophy is indebted to Foucault, who argues that bodies are not determined solely by anatomy but also discourse, though later he returned to look at the agency of bodies.
Feminist philsophy originally focused on the stability of gender, but has been modified by people like Gaten and moreso Butler, who drew of Foucault's idea of discourse to show how bodies are culturally constructed. Irigaray argues that the body pushes at the limits of understanding, the body exists "richy and provocatively" regardless of our understandings of it. It saturates ourselves and our philosophies of it. Does not allocate the body to natural or cultural, says identity must be constructued in relation to sex. Grotz, however, critiques the biological by using the work of Darwin, who says that the body is dynamic. Bodies use culture to make themselves, and then is becomes corporeal.
Irigaray critiques masculine knowledge for being overly solid, which does not want texual play or ambiguity. Alternative relations looks to female body to think through gaps, and see relations as open to each other. The point is that hey philosophy colors the way she would ask a research question, what we can know and how we can know it.

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Rose, G. (2003). A Body of Questions. Using Social Theory: Thinking Through Research. M. Pryke, G. Rose and S. Whatmore. London, Thousand Oaks, Sage.

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Whatmore 2003

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Looks at the generation of data, and idea of research as researcher doing the acting while the researched are acted upon. Says that questions are produced, not found, and and that researcher produces them. Argues that researcher should commit to "cofabrication" with subjects. Draws on Isabelle Stengers, who challenges the constructivism/realism debate through look at terms of exchange, embodiment, and co-creation process with subjects.

Hint 6

Whatmore, S. (2003). Generating Materials. Using Social Theory: Thinking Through Research. M. Pryke, G. Rose and S. Whatmore. London, Thousand Oaks, Sage.