Imagined geographies
Encyclopedia
The concept of imagined geographies has evolved out of the work of Edward Said
, particularly his critique on Orientalism
. In this term, ‘imagined’ is used not to mean ‘false’ or ‘made-up’, but ‘perceived’. It refers to the perception of space created through certain images, texts or discourse
s. Imagined geographies can be seen as a form of social constructionism
on par with Benedict Anderson
's concept of imagined communities
.
’ based on a particular imagination, popularized through academic Oriental studies
, travel writing
and a colonial
view of the Orient. The area was feminized as an open, virgin territory, with no ability or concept of organized rule and government.
, and those who have developed the theory of imagined geographies have linked these together. Imagined geographies are thus seen as a tool of power
, of a means of controlling and subordinating areas. Power is seen as being in the hands of those who have the right to objectify
those that they are imagining.
Further writers to have been heavily influenced by the concept of imagined geographies including Derek Gregory
, Gearóid Ó Tuathail
, and Simon Springer . Gregory argues that the War on Terror
shows a continuation of the same imagined geographies that Said uncovered. He claims that the Islamic world is portrayed as uncivilized; it is labeled as backward and failing. This justifies, in the view of those imagining, the military intervention that has been seen in Afghanistan
and Iraq
. Ó' Tuathail has argued that geopolitical
knowledges are forms of imagined geography. Using the example of Halford Mackinder's Heartland Theory, he has shown how the presentation of Eastern Europe/Western Russia as a key geopolitical region after World War I
influenced actions such as the recreation of Poland
and the Polish Corridor
in the 1918 Treaty of Versailles
. Springer argues that virulent imaginative geographies erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs by assuming violence sits in particular places. He uses the descriptor ‘virulent’ to mean three things in qualifying particular imaginative geographies. First, to emphasize those imaginative geographies that invoke hostility and malice, which often results in harmful effects for those individuals cast within them. Second, through the simplicity of the essentialisms they produce, some imaginative geographies may be uncritically accepted, making them highly infectious and easily communicable among individuals subjected to them, which draws parallels to symbolic violence
. Third, he argues that the etymology of the Latin word for ‘virulence’ (virulentus) is derived from the word man (vir), and as related concept metaphors in contemporary English, ‘virulence’ and ‘virility’ are informed by masculinist modes of response and engagement. Virulent imaginative geographies are thus argued to employ a sense of ‘virility’ to code ‘Oriental’ males as pre-oedipal and/or feminine. Springer also contends that the first step towards peace involves rethinking our imaginative geographies.
This theory has also been used to critique several geographies created; both historically and contemporarily - an example is Maria Todorova's work Imagining the Balkans
. Samuel Huntington
’s Clash of Civilizations
has also been criticized as showing a whole set of imagined geographies. By following stereotype
s and popular discourses and images, Huntington brackets whole sections of the earth into ‘civilization groups’ that are constantly at conflict. Halford Mackinder's 'imperial gaze' has also been shown as an important imagined geography http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rcjo/2000/00000011/00000001/art00005. This emphasised the importance of the British Empire
over colonial peoples, and asserted the view of the geographical 'expert' with the 'God's eye view'.
Edward Said
Edward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...
, particularly his critique on Orientalism
Orientalism (book)
Orientalism is a book published in 1978 by Edward Said that has been highly influential and controversial in postcolonial studies and other fields. In the book, Said effectively redefined the term "Orientalism" to mean a constellation of false assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward the...
. In this term, ‘imagined’ is used not to mean ‘false’ or ‘made-up’, but ‘perceived’. It refers to the perception of space created through certain images, texts or discourse
Discourse
Discourse generally refers to "written or spoken communication". The following are three more specific definitions:...
s. Imagined geographies can be seen as a form of social constructionism
Social constructionism
Social constructionism and social constructivism are sociological theories of knowledge that consider how social phenomena or objects of consciousness develop in social contexts. A social construction is a concept or practice that is the construct of a particular group...
on par with Benedict Anderson
Benedict Anderson
Benedict Richard O'Gorman Anderson is Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor Emeritus of International Studies, Government & Asian Studies at Cornell University, and is best known for his celebrated book Imagined Communities, first published in 1983...
's concept of imagined communities
Imagined communities
Imagined communities are a concept coined by Benedict Anderson. He believes that a nation is a community socially constructed, imagined by the people who perceive themselves as part of that group...
.
Orientalism
In his book on Orientalism, Edward Said argued that western culture had produced a view of the ‘OrientOrient
The Orient means "the East." It is a traditional designation for anything that belongs to the Eastern world or the Far East, in relation to Europe. In English it is a metonym that means various parts of Asia.- Derivation :...
’ based on a particular imagination, popularized through academic Oriental studies
Orientalism
Orientalism is a term used for the imitation or depiction of aspects of Eastern cultures in the West by writers, designers and artists, as well as having other meanings...
, travel writing
Travel writing
Travel writing is a genre that has, as its focus, accounts of real or imaginary places. The genre encompasses a number of styles that may range from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic, and from the humorous to the serious....
and a colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
view of the Orient. The area was feminized as an open, virgin territory, with no ability or concept of organized rule and government.
Development of theory
Said was heavily influenced by Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault
Michel Foucault , born Paul-Michel Foucault , was a French philosopher, social theorist and historian of ideas...
, and those who have developed the theory of imagined geographies have linked these together. Imagined geographies are thus seen as a tool of power
Power (sociology)
Power is a measurement of an entity's ability to control its environment, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as endemic to...
, of a means of controlling and subordinating areas. Power is seen as being in the hands of those who have the right to objectify
Objectification
Objectification is the process by which an abstract concept is made as objective as possible in the purest sense of the term. It is also treated as if it is a concrete thing or physical object...
those that they are imagining.
Further writers to have been heavily influenced by the concept of imagined geographies including Derek Gregory
Derek Gregory
Derek Gregory Ph.D. FBA, FRCC is an influential British academic and geographer who is currently Professor of Political Geography at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. He formerly held positions at the University of Cambridge.Gregory is best known for his book The Colonial...
, Gearóid Ó Tuathail
Gerard Toal
Gerard Toal is Professor of Government and International Affairs and Director of the Government and International Affairs program, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, National Capital Region campus. Toal grew up in the border region of Ireland, in the village of Smithborough,...
, and Simon Springer . Gregory argues that the War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...
shows a continuation of the same imagined geographies that Said uncovered. He claims that the Islamic world is portrayed as uncivilized; it is labeled as backward and failing. This justifies, in the view of those imagining, the military intervention that has been seen in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
and Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
. Ó' Tuathail has argued that geopolitical
Geopolitics
Geopolitics, from Greek Γη and Πολιτική in broad terms, is a theory that describes the relation between politics and territory whether on local or international scale....
knowledges are forms of imagined geography. Using the example of Halford Mackinder's Heartland Theory, he has shown how the presentation of Eastern Europe/Western Russia as a key geopolitical region after World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
influenced actions such as the recreation of Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
and the Polish Corridor
Polish Corridor
The Polish Corridor , also known as Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia , which provided the Second Republic of Poland with access to the Baltic Sea, thus dividing the bulk of Germany from the province of East...
in the 1918 Treaty of Versailles
Treaty of Versailles
The Treaty of Versailles was one of the peace treaties at the end of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The other Central Powers on the German side of...
. Springer argues that virulent imaginative geographies erase the interconnectedness of the places where violence occurs by assuming violence sits in particular places. He uses the descriptor ‘virulent’ to mean three things in qualifying particular imaginative geographies. First, to emphasize those imaginative geographies that invoke hostility and malice, which often results in harmful effects for those individuals cast within them. Second, through the simplicity of the essentialisms they produce, some imaginative geographies may be uncritically accepted, making them highly infectious and easily communicable among individuals subjected to them, which draws parallels to symbolic violence
Symbolic violence
The concept of symbolic violence was first introduced by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu to account for the tacit almost unconscious modes of cultural/social domination occurring within the every-day social habits maintained over conscious subjects....
. Third, he argues that the etymology of the Latin word for ‘virulence’ (virulentus) is derived from the word man (vir), and as related concept metaphors in contemporary English, ‘virulence’ and ‘virility’ are informed by masculinist modes of response and engagement. Virulent imaginative geographies are thus argued to employ a sense of ‘virility’ to code ‘Oriental’ males as pre-oedipal and/or feminine. Springer also contends that the first step towards peace involves rethinking our imaginative geographies.
This theory has also been used to critique several geographies created; both historically and contemporarily - an example is Maria Todorova's work Imagining the Balkans
Imagining the Balkans
Imagining the Balkans is a book by the Bulgarian academic Maria Todorova.Published by Oxford University Press, United States ; ISBN 0-19-508751-8,Maria Todorova is a Professor of History at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...
. Samuel Huntington
Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel Phillips Huntington was an influential American political scientist who wrote highly-regarded books in a half-dozen sub-fields of political science, starting in 1957...
’s Clash of Civilizations
Clash of Civilizations
The Clash of Civilizations is a theory, proposed by political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, that people's cultural and religious identities will be the primary source of conflict in the post-Cold War world....
has also been criticized as showing a whole set of imagined geographies. By following stereotype
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
s and popular discourses and images, Huntington brackets whole sections of the earth into ‘civilization groups’ that are constantly at conflict. Halford Mackinder's 'imperial gaze' has also been shown as an important imagined geography http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rcjo/2000/00000011/00000001/art00005. This emphasised the importance of the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
over colonial peoples, and asserted the view of the geographical 'expert' with the 'God's eye view'.