I am a political, cultural and feminist geographer with particular research interests in postcolonialism and critical geopolitics. Throughout my research career I have been keen to trace the ways in which different forms of knowledge work through institutions, whether this is the ways in which geopolitical knowledges of the world are reworked through popular and media accounts, or the ways in which local people’s knowledges of their environment can influence the ways in which development can be practiced. While I strongly believe in the importance of grounded field research, I think this always needs to be contextualised within rigorous theoretical analysis. I am committed to collaborative research, and am keen to explore the possibilities of interdisciplinarity. Phone: Direct: +44 141 330 5405 Address: School of geographical and Earth Sciences
East Quad
University of Glasgow
Glasgow G12 8QQ
UK
Postmodern geographies. Massey offers a feminist critique of these important and influential text... more Postmodern geographies. Massey offers a feminist critique of these important and influential texts that highlights their silencing of gender in their explanations of postmodernism. Also in distinction to the other papers considered in this series, the majority of subsequent references to'Flexible sexism'do so simply in order to flag the existence of the debate between feminist and Marxist interpretations of postmodernism, rather than to engage with the issues raised in Massey's paper.
Page 63. Part II Theoretical Intersections 5 Historical Materialism and Marxism 51 Don Mitchell 6... more Page 63. Part II Theoretical Intersections 5 Historical Materialism and Marxism 51 Don Mitchell 6 Feminisms 66 Joanne Sharp 7 Poststructuralism 79 Deborah P. Dixon and John Paul Jones III 8 Psychoanalytic Approaches 108 Paul Kingsbury 9 Performativity: A Geography of Unknown Lands 121 Nigel Thrift Page 64. This page intentionally left blank
Abstract The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen in some quarters to offer real possibiliti... more Abstract The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen in some quarters to offer real possibilities of success in development practice. However, results have been uneven, perhaps because of the way in which indigenous knowledge has been conceptualised.
Why have so many of the major treatises of globalization in the social sciences been systematical... more Why have so many of the major treatises of globalization in the social sciences been systematically bereft of gender analysis when we have, by now, so many excellent accounts of the central role played by gender in the configuration of global production and global consumption when addressed at the 'local'level?(Freeman, 2001: 1007)
Summary The recent 'culture turn'in geography has generated a good deal of interest in the struct... more Summary The recent 'culture turn'in geography has generated a good deal of interest in the structure of scientific knowledge and modes of writing, but there has less attention to the construction of other forms of knowledge and writing.
This paper is a continuation of one published in 1993. In the earlier piece, I joined the call fo... more This paper is a continuation of one published in 1993. In the earlier piece, I joined the call for a 'critical geopolitics'. Here I want to both illustrate and develop the programmatic calls of critical geopolitics with the use of an empirical example. Critical geopolitics has demanded the siting of any geopolitical praxis—a refusal to accept the abstract logic of geopolitics but instead embody it in historically and culturally specific interests.
Recent debates centring on a nascent feminist geopolitics indite the historical reasoning of geop... more Recent debates centring on a nascent feminist geopolitics indite the historical reasoning of geopolitical arguments as masculinist. These discussions have taken place in a variety of settings from informal conversations at meetings of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) to more institutional investigations, such as a recent survey conducted by the Political Geography Speciality Group (see Staeheli, in this issue).
The American" geographical imagination" is often tied to the experience of the expanding frontier... more The American" geographical imagination" is often tied to the experience of the expanding frontier that both sets American history apart from elsewhere (particularly Europe) and serves as the dominant metaphor for American initiatives inside and outside its national territory. The American understanding of national sovereignty has been unusual because of the duality of the national geographical imagination.
I have found writing these progress reports much more difficult than I imagined. As a result (I w... more I have found writing these progress reports much more difficult than I imagined. As a result (I would like to think) of the influence of feminists or (as I think is more likely) the cultural turn, gender has become ubiquitous, a now accepted marker of identity and difference alongside class, ethnicity and race. As I noted in my first report, almost anything written in the more critical part of human geography in recent years could be included in these reports. And herein lies the problem. What should be included in these reports?
It has now become something of a cliché that with the decline of a communist threat at the end of... more It has now become something of a cliché that with the decline of a communist threat at the end of the Cold War, conservative American culture has entered a period of crisis that has raised profound questions about both national identity and purpose (Engelhardt 1995). America's Cold War goal of containing the USSR might be understood in terms of a moving frontier between the US and this 'foreign'threat, not unlike the frontier narratives that characterized the nation's initial western colonial expansion.
The end of Cold War and the loss of its communist alter ego has apparently heralded for hegemonic... more The end of Cold War and the loss of its communist alter ego has apparently heralded for hegemonic American culture a period of crisis that has raised profound questions about both national identity and purpose (Engelhardt 1995).
Geographies of Postcolonialism introduces the principal themes and theories relating to postcolon... more Geographies of Postcolonialism introduces the principal themes and theories relating to postcolonialism. Written from a geographical perspective, the text includes extended explanations of the cultural and material aspects of the subject. Exploring postcolonialism through the geographies of imagination, knowledge, and power, the text is split into three comprehensive sections: Colonialisms, Neo-colonialisms, and Postcolonialisms.
Postmodern geographies. Massey offers a feminist critique of these important and influential text... more Postmodern geographies. Massey offers a feminist critique of these important and influential texts that highlights their silencing of gender in their explanations of postmodernism. Also in distinction to the other papers considered in this series, the majority of subsequent references to'Flexible sexism'do so simply in order to flag the existence of the debate between feminist and Marxist interpretations of postmodernism, rather than to engage with the issues raised in Massey's paper.
Page 63. Part II Theoretical Intersections 5 Historical Materialism and Marxism 51 Don Mitchell 6... more Page 63. Part II Theoretical Intersections 5 Historical Materialism and Marxism 51 Don Mitchell 6 Feminisms 66 Joanne Sharp 7 Poststructuralism 79 Deborah P. Dixon and John Paul Jones III 8 Psychoanalytic Approaches 108 Paul Kingsbury 9 Performativity: A Geography of Unknown Lands 121 Nigel Thrift Page 64. This page intentionally left blank
Abstract The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen in some quarters to offer real possibiliti... more Abstract The use of indigenous knowledge has been seen in some quarters to offer real possibilities of success in development practice. However, results have been uneven, perhaps because of the way in which indigenous knowledge has been conceptualised.
Why have so many of the major treatises of globalization in the social sciences been systematical... more Why have so many of the major treatises of globalization in the social sciences been systematically bereft of gender analysis when we have, by now, so many excellent accounts of the central role played by gender in the configuration of global production and global consumption when addressed at the 'local'level?(Freeman, 2001: 1007)
Summary The recent 'culture turn'in geography has generated a good deal of interest in the struct... more Summary The recent 'culture turn'in geography has generated a good deal of interest in the structure of scientific knowledge and modes of writing, but there has less attention to the construction of other forms of knowledge and writing.
This paper is a continuation of one published in 1993. In the earlier piece, I joined the call fo... more This paper is a continuation of one published in 1993. In the earlier piece, I joined the call for a 'critical geopolitics'. Here I want to both illustrate and develop the programmatic calls of critical geopolitics with the use of an empirical example. Critical geopolitics has demanded the siting of any geopolitical praxis—a refusal to accept the abstract logic of geopolitics but instead embody it in historically and culturally specific interests.
Recent debates centring on a nascent feminist geopolitics indite the historical reasoning of geop... more Recent debates centring on a nascent feminist geopolitics indite the historical reasoning of geopolitical arguments as masculinist. These discussions have taken place in a variety of settings from informal conversations at meetings of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) to more institutional investigations, such as a recent survey conducted by the Political Geography Speciality Group (see Staeheli, in this issue).
The American" geographical imagination" is often tied to the experience of the expanding frontier... more The American" geographical imagination" is often tied to the experience of the expanding frontier that both sets American history apart from elsewhere (particularly Europe) and serves as the dominant metaphor for American initiatives inside and outside its national territory. The American understanding of national sovereignty has been unusual because of the duality of the national geographical imagination.
I have found writing these progress reports much more difficult than I imagined. As a result (I w... more I have found writing these progress reports much more difficult than I imagined. As a result (I would like to think) of the influence of feminists or (as I think is more likely) the cultural turn, gender has become ubiquitous, a now accepted marker of identity and difference alongside class, ethnicity and race. As I noted in my first report, almost anything written in the more critical part of human geography in recent years could be included in these reports. And herein lies the problem. What should be included in these reports?
It has now become something of a cliché that with the decline of a communist threat at the end of... more It has now become something of a cliché that with the decline of a communist threat at the end of the Cold War, conservative American culture has entered a period of crisis that has raised profound questions about both national identity and purpose (Engelhardt 1995). America's Cold War goal of containing the USSR might be understood in terms of a moving frontier between the US and this 'foreign'threat, not unlike the frontier narratives that characterized the nation's initial western colonial expansion.
The end of Cold War and the loss of its communist alter ego has apparently heralded for hegemonic... more The end of Cold War and the loss of its communist alter ego has apparently heralded for hegemonic American culture a period of crisis that has raised profound questions about both national identity and purpose (Engelhardt 1995).
Geographies of Postcolonialism introduces the principal themes and theories relating to postcolon... more Geographies of Postcolonialism introduces the principal themes and theories relating to postcolonialism. Written from a geographical perspective, the text includes extended explanations of the cultural and material aspects of the subject. Exploring postcolonialism through the geographies of imagination, knowledge, and power, the text is split into three comprehensive sections: Colonialisms, Neo-colonialisms, and Postcolonialisms.
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