The Dictionary of Human Geography (118 page)

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Authors: Michael Watts

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Los Angeles School
A loose affiliation of Los Angeles based geographers and urbanists, con nected by their theorizations of the LA region and the implications of its dynamics for all cit ies. The School is associated with a notion of ?postmodern urbanism? and an argument that LA?s complex urban form, new economic clus ters and inequaLity signal the future of urban ism (see postmodernism; postmodernity). Its members argue that contemporary urbanism can be understood less through the concepts of the chicago schooL and more through the fragmentary geography of Southern California (Dear, 2001). The School?s work has been the subject of much criticism and debate con tinues on the efficacy of framing LA, or any single city, as an exemplar of urbanism (Dear and Dahmann, 2008; Mollenkopf, 2008; Simpson and Kelly, 2008). em (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Dear (2001). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
macrogeography
The search for macro scaLe empirical regularities in spatial distribu tions as a basis for generalizations about spa tial structures. The approach was pioneered by a physicist, John Q. Stewart (1894 1972), and developed with William Warntz (1922 88) in a pioneering project funded by the American Geographical Society (cf. geog raphicaL societies). Their lasting contribu tions to spatial analysis/spatial science were (a) the concept of popuLation poten tiaL, a cartographic density surface that generalized point (and point in area) distribu tions and was used as a measure of accessi biLity, and (b) their research on the gravity modeL of spatial interaction and the related ?law of least effort?. (See also fractals.) rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Warntz (1965). (NEW PARAGRAPH)
malapportionment
An electoral abuse in which districts are either defined or allowed to remain in use with unequal popula,tions/elect orates, which thereby favours one party over another in the translation of votes into seats. The most successful malapportionment strat egy for a party involves defining relatively small districts in areas where it is likely to win seats, and larger ones elsewhere, thereby enabling it to win more seats with the same total number of votes than opponents who win where seats are on average larger. Malapportionment was deemed unconstitutional by US courts in the 1960s, under the equal treatment (14th) Amendment to the Constitution, and all dis tricts within a state must be redrawn with almost exactly the same population after each decennial census. British legislation also requires Parliamentary constituencies to be of equal size, but variations are allowed and pro duce malapportionment like effects in the translation of votes into seats. rj (NEW PARAGRAPH) Suggested reading (NEW PARAGRAPH) Johnston, Pattie, Dorling and Rossiter (2001). See also http://www.aceproject.org/ace en/topics/ bd/bdy/bdy us/ (NEW PARAGRAPH)
Malthusian model
An influential and con troversial modeL of population and resources, proposed by Thomas Malthus (1766 1834). Malthus read mathematics at Cambridge and was then ordained in 1793. He published his Essay on the principle ofpopu lation in 1798 and soon became a controversial figure. The first edition of the Essay was writ ten as a counter to William Godwin?s Enquiry concerning political justice (1793) and the rad ical interpretation of the science of politics and the means of social improvement associated with the French Revolution in general and the Marquis de Condorcet in particular. Malthus was far less optimistic than his antag onists, maintaining that misery and vice were the inevitable result of the fundamental law of nature, which was impervious to institutional and legislative change. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Malthus specified two ?postulata?: that food was necessary for life and that the ?passion between the sexes? could be regarded as a constant. He then gave mathematical form to his basic Principle: a maximum potential rate of population growth in the form of the geo metric ratio (1,2,4,8,16 ...) with an assumed arithmetic growth (1,2,3,4,5 ...) in food sup ply. Malthus recognized that population growth would be curtailed either by a rise in mortaLity associated with what he saw as ?positive checks? (war, disease, starvation) or through a reduction in births through ?pre ventative checks? (adultery, birth control, abortion or infanticide), although he was inclined to regard these as all variants of ?mis ery and vice?. This was a deductive model, but it was given empirical substance through Malthus? interest in the population growth that had been observed in the American popu lation, where large acreages of land were made available to settlers who had few if any subsist ence constraints. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Malthus? pessimism about the prospects for England and the Old World in the first edition was tempered somewhat in the much larger and thoroughly researched second edition, published in 1803, in which he was more op timistic than other political economists such as Smith and Ricardo, and held out the possibil ity of a better balance between numbers and resources achieved through moral restraint, which he primarily regarded as a restraint on marriage. He was inclined to see certain (NEW PARAGRAPH) European societies as exhibiting nuptiaLity controls, an observation that has led some to argue for a distinctive form of late and variable marriage age, particularly for women, in west ern europe (Hajnal, 1965), and which has been used as a basis for understanding the notion of a nuptiality valve primarily responsible for Eng lish demographic growth rates rather than the positive check in the period between the six teenth and early nineteenth centuries (Wrigley and Schofield, 1989 [1981]). (NEW PARAGRAPH) While the Malthusian model has been viewed as a particularly effective device through which to understand a key period in England's demographic history, it has also received much criticism. It is thought to have failed as predictor of the future, at least in its more pessimistic form, since population growth was sustained at a high rate through much of the nineteenth century, and living standards rose and fertility fell as populations resorted increasingly to marital fertility con trol, and at the same time infant and child mortality fell dramatically, principally as a result of eradication of infectious disease, largely through relatively low cost public health interventions. Of course, others would argue that Malthus' arguments applied largely to an inorganic economy in which land was in fixed supply and the principal source of energy was the sun, and animal and human muscle power, so that when human societies began to use locked up energy in the form of coal and oil, the constraints that Malthus took as a basis for this approach were removed. A major criti cism of Malthus' notion of famine as a posi tive check brought about by overpopuLation is associated with the work of Amartya Sen (NEW PARAGRAPH) , who has suggested that few if any famines can be directly attributed to food availability declines but, rather, to institutional and market failures in delivering food to those whose entitlements were not being met. Critics have also rejected Malthus? conserva tive acceptance of the political status quo and his objection to welfare from the collectivity in the form of poor relief, which he supposed undermined the willingness of populations to exercise moral restraint (Winch, 1998). More recently, historical demographers of asia in particular have taken issue with Malthus' inherent eurocentrism, reflected in his portrayal of China as exemplifying a high pressure demographic regime in which unre stricted fertility and high mortality brought about recurrent crises as populations grew to sizes far too large for their food base (Lee and Feng, 1999). Such critics emphasize the role (NEW PARAGRAPH) of breast feeding, birth spacing and infanticide as means of constraining reproduction, notwithstanding early marriage of women, and stress the presence of effective welfare institutions, particularly controls on grain supplies and markets as insulation against harvest failure. rms (NEW PARAGRAPH)
map
A representation of all or a portion of the planet or some other vast environment: the typical map is graphic and includes discernible elements of scale, projection (see map projec tion) and symbolization. As this definition suggests, delineating the notion of map is hardly straightforward (Andrews, 1996). For one thing, not all maps are graphic, and even though the term is derived from the Latin mappa (the cloth paper on which early maps were inscribed), not all graphic maps are drawn or printed on paper. Aerial photog raphy and remote sensing gave rise to the image map, which has scale, projection and symbol like tones, and readily becomes a cartographic map with the addition of line symbols or feature names. digitaL cartog raphy introduced the digital map, which can be queried and analysed by a geographic iNforMAtion systeM (gis) without ever creat ing a graphic image. Definitions that include the territory mapped are problematic insofar as telescopes and rocketry, in making possible maps of the Moon, Mars, other planets or various asteroids (not to mention representa tions of the solar system, galaxies and the uni verse), have rendered ?graphic representation of Earth? inaccurately narrow. Robinson and Petchenik (1976, p. 16), who worried that ?representation of the environment' might unduly privilege physical features, contrived the relatively neutral but rarely used ?graphic representation of the milieu'. Harley and Woodward (1987, p. xvi), in promoting the history of cartography (see cartography, history of) as a scholarly endeavour, offered the comparatively wordy definition ?graphic representations that facilitate a spatial under standing of things, concepts, conditions, pro cesses or events in the human world', which concisely describes the focus of most contem porary scholars who claim cartography as a specialization. As this last definition implies, academic cartographers study not only carto graphic artefacts but also the process of map ping and its impacts. (NEW PARAGRAPH) All map iMAges have three principal elem ents: scale, projection and symbolization. Scale is defined as the ratio of distance on the map to the corresponding distance on the ground. When recorded as a ratio or fraction, a map?s scale expresses these two distances in identical units of measurement, with map dis tance reported first as one unit, as in 1:10,000 or 1/10,000, which means that a centimetre on the map represents 10,000 cm on the ground. (A dimensionless number, 1/10,000, also indi cates that an inch on the map represents (NEW PARAGRAPH) in on the ground.) Fractional repre sentations of scale afford a distinction between large scales such as 1/5,000 and small scales with huge denominators. Scale may be expressed verbally, as in ?one inch represents one mile?, which some users might find more helpful than the equivalent ratio 1:63,360 (Goodchild and Proctor, 1997). Maps often include a graphical scale, on which a carefully measured line, perhaps subdivided with appropriately labelled ticks, portrays one or more typical distances. Unlike ratio or verbal scales, a graphical scale remains true when the map is photocopied at a larger or smaller scale. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Cartographic scale is occasionally confused with geographical scale, which refers to the areal extent of a physical or human process or phenomenon (see scale). Physical geog raphers study entities that range in size from the small drainage basin in which soil permea bility affects stream discharge to the global stage of atmospheric circulation and climate change. Social, political and economic pro cesses also involve a range of scales, in which a specific process or phenomenon is usually associated with a particular level in a hierarchy ranging from ?local? to ?global?, perhaps with intermediate levels labelled ?provincial?, ?national? and ?continental?. When a geo graphical phenomenon is represented graphic ally, cartographic scale is typically determined by the size of the page, map sheet or display screen as well as the map?s geographical scope; that is, the area to be covered. That a map with a broad geographical scope typically has a small scale, while a map with a narrow geographical scope often has a comparatively large scale, underscores the inverse relation ship between geographical scale and carto graphic scale. (NEW PARAGRAPH) When a major portion of the planet is repre sented on a flat map, scale will vary markedly, not only from place to place but also with direction (see map projection). The latter distortion is particularly obvious on rectangu lar world maps, on which the poles are as long as the equator, while angles and small shapes are noticeably more distorted in poleward regions than at lower latitudes. A noteworthy exception is the Mercator projection, which is conformal, meaning that scale at a point is the same in all directions, even though scale varies enormously across the map. Devised to solve a specific problem in navigation by rendering lines of constant geographical direction as straight lines, the Mercator projection fam ously enlarges the size of mid latitude coun tries, relative to tropical nations, and because north south scale equals east west scale everywhere, the poles lie at infinity. While its conformality makes the Mercator projection an acceptable choice for large scale maps with a comparatively small geographical scope, it is a poor framework for world maps that have nothing to do with navigation. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Because a map?s projection determines the type and pattern of distortion, and thus affects the viewer?s perception of size, shape, distance and direction, selecting an appropriate projec tion is a crucial decision for the map author (Canters, 2002). An appropriate projection is especially important for a world map, which should never include a graphical scale because extreme distortions are unavoidable. For most thematic maps, a projection that preserves relative area is desirable, although the more extreme distortions of shape found on equal area maps of the whole world can be mollified by a compromise framework such as the Robinson projection, which attempts to bal ance distortions of area and angles (Ipbuker, (NEW PARAGRAPH) . The point or line at which a whole world map is centred is also important, not only because distortion is usually low near the centre but also because territories thus favoured might be perceived as more import ant or accessible than those on the periphery. Another useful compromise is the interrupted projection, typified by Goode?s homolosine equal area projection, which partitions the world map into six lobes, for which separate, locally centred projections minimize shape distortion for continents and coastlines. (NEW PARAGRAPH) The third principal element of a map is the graphic coding of geographical features, or symbolization. Although labels that connote land masses, oceans and cities can expedite decoding, standardized symbols that draw on cartographic conventions, such as blue for hydrographic features and green for vegeta tion, are especially helpful for at a glance assessments of their extent. Also useful are logical linkages between a map?s content and the six ?retinal variables? readily manipulated by the map author. As defined by Bertin (NEW PARAGRAPH) , non verbal cartographic symbols typ ically vary in shape, pattern, hue, orientation, size and greytone value, each of which is especially suited for portraying a particular kind of geographical variation. For example, hue, related to wavelength of visible light and often associated with named colours such as red and green, is appropriate for representing qualitative differences among, for example, various categories of land use. Bertin?s ration ale was straightforward: because red, green, and yellow look different to persons with nor mal color vision, they are ideal for mapping differences in kind, especially for area features large enough to require discernible patches of hue. Similarly, readily recognized differences in form among point and line symbols make shape an appropriate visual variable when a map must distinguish churches from schools and footpaths from railways. By contrast, quantitative data are better represented with symbols that vary in size or greytone value; that is, relative darkness. Viewers are well serv ed by map authors who distinguish between count or magnitude data such as total popula tion or number of employees, and intensity data such as population density or the proportion of the labour force unemployed. With count data, for example, point symbols that vary in size support a logical larger means more metaphor that promotes comparisons without looking repeatedly at the map key, whereas for intensity data symbols ranging from white to black sup port an equally obvious darker means more decoding rule (Monmonier, 2005). Although symbols that vary in direction are logical for representing phenomena such as wind direc tion and one way streets, pattern variation is largely limited to dashed line symbols and area symbols, such as the arrays of dots that connote orchard land and vineyards on topographic maps. Dynamic cartography has produced additional visual variables, notably the duration, rate of change and order of scenes (DiBiase, MacEachren, Krygier and Reeves, 1992). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Because place and feature names use nat ural language to link cartographic symbols to specific locations, typography is another important part of the map?s symbolic code (Wood, 2000). And because type comes in various shapes and sizes, map labels reflect conventions such as the use of italic type for hydrographic features as well as an extension of Bertin?s theory of retinal variables. Although aesthetic dictates that map authors avoid using numerous typefaces to represent qualitative differences among places or features, style variations (roman/italic, all uppercase/initial capitals, bold/plain, underlining) support the typographical coding of differences in kind, whereas type size affords a readily decoded representation of magnitude. Some reference maps use a redundant coding in which the sizes of point symbols and their labels offer a mutually reinforced treatment of population size. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Names on maps can have deep cultural political significance, especially when con quest or revolution allows the victor to rename places and geographical features, and even in stall a new language or orthography (writing system). As illustrated by the renaming and re renaming of St Petersburg in Russia, control of a country?s official cartography presents an irresistible opportunity to underscore the loser?s defeat by replacing its toponyms (place names). As pervasive symbols of dom ination, names on map and road signs can arouse resentment as well as inspire alternative cartographies similar to the Palestinian maps of Israel, rendered crudely in Arabic atop photographic copies of official maps (Kadmon, 2000, pp. 80 1). And because maps reveal otherwise obscure, pejorative feature names inherited from earlier, less politically sensitive times, they can trigger the belated removal of names (Monmonier, 2006). Recent disputes over cartographic labels have focused on waters separating feuding countries (e.g. Sea of Japan/East Sea, Persian Gulf/Arabian Gulf), the toponyms and orthography of indi genous peoples (e.g. in Hawaii and northern Canada) and a country?s right to police the rendering of its name beyond its borders (e.g. Macedonia and Myanmar, both resisted by the USA). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Because cartographic scale is usually too small for an exact treatment of shape and other geometric relationships, maps are almost always generalized, even large scale maps of small areas (Buttenfield and McMaster, 1991). Cartographic generalization begins with the selection of features, some of which represent the phenomenon portrayed while others provide a frame of reference linking new information to the viewer?s existing understanding of the region mapped. For example, coastlines, national boundaries and highway networks are common frame of reference features on maps not explicitly con cerned with coastal geomorphology, geopol itics or transportation. Map authors must select features carefully, because legibility often requires line and point symbols proportion ately thicker than the features portrayed. For instance, a road five metres wide represented on a 1:50,000 map by a barely visible line one millimetre thick occupies a cartographic corridor corresponding to a ground swathe 50 metres across. Because the exaggeration is much greater at very small scales as well as for boundaries and contour lines, which in principle have no width, the map author must not only eliminate less significant features but also smooth out meandering streams and contorted coastlines, displace symbols that would other wise overlap, and replace the intricate boundar ies of small cities with tiny circles (Dutton, 1999). Visibility and coherence might also re quire, as examples, the widening of narrow en trances to important bays, the exaggeration of an important kink (jog) in a road, the amalgam ation of distinct but adjoining patches for forested land, and the blurring of distinctions between diverse types of cropland. Additional accommodations are often needed to create room for important labels although well known abbreviations can shorten street and fea ture names, failure to label key features invites confusion or misinterpretation. (NEW PARAGRAPH) Generalization can be especially problem atic with statistical maps, which are notorious for using aggregated counts or averages to de scribe trends in census data. A uniform area symbol for a large, inherently diverse nation or county can suggest an unwarranted homo geneity as well as dilute coherent patterns ob vious on maps with smaller, more reliable areal units (Crampton, 2004). Potentially trouble some are choropleth maps, readily generated with commercial, off the shelf mapping soft ware that arbitrarily chops the range from low est to highest data values into five equal intervals, which are then portrayed with a spectral sequence of hues (blue, green, yellow, orange, red) that defies the logical darker means more metaphor for area symbols repre senting intensity data (Brewer, 1997). (NEW PARAGRAPH) Maps can be categorized in numerous ways, to reflect their content (e.g., topographic map, street map), symbolization (e.g., choropleth map), intended use (e.g., cadastral mapping, road map), publisher (e.g., government map, commercial map), format (e.g. wall map, atlas map, newspaper map) or medium (e.g. paper map, video map). Especially noteworthy are several new map forms that emerged solely or largely during the twentieth century. Image maps, rooted in the invention of the hot air balloon and photography in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, became an import ant mapping technology with the

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