Autumn 2008 Vol 93 Part 3

GeographyAN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL In this issue: Poetry and place The geographies of veiling Identity in Britain Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

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Geography Editorial Policy

Geography aims to re-energise the subject at all levels of education by stimulating dialogue and debate about the essential character and contribution of the subject. It will publish substantive, relevant and challenging articles on all aspects of geography and geographical education with the intention of fulfilling this aim and consolidating the status of the subject in schools, colleges and universities, as well as in the public domain.

The Editorial Collective welcome articles which: Articles submitted to Geography should be relevant to the following readership: G Promote conversation, interaction and debate between geographers and educationalists in G Geographers in school schools, colleges and universities; G Geographers in higher education research and teaching G Provide scholarly summaries and interpretations of current research and debates about particular G Teacher educators and researchers in geography aspects of geography or about geography as a education whole; G Undergraduates and postgraduates in geography/ geography education G Present learned summaries and interpretations of current research findings, issues and trends in For information about presentation of material, see geographical education, and education more widely www.geography.org.uk/download/GA_JGeography as relevant to geography; Presentation.pdf G Explore the implications and consequences of change in the subject and in education for the well- Submit your article to: being and progress of geography at all levels; Dorcas Turner, Assistant Editor, G Make meaningful and substantive connections The Geographical Association, between everyday life, public policy and 160 Solly Street, Sheffield S1 4BF geographical understanding and so help widen tel: 0114 296 0088; participation and interest in geography; fax: 0114 296 7176; e-mail: [email protected] G Foster a critical and analytical approach to the subject and aim to challenge popular assumptions about place, space and environment; G Explore and develop opportunities to gain Forthcoming in Geography geographical insights from, and develop synergies with, other disciplines and new and unusual Spring 2009: Sustainability resources. G sustaining geography G sustainable schools G human-wildlife conflict in Ethiopia G sustainability of teacher supply G community conservation in south-west Africa G education for sustainable development G recycling

We are currently developing teaching resources based on articles featured in @ Geography. These will be available via the GA website www.geography.org.uk. Check the home- page for news of when these become available. © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

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Contents Editorial: Place and identity 130 Eleanor Rawling for the Editorial Collective

Place: encountering geography as philosophy 132 Tim Cresswell

The geographies of veiling: 140 Muslim women in Britain Claire Dwyer

Contesting the urban renaissance: 148 journalism and the post-industrial city Tim Hall

Is the future secure for 158 geography education? Graham Butt

Challenging Assumptions 166 Identity in Britain: investigating the social geology Bethan Thomas Spotlight on… Poetry and place Introduction 171 Eleanor Rawling

Poetry and place: some personal reflections 172 Owen Sheers

A sense of place: W.B. Yeats and 176 ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ Keith Hopper

Poetry and place: the shape of words 181 Hayden Lorimer

Review article: The Corruption of 183 the Curriculum David Lambert

Reviews 186 Edited by Hedley Knibbs

Indexes to Volume 93 (2008) 192 129 Annual Conference and Exhibition INVESTIGATING GEOGRAPHY University of Manchester • 16-18 April 2009

I Value for money CPD I Extensive programme of topical lectures I Hands-on workshops for all phases I Keynote Address on Natural Hazards by the BBC’s Iain Stewart I A new series of sessions focusing on and reporting recent research into geographical education I Evening and daytime social events

For further details and online booking visit: www.geography.org.uk/annualconference

www.geography.org.uk furthering the learning and teaching of geography © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 geographical study. How disappointing, then, that the Editorial: restructured pilot geography GCSE no longer features AbcdefgEditorial its innovative option modules, so schools have lost the possibility of studying the Geography in the News Place and option. identity The question of ensuring school geography’s relevance and dynamic links with the university subject is one Eleanor Rawling considered by Graham Butt in his article ‘Is the future for the Editorial Collective of geography education secure?’. After examining declining examination entries and some of the he Autumn 2008 issue of Geography features a problems implicit in the changing social, political and range of articles covering topics as diverse as educational contexts, Butt examines the implications TMuslim women in Britain, innovative mapping for the geography community. This article is essential techniques and poetry and place. However, there are reading for all geographers whether in schools, some common themes and emphases – notably place universities or the professions. and identity. This issue has a special Spotlight on Poetry and Place Tim Cresswell looks at how place study has developed feature which aims to provoke thinking about the over the past 40 years and gives examples of how expressive relationship which poetry has with place, current approaches can illuminate issues in Britain and what geographers and educationalists can learn today. He notes that the most frequent answer given from a stronger engagement with expressive writing. by potential students to the question ‘why study Two of the contributors are not geographers: Keith geography?’ is ‘an interest in places’, although they Hopper is a lecturer in literature and film studies and usually refer to the details of actual places rather than Owen Sheers is a published poet and writer. Between to any general ideas. He makes a plea for young them, their contributions illuminate different facets of people to ‘encounter geography as philosophy’ and so ‘a sense of place’. Hopper’s detailed reading and to consider place as a set of changing ideas. ‘Thinking deconstruction of Yeats’s poem, ‘The Lake Isle of about place in this way,’ he argues, ‘provides students Innisfree’, demonstrates how the actual island is hard with the tools to get beyond the specifics of a to equate with the poetic description and how Yeats’s particular case study and to approach any number of imagery has been ‘commodified’ by tourism and the real world geographies imaginatively and thoughtfully’. film industry. Yet, analysis of the poem reveals how Yeats’s sense of place was actively constructed in the One of Cresswell’s examples concerns immigration in gap between the real and imagined worlds. Sheers, by Britain and this is developed in Claire Dwyer’s in-depth contrast, examines his personal experiences of poetry study of the geographies of veiling. Dwyer draws on and place, as intricately intertwined in the creative her recent research project with young British Muslim process (‘places define poems which define places’). women in two schools to illustrate how ‘veiling is a Finally, cultural geographer Hayden Lorimer has written spatial practice … invested with different meanings in a brief commentary inspired by these articles and the different contexts’ of the home, the mosque, the presenting his own interest in the ‘new moves afoot in school and the street. Identity is explored in a different cultural geography’ that place an increased emphasis way in Bethan Thomas’s article ‘Identity in Britain’, on ‘creative performance, presentation and writing of where she explains how a new atlas challenges our geographical studies of place and landscape’. assumptions about the social geography of Britain by using some innovative mapping techniques. The editorial collective hopes that you enjoy this issue and that it will stimulate at least some of you to write Tim Hall’s article ‘Contesting the urban renaissance’ for the journal. As the format, length and style of the is interested in how the journalistic narratives articles is now different, we urge you to read the employed by the national press affect our perceptions advice regarding Editorial Policy and Presentation of of place. He uses examples of urban regeneration Materials. These are available either via the GA projects to show how the press consistently website (www.geography.org.uk/journals/thenew challenges myths about the post-industrial city. geography) or by e-mailing Dorcas Turner Teachers at all levels will be sympathetic to Hall’s plea ([email protected]). 131 that press coverage should be analysed critically in Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

Place: encountering geography as philosophy

contemporary society. The final section of the article Place: illustrates these issues by looking at the way notions of place can inform our approaches to British high streets, the politics of immigration and the interrelations encountering between digital media and the material landscape. The article argues for an earlier encounter with geography as philosophy in order to inform and enliven familiar geography as themes in contemporary geography. philosophy Place is one of the two or three most important ideas in geography (Cresswell, 2004). At a common-sense level it is at the heart of many students’ interest in Tim Cresswell taking up geography at school or university. I have interviewed potential students over the last ten years or so and the most frequent answer to the question of Figure 1: Rachel ABSTRACT: Potential geographers often arrive at why they want to study geography is an interest in Whiteread’s design for the university professing an interest in places but not about places and the difference between them. Not Ebbsfleet Landmark place. This article seeks to encourage an engagement surprisingly, perhaps, this interest in place is not about (maquette in situ). © with place as an idea at A-level and beyond. It asks a deeply theorised notion of what place is as a Ebbsfleet Landmark concept. This is what we hope for at the end of the Project Ltd, photography by what place is, how it has been developed over the last Robert Glowacki/Todd- 40 years by geographers and others and how our ideas degree! Thinking about place at a deeper level, White Art Photography. of place can inform our understanding of issues in however, would allow A-level students to see how a

132 © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 philosophy of geography already intervenes in how we become known as the Thames Gateway, an area to the understand more surface-level geographical issues as east of London that has become an entry point to the Place: diverse as the contemporary British high street, the city for the Eurostar high speed train link from Paris encountering politics of immigration and the use of new media such and Brussels. It is also a site for a planned new town geography as as mobile phones and immersive software to be built on green principles. This part of Kent is an philosophy environments. The purpose of this article, then, is to area of high transience, marked by historically migrant encourage students and teachers to think about what populations, from hop-pickers to recent immigrants. So place means and how this influences our understanding why build such an enormous work of art at this place? of contemporary social and cultural issues. Rachel Cook, a journalist for the Observer, provides While place is not something that is constantly on the one convincing answer (Cook, 2008). She suggests front pages of our newspapers (unlike, say, citizenship that it is an act of place definition – a way of saying or immigration) it nevertheless forms a crucial and that this place is different and special. She compares often unproblematised background to twenty-first the construction of such a work of public art to the act century existence (and understanding of arguments of shopping, in what she sees as the increasingly about citizenship or immigration is often based on homogeneous retail landscape represented by assumptions about place). Consider a recent story Ebbsfleet’s Bluewater Shopping Centre. from the Observer concerning plans for a new work of public art, to be erected for permanent display in the ‘In a way, of course, this is how we define South East of England. Early in 2008 it was ourselves: everyone knows what volumes a announced that a huge work of public art – ‘The Angel sofa speaks of its owner, what subtle hints the of the South’ or Ebbsfleet Landmark – had been cut of a suit can drop. But, as a theory, it is also commissioned to be built overlooking the Ebbsfleet riddled with holes. For one thing, even the most transport terminal in Kent. The title, ‘Angel of the dedicated shopper cannot distinguish himself South’, evokes Anthony Gormley’s well-known statue, in a world of chain stores. For another, for all Angel of the North, at Gateshead in the North East of that urban Britain increasingly looks the same England. The call for proposals for the new southern wherever you go, this is just surface. Behind its statue stipulated that it must be at least twice as high Ikea blinds, a place still has a pulse, a beating Figure 2: Christopher Le as its northern equivalent (Figures 1-5 show the short- heart, even if listening to it grows trickier by the Brun’s design (CGI) for the Ebbsfleet Landmark. © listed entries). Ebbsfleet is part of the area that has hour’ (Cook, 2008, p. 13). Christopher Le Brun, 2008.

133 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 Cook suggests that while shopping smothers the referred to as places – Trafalgar Square or Edinburgh Place: life of place by making things more and more Castle. We may refer to a restaurant or café as a encountering similar, public art can bring it back to life – to ‘favourite place’. We also use expressions such as geography as make a place distinctive. ‘knowing one’s place’ or being ‘put in our place’ to suggest a more abstract and less locatable interaction philosophy ‘This is when public art comes into its own. The of the social and the geographical. We have places set best isn’t just beautiful or moving in its own at the table and we may know which one is ours. right; as we are fast learning, it can tell a story Beyond the level of the town a major metropolis such about a place, capture its visceral essence, in a as London or New York is perhaps more difficult to way that the ad men – “Visit sunny Harlow!” – think of as a place. And what about the region or the can only dream of. This is what the Angel does, nation even? A nation is not simply a shared territory and the people at Ebbsfleet will be hoping that but a space that people are encouraged to feel their sculpture will pull off a similar magic trick’ attached to. Many of the arguments over Britain’s (Cook, 2008, p. 13). place in the European Union are about what kind of place the nation is. Beyond the scale of the nation, This issue of the ‘visceral essence of place’ is one environmental activist groups work to make us think of that lies at the heart of many key issues of life in the the Earth as a place – as a home for humanity – rather twenty-first century. Before considering some of these than a space to be exploited. Place, then, is not scale it is necessary to define place. specific. It can be as small as a setting at a table and as large as the Earth. The common assumption that Defining place place is a settlement is but one definition of place, and not the most interesting. So what are we talking The definition of place, like any concept, is contested. about when we talk about place? At its heart, though, lies the notion of a meaningful segment of geographical space. We tend to think of Geographical definitions of place since the 1970s places as settlements – Oxford or Beverley are clearly Figure 3: Daniel Burren’s have focused on the combination of location (an design (CGI) for the places. We also consider areas of cities or objective, definable point in space) and meaning Ebbsfleet Landmark. neighbourhoods – Brixton or Rusholme, for example – (Agnew, 1987; Tuan, 1977; Cresswell, 2004). Places © Daniel Burren, 2008. to be places. Closer in, well-known public spaces are are locations with meaning. This can be illustrated by the observation that Latitude 51° 30’ 18” N, Longitude 0° 1’ 9” W is a location but London Docklands is a place. While they share the same objective position, London Docklands is a place that includes Canary Wharf, a Docklands museum, office blocks, smart restaurants and a hi-tech light rail line. The Docklands also has a past. It was a place associated with the docks, with slavery, with a working class population and with centuries of immigration. Outside the museum, very little of this past is apparent. As well as being a location, then, place has a physical landscape (buildings, parks, infrastructures of transport and communication, signs, memorials, etc.) and, crucially, a ‘sense of place’. Sense of place refers to the meanings, both individual and shared, that are associated with a place. While this combination of location, landscape and meaning is perhaps obvious in a settlement, it is less obvious in relation to places at smaller scales. But even a favourite chair has a particular location (in front of the fireplace perhaps), a physical structure (worn armrests, wobbly legs) and meanings (maybe it is where your dad sat when reading stories to you as a 134 child). Places are not necessarily fixed in space. A © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

Place: encountering geography as philosophy

Figure 4: Mark Wallinger’s design for the Ebbsfleet Landmark. © Mark Wallinger, 2008.

ship, for instance, may be shared for months on end They were responding to the human geography of the by a crew of fisherman and become very much a home 1960s and 1970s which had been marked by a more place while moving around. To say a place occupies a scientific approach. To make human geography fully location is not the same as to say it is stationary. human, humanists argued, geographers needed to be Wherever the ship is at any one moment it is still more aware of the ways in which we bring a particularly located somewhere on Earth. Places, then, are human range of emotions and beliefs to our particular constellations of material things that occupy interactions with the physical world. Central to this a particular segment of space and have sets of awareness is the concept of place. As well as referring meanings attached to them. to things in the world (places), place describes a way of relating to the world. Key here is the idea of How ‘place’ has been used ‘experience’. It is this notion of experience that lies at the heart of the humanistic approach to place. Ideas by geographers such as ‘experience’ were not in the vocabulary of human geographers in the early 1970s who had been Whether or not we agree with Cook’s optimistic take on constructing human geography as a ‘spatial science’. the geographical aspects of a two-million pound work Spatial scientists were not very interested in how of art, she has pointed to what should be a key focus people related to the world through experience; they for the study of geography at all levels – the creation, tended to think of people as objects or rational beings. maintenance and transformation of place. But place These rational beings were not ‘experiencing’ the remains a somewhat enigmatic concept. The word world and geographers studying them were, and are, place has long been used by geographers but has a certainly not interested in how they experience the relatively recent history as a concept which has been world. To focus on experience, therefore, was explored for its own sake. Geographers have always revolutionary. While the spatial scientists wanted to been interested in places but not in ‘place’. understand the world and the people in it objectively, in a way that equated people with rocks, cars or ice, Recent geographical interest in the idea of place humanistic geographers focused on the relationship came into its own in the 1970s with the advent of a between people and the world through the realm of humanistic geography which insisted that geographers experience. As leading humanistic geographer, Yi-Fu needed to pay attention to the subjective experience of Tuan, writes: ‘[t]he given cannot be known in itself. people in a world of places (Tuan, 1977; Relph, 1976). What can be known is a reality that is a construct of 135 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 experience, a creation of feeling and thought’ (Tuan, 1991). Similarly, the projected meanings of this place AbcdefgPlace: 1977, p. 9). Focusing on place, therefore, attends to (the power of London’s financial institutions, sleek encountering how we, as humans, are in the world – how we relate modernity) are the preferred meanings of dominant geography as to our environment and make it into place. groups. Finally, the kinds of things people do there (commute to the office blocks in a daily rhythm, dress philosophy Humanists were not the only geographers who reacted in smart suits, sip caffè lattes) make it the kind of against the rigid calculations of spatial science. A place it is. This combination of material, meaning and whole array of radical approaches inspired by Marxism, practice make a very different place from the one it feminism and, later, post-structuralism began, in the was 60 years ago, when it was known for its small 1980s, to develop a critical approach to human terraced houses, a distinct lack of infrastructural geography which brought into question both the investment, its working-class community, employment inhuman world of spatial science and the cosy in the docks, and its local pubs. While it would be subjectivity of humanism (Harvey, 1989; Rose, 1993; wrong to romanticise the past it is clear that, by and Keith and Pile, 1993). Place, they argued, was not just large, this is a very different place in the same about a positive sense of attachment and rootedness location. The transformation has been continuous but but was also bound up with power. Places are created was most dramatic in the 1980s under Margaret things and tend to reflect or mediate the society that Thatcher’s government. The erasure of a working-class produces them. Just as a child may create a favourite (and immigrant) place aroused protest at the time but, place out of the corner of his or her bedroom, so for the casual visitor, it would be hard to know that corporations, the state and those in positions of power now. create infinitely bigger kinds of place. These are the places we have to live in. Marxists point out that The kinds of place described by humanistic capital needs to circulate through places that are geographers in the 1970s tended to be quite cosy and relatively fixed forms of investment. Towns and cities familiar. Place is an overwhelmingly positive thing to a compete as places to attract investment towards writer such as Yi-Fu Tuan. What the story of the themselves and away from elsewhere. The symbolism Docklands (and many other places at many scales) of place similarly reflects the kinds of images that the shows is that place can just as easily be seen as relatively powerful in society wish to project. limiting and exclusionary. Geographers in the 1990s, as likely to be inspired by feminism or post- Consider the Docklands. Clearly, the kinds of material structuralism as by Marxism, began to point to the Figure 5: Richard structure that make it unique (Britain’s three tallest social processes (particularly under capitalism) that Deacon’s design for the buildings, coffee shops, the Docklands Light Railway) are involved in the construction of places. Places, they Ebbsfleet Landmark. are the products of a particular class of people with argued, may seem natural but are in fact anything but. © Ebbsfleet Landmark Project, graphics by particular interests: broadly speaking, the power of The material structure of a place is often the result of PlowenCraven, 2008. business and the smooth circulation of capital (Smith, decisions made by the very powerful to serve their ends. Most of us, after all, only get to build places on a relatively small (but nonetheless important) scale. The meanings associated with these places, insofar as they are shared, are also more likely than not to be meanings assigned to them by people with the power to do so – the people who build the buildings and monuments and inscribe texts on to the material fabric of place. All of these involve choices that exclude people and the meanings they represent. It is observations such as this that led David Harvey to write that: ‘The first step down the road is to insist that place, in whatever guise, is, like space and time, a social construct. The only interesting question that can be asked is, by what social process(es) is place constructed?’ (Harvey, 1993, p. 5). This is a very different image from the kind of place that dwells in the texts of humanists. To humanists, place is a 136 universal and transcendent imperative. To be, they © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 would argue, is to be in place. Harvey, on the other 2004). She suggests that if we think of place as hand, insists that place is often reactionary – used to clearly bounded and rooted in singular histories then AbcdefgPlace: exclude or confine others who do not belong (Harvey, people tend to identify places as ‘ours’ and not encountering 1993). He points to the rise of gated communities in ‘theirs’. This forms the basis for narrow-minded geography as the United States and other defensive place-based xenophobia. If we think of place progressively, however, philosophy definitions of community (such as emergent we understand that all places are constantly made and nationalism in the Balkans at the time) that are, more remade by their fluid interactions with the world often than not, based on some threat from the outside beyond and are, thus, more likely to welcome that is being kept out. This, then, is the dark side of strangers, visitors and outsiders. In addition, places place. are not just the products of the outside but active constituents of the outside. Even as global a process It was issues such as these that led critical cultural as globalisation has to be made in places – has to geographers in the 1990s to explore how places and start somewhere (Massey, 2004). their associated meanings have been implicated in processes of exclusion (Sibley, 1995; Cresswell, Three examples of place in 1996). The connection between place and particular meanings, practices and identities, they have argued, action leads to the construction of normative places where it is possible to be either ‘in place’ or ‘out of place’. While many of these issues surrounding place may Things, practices and people labelled as out of place seem quite abstract, they lie at the heart of what it is are said to have transgressed often invisible to live in the twenty-first century. Consider three boundaries that define what is appropriate and what is examples. First, let us return to the story of the Angel inappropriate. We all know that we are not supposed of the South. Behind Rachel Cook’s account is a to shout in a library or walk naked down a public concern that, in the twenty-first century, places are highway. These unspoken rules exist in the world of becoming homogeneous. Everywhere we go we see common sense. It is this very common-sense nature of McDonald’s and Starbucks. Even in our homes we see place-based norms that make them such a powerful the same kinds and styles of furniture, cutlery, ideological tool. foodstuffs and other produce supplied by the likes of Ikea and Tesco. Because of this, she suggests, it is This process of identifying how normative becoming harder to detect the beating pulse of place. constructions of place exclude ‘others’ both physically Works of public art are one way she believes this can and existentially has been noted across a whole range be rectified (a contentious assertion that could be of identities including class, race, sexuality, subject to scrutiny by students at school and homelessness, gender and physical (dis)ability university). This story is a familiar one. Consider the (Kitchin, 1998; May, 2000; Valentine, 1993). following extract from a governmental report, High Geographers and others have also revealed how these Street 2015: social constructions of place are constantly contested, ‘Whole categories of shops, including transgressed and resisted by the excluded. Young newsagents, non-symbol group grocers and people gather on street corners or skateboard on bookshops are likely to become an increasingly street furniture; the homeless find ways to live in rare feature of our high streets. Additionally, the inhospitable places; artists redecorate well-known homogenisation of supply will lead to few monuments to invert established meanings; gay, traditional or niche products being available to lesbian and bisexual people hold kiss-ins in public consumers. Essentially, the situation highlighted space. Whatever kinds of places are constructed they by the New Economics Foundation of “Clone are never truly finished and always open to question Town Britain” is likely to develop. The range of and transformation. suppliers is also likely to be diminished. This will reduce the scope of products offered, with Recent work on place has tended to emphasise the many regional products being lost and the retail way places are not fixed, bounded and unchanging offer becoming increasingly standardised things but open and constructed by the people, ideas across the country’ (House of Commons All- and things that pass in and out of them. Doreen Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group, High Massey has labelled this approach to place as a Street 2015, p. 59, available at ‘progressive’ or ‘global’ sense of place (Massey, 1993, www.tescopoly.org/images//high%20street%20 137 britain%202015.pdf). Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 It is noticeable that alongside considerations of the sense of place in which cultural attributes are mapped Place: economic and social effects of chain stores such as onto natural phenomena. Here place is used to link encountering Tesco there is an emphasis on the aspect of place and social and cultural groups to particular places beyond geography as the problem of standardisation. The term ‘Clone Town which they are simply ‘out of place’. It is an argument Britain’ was coined by the New Economics Foundation against human migration. But place and sense of philosophy in their 2004 report (New Economics Foundation, place can also be used to make the opposite 2004). It signifies places where the high streets are argument. In 2003 a conference with the title ‘A sense dominated by chain stores and there is a distinct lack of place’ was held in Cardiff. It brought academics and of independent stores. The worst offender in a 2005 artists together to consider how new kinds of places survey was Exeter, where only one shop on the High are being built through the movement of people in the Street was identified as independent. While many face of rising intolerance and discrimination. Here the university students choose to focus on retail issues in notion of place that is being used is more open to the their dissertations, they are mostly concerned about mobility of people, ideas and practices. Rather than the economic effects of out-of-town shopping on small place being eroded by migration it is enriched. Thinking stores. The issue of place, as such, is rarely about these issues allows students to think about the considered. philosophy of place – how different notions of place lead to different conclusions about the same set of The second issue that notions of place can inform is objective processes – the movement of people across that of immigration. Immigration is rarely off the front borders. pages of our newspapers. At the heart of our understanding of the politics of immigration (and, The third issue I want to consider here is the indeed, racism) are understandings of place and interaction between material place and the rise of a mobility. People who are opposed to immigration claim digital landscape. Almost all students have experience that Britain (or a specific part of it) is ‘our’ place and of both relatively fixed technology, such as computers, that immigrants threaten to dilute or pollute it. and newer mobile technologies such as mobile phones Metaphors of flooding and swamping are periodically and iPods. Geographers and others have been used to describe the effects of immigration. At the considering the implication of these technologies for extremes there are well-formulated definitions of place established notions of place. One argument has been which are activated to oppose immigration – and they that the advent of cyberspace has diluted the ‘real’ do not always come from the usual suspects, such as world by replacing it in a more perfect form. This is, of the British National Party. Consider the following course, the stuff of futuristic visions, as portrayed in response to the claim by Friends of the Earth that popular television series (think of Star Trek’s everyone is a global citizen and that it is irrelevant ‘holodeck’) and films. Now there are whole interactive where they live: worlds such as ‘Runescape’ and ‘Second Life’ where ‘Extrapolating from this thesis we might people can live lives, fall in love, run political suppose that the UK population could expand campaigns, perform concerts and make money. There to 70, 80, 100 million ... We could accept a are already millionaires who have made their money by land covered in multicultural conurbations, selling virtual products in cyberspace. To many, these happy that super-efficient technology ensured kinds of mediated environments signify a certain no more than global fair-shares consumption remoteness. They seem disembodied, overly passive while fulfilling everyone’s needs ... and great and unreal. Like McDonald’s and Starbucks, they tracts of land elsewhere, perhaps Kenya, would threaten place as we know it. The recent move to be freed up for wilderness. The real problem mobile media is altogether different. Mobile media with this scenario is that it denies a sense of allow us to move through places with mediated worlds place, heritage and cultural roots. Politically it is in our pockets or hands. Increasingly the mediated unthinkable and it is very poor ecology, which is place and the ‘real’ place are interlinked. While older essentially about place’ (http://eco.gn.apc.org/ versions of cyberspace on the computer screen could Population/immigration.html). happen anywhere – were pervasive – the new kinds of locative media available on our mobile phones (at This comes from the website of an organisation called least those of us with GPS-activated phones) are the Campaign for Political Ecology. It uses the notion place-specific. Artists are increasingly using locative of a ‘bioregion’ – the idea that regions can be naturally media to make site-specific mediated art works that 138 defined by ecosystems or watersheds – to define a draw on the specificities of place (see the work of © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 Christian Nold at www.softhook.com). The References disembodied and disconnected world of cyberspace on Agnew, J. (1987) Place and Politics: The geographical Place: the computer screen is now supplemented by the mediation of state and society. Boston: Allen and Unwin. encountering messier and more place-based world of media which Cook, R. (2008) ‘Why the nation needs an Angel of the geography as are site-specific and full of place-based content. One South’, The Observer, 27 January, Review section, p. 13. Cresswell, T. (2004) Place: A short introduction. Oxford: philosophy popular example of locative media at work is the world Blackwell. of ‘geo-caching’, in which players use GPS to discover Cresswell, T. (1996) In Place/Out of Place: Geography, ideology treasures hidden by other players at particular and transgression. Minneapolis, MN: University of locations. Part of the game is to find the place and Minnesota Press. Harvey, D. (1989) The Urban Experience. Baltimore, MD: part of it is to enjoy the search and to discover places Johns Hopkins University Press. that may have otherwise gone unexplored. One Harvey, D. (1993) ‘From space to place and back again’, in observer of the digital world, Malcolm McCullough, has Bird, J., Curtis, B., Putnam, T., Robertson, G. and Tickner, L. (eds) Mapping the Futures. London: Routledge, pp. 3- recently noted that ‘we can, and must, temper 29. universal information technology design with more Keith, M. and Pile, S. (eds) (1993) Place and the Politics of helpful attitudes about place. The contextual design of Identity. London: Routledge. Kitchin, R. (1998) ‘“Out of place”, “knowing one’s place”: information technologies must now reach beyond the space, power and the exclusion of disabled people’, scale of individual tasks to embrace architecture, Disability and Society, 13, 3, pp. 343-56. urbanism, and cultural geography’ (McCullough, 2006, Massey, D. (1993) ‘Power-geometry and a progressive sense p. 29). Surely ‘the interactions between of place’, in Bird, J., Curtis, B., Putnam, T., Robertson, G. and Tickner, L. (eds) Mapping the Futures. London: communications technology and sense of place’ is a Routledge, pp. 59-69. perfect topic for twenty-first century geography Massey, D. (2004) ‘The responsibilities of place’, Local students. Economy, 19, 2, pp. 91-101. May, J. (2000) ‘Of nomads and vagrants: single homelessness and narratives of home as place’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 18, 6, Conclusion pp. 737-59. McCullough, M. (2006) ‘On the urbanism of locative media’, In this article I have sought to get beyond the obvious Places, 18, 2. Available at http://repositories.cdlib.org/ relationship between geography and an interest in ced/places/vol18/iss2/McCullough_pg26. New Economics Foundation (2004) Clone Town Britain. places. I see no reason why students should not arrive London: New Economics Foundation. at university with a basic understanding of philosophy Relph, E. (1976) Place and Placelessness. London: Pion. of place such as the one outlined here. I would like to Rose, G. (1993) Feminism and Geography: The limits of geographical knowledge. Cambridge: Polity. see students arrive for interview with an interest in Sibley, D. (1995) Geographies of Exclusion. London: ‘place’ and not simply ‘places’. The three examples I Routledge. have outlined at the end should all be familiar to 17- Smith, A. (1991) ‘Political transformation, urban policy and GeoJournal year-old students but, perhaps, not this way of thinking the state in London’s Docklands’, , 24, 3, pp. 237-46. about them. They are all envisaged not just as Tuan, Yi-Fu. (1977) Space and Place: The perspective of arguments about places, but as issues which are experience. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota formulated though pre-existing geographical Press. Valentine, G. (1993) ‘(Hetero)sexing space: lesbian imaginations about what constitutes place. These can perspectives and experiences of everyday spaces’, be used as a way in to a lively discussion about what Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 11, pp. place means. Thinking about place in this way provides 395-413. students with the tools to get beyond the specifics of a particular case study and to approach any number of ‘real world’ geographies imaginatively and thoughtfully. Teaching place, in other words, is a lot more than teaching about shopping or immigration or cyberspace, though it can be about these things too. It also produces a degree of self-reflection about the relationship between humanity and the planet Earth that lies at the heart of the discipline. In my experience it is also an enlivening and stimulating Tim Cresswell is in the Department of Geography, endeavour that attracts students to a discipline that Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey too often seems to consist of counting cars at TW20 0EX (e-mail: [email protected]). crossroads. 139 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

The geographies of veiling: Muslim women in Britain

positive relations between the two communities more The geographies difficult’. As he had perhaps intended, Straw’s article provoked considerable debate in the national press in the following days.1 These discussions centred both of veiling: upon the contested rights of British citizens to adopt particular forms of religious dress and questions about the responsibilities of minority groups within a Muslim women society to ‘integrate’. It is worth noting at the outset that Straw was referring to the full face veil, or niqab, in Britain worn by a relatively small number of Muslim women in Britain, and not to the headscarf, or hijab, worn in various ways by a broader constituency of Muslim A young woman wearing a colourful hijab. Claire Dwyer women in Britain – although this distinction was not Photo: Zubin Sheroff/ always made in the discussions which followed. Getty Images. Although the media debate was broad ranging there ABSTRACT: In this article I reflect on the debates was considerable support for Jack Straw’s position, initiated by Jack Straw’s article about Muslim women with concern expressed about the niqab as a symbol and the wearing of face veils (October 2006). I place of patriarchal control and ‘female subservience’ this issue in a wider context, drawing on recent (Porter, 2006) and as ‘an assertion of cultural geographical work on Muslim identities. I begin by separateness’ (Jenkins, 2006). However, other exploring the position of Muslims in contemporary commentators argued that every woman should be debates about multiculturalism in Britain. I then discuss free to wear ‘as much or as little as she fancies’ the dynamics of contemporary veiling practices and (Feltz, 2006). Concern was also expressed about contested meanings of the veil. Finally, I draw on my Straw’s judgement in raising the issue, pointing out own work, and recent work in fashion theory, to that he risked fuelling anti-Muslim prejudices by consider the complexities of dress choices for young focusing on the clothing choices of a small minority of British Muslim women and to challenge dominant Muslim women in Britain (Bunting, 2006).2 discourses.

What emerges from these discussions is the extent Introduction to which Muslim women, and their choice of dress, On 5 October 2006 Jack Straw, then leader of the have come to represent the conflicting views and House of Commons and former foreign secretary, now debates about Muslims in multicultural Britain justice secretary, used his weekly column in the (cultural geographers refer to veiling as a key Lancashire Telegraph to describe how he asks Muslim contested signifier in this respect). As I illustrate in women wearing face veils (niqab) to remove them the discussion which follows, Straw’s narrow when meeting him in his Blackburn constituency interpretation of veiling fails to take account of the office. In the article he gave two reasons for this. complex and contested dynamics of veiling practices. First, he suggested that the removal of the face veil Instead, veiling should be understood as an would enable him to engage more effectively in a embodied spatial practice which is enacted in and ‘face-to-face’ conversation since it would enable him through different contexts. to ‘see what the other person means, and not just hear what they say’, stressing the value of being able Muslims in Britain to see someone’s face in a conversation. Second, he described the face veil as ‘a visible statement of The 2001 Census was the first time religious 140 separation and difference’ which made ‘better, identifications were recorded in England and Wales. © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 Ceri Peach’s analysis of this data on Muslims in responsibilities of all citizens to participate in civic Britain reveals a diverse population (Peach, 2006). Of life. Fears about the isolation of Muslims emerged The geographies the 1.6 million Muslims recorded in the census, two- within the context of a new form of global politics – of veiling: thirds have familial origins in South Asia, in Pakistan, the so-called ‘war on terror’ – as Western Muslim women India and Bangladesh. However, Muslims in Britain governments responded to terrorist attacks in the US in Britain also have migration histories which link them to and elsewhere. The terrorist bombing in London on 7 Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. Diversity of July 2006 prompted the British government to national backgrounds finds reflection in a diversity of produce new policies, targeted specifically at Muslim religious traditions and practices, and religious communities, and young people in particular, and identities have also undergone change through aimed at ‘preventing violent extremism’. In this migration and settlement and in the context of context it is perhaps unsurprising that many Muslims, transnational and global processes. During the period particularly young men (Hopkins, 2007; Dwyer et al., since post-war migration and settlement, British 2008), feel fearful of being scapegoated or Muslims have forged a more established and discriminated against. assertive religious presence in multicultural Britain, marked both in the visibility in the landscape of new The 2001 Census data highlighted the extent to mosques and prayer halls (Peach and Gayle, 2003) which the British Muslim population shows a and in their engagement with the state to ensure their depressed socio-economic profile with high incorporation within a truly multicultural Britain unemployment rates or economic inactivity due to ill- (Modood, 2005). health. This profile is due both to lower than average educational attainments and the high concentration of It was in the wake of the so-called ‘Rushdie Affair’ – Britain’s Muslim population in areas of multiple protests surrounding the publication in 1988 of deprivation. Peach (2006) also highlights the low Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses – that participation rate of Muslim women in the formal Muslim concerns were first brought to public national labour market as contributing to poverty. However, attention. The protests shaped the emergence of a while much emphasis has been placed on new form of Muslim identity politics and highlighted conservative and patriarchal cultures preventing questions about the ways in which cultural and Muslim women from gaining education and working religious differences might be accommodated, within outside the home, new research suggests that young dominant understandings of liberal democracy. It was Muslim women are increasingly gaining better recognised that Muslims had legitimate concerns educational qualifications than young Muslim men relating to the fact that their religious needs were not and this is likely to translate into more women in the always being met, the focus being on issues such as formal labour market (Dale et al., 2002; Dwyer and halal meat in schools and hospitals, provision for Shah, forthcoming). A recent Equal Opportunities prayer at work or school, and accommodation of Commission Survey (2007) found that it was suitable dress for Muslim girls at school. Since then, employers holding negative or stereotypical attitudes new representative groups for Muslims, such as the towards Muslim women which were often cited as an Muslim Council of Mosques, have become impediment to them gaining work. An analysis of the established and a legislative framework has been veiling practices of British Muslim women must, then, developed which recognises religious as well as racial be set within the broader context of the socio- discrimination. However, this progress in developing economic and political climate within which Muslim multicultural policies and practices has been offset by identities are understood and negotiated in Britain. As a rise in Islamophobia and increasing concern, increasing numbers of young women enter the labour expressed by politicians and others, that Muslims are force, familial gender relations are being renegotiated not willing to ‘integrate’ in British society. and stereotypes about Muslim women, within the wider public sphere, are being challenged. More Concerns about Muslims living ‘self-segregated’ or broadly, young Muslims are negotiating identities ‘parallel lives’ were highlighted in the Cantle Report within a charged and contested social and political (2003) following urban unrest in Bradford, Oldham environment where what it means to be both British and Burnley in 2001 and heralding a raft of new and Muslim is subject to critique from both ‘insiders’ government policies aimed at developing ‘community and ‘outsiders’ (P. Lewis, 2007). cohesion’. This policy marked a shift from a focus on multicultural diversity to an emphasis on the 141 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 Discourses of the veil Turkish women were seen as the republican ideal, The geographies while those who continued to veil, usually rural and of veiling: An understanding of how young British Muslim working-class, were seen as ‘backward’ and ‘other’. Muslim women women engage with different forms of dress needs to These different ways of viewing the world (discourses) be framed through an analysis of the meanings of in Britain were reinforced by the ban on wearing an Islamic ‘the veil’ (the discourses) and of different veiling headscarf in public places, crucially universities. Anna practices. While the veil is today usually seen as Secor’s study of the veil and urban space in Istanbul Islamic, it is pre-Islamic in origin and has been widely traces how different women, particularly new migrants adopted by different communities, particularly in the to the rapidly industrialising city, negotiated what she Middle East. Historically it often signified status as defines as ‘shifting regimes of veiling’. Her analysis much as piety or ethnic identity (R. Lewis, 2007). The points to some of the dynamics of gender, identity veil was a sartorial representation of the gender and space. While veiling is undertaken by some seclusion of the harem system (the separation of young women as a strategy to negotiate urban space domestic space) based on a presumption of active and avoid urban harassment, it also constrains female sexuality and the controlling of ‘inappropriate’ mobility and denies access to some public spaces. contact and ‘modesty’ between genders (Mernessi, Secor highlights the ways in which some of the young 1991). While the patriarchal underpinnings of such women she interviewed were actively involved in gendered framings are clear, it is worth remembering challenging the anti-veiling regulations of university that within the Islamic world gender dress codes and campuses, presenting their opposition through a behaviour appropriate to the occasion (such as language of human rights. What emerges is veiling as reduced eye contact between sexes) are required an embodied, spatial practice which is enacted within from both sexes. Leila Ahmed (1992) traces the specific contexts but is also evidence of women’s specific historical context within which the veil was dynamic engagement with the power and authority of adopted at the time of the development and the state and as producers of gendered, Islamic institutionalisation of Islam within the Arab World. knowledge (Secor, 2002, 2005). In February 2008 She argues that new ways of thinking about the veil the ban on wearing headscarves in Turkish emerged during the period of colonial domination, so universities was lifted in response to the growing that it became recognised as a powerful political influence of Islamist political parties. Yet representation of the social meaning of gender and there remains considerable debate, particularly also came to signify issues of nationalism and between different women, about the significance of culture (in cultural geography terms the veil became a veiling. Banu Gökariksel’s ongoing research examines ‘signifier’ of deeper meanings). Writing about the the interactions of different groups of women, veiled colonial and post-colonial history of Egypt, Ahmed and unveiled, in the new consumer spaces in Turkey. illustrates how the veiled/unveiled woman came to Veiled women continue to be read as ‘backward’ and represent conflicting views about the nation’s identity, ‘not modern’, despite the rising significance of new veiled and unveiled signifying the opposition between forms of Islamic fashion and thus the enacting of ‘Western’ and ‘indigenous’ or ‘authentic’ values. In ‘new’, modern Turkish femininities. this respect Ahmed refers to the veil as a ‘contested signifier’. Conflict in Turkey over the wearing of the veil in public institutions was founded on a spatialised discourse Thus disagreements about the veil are embedded defining a secular public sphere and a private within the wider context of debates about appropriate (domestic) religious sphere. The same discourses female sexuality and subjectivity and notions of support the French Republic’s refusal to permit the proper Islamic attire. The veil is also a powerful wearing of headscarves, like other ‘religious signifier of national and cultural identities which may symbols’, in French public schools. However, the be worked and re-worked in different post-colonial situation in France reveals a conflict which is not only contexts. These political dynamics can be seen in the about different understandings of secularism and the analysis of contemporary Turkey by geographers Anna state but is also, implicitly if not explicitly, about how Secor and Banu Gökariksel. Secularism, or laiklik, migrant populations are incorporated into the French was one of the foundations of the republic of Turkey, state. The wearing of headscarves by young Muslim and, as Gökariksel and Mitchell (2005, p. 155) women, who are often of north African or maghrebi emphasise, ‘the new nation’s modernity was indexed background, is seen as an explicit challenge to 142 to women’s bodies and practices’. Thus unveiled France’s insistence on assimilation (Bowen, 2006). © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

The geographies of veiling: Muslim women in Britain

Yet the young women who have challenged the Bushra Noah, whom was refused a job at a Figure 1: School student headscarf ban have used their identity as modern hairdressing salon because she was wearing a hijab Shabina Begum talks to French citizens – evoking the slogan of the French or headscarf. reporters after attending Republic, ‘liberté, fraternité, égalité’, to contest the the House of Lords on 22 March 2006. The Lords assumptions of their secularist opponents that Two recent court cases, centred on the ability of overturned a Court of headscarf wearing denotes either female suppression women to perform professional duties while wearing Appeal ruling that Denbigh or ‘backwardness’. the niqab, have also shifted the focus from covering High School unlawfully the head to covering the face. As Reina Lewis (2007) denied Shabina the right In Britain the wearing of headscarves has not, until reports, Aisha Azmi lost her case at an industrial to wear a jilbab. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/ recently, attracted much political or legal concern. tribunal when the school which employed her as a Getty Images. Headscarf wearing has tended to be seen as teaching assistant argued that the children to whom consistent with other forms of ‘ethnic dress’, such as she was teaching English needed to be able to see wearing a turban, and seen as a right accorded within as well as hear her speaking. However, in another a multicultural society.3 However, as Reina Lewis case, Shabnam Mughal, a legal advocate, was (2007, p. 433) suggests, more recently ‘challenges permitted to wear the niqab in court as long as she to accepted UK veiling regimes by some young was audible and the ‘interests of justice’ were not women revivalists have tested the sartorial limits of compromised. These cases raise the possibility, multiculturalism’. For example, in 2002 Shabina asserted by Jack Straw, that wearing the niqab Begum (Figure 1) took her Luton school to court when impedes verbal and visual communication. Yet, as they refused her permission to wear a jilbab rather Reina Lewis (2007, p. 434) suggests, such than the school uniform option of shalwar kameez assertions also ‘normatize Western modes of body and headscarf.4 Although not successful, this action management … [and] naturalise the culturally opened up debates and potentially paved the way for specific presumption that visual expression is an other actions, such as that recently undertaken by accurate guide to inner feeling’.5 While the British 143 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 legal cases concerning the wearing of headscarves or wearing of clothes defined as ‘English’ were read in The geographies the niqab are negotiated within a different context particular ways within the wider Asian community: of veiling: from more assertively secular forms of governance ‘If you just walk down the street and you’ve got Muslim women elsewhere, these renewed debates about different trousers on, one lady says “I saw so and so’s in Britain forms of female Islamic dress in the UK are likely to daughter and she’s started going out with boys” … have considerable impact on the identities of young just because you’re wearing English clothes.’ Muslim women themselves. In the next section of the article, I want to explore the different ways in which ‘If you’re in English clothes and you’re ... quite veiling and other forms of Islamic dress are innocent inside, they’ll pick on you and that is not constructed and contested by young British Muslim right.’ women. So clothes become powerful representations of What (not?) to wear? identity for young Muslim women – wearing ‘English’ clothes is a signifier for active sexuality, Negotiations of dress by rebelliousness and modernity while ‘Asian’ clothes young British Muslim women suggest morality and ethnic integrity.

Between 1993 and 1994 I conducted a research Yet the young women I talked to were also actively project with young British Muslim women, mainly of a involved in challenging and subverting these South Asian Pakistani heritage, in two schools (Dwyer, meanings in different ways. Many had evolved what 1999a and b, 2000). While the research focused might be defined as ‘hybrid’ (Dwyer, 2005) styles of broadly on questions of identity, dress quickly dress which self-consciously combined different emerged as a key arena for debate in group styles and fabrics. Thus the shalwar kameez favoured discussions. The young women highlighted the power by the older generation as appropriate ‘Islamically- of ever-changing meanings attached to different dress conformist’ attire was replaced by some young codes, suggested how meanings could shift in women by long skirts or loose-fitting trousers. They different places, and also debated the possibilities saw these new dress styles as both more fashionable for subverting or challenging these meanings. In and also as fulfilling parental expectations about particular, young women described how clothes, modest dress. Indeed they challenged their parents including different forms of school uniform, were on these terms: defined as ‘English’ or ‘Asian’ so that ‘Asian’ clothes ‘They mix up religion and culture as well. Like it denoted ‘tradition’ and ‘ethnic culture’ while ‘English doesn’t say in the religion or anything, it just says clothes’ were used as signifiers of ‘Westernisation’ or that you’ve got to be covered, but the women don’t ‘modernity’ (Dwyer, 1999a, p. 11). These meanings see it like that. It’s like you’ve got to wear Asian were mobilised in different ways. clothes.’

Respondents described how they were sometimes ‘It’s like wearing a long skirt, wearing Westernised subject to racism if they were wearing ‘Asian’ clothes, clothes, which cover you up. They turn round and and how they were concerned about what people [say] you can’t wear it because [laughs] you’re not would think of them: allowed to wear it. And we say we’re right because ‘I enjoy wearing [Asian] clothes. I know on non- we’re covering ourselves and there’s nothing wrong uniform days I don’t really wear them because of with wearing it.’ the peer pressure (embarrassed laugh) … you just get jeered at, which I don’t really want.’ In this way the young women I spoke to were actively working, through dress, to challenge the assumptions ‘I’m constantly thinking about what people will of those around them, forging new sartorial think of me … even when I haven’t got a scarf on expressions of their own identities as young British my head but I’m like in Asian clothes I’m so Muslim women and so challenging fixed stereotypes. paranoid. Oh, people must think “typical”, you know, that I’m from the dark ages and that … I know it For a smaller number of young women these sounds bad but that’s how I feel.’ negotiations were part of the process of engaging with a more self-conscious religious identity – an 144 Other respondents talked about the ways in which the engagement with a Muslim identity which was seen © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 as distinct from the more ethnically inflected religious ‘If there is a girl with a scarf on her head, right, and affiliations of their parents. One way in which this she’s been out with all these guys, she’ll get away The geographies ‘new’ Muslim identity was embodied was in the with it because she’s got that cover. It doesn’t of veiling: wearing of the hijab, a Middle-Eastern-style head matter how bad she is, she’ll get away with it. And Muslim women that’s not right.’ covering which fits more tightly than the loosely fitting in Britain dupatta, or headscarf, which is usually associated with South Asian forms of dress such as the shalwar ‘If you get the wrong ideas inside you, say you think kameez. Choosing to adopt this highly visible sign of about sex 24 hours a day [laughter] with a scarf on Muslim identification was not taken lightly: one young your head, then why wear the scarf? It’s just a woman described how she had to feel ready to wear cover-up.’ it: ‘I can’t live without my hijab – I mean before, when I These extracts from my earlier work illustrate some of just had it on loosely, I was working on the inside, I the dilemmas of dress for young British Muslim was working on feeling the hijab inside, and then women and the ways in which dress functions as one gradually the external hijab came. If I was to take it of the most powerful signifiers of identity. It also off and still practise my religion I’d feel incomplete illustrates the dynamic ways in which young women in a way, if I didn’t have my hijab.’ engage with different forms of dress, including the veil or headscarf. Wearing the hijab was still a relatively unfamiliar In the ten years since this research was undertaken practice in this young woman’s local Asian community. the terrain upon which these young women might For her, the hijab was a source of conflict with her negotiate their dress choices has changed somewhat. mother and was seen as a sign of her resistance to The wider political context has sharpened Muslim parental authority; seeking to resist their prohibitions identities in Britain – particularly since 9/11. While on her behaviour by an appeal to a religious authority. the threat of Islamophobia might have encouraged Wearing the hijab also provoked debate, and some to be less certain about exhibiting highly visible sometimes disquiet, among her Muslim peers. Other Muslim identities, others have become more assertive young women found themselves positioned, implicitly, in their identification – as Anila Baig (2006), a in opposition to this expression of a more self- journalist, explains: conscious Muslim identity. They responded in different ‘I took to wearing the headscarf after 9/11. I saw it ways: some considered that wearing the hijab was a as a badge of honour. My religion might be big step which they might contemplate in the future: misunderstood but I was proud of it. No one forced ‘You’re a Muslim yeah, nothing can change that. But me to wear it and no one forced me to take it off.’ if you’re prepared to accept Islam you have to go with everything. You can’t just think “Oh well, I’ll Similarly, the artist Rezia Wahid (quoted in Tarlo, wear a scarf on my head that will make me a 2007a, p. 153) says: believer” because you have to go by everything. ‘September 11th was some kind of trigger. The Personally, I haven’t, quite a lot of my friends media was portraying Muslim women as oppressed haven’t. Well not yet anyway, we’re not prepared to and making out that Afghan women were desperate go all the way ... I’m not prepared to do that yet, to rip off their burqas and that infuriated me’. maybe later on.’ Certainly, wearing the hijab, particularly in ‘I mean it is difficult to wear a headscarf – you feel metropolitan centres and on student campuses, has different to other people, and you don’t really want become more commonplace and is a choice made by to look different do you? So it’s difficult, especially young women who are often well-educated and at school. Probably if I go to university it’s a fresh independent. In a recent article discussing hijab start there and I might actually consider wearing a wearing in London, Emma Tarlo (2007b) explores how headscarf, because no one will know me, and you choices are made in the context of wide-ranging feel more secure.’ ‘transcultural’ engagements in the multicultural city, and also highlights a plethora of websites offering Others responded more critically, seeking to sartorial advice and discussion. Reina Lewis (2007) undermine the powerful ‘rhetoric of the veil’ (Abu emphasises that Muslim women who veil are not Odeh, 1993, cited in Dwyer, 1999a, p. 20) and its outside fashion economies and indeed there is an symbolism of purity, religiosity and morality: expanding global Islamic fashion industry (Kiliçbay and 145 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 Binark, 2002) with which Islamic consumers can While the choice to wear the hijab may express The geographies engage, for example through fashion magazines such religiosity or a political stance (or both), it can be of veiling: as Emel.6 The educated and assured women seen as an assertion of a self-confident British Muslim women interviewed by Tarlo (2007a) have made choices to Muslim identity which challenges narrow assumptions in Britain express their Muslim identity through dress, in ways about identity and belonging. What is particularly which are confident, fashionable and assertive. worrying about the discussions provoked by Jack However, the wearing of headscarves by some Muslim Straw’s article, focusing on the very small numbers of women remains unsettling for other Muslim women women who have embraced the niqab, is the ways in who do not share their engagement with a revivalist which Muslim women’s dress choices are again used Islam or are critical of the implicit moral symbolism of as a measure of integration and belonging. Perhaps it the veil. might be better to focus instead on more objective measures of integration – such as employment or Conclusion education – and seek to improve the opportunities for all Muslim women, irrespective of dress. In this article I have explored current debates about veiling in Britain. As Secor (2002) and R. Lewis Notes (2007) argue, veiling is a spatial practice – there are 1. I draw here on some analysis of discussions in different ‘regimes of veiling’ in different places and the national press, following Jack Straw’s article, the veil itself is a dynamic symbol invested with which is part of a wider project entitled ‘National different meanings in different contexts: for example, Identity, Citizenship and Religious Difference’, in the home, in the mosque, at school, in the street. funded by the Leverhulme Programme (see In contrast to dominant discourses which often www.bristol.ac.uk/sociology/leverhulme). I am portray Muslim women as passive, I have grateful to Naser Meer for undertaking the media emphasised how dress choices are actively made analysis cited here. and negotiated. However, it is also evident that dress 2. Bunting (2006) points out that there are two remains a powerful signifier for Muslim women. groups of women who wear the niqab in Britain. In one group are relatively recent migrants from Figure 2: Mecca Laa Laa wears a 'Burqini' on her first surf lifesaving patrol at North Cronulla Beach in Sydney, Australia. The red and yellow 'Burqini' was specially designed for female Muslim lifesavers so they can fulfil both their patrolling and religious obligations. Photo: Matt King/Getty Images.

146 © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 Yemen or Somalia, where the niqab is a cultural Dwyer, C. (2000) ‘Negotiating diasporic identities: young symbol of status. In the other are those who have British South Asian Muslim women’, Women’s Studies International Forum, 23, 4, pp. 475-86. The geographies newly taken up the niqab as a symbol of religious Dwyer, C. (2005) ‘Diasporas’, Cloke, P.J., Crang, P. and of veiling: piety. Goodwin, M. (eds) Introducing Human Geographies. Muslim women 3. Although protection from discrimination at work London: Edward Arnold, pp. 495-508. Dwyer, C., Shah, B. and Sanghera, G. (2008) ‘From cricket in Britain was extended by the 2003 Employment Equality lover to terror suspect – challenging representations of (Religion or Belief) Regulations which expanded young British Muslim men’, Gender, Place and Culture, previous racial discrimination legislation to define 15, 2, pp. 117-36. faith communities as distinct from ethnic groups. Dwyer, C. and Shah, B. (forthcoming) ‘Rethinking the identities of young British Muslim women’, in Hopkins, P. 4. Shalwar kameez, loose trousers and over-tunic and Gale, R. (eds) Muslims in Britain: Race, place and worn by many South Asian women in Britain, was identities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. the school uniform option which had been Equal Opportunities Commission (2007) Moving On Up? The way forward report of the Equal Opportunities negotiated with parents and others in the Commission’s investigation into Bangladeshi, Pakistani community by the school. Begum sought and Black Caribbean women and work. London: EOC. permission to wear a more complete face and Feltz, V. (2006) ‘Veils? Straw knows Jack ...’, The Daily Star, 12 October. body covering, jilbab, more commonly worn in Gökariksel, B. and Mitchell, K. (2005) ‘Veiling, secularism, Saudi Arabia and an Islamic style now finding and the neoliberal subject: national narratives and favour with some more self-consciously Islamic (or supranational desires in Turkey and France’, Global ‘revivalist’) Muslim women, including particularly Networks, 5, 2, pp. 147-65. Hopkins, P. (2007) ‘Global events, national politics, local young women, in Britain. lives: young Muslim men in Scotland’, Environment and 5. Interestingly, in some of the responses to Jack Planning A, 39, pp. 1119-33. Straw’s article about the difficulty which people Jenkins, S. (2006) ‘Under Straw’s veil of moderation a fancy piece of political footwork’, The Sunday Times, 8 October. have in communicating with a woman wearing the Kiliçbay, B. and Binark, M. (2002) ‘Consumer culture, Islam niqab because they cannot see her face, and the politics of lifestyle’, European Journal of commentators explored the parallels faced in Communication, 17, 4, pp. 495-511. Lewis, P. (2007) Young, British and Muslim. London: communication with those who are blind or have Continuum. disabilities affecting facial expression. Lewis, R. (2007) ‘Veils and sales: Muslims and the spaces 6. One example is the new range of sportswear for of postcolonial fashion retail’, Fashion Theory, 11, 4, pp. Muslim women. This includes the ‘burqini’, a two- 423-42. Mernessi, F. (1991) Women and Islam. Oxford: Basil piece swimsuit (see Figure 2), and the ‘hijood’, a Blackwell. hijab shaped like a hood, designed by Australian Modood, T. (2005) Multicultural Politics: Racism, ethnicity and designer Ahede Zanetti (see Muslims in Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. www.modestlyactive.com) Peach, C. (2006) ‘Muslims in the 2001 Census of England and Wales: gender and economic disadvantage’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 29, 4, pp. 629-55. References Peach, C. and Gayle, R. (2003) ‘Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs in the new religious landscape in England’, The Ahmed, L. (1992) Women and Gender in Islam. London: Yale Geographical Review, 93, 4, pp. 469-90. University Press. Porter, H. (2006) ‘Jack Straw should be praised for lifting the Baig, A. (2006) ‘Can’t force women to show face’, The Sun, veil on a taboo’, The Observer, 8 October. 7 October. Secor, A. (2005) ‘Islamism, democracy and the political Bowen, J. (2006) Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves: production of the headscarf issue in Turkey’, in Falah, Islam, the state and public space. Princeton, NJ: G.W. and Nagel, C. (eds) Geographies of Muslim Women. Princeton University Press. New York: Guilford. Bunting, M. (2006) ‘Comment and debate: Jack Straw has Secor, A. (2002) ‘The veil and urban space in Istanbul: unleashed a storm of prejudice and intensified division: women’s dress, mobility and Islamic knowledge’, Gender, singling out women who wear the niqab as an obstacle Place and Culture, 9, pp. 5-22. to the social integration of Muslims is absurd and Tarlo, E. (2007a) ‘Islamic cosmopolitanism: the sartorial dangerous’, Guardian, 9 October. biographies of three Muslim women in London’, Fashion Dale, A., Shaheen, N., Kalra, V. and Fieldhouse, E. (2002) Theory, 11, 2/3, pp. 143-72. ‘Routes into education and employment for young Tarlo, E. (2007b) ‘Hijab in London: metamorphosis, Pakistani and Bangladeshi women in the UK’, Ethnic and resonance and effects’, Journal of Material Culture, 12, Racial Studies, 25, 6, pp. 924-68. 2, pp. 131-56. Dwyer, C. (1999a) ‘Veiled meanings: British Muslim women and the negotiation of differences’, Gender, Place and Culture, 6, 1, pp. 5-26. Claire Dwyer is in the Department of Geography, Dwyer, C. (1999b) ‘Contradictions of community: questions University College London. (tel: 0207 679 5526; of identity for British Muslim women’, Environment and fax: 0207 679 7565; e-mail: Planning A, 31, pp. 53-68. [email protected]). 147 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

ContestingAbcdefg the urban renaissance: journalism and the post- industrial city Contesting the urban renaissance: journalism and the post- industrial city

Tim Hall

ABSTRACT: This article considers national press representations of urban regeneration in UK cities, drawing on specific examples of urban regeneration in the 1990s. It examines the way in which much journalistic discourse tends to contest the notion of ‘urban renaissance’. However, in doing so, it argues that this critique is fettered by the constraints facing journalists writing about such complex processes and the contexts both within which they work and within which their work is presented. It goes on to recognise journalistic narratives as a rare example of a popular contestation of myths of the post-industrial city. The article suggests that the general messages about the significant role of the media in constructing urban narratives continues to be applicable to the situation in the early 2000s, and it argues for the inclusion of journalistic narratives in studies of the post-industrial city. Introduction

One of the most pervasive urban narratives since the late 1980s has been that of ‘urban renaissance’ – Millennium Centre, 148 Cardiff Bay. advanced as the primary popular interpretation of a Photo: Tim Hall range of physical, economic and social changes in © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

Contesting the urban renaissance: journalism and the post- industrial city

149 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 cities. This notion of an urban renaissance has been want to examine the emergence, in the 1990s, of a Contesting the advanced through promotional materials, the local critique of the urban regeneration process and to urban media and the speeches of politicians and business consider both the form of this critique and reasons for renaissance: leaders (Kearns and Philo, 1993; Gold and Ward, its appearance in a media which might not be journalism and 1994). An equally significant, but overlooked, medium expected, according to conventional thinking, to for promoting this notion has been the national media. contest the initiatives of the prevailing institutional the post- In the UK, the national press gave extensive coverage order. Further, I want to sit this critique in the context industrial city to the apparent transformation of former industrial of the media of its production, considering the ways in cities since the 1980s – part of an extensive history of which it is fettered by salient characteristics of the journalistic narratives of urban change. journalistic process.

In this article I want to examine media representations Urban regeneration of the post-industrial city, taking the example of UK mainstream national press coverage of urban and the press regeneration in the 1990s. I will examine articles published in The Independent and The Independent on Urbanisation has, since the nineteenth century, Sunday that deal with projects in three cities provided a rich source of material for the local and (Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow). This represents national press in many countries. Media narratives one ‘take’ on media maps of the post-industrial city, have had a significant influence on the interpretation and is a project that falls into line with a large body of of urban change (Wilson, 1996; Beauregard, 2003). work on the representation of post-industrial spaces. Conventional readings typically posit an initial Such an alignment is justified on the grounds that the radicalism progressively circumscribed by a growing mass media have been little explored in this context. conservatism, reflecting readings of the press more Where similar work has focused on the media, it has generally, as the influence of powerful owners, been exclusively concerned with the local media (Parisi institutions, regulators and advertisers was extended and Holcomb, 1994; Thomas, 1994; Wilson, 1995). over its operation. I would argue, however, that Most of this work has examined the ways in which uncritical acceptance of this carries the danger of these media have been active in the construction and overstating the degree to which debate is constrained Below: Public Art on legitimisation of positive narratives of urban by the media. Waterfront Cardiff Bay renaissance. By contrast, I want to argue that public Centre: Housing in discussion of this supposed urban renaissance has Researchers have discerned a greater tendency for Butetown near Cardiff Bay. different meanings to co-exist – or polysemy – in press Photos: Tim Hall admitted a range of alternative versions of the story. I coverage of urban issues than conventional theoretical

150 © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 models of the media might lead us to expect. Parisi has been well-scrutinised, much less has been said of and Holcomb (1994) have recognised social criticism, the roles of others involved in the news production Contesting the as well as conservatism, as characteristic of the process. However, they are not mere conduits through urban modern media, manifest in the ‘doubleness’ of media which information flows; rather they are agents, active renaissance: imagery of the city. Burgess’s (1985) analysis of in the construction and transformation of meaning. journalism and national press coverage of street disturbances in Headlines, photographs, illustrations and inserts the post- British cities recognised notes of sympathy for inner commonly take up more space in news texts than city populations, even in articles that labelled the inner copy. These elements provide the most visually striking industrial city city through myths of pathology and narratives of war. aspects of news texts and serve to create or reinforce This sympathy, however, is contained within a certain meanings. Unlike reporters, photographers and conservative hegemony. Further, Beauregard, in his editors are less concerned with maintaining survey of the public discussion of American cities, journalistic notions of balance and objectivity. Their discerned a radicalism in the press’s challenge, in the tasks are to create visually striking layouts and convey late 1980s and early 1990s, to the motif of urban meaning using only pictures and a few words. This renaissance that had emerged in the preceding years virtually precludes any adherence to notions of (Beauregard, 2003). This suggests that the uncritical balance or objectivity. The meanings attached to news boosting of development and routine marginalisation as it passes through a range of presentation of the urban poor is too reductionist a model to apply strategies might be significantly different from those to media coverage of urban issues. that would be discerned from a textual analysis purely of news copy. Analysis of news texts, therefore, must There are several reasons for the media’s polysemy acknowledge the range of potentially contrasting that have yet to be fully explored. For example, the positions and tasks brought to bear in the news assumption that news is produced solely by reporters production process. is clearly erroneous. The news production process involves a number of stages – definition of news, Further, journalism is not a hermetically sealed researching, writing, editing and presenting. discourse. Rather, it overlaps with a range of other Overseeing these stages is a range of professionals discourses whose characteristics are very different including reporters, photographers, section-editors, from those of journalism. In this case journalism sub-editors and editors. As copy passes through their overlaps with academic analyses and debates about hands its appearance, meaning, and often contents, the city. In the UK, academics have been frequent and Mailbox Development are changed as it is edited and as pictures, captions prominent mass media commentators on urban Birmingham. and inserts are added. While the role of the reporter change (Harvey, 1988, 1994; Bianchini, 1991; Hall, Photo: Tim Hall

151 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 1995; Hambledon, 1995). Academics are also working-class identities (Cusick, 1990). It is a Contesting the regularly employed by reporters as sources of expert selection of these articles that will be analysed below. urban opinion. While many argue that media discussions are renaissance: typically closed or constrained, this ignores The first task facing the national media is to appeal to journalism and journalism’s relationship with a variety of other less a significant proportion of their audience. They do not closed discourses. do this by relying on geographical interest in specific the post- locations. The articles examined here, which are industrial city Urban regeneration and the predominantly feature articles, present further problems in that they are rarely linked to breaking British national press news. Journalists address this by interpreting specific situations through broad narratives. Specific events The apparent transformation of British industrial cities and situations, such as those examined here, are not in the 1980s and early 1990s drew sustained national primarily of interest in themselves, but become press attention. During the early 1980s many exemplars of more general stories. industrial cities became defined through discourses of decline, redundancy and militancy (Watson, 1991; A variety of narratives is present in the articles Short et al., 1993; Hall, 1997). However, much examined. However, despite their diversity their national press coverage of provincial cities in the late structure is binary and their basic motif is conflict. 1980s in the UK reported that they were changing in Such interpretations fulfill a number of journalistic ways that appeared to challenge their prescribed purposes. First they attach general appeal to specific identities. Examples include Massie and Rafferty’s events that transcend geographically limited interest. Sunday Times Magazine article entitled (on the cover) Further, they reduce the complexity of situations and ‘Can this be Glasgow?’ and, inside, ‘The city slicker’ allow their construction in a format (of a few hundred (Massie and Rafferty, 1988; see also Tomkins, 1988; words) suitable for a national newspaper. Finally, if Donald, 1990; Grimley, 1990; Cheesewright, 1991; both sides can be represented it lends credence to Cohen, 1991; Smith, 1991; Willsher, 1991). journalistic claims of objectivity.

The mid 1990s, however, saw a more critical take on There are two levels of narrative present in these urban regeneration by the British national press. articles. First, are a number of narrative Increasingly, articles covered issues such as the interpretations of specific events or situations. Some economic and social failures of urban regeneration of these are outlined below. (Cohen, 1993; Arlidge, 1994a, 1994b), disruption to communities (Roe, 1990; Taylor, 1990; Mgadzah, Image - Reality 1995), political clashes (Cohen, 1994) and threats to Institution - Population Development - Community Invasion - Belonging Intrusion - Indigenous Facsimile - Organic Economic development - Social welfare High-culture - Basic needs Incomers - Locals

Table 1: Oppositional terms used in urban narratives.

Underlying all of these is an assumption about the city as being sharply divided. A classic dual city narrative is used consistently across all of the articles to re- present the complex geographies of the post-industrial city. This was explicit, for example, in the opening of Cohen’s (1993) discussion of the change of leadership of Birmingham City Council: ‘It may have been the outbreak of scabies or it may Bull Ring Development, have been the woman who was thrown through the 152 Birmingham. toughened-glass screen of the housing benefit Photo: Tim Hall © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 office in Birmingham. But in a city where a “go- ahead” Labour council was meant to have tackled Contesting the economic decline by producing a “breathtaking urban civic renaissance” – complete with a new renaissance: convention centre, sports arena, tourism office, journalism and orchestra hall, ballet company and opera company the post- – the fact that thousands of citizens were facing eviction because of industrial action in a council industrial city benefits office was, to say the least, an image problem’ (Cohen, 1993, p. 11; see also Nicholson- Lord, 1994).

I want now to consider the post-industrial city as represented in these narratives, focusing on the active journalistic processes of inventing or scripting roles for people and of constructing a well-defined critique of urban regeneration. Lastly I want to identify the limits of this critique and provide instances of where these limits are transgressed.

Inventing people Public Art, Cardiff Bay. Photo: Tim Hall Common to many of the articles was a narrative of are very close no matter what colour, what religion” populations, those located in the imagined spaces of adds a man who calls himself Joukes, 57.’ the ‘inner-city’, as the victims of regeneration or • and resilience: ‘Their community weathered the development. These populations are drawn together booms and busts of the old industries, they endured and scripted primarily through a vocabulary of ostracism from outsiders and a race riot in 1919. ‘community’. For example, the sympathy engendered The stigma of living in an area that sailors had for the residents of Butetown, adjacent to the Cardiff made notorious for wild living – gambling, Bay development in South Wales, comes from the prostitution and theft – blighted the lives of many construction of a mythology of community in residents. Thirty years ago, slum clearances opposition to one of development. A key aspect is the shredded the social fabric. But they survived.’ weaving together of discrete elements to form apparently coherent narratives. Commonly, The people described or interviewed are clearly ‘real’, observations, events and selected sources are drawn in that they exist, and are accurately represented, in together and, from these, particular impressions are that journalists have not invented them, lied or created. This is evident, for example, in Mgadzah’s misquoted. However, they might also be thought of as (1995) article that draws upon an idealisation of the constructed characters in a story, ‘with roles to play for area’s the sake of that story’ (Branston and Stafford, 2003, • appearance: ‘Sunshine breaks through winter p. 28). They are present in the articles in order to clouds and the Inner Harbour on Cardiff Bay, the highlight problems with, or the failures of, urban Tiger Bay of old, is transformed into a bright picture- regeneration, to act as signifiers of that failure, and for postcard.’ no other purpose. Consequently they are only • industrial history: ‘The community was forged out of represented as poor, dependent, excluded or victims. coal, iron and the docks.’ Such constructions provide a striking opposition to the • ethnic history: ‘They [merchant seamen] came from ‘glamorous’ new developments. Here the populations as far afield as West Africa, Somalia, Norway, Yemen of the inner city are homogenised, present only as and the Baltic states. They were Christians, Muslims, exemplars of exclusion: Jews and Greek Orthodox. “We had every nationality ‘Today one in three Glaswegians depend on income here you could think of, including an Eskimo,” says support, compared with fewer than one in 10 in Daniel Commander, retired landlord of the Paddle the UK as a whole. Unemployment among men has Steamer, a pub on Loundon Square, propping up the risen to 25 per cent, women suffer from the worst 153 bar. His father was a seaman from West Africa. “We diet in the Western world and half of all primary Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 school pupils receive clothing grants. ideological purposes. Functionally they are readily Contesting the available sources of information. Ideologically they urban Worse, in the peripheral housing estates there are provide interpretation while distancing the reporter renaissance: now more injecting drug addicts per head of from ‘explicit interpretation’ of the situation and, when journalism and population than anywhere else in Western Europe’ set against an ‘opposed perspective’ (Parisi and (Arlidge, 1994b, p. 24). Holcomb, 1994, p. 378), lend balance to articles. the post-

industrial city In the rare examples where individual voices are These rhetorical strategies are typified by Mgadzah’s present they only reinforce the prevailing motifs by article on Cardiff Bay. The article contains soundbites being constructed as archetypes of poverty, exclusion from local residents, all of whom oppose the and need. development. For example: ‘For some the strain of coping with the changes is ‘“They’ve been building all around us, and we are showing. Sidney Gabb, 55, pulls a pint of bitter stuck here like an eyesore,” explains Lee Ahmun, towards his bearded face. “I’m lost,” he says, “I’ve 28, a docker who lives near Loundon Square in lived here for 30 years. But now I’m lost’… Butetown, the heart of the old Tiger Bay. “This is a “People have been knocked back and knocked good community. Everybody is happy living here. back,” explains Andrew Heath, 30, from behind the But it is a standing joke in Cardiff that they are counter of a grocer’s on Loundon Square. “I’ve just going to get rid of us and redevelop this area as given up trying to find work as a labourer after well”’ (1995, p. 22). weeks of trying.” “Work?” Steve Johnson, 28, who is sunk in a sofa This is ‘balanced’ by a quotation from the chief behind the counter, looks up. “You must be joking. executive of the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation There is no work here for us. For outsiders from the (CBDC) and a discussion of the opinions of the Valleys and beyond maybe”’ (Mgadzah, 1995, p. 22). community development manager for CBDC.

Despite directly quoting the residents of these areas, Another common tactic is to use soundbite quotes the representational strategies employed in these from academics. Academic opinion lends authority to articles mediate, and effectively deny them their own articles. As sources, academics possess both status voice. Circumscribing the representation of these (in the perceived social hierarchy of knowledge) and groups in this way is a process of disempowerment, representativeness. Further, to use their ‘voices’ erasing their histories and replacing them with a set of reinforces notions of objectivity and further externally constructed identities. The very groups for suppresses explicit interpretation by the reporter. In whom the articles seek to elicit sympathy are each case examined here the use of academic opinion disempowered through their representation in these helps reinforce the preferred meanings of the article. texts. For example, Mgadzah quotes Roger Zogolovitch, visiting professor in urban strategy at Portsmouth Constructing critique University: ‘“Large-scale regeneration schemes like London Docklands tend to be too physically driven ... They It has been argued that journalistic notions of are about putting up buildings, instead of holistic objectivity represent a set of rhetorical and approaches for helping local economies and interpretative strategies (Parisi and Holcomb, 1994, p. communities. They are doomed to failure”’ (1995, 378). Judged against their internal criteria it is easy to p. 22). argue that all of the articles examined here adhere closely to journalistic notions of balance. Maintaining The use of quotes from academics in these articles such internally constructed notions is an important confirms the point concerning the media being less part of media claims to independence, objectivity and closed ideologically than conventional arguments the quality of analysis. As Parisi and Holcomb (1994, might suggest. As far-reaching and fundamental p. 378) observe, one of the key ways that journalists criticisms of the process of urban regeneration, the reinforce the impression of objectivity is through the points raised by academics in these articles should suppression or removal of their presence through not be dismissed. They reflect those advanced by ‘attribution of views to sources’. All of the articles academics writing or quoted in the American mass examined used short soundbites as key building media, noted by Beauregard (2003), suggesting this is 154 blocks. These serve a number of functional and © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 a characteristic rather than exceptional aspect of “But we must start the process of rebuilding our media discourse. city in the right place – and that means at the Contesting the beginning with the people.”’ (Arlidge, 1994a, p. 4) urban Analysts also need to examine how preferred renaissance: meanings are projected. Despite ‘balancing’ I also want briefly to highlight the significance of the journalism and quotations, in the sense of including quotations from overall rhetoric of the news text, and the relationship the post- opposing perspectives, both the weight of relative between the various textual and visual components of quotation (in terms of column centimetres) and the articles, highlighting the ways in which the dominant industrial city place of the quotes in the articles undercut notions of meanings of the news may largely lie, not in the hands balance. In the case of Mgadzah’s article, 13 sources of reporters, but rather with those further down the that oppose the development of Cardiff Bay are news production process, such as picture editors and ‘balanced’ by two who support it. In Cusick’s article, sub-editors, who are concerned with the presentation discussing opposition to Glasgow’s year as European of the news in its final form. I want to do this with City of Culture, balance is achieved by including a reference to one article (Arlidge, 1994b, p. 24) that separate article (Lister, 1990, p. 5) in the same examined the return of the ‘Mr Happy’ marketing logo feature that was concerned with outlining the to Glasgow. economic benefits of the city’s designation as City of Culture. However, the latter is visually subordinate to The text adheres closely to journalistic notions of the former and is not accompanied by any photograph, objectivity and balance but fails to achieve this due to unlike Cusick’s article. other components of the article: the headline, headline paragraph, the picture and the picture Further, the placement of sources in articles undercuts caption. The pictures show a smiling Mr Happy (used notions of balance and projects preferred meaning. in Glasgow's promotional campaign) contrasted with a The most important paragraphs in news articles are homeless man on waste ground under a crumbling Mr the first ones and sometimes the last, in feature Happy mural. The message is reinforced by the main articles the last ones carry special significance picture caption: ‘No mean city? Since the original (Keeble, 2006). It is in these paragraphs that campaign poverty in Glasgow has worsened’, and the preferred meanings of articles are introduced and headline ‘Blob on the landscape’. Readings of news reinforced. In the majority of the cases presented here texts must, therefore, acknowledge the context within these key paragraphs exclusively carry criticism. For which they are presented and the demands of those example: concerned with the final presentation of them. [First paragraph] ‘The surge of municipal confidence that animated Glasgow at the start of Recognising the limits of the decade has disappeared leaving a city that has lost its sense of direction.’ critique

[Last paragraphs] ‘To Mr Mcloughlin [of the As Parisi and Holcomb (1994, p. 383) observe, the oppositional group Worker’s City], however, the new mainstream press characteristically put forward critical [regeneration] projects have a depressingly familiar accounts of events without challenging the broader air. “Here we go again. It’s such a yawn. Have we legitimacy of the prevailing institutional order. learnt nothing?” he said. “When will Glasgow’s Seemingly liberal press accounts are commonly administrators realise that the answer to our bounded within a more fundamental conservative problems does not lie with architects, nor with the ideology. Much of the discursive boundary setting in Lallyrati, but with people. We need jobs not the mainstream press is down to issues such as architecture.” perceptions of what audiences will find interesting. He added: “Pat Lally [leader of Glasgow City Some explanations tend to be perceived by journalists Council] is spending public money on schemes as more interesting and intelligible than others. While which cannot hope to create self-sustaining growth. the intention behind such boundary setting might not Glasgow will never regenerate until he and others be ideological, the effects are. However, it would be realise that people are the real powerbrokers. wrong to paint audiences as passive dupes of these Invest in them, let them develop first and our own discourses. The multiple and active roles of audiences genuine culture will follow. Then you can have all in the creation of the meanings of media texts has the buildings and design that you want. long been accepted (Thomas, 1994). 155 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 profile projects have failed to boost the city’s Contesting the In the articles discussed here it is instructive to economy.’ urban consider the attribution of blame for the failures of renaissance: urban regeneration that are offered. Despite the Attributing failures to individuals calls into question, journalism and differences between each article the explanations for not the prevailing institutional order, but rather the failures are of a broadly consistent type. Mainstream wisdom of decisions and those who made them the post- news is predominantly concerned with highlighting (Glancy, 1995, p. 28; Hughes, 1996, pp. 6-7). The industrial city specific events over less tangible processes. In articles highlight individual rather than systematic or choosing to focus on specific events these articles are structural failures; the particular over the general. The able convincingly to attribute the problems associated narrative frameworks employed in mainstream with urban regeneration programmes to bad decisions journalism tend to exclude ‘complex historical and taken by recognisable individuals. Typical is Cohen’s political explanations’ (Branston and Stafford, 2003, article, ‘The renaissance that never was’ (1993, p. p. 33). However, this focus has ideological implications 11). Here, Birmingham’s problems, highlighted by the in that it implicitly undermines collective solutions and article, are attributed exclusively to a series of bad emphasises personal over collective responsibility. decisions taken by the city council, particularly its While the mainstream press offer the appearance of former leader, Sir Richard Knowles. The article vigorous critique and debate they have a strong discusses a series of key projects aimed to regenerate discursive frame and characteristically put forward Birmingham and then goes on to outline the strongly circumscribed discussions. consequences of these decisions. ‘Birmingham has tried to compete. Since 1984 when Labour took control of the most powerful Conclusions council in England, the city has bid for the The mass media discuss a range of urban issues and Olympics and lost, and staged a Super Prix road in so doing imagine numerous ‘maps’ of the post- race, which had to be abandoned. Undaunted, the industrial city. However, despite the diversity of these council began a massive public-works programme. representations, the findings of this article suggest Prestige venues, aimed at turning Birmingham into that they are fundamentally bounded and similar in a tourist, conference and sporting centre, filled the form. The examples used here show that the media city centre.’ reduced the complexity of the post-industrial city And later: through their employment of a dual-city narrative and a ‘Now she [Theresa Stewart, recently elected leader range of other binary narrative interpretations. of the city council] is in power, she pours scorn on Consequently, both the representation of this post- the idea that high-class projects could revive the industrial city and the critique of its supposed city. “My Labour colleagues have been telling me renaissance are bounded by the constraints of the for 10 years that this is municipal socialism – it’s media that produced them. However, it is nevertheless municipal stupidity more like. Yes, the city centre is worth recongising that the press articles referred to New Residential now ravishing, and yes, the convention centre has here represent a rare case of a popular contestation of Developments, created jobs. But such jobs – part-time, low-pay, hegemonic versions of the supposed post-industrial Birmingham City Centre. short-term, non-union jobs ... As the unemployment urban renaissance. As a form of resistance it should Photo: Tim Hall figures show, almost 10 years of high-cost, high- not be dismissed, rather its limits should be more explicitly recognised. Despite the ways in which the media are bounded, this article suggests they are far more open to the admission of alternative perspectives, contest and critique than either previous work on the representation of the post-industrial city or conventional thinking on the ideologies and politics of the mass media might lead us to expect.

Although the focus in this article has been on a specific period, the narratives discussed continue to recur regularly in discussions of British urban change. For example, in 2004 The Guardian reported Glasgow’s 156 attempts to rebrand itself by contrasting its new image © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 with the apparently worsening health and welfare Grimley, T. (1990) ‘Showcase for Rattle and Brum’, The Times, conditions in its poorest areas. The article, adopting a 7 July. Contesting the Hall, P. (1995) ‘Urban stress, creative tension’, The Abcdefg classic dual city theme, was entitled ‘As the wealth Independent, 21 February, p. 15. urban and health gaps widen, Glasgow rebrands itself as a Hall, T. (1997) ‘Images of industry in the postindustrial city: renaissance: city of style’ (Scott, 2004, p. 9). Questions of historical Raymond Mason and Birmingham’, Ecumene, 4, pp. 46- journalism and continuities and changes in these narratives are 68. the post- worthy of exploration. Hambleton, R. (1995) ‘Inner cities, not on EZ street’, The Guardian (G2), 15 November, p. 29. industrial city Harvey, D. (1988) ‘Voodoo cities’, New Statesman and Since the 1990s an increasing amount of news is Society, 30 September, pp. 33-5. accessed via newspaper websites. This raises new Harvey, D. (1994) City Lights, City Shadows. BBC Radio 4. questions for analysts. Often the appearance of news Hughes, G. (1995) ‘Kicked into touch’, The Independent, 1 texts is different online. The removal of elements such August, pp. 6-7. Kearns, G. and Philo, C. (eds) (1993) Selling Places: The city as photographs is common, for example, offering a as cultural capital past and present. Oxford: Pergamon. different visual rhetoric to different audiences. Keeble, R. (2006) The Newspapers Handbook. Fourth Edition. Perhaps, therefore, readings might shift to focus more Abingdon: Routledge. on the meanings generated by audiences. Finally, web Lister, D. (1990) ‘Critics answered by jobs and tourism boom’, technology allows the incorporation of reader feedback The Independent, 31 December, p. 5. and user-generated contents into news texts, perhaps Massie, A. and Rafferty, J. (1988) ‘The city slicker’, The Sunday Times Magazine, 7 August, pp. 16-25. broadening the scope for the contestation of narratives Mgadzah, R. (1995) ‘A growl from Tiger Bay’, The such as that of urban renaissance. Independent, 8 March, p. 22. Nicholson-Lord, D. (1994) ‘Gleaming heart in decaying body’, The Independent, 30 June, p. 5. Acknowledgements Parisi, P. and Holcomb, B. (1994) ‘Symbolizing place: Thanks to Bria Holcomb, Phil Hubbard, Pauline journalistic narratives of the city’, Urban Geography, 15, McGuirk, Jon May and Peter Parisi for their helpful pp. 376-94. comments on earlier drafts. Roe, N. (1990) ‘Got those Gas Street Basin blues’, The Independent, 13 January. Scott, K. (2004) ‘As the wealth and health gaps widen, References Glasgow rebrands itself as city of style’, The Guardian, 10 Arlidge, J. (1994a) ‘Glasgow’s hopes shrivel after the hype’, March, p. 9. The Independent on Sunday, 2 October, p. 4. Short, J., Benton, L., Luce, W. and Walton, J. (1993) Arlidge, J. (1994b) ‘Blob on the landscape’, The Independent, ‘Reconstructing the image of the industrial city’, Annals of 17 November, p. 24. the Association of American Geographers, 83, pp. 207-24. Beauregard, R. (2003) Voices of Decline: The postwar fate of Smith, A. (1991) ‘Enter the ambitious new kid on the US cities. Second Edition. London: Routledge. convention block’, Daily Telegraph, 2 April. Bianchini, F. (1991) ‘Alternative cities’, Marxism Today, June, Taylor, E. (1990) ‘It’s no carnival when the city steals the pp. 36-8. show’, The Independent, 5 September, p. 25. Branston, G. and Stafford, R. (2003) The Media Student’s Thomas, H. (1994) ‘The local press and urban renewal: a Book. Third Edition. London: Routledge. South Wales case study’, International Journal of Urban Burgess, J. (1985) ‘News from nowhere: the press, the riots and Regional Research, 18, pp. 315-33. and the myth of the inner city’ in Burgess, J. and Gold, J. Tomkins, R. (1988) ‘International Convention Centre – a (eds) Geography, the Media and Popular Culture. London: British first’, Financial Times, 1 December. Croom Helm, pp. 192-228. Watson, S. (1991) ‘Gilding the smokestacks: the new Cheesewright, P. (1991) ‘The second city’s main attraction’, symbolic representations of deindustrialised regions’, Financial Times, 20 April. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 9, pp. Cohen, N. (1991) ‘Council at fore as second city stakes claim 59-71. to first rate reputation’, The Independent, 19 June, p. 14. Willsher, K. (1991) ‘What’s good for Birmingham is good for Cohen, N. (1993) ‘The renaissance that never was’, The Britain’, Daily Express, 19 June. Independent on Sunday, 10 October, p. 11. Wilson, D. (1996) ‘Metaphors, growth coalitions and Cohen, N. (1994) ‘Rattled of Symphony Hall’, The discourses of black poverty neighbourhoods in a U.S. Independent, 9 March, p. 19. city’, Antipode, 28, pp. 72-86. Cusick, J. (1990) ‘Refuseniks attack “facsimile city”’, The Wilson, D. (1995) ‘Representing the city: growth coalitions Independent, 31 December, p. 5. and uneven development in two Midwest cities’, Planning Donald, C. (1990) ‘Culture shock in Glasgow’, The Theory, 14, pp. 96-115. Independent (The Indy, supplement), 25 January, p. 7. Glancy, J. (1995) ‘A monumental spot of trouble’, The Tim Hall is in the Department of Natural and Social Independent, 14 January, p. 28. Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Francis Gold, J. and Ward, S. (eds) (1994) Place Promotion: The use of Close Hall, Swindon Road, Cheltenham, GL50 4AZ publicity and marketing to sell towns and regions. (tel: 01242 714673; e-mail: [email protected]). 157 Chichester: John Wiley. Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 developments in the subject discipline and in the wider Is the future Is the future world of education. John Morgan (2008a) has recently secure for charted the development of the school geography geography curriculum since the late 1970s with respect to many of these issues. He has also highlighted the widening education? secure for gap between school and university geography – an important theme which will be revisited here, as it geography encapsulates an educational dilemma that education? geographers must now respond to. Let me start by analysing the current ‘state of play’ with respect to geography education in English Graham Butt secondary schools.

ABSTRACT: This article provides an overview of the Where are we now? changes that geography education in English secondary A recent report by the schools’ inspectorate, the Office schools will face over the next few years. As such, it is for Standards in Education (Ofsted), appears to paint a written not with the intention of mapping the minutiae rather depressing picture of the state of geography of every expected alteration to specific qualifications or education in our schools (Ofsted, 2008a). This report specifications, but to clarify the broader directions of drew on inspection evidence gathered from 2004 to travel for geography. The implications of these changes 2007 in primary and secondary schools, focusing for the community of geography teachers, lecturers, mainly on the impact of fieldwork provision in researchers and students in schools and higher geography, the monitoring of an innovative public education are also explored. The impacts of shifts in examination in geography at 16 (the Pilot GCSE), and education policy and practice on the Geography teaching about the global dimension. Following the National Curriculum (GNC), General Certificate of report’s publication, headlines inevitably focused on Secondary Education (GCSE), Advanced and Advanced the finding that geography in schools is ‘declining’, on Subsidiary qualifications (A- and AS-level) and Diplomas too much teaching and learning being ‘mediocre’, and are therefore all considered in turn, enabling a fuller on pupils’ achievement in geography being ‘weaker picture of the current health of geography education to than in most other subjects’ (Ofsted, 2008b). Of major emerge. concern is the report’s finding that many children regard their geography lessons as boring and Introduction irrelevant. Therefore, when given the option of either carrying on with geography up to public examination at It is timely to analyse what change may mean for the 16, or studying something else, many choose other future security of geography education. Education subjects or vocational courses (see Adey and should always consider, as one of its main priorities, Biddulph, 2001). Although we might concur with the needs of the learner. This is perhaps particularly Morgan’s (2008b) assertion that it is ‘an exciting time true of geography education, where the subject matter to be a geographer’ – particularly in schools where the can speak directly to young people growing up in subject is vibrant, well-taught and allowed to grow – rapidly changing, increasingly globalised societies. To many young people appear not to agree! Commenting do so, I would argue, geography education needs to be on the current state of geography education in forward-looking and futures-oriented. It must actively schools, Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty’s Chief prepare young people for living in the communities Inspector for Education, Children’s Services and Skills, they are growing up in, and which they will both shape noted that ‘more needs to be done to make the and be shaped by. Geography should also help young subject relevant and more engaging for pupils’ (Ofsted, people understand the world around them, make 2008b). At a time when the government has again informed decisions about issues that affect them at a committed money to the Action Plan for Geography variety of spatial scales and develop their sense of (which is jointly led by the Geographical Association identity within a world of multiple cultures. It must and Royal Geographical Society with the Institute of offer something meaningful to both the learner and the British Geographers) (DfES/GA/RGS-IBG, 2006), and 158 citizen, while being confident in its response to the White Paper on 14-19 Education and Skills (DfES, © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 2005) highlights geography as being in particular need impacts of climate change, globalisation, migration, of a radical shift in direction, the pressure on asylum seeking and the need for sustainable AbcdefgIs the future geography education to change is intense. development appearing as daily news items – secure for geography’s continued existence as a major school geography Since the start of the new millennium the already subject seems most threatened. This has been education? established downward trend in numbers of candidates confirmed by a national survey of assessment practice entering for GCSE and A-level geography has and performance in geography (Butt et al., 2006a) continued, although these reductions have been which reveals worrying aspects of the general ‘health’ smaller in the last two years (see Figures 1 and 2). of geography education in English state secondary This ongoing decrease, presently in the order of one schools. It can be argued that all subjects go through fifth of the numbers entered for both examinations in periods of uncertainty – a situation previously faced by 2000, can no longer be sustained without a significant geography in the 1960s and 1970s with the rise of impact on the quantity of students progressing to humanities in schools, and again in the late 1980s study geography in higher education. It is ironic that at when a case had to be made for its inclusion in the a time when understanding geographical issues emergent National Curriculum. Nonetheless, the appears essential for any young person – with the current situation appears to be unique, requiring urgent action. 45,000 I now consider recent and imminent changes to the 40,000 component parts of the school geography curriculum 35,000 and its assessment as they affect 11-19 year olds in English schools. 30,000

25,000 Key stage 3 The revised GNC, being phased in by schools from 20,000 September 2008, has been restructured around seven 15,000 key concepts (place, space, scale, interdependence,

Geography A-level entries physical and human processes, environmental 10,000 interaction and sustainable development, and cultural Figure 1: Geography A- understanding and diversity). The emphasis on level candidate numbers, 5000 geographical content which dominated earlier versions England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Source: 0 of this curriculum has again been reduced – most RGS-IBG. notably with the introduction of a section titled 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 Year ‘Curriculum opportunities’, which gives teachers real choice about the geographical content they wish to cover. This curriculum encourages schools to debate 300,000 the nature of their geography courses and to engage in real ‘curriculum making’ – although it might also 250,000 suggest that government policy-makers are rather losing interest in ‘fine tuning’ the academic content of subjects taught in schools. Arguably, their preference 200,000 is to view education more broadly in terms of the provision of generic skills and abilities, some of which 150,000 are delivered through a variety of national strategies. Despite the statutory responsibility to teach a national 100,000 curriculum which is constructed of subjects, the

Geography GCSE entries importance to the curriculum of many of these subjects (including geography) is being questioned. It Figure 2: Geography GCSE 50,000 candidate numbers, is, therefore, vital that geography teachers grasp the England, Wales and opportunities to shape the geography curriculum they Northern Ireland. Source: 0 teach, and do not view the new GNC and its modified RGS-IBG.

1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 level descriptions as a ‘no change’ curriculum that 159 Year requires little response; teaching ‘more of the same’ Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 is not a sensible response to the potential that this long been overdue. Many look dated, uninspiring, Is the future curriculum has to offer. As stated elsewhere, ‘the irrelevant and in urgent need of change. Historically secure for geography curriculum for 11-13-year-olds must be there has always been a reasonable choice of geography exciting, relevant and engaging – which implies the geography specifications – but these have tended to need for greater curriculum planning and development offer a rather similar diet of both geographical content education? in geography at KS3, as well as more fundamental and approaches to learning and assessment. They are revisions of existing schemes of work’ (Butt et al., largely thematic and ‘mature’ specifications which, 2006a, p. 145). Change is being played out in many some would claim, provide little of relevance to the schools in the form of integrated year 7 courses, modern learner. For example, the major issues where geography is being subsumed within humanities currently facing the world (such as climate change, courses; of compressed two-year key stage 3 courses, globalisation, sustainable development, migration, and where geography is studied only in years 7 and 8; and religious intolerance) are somewhat under-represented of courses centred on generic, transferable ‘thinking in existing specifications and are difficult – or risky – skills’ or ‘learning to learn’ activities. This forces for teachers to explore, given the current format for geography teachers to review what is taught, and by external assessment. Few specifications encourage whom, and to raise questions about whether engagement with recent geographical trends – such as geography’s foothold in the curriculum is secure. the economic rise of China and India, and the social, cultural and economic impacts of a widening Europe – At a time when the importance of each subject’s place although the popular pilot GCSE has sought to address in the curriculum is open to debate it would be foolish issues of relevance and topicality. One of the most to disengage from discussions about curriculum damning criticisms of the more traditional specifications construction and geography’s role in the education of is that they still reward an approach to geography young people. Lambert (2007) argues convincingly that education that was common in the 1970s and 1980s the damaging erosion of the subject-based curriculum – focused on regurgitating superficial, out-of-date case comes from three main sources: the rise of studies that are at best partial and at worst vocationalism; philosophical questioning of the stereotypical. Tellingly, it is hard to make connections appropriateness of ‘compartmentalised’ knowledge in to recent developments in academic geography the modern world (which elevates transferable skills through these specifications. It should be a concern if above knowledge and understanding); and concerns any specification, particularly one in geography, is full about ‘the whole child’ and education as a preparation of questionable or boring content, irrelevant to the for life. needs of the young people who study it.

The move towards a more concept-driven, rather than New geography GCSEs will be introduced from content-led, GNC is welcomed by many September 2009. Awarding bodies must craft educationalists. Such a curriculum opens up the specifications that will motivate the learner, possibilities for wider debate about what the core incorporate relevant geographical content and concepts of (school) geography should be – something concepts, and promote young people’s abilities to which Peter Jackson (2006) and others (for example, think geographically – a chance to stem the tide of Barnett et al., 2006; Clark et al., 2006; Holloway et al., declining candidate numbers. The revised GCSE 2003) have already considered. The Action Plan for criteria will perhaps provide the opportunity to break Geography similarly contains a set of five key away from the conservatism of the past and offer geographical concepts (place, connectedness, scale, forward-looking specifications, encouraging teachers to process and skills) largely paralleling those of the GNC engage in curriculum-making, to think seriously about – both sets of geographical concepts should be principles of continuity and progression (so as to avoid considered important for the education of young needless repetition of content), and to strengthen people. These concepts must form the basis for geographical skills and fieldwork. Let us hope this curriculum construction, either for geography as a opportunity is grasped. The introduction of ‘controlled separate subject or within a more integrated context, assessment’, in the wake of coursework, may prove to for they move geography teachers away from their be disappointing if teachers are not trusted to develop traditional over-emphasis on the role of content. appropriate tasks and assessment procedures. The piloting of an innovative and increasingly popular new GCSE geography GCSE (the Pilot GCSE) in a number of schools since 2003 has raised expectations about 160 The revision of geography GCSE specifications has © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 what is possible with respect to the future structure The awarding bodies have each interpreted the criteria and content of this examination (see Rawling, 2007). for assessment differently in their proposals, ranging AbcdefgIs the future Notably, the most recent Ofsted report, ‘Geography in from the adoption of structured, multiple choice secure for schools – changing practice’ (Ofsted, 2008a), was questions at AS-level to more open, extended essay geography uncharacteristically positive about the educational questions at A-level. All specifications incorporate data education? opportunities offered by the Pilot. Many teachers hope response questions, individual field-based research, that this innovative geography GCSE might form a and synoptic and essay-style questions, and most template for the more widespread assessment of have some compulsory questions, decision-making geography at 16. However, there are understandable exercises and the use of pre-release materials. concerns that most awarding bodies will be constrained by the new controlled assessment Diplomas requirements and will also respond conservatively to Diplomas will be introduced into schools from the opportunity for content change, fearful of losing September 2008, offering both vocational and their existing market share of candidates. academic qualifications for students in the 14-19 age range. In October 2007 the Secretary of State for A- and AS-level Education, Ed Balls, announced the creation of three The implementation in September 2008 of revised new academic Diplomas (in science, languages and Advanced Subsidiary (AS) and Advanced (A) Level humanities) to be piloted from 2011, adding to the 14 specifications, which form part of the wider reform of already planned in vocational areas. Interestingly, he 14-19 education, will have a considerable impact on also hinted that Diplomas might in future become the geography education. The most newsworthy aspect of ‘qualification of choice for young people’ at post-16 these revisions has been the removal of coursework – level, while simultaneously pushing back the planned often (wrongly) associated solely with fieldwork in date for review of A-levels from 2008 to 2013. By geography – from the assessment of these creating a period within which Diplomas could ‘bed qualifications. QCA guidelines state that fieldwork down’ alongside A-levels, the Secretary of State may must still be a component of both AS- and A-level be creating space to compare the two qualifications, study in geography, although its valid and reliable before reforming the latter. assessment through a timed external examination format will certainly prove challenging. Other changes The introduction of Diplomas represents a further include a reduction in examination time and the attempt to align academic and vocational introduction of an A* grade to stretch the most able qualifications, with the hope that they might achieve a candidates. Following guidance from QCA, each of the ‘parity of esteem’ in a qualifications market currently awarding bodies will be offering one geography dominated by GCSEs and the ‘gold standard’ A-level. specification at A- and AS-level from 2009. Governments have regularly failed to achieve this balancing act over the past 25 years. Indeed they have The revisions to geography A- and AS-level often stepped back from such proposals – most specifications, which many would again argue are long recently in 2004 following the publication of the overdue, have been completed within a framework of Tomlinson Report (DfES, 2004). Tomlinson’s subject criteria from the QCA that have been more suggested reforms for 14-19 education, which liberal in terms of permitted content – removing any included combining GCSEs, A-levels and vocational sense of a prescribed ‘core’ for geography. However, qualifications, were generally well-received by most of the proposed specifications still cover the educationalists but found little favour with the previous core elements and seem to have maintained government of the time. The major fear among a rather traditional approach. The most exciting politicians is that any new qualification might imply a changes come within the human geography themes, decline in educational standards and so will be poorly where specifications often include greater emphasis received by universities, employers, parents and on cultural diversity, ethnicity, conflict, globalisation, students. This is the factor which has traditionally health, and political geographies. As with any revisions stymied the reform of many examinations and there are examples of conservatism and modernism assessments. The highest level diploma, the Extended across the specifications (see Pointon and Wood, Diploma, will be introduced in 2011 and will have an 2007, for an analysis of the proposed A-level equivalent tariff of four-and-a-half A-levels – which has specifications). fuelled further discussion about the status of this new 161 qualification. According to Schools Minister Jim Knight, Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 a ‘three-pronged offer’ of either a vocational route, a publication of a textbook series for key stage 3 in the Is the future traditional academic route (GCSEs, A-levels and early 1990s – the ‘Key Geography’ series (Waugh and secure for International Baccalaureate), or an ‘in the middle’ Bushell, 1991) – fixed a particular approach to geography Diploma route which builds on the strength of both, is teaching this curriculum in many schools. The being suggested by the government. In such a sustained influence of these texts is a consequence of education? notoriously fickle area of qualification development the their widespread adoption by substantial numbers of implications for geography education are currently geography departments in secondary schools. Morgan difficult to guess. A humanities diploma is being (2008a) characterises the impact of the centralisation developed, while Lantra (one of 25 divisions of the of the geography curriculum as increasingly tying the Sector Skills Council, tasked with developing skills and work of geography teachers ‘to the needs of the training for businesses, employees and volunteer economy … operated through the mechanisms of the organisations) is producing courses and qualifications state’ (p. 20), a factor which he argues also for environmental and land-based studies. Both may contributed to the exacerbation of the school– provide competition for geography courses, so we university divide. Despite the subsequent reforms of should follow their progress with interest. the GNC to the more conceptual curriculum we see today, the unfortunate legacy of tired and dated The widening gap between geography schemes of work still remain in many school geography departments. At key stage 3 the use school and university of non-specialist geography teachers, as well as the geography growing practice of schools reducing the time spent studying geography to just two years, can impact Castree, Fuller and Lambert (2007) have highlighted negatively on the traditionally high standards of an aspect of geography education that is arguably only geography teaching at secondary level. Combined with infrequently discussed in print: ‘the divide between New Labour’s interest in developing students’ and university and pre-university geography’ (p. 129). teachers’ generic skills and abilities, rather than Framing this divide in terms of a ‘hard border’, they focusing on the delivery of subjects such as note how school and university geography have moved geography, these developments have had an unhelpful steadily further apart in England and Wales over the influence on the status of the subject. In the words of past 20 years. This is evidenced by the limited Castree, Fuller and Lambert (2007), we now have a involvement of academic geographers in debates situation where school and university geography ‘are about the content and assessment of public like distant relations: there is a family connection but examinations in geography, their general unwillingness it is fairly weak’ (p. 130). This is unfortunate, to write for an audience of geography teachers or particularly given that within higher education students, and their poor engagement with the geography is particularly well taught – the recent professional development of geography teachers. The National Student Surveys of final year undergraduates main reasons for this, according to Castree, Fuller and reveal their appreciation of the high quality of Lambert (2007), are easily understood – the Research geography teaching they have received, while five of Assessment Exercise (RAE) has focused the efforts of the 20 Higher Education Academy’s Senior Fellows are academic geographers on the need to publish high currently geographers. quality research, and the high-stakes, time-consuming, inward-looking audits of the Quality Assurance Agency What are the implications (QAA) have meant that opportunities for creating links with pre-university geography education have been for geography education? limited. Interestingly, the impacts of these events on But should any of this matter? In many of the larger, other school subjects do not appear to be marked, traditionally established British universities and suggesting that geography may present a somewhat colleges the number of students studying for special case. geography, or geography related, qualifications is still reasonably secure. Admittedly, recruitment pressures The Education Reform Act (1988), which introduced are increasing, particularly among some post-1992 the national curriculum in schools as well as heralding institutions – a reflection of the decreasing market significant changes in the structure of higher share of students who choose geography courses in education, set in place a statutory, ‘content rich’ higher education. However, the difficulties faced by 162 school geography curriculum. The successful © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 geography in schools do not yet seem to have Some geographers in higher education have recently adversely affected the calibre of students who been vocal about the nature of the gap that has Is the future progress to undergraduate and research degrees, and developed between geography in schools and secure for higher education establishments are seemingly adept universities, the problems of maintaining continuity geography at ‘re-focusing’ their students into studying a form of and progression of geographical ideas, and the education? geography which they believe to be important. There implications for the education of undergraduate are also well-established professional and subject geographers (see Stannard, 2002, 2003; Bonnett, associations which continue to sustain links between 2003; Keylock, 2006; Standish, 2003, 2004). schools and higher education. COBRIG, the Council of Although their points might occasionally be construed British Geography, has done so since the late 1980s, as being stated in rather self-interested ways it is while the GA and RGS-IBG have recently co-operated important to realise that some geography courses in more closely on the promotion and support of higher education no longer insist on entrants geography education at all levels. The Higher possessing an A-level in geography, while others prefer Education Academy Subject Centre for Geography, their candidates to have a scientific rather than a Earth and Environmental Science (GEES) provides geographical background (see Keylock, 2006). Recent support for teaching and learning in higher education, findings from the QCA show that geography at A2-level but also maintains contact with the major professional is at least as challenging as any other subject, associations and contributes to policy debates although differences were identified between history concerning school geography. Surely the problems are and geography at both GCSE and AS-level, where being overstated? history was judged to be more demanding than geography. The report also found that GCSE geography The major issue is whether geography education in candidates ‘showed less “evidence of attainment” schools is currently in a healthy and sustainable state. than history candidates’ (QCA, 2008). Despite Worryingly, there are signs that things are worsening. criticisms that the sample of specifications considered First, the uncoupling of school and university in the report was limited, there still appears to be a geography continues to be mutually damaging – their case to be answered. Not only are the knowledge base drift apart has meant that universities have virtually no and skill sets offered by geography education in influence on the nature of school geography, and vice schools apparently the wrong ones, the intellectual versa. This is arguably a greater loss for schools, abilities of young geographers are also open to where the geography curriculum and its means of question. assessment have previously been shaped more through official diktat than through academic dialogue. When considering the future security of geography Second, the case for school geography has to be education we must be mindful of the nature of the constantly re-stated – for the subject risks modern learner and of the demands of modern disappearing under a weight of new educational societies. Young people are growing up in an initiatives, is damaged by declining student numbers, increasingly dynamic world. The importance of and is squeezed by the seemingly incessant demand ‘knowledge transfer’, the globalisation of ‘knowledge for curriculum space for vocational courses. Third, we economies’ and the demand for workers to possess need to create a clearer and more coherent picture of new skills and ways of understanding all demand a the importance of geography education for a range of rational response from education. Geography, ‘stakeholders’, including policy-makers, parents, alongside all other subjects in schools, must take employers and the students themselves. Finally, account of the rapidly changing employment market, academic geographers must be made aware of these with its demands for risk-takers and short-contract dangers and of their potential impact on higher employment, and where shifting job patterns are the education. This situation is not specific to England, for norm. These massive social, economic and cultural similar scenarios are being played out across most shifts are not being met with an adequate response European states (see Butt et al., 2006b) where the through traditional approaches to teaching and subject of geography has all but disappeared from learning. However, geography may be better placed many school timetables. Overviews of the state of than many subjects to meet this challenge through the geography education in schools across the world make provision of a gateway to both academic and similarly salutary reading (see Gerber, 2001; Rawling, vocational learning. 2004). Geography’s previous popularity with children was 163 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 determined not only by its content but also by the ways geographer’ and on the ability of people to pose and Is the future in which it was taught (Biddulph and Adey, 2003, solve geographical questions. As Jackson (2006) secure for 2004). To deny children the opportunity to learn states: ‘thinking geographically offers a uniquely through innovative media is a straightforward rejection powerful way of seeing the world and making geography of their culture and expectations. Traditional, print- connections between scales, from the local to global’ education? based modes of learning – which often focus on what (p. 199). has passed, rather than what is to come – are increasingly alien to young people who are well-versed Government-supported initiatives such as the Action in the use of up-to-the-minute sources of information, Plan for Geography are extremely important and can through a variety of forms of technology. Such act as models for the way forward. By bringing together significant cultural shifts cannot be ignored by academic and school geographies and geographers – geography education for they connect with the drive for through curriculum development and ‘curriculum- personalisation of learning and increased creativity making’ initiatives, through geography ‘ambassadors’ and innovation, which are currently popular among from higher education working with schools, and educational policy-makers. Morgan (2008a) helps us through making geography better understood and more to understand that the construction of geographical appealing to students, parents and the wider knowledge is not neutral, but located in considerations community – the Action Plan offers some prospects for of children’s lives and of their future roles in society. developing a more confident and secure future for The realistic appreciation of what life in the future geography education. The success of such initiatives might entail – with respect to employment, leisure, will be reliant on both sides of the geography domestic life, identity, citizenship, consumerism – community coming together to set and deliver agendas must be central to geography curriculum making in as equal partners, not on these efforts being schools. Relevance, topicality and immediacy are predominantly ‘school led’, or ‘higher education led’. surely the essential foundations of any successful, This is the very heart of a mutually beneficial, future oriented, geography education. symbiotic relationship between school and university geography, encapsulated in Morgan’s (2008b) Conclusions comment that geography in schools should not ‘slavishly follow the fashions of the university subject … (although it) will be intellectually poorer if ideas and The study of what we might still call ‘geographical perspectives from the “cutting edge” are not read issues’ will certainly continue in schools, colleges and about and discussed’ (p. 2). universities – for understanding about such issues is important to any young person who wishes to become The provocative title of this article was not designed to an autonomous, responsible and enlightened ‘global be casually alarmist or sensational. The geography citizen’. Unfortunately, these issues are no longer community currently faces real dangers, perhaps recognised as being fundamentally ‘geographical’ – if greater than any we have previously experienced. It current trends continue it is possible that they will not would be wrong, especially at a time when the world be taught by geographers in future. The legacy of the must educate its next generations to face the growing shift of ‘geographical’ content to other national challenges that life on Earth presents, to step away curriculum subjects in the early 1990s, the growth of from this fight. (albeit much needed) vocational courses at the expense of the timetable space previously occupied by As the journalist Simon Jenkins has recently re- geography, the merging of geographical studies with asserted, echoing his previous comments at the time other disciplines, and the growth of ‘skills-led’ national of the launch of the first GNC (Jenkins, 1988, 1992a, strategies have all been costly. Worryingly, we are 1992b), a geographical education is essential, for: approaching a time when the ‘toe hold’ that geography ‘It is geography that applies common sense to the and geographers have held on to for the education of statistical hysteria of the climatologists. It is young people in schools might be lost forever. geography that brings global warming into context Children’s entitlement to geography education in our and applies the test of feasibility to whatever secondary schools is only guaranteed at key stage 3, political priorities are deemed necessary. It is while the quality of this education is officially geography that explains why each of us is located recognised as problematic. The apparent demise of where we are, in neighbourhood, nation, continent geography education is significant, particularly given and planet, and how fragile might be that location. 164 the importance we place on ‘thinking like a © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 Without geography’s instruction, we are in every Lambert, D. (2007) DEA Thinkpiece. sense lost – random robots who can only read and Morgan, J. (2008a) ‘Curriculum development in “new times”’, AbcdefgIs the future count’ (Jenkins, 2007). Geography, 93, 1, pp. 17-24. Morgan, J. (2008b) ‘Editorial’, Geography, 93, 1, pp. 2-3. secure for Ofsted (2008a) Geography in Schools – changing practice. geography References London: HMSO. education? Adey, K. and Biddulph, M. (2001) ‘The influence of pupil Ofsted (2008b) Geography in Schools – changing practice. perceptions on subject choice at 14+ in geography and Press release. Available at www.ofsted.gov.uk (accessed history’, Educational Studies, 27, 4, pp. 439-50. 17.1.08). Barnett, C., Robinson, J. and Rose, G. (eds) (2006) A Pointon, V. and Wood, P. (2007) ‘The new AS/A-level Demanding World. Milton Keynes: Open University. specifications’, Teaching Geography, 32, 3, pp. 124-6. Biddulph, M. and Adey, K. (2003) ‘Perceptions v. reality: QCA (2008) Inter-subject Comparability Studies. London: QCA. pupils’ experiences of learning in history and geography Rawling, E. (2004) ‘Introduction: school geography around the at Key Stage 4’, The Curriculum Journal, 14, 3, pp. 291- world’, in Kent, A., Rawling, E. and Robinson, A. (eds) 303. Geographical Education: Expanding horizons in a shrinking Biddulph, M. and Adey, K. (2004) ‘Pupil perceptions of world. Glasgow: Scottish Association of Geography effective teaching and subject relevance in history and Teachers with the Commission on Geographical Education geography at Key Stage 3’, Research in Education, 71, pp. (IGU), pp. 167-9. 1-8. Rawling, E. (2007) ‘Taking a cultural turn’, Teaching Geography, Bonnett, A. (2003) ‘Geography as the world discipline: 32, 1, pp. 13-18. connecting popular and academic geographical Standish, A. (2003) ‘Constructing a value map’, Geography, 88, imaginations’, Area, 35, 1, pp. 56-63. 2, pp. 149–51. Butt, G., Weeden, P., Chubb, S. and Srokosz, A. (2006a) ‘The Standish, A. (2004) ‘Valuing (adult) geographic knowledge’, state of geography education in English secondary Geography, 89, 1, pp. 89–91. schools: an insight into practice and performance in Stannard, K. (2002) ‘Waving not drowning’, Geography, 87, 1, assessment’, International Research in Geographical and pp. 73-83. Environmental Education, 15, 2, pp. 134-48. Stannard, K. (2003) ‘Earth to academia: on the need to Butt, G., Hemmer, M., Hernando, A. and Houtsonen, L. reconnect university and school geography’, Area, 35, pp. (2006b) ‘Geography in Europe’, in Lidstone, J. and 316-32. Williams, M. (eds) Geographical Education in a Changing Waugh, D. and Bushell, T. (1991) Key Geography. London: World: Past experience, current trends and future Stanley Thorne. challenges. Dordrecht: Springer, pp. 93-106. Castree, N., Fuller, D. and Lambert, D. (2007) ‘Geography without borders’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 32, pp. 129-32. Clark, N., Massey, D. and Sarre, P. (eds) (2006) A World in the Making. Milton Keynes: Open University. DfES (2004) 14-19 Curriculum and Qualifications Reform: Final report of the working group on 14-19 reform (Tomlinson Report). London: DfES. DfES (2005) 14-19 Education and Skills. London: DfES. DfES/GA/RGS-IBG (2006) The Action Plan for Geography. London: DfES/GA/RGS-IBG Gerber, R. (2001) ‘The state of geographical education in countries around the world’, International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education, 10, 4, pp. 349-62. Holloway, S., Rice, S. and Valentine, G. (eds) (2003) Key Concepts in Geography. London: Sage. Jackson, P. (2006) ‘Thinking geographically’, Geography, 91, 3, pp. 199-204. Jenkins, S. (1988) ‘Geography puts on its glad rags at last’, The Sunday Times, 3 April. Jenkins, S. (1992a) ‘A key to the world’, Times Educational Supplement, 24 April. Jenkins, S. (1992b) ‘Four cheers for geography’, Geography, 77, 3, pp. 193-7. Jenkins, S. (2007) ‘The assault on geography breeds ignorance and erodes nationhood’, Guardian, 16 Graham Butt is Reader in Geography Education at November. the School of Education, University of Birmingham, Keylock, C. (2006) ‘Reforming AS/A2 physical geography to B15 2TT (tel: 0121 414 3467; fax: 0121 414 4865; enhance geographic scholarship’, Geography, 9, 3, pp. e-mail: [email protected]). 165 272-9. Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

Identity in Britain: investigating the social geology

Britain’s diverse population and to map what we call Challenging Assumptions ‘the social geology’ of early twenty-first century Britain. We have examined various facets of the lives of British people using seven life stages, based on Identity in Shakespeare’s descriptors, as the headings for our chapters and the associated maps: • infancy 0-4 years (mewling and puking); Britain: • childhood 5-15 years (whining and shining); • young adulthood 16-24 years (sighing and woeful); • midlife 25-39 years (jealous and quarrelsome); investigating the • maturity 40-59 (wise and severe); • old age 60-74 (lean and shrunk); social geology • truly elderly 75 years and over (sans teeth, taste and eyes). Bethan Thomas While these descriptions may not be quite as apposite as they once were, the result of using them is an atlas of people, focusing on places as the template, which provides a unique visual picture of identity and ‘No one today wants to be a prisoner of geography combined. The atlas maps reveal a human what the Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen, mosaic of commonly held identities. calls the “single focus identity” – to be boxed into having our lives determined by In the Identity in Britain atlas, the findings have been mapped using equal population cartograms, where just one aspect of our identity, whether each area on the map contains roughly the same that is our gender, race or sexual number of people. The unit of area chosen is the orientation …’ (Phillips, 2007). parliamentary constituency since all constituencies have roughly the same population size. On the Current debate about identity in Britain tends to focus cartogram each individual is given approximately equal on ethnicity and religion. However, there are many weight. In drawing the cartograms on the map of Britain, factors that make up our identities. Apart from the an attempt has been made to keep together areas basic factors of gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, which neighbour each other and to maintain, reasonably religion and birthplace, other aspects such as social correctly, the overall shape and compass orientation of class, economic activity, education, disability, health, the country. Thus, on Figure 1a, each hexagon wealth and income all bear on who we are and how we represents a parliamentary constituency, with selected consider ourselves in relation to others. Yet much of towns and cities shown, in approximate proportion to the debate about ‘multicultural Britain’ takes place their population. When the same towns and cities are with little understanding of how diverse or uniform marked on a conventional map, as in Figure 1b, their neighbourhoods really are, or of the plethora of factors relative population size is difficult to discern. The that make up an individual identity. Our identities are, cartogram shows in detail the places where most of course, not static but ever changing as we move people live. In comparison, conventional maps seem through the life course from infancy, via childhood and to show a country where almost no one lives. the various stages of adulthood, to old age and death. For many of the maps in the atlas we divided each The Identity in Britain atlas (Thomas and Dorling, constituency into two equal parts, to create 1282 166 2007), aims to delve beneath the surface geography of neighbourhoods. © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 Britain? These were the questions we asked ourselves and we eventually decided to use cartograms. If we AbcdefgIdentity in spaced everyone out equally – a hexagonal Britain: arrangement is best – and gave each person coloured investigating placards of the kind that you see used in mass games the social (Figure 2), then we could easily visualise their responses to a question which had one correct answer geology or colour. The resulting mosaic of colour is what we wanted to present on our maps, providing an immediate visual representation of diversity. The cartograms that follow illustrate the mapping technique that we developed, starting from a very simple example (responses to a single question) and moving through to more complex visualisations (responses to several questions).

Figure 1a: Population cartogram of parliamentary constituencies in Britain showing selected towns and cities.

Figure 2: The backdrop is composed of thousands of people each holding up a particular coloured card. Photograph kindly supplied by Michael Quinlan.

How does this technique differ from more traditional choropleth mapping? The latter shows one category at a time so that it is possible to get an idea of the magnitude of a particular variable, but it is difficult to build up the bigger picture of how this relates to the whole situation, especially when there are numerous categories. As an example, take the country of birth of children aged 0 to 15 as recorded in the 2001 Census. Some 45 different countries and regions of birth are recorded. These can all be mapped individually, using percentages of children living in each neighbourhood as the base data. Figure 1b: Conventional map of Britain showing selected towns and cities. The four maps in Figure 3 show the percentages of children aged 0-15 born in just four countries out of Sixty million people live in Britain today, i.e. this possible 45: England, Germany, Pakistan and the approximately one hundredth of the world’s population. United States of America. Although this is a useful What stories could these 60 million people tell us? form of mapping for understanding the relative 167 How can we best visualise the social make-up of magnitude in each category, it gives us little idea of Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 the diversity that exists in individual areas. It is also Identity in difficult to compare the four maps and it would be Britain: virtually impossible to compare the full 45 maps that investigating would be required if we were to map each place of birth separately. Admittedly, the numbers for some of the social the places of birth are very low, but there would still be geology a large number of maps to interpret.

As we were particularly interested in the diversity of life in Britain today, we decided to map the modal birthplace of children in each neighbourhood, i.e. the most common place of birth of children in each neighbourhood. The resultant map is shown in Figure 4 and is, in truth, a rather dull map. The majority of children living in Scotland were born in Scotland, most living in England were born in England, and most in Wales were born in Wales. The only odd, and therefore interesting, feature on the map is the three Welsh Figure 4: Modal birthplace of children in Britain aged 0-15. neighbourhoods where most children were born in children born in Pakistan living in the West Midlands England. These are all adjacent to the England-Wales and the north of England (turqoise colour). But there border and may reflect the location of local maternity are also other features that are less commonly known hospitals. and expected. For example, the mauve colour for children born in the USA is most concentrated in So, we took the concept a step further and mapped London and the South East, but is also represented in what we called the majority-minority, i.e. the second East Anglia and North Yorkshire, both areas with largest place of birth. Figure 5 shows the result and is significant American military presences. The a far more interesting map. In Scotland and most of distribution of the yellow colour for children born in Wales the largest minority birthplace is England. In the Germany also suggests a military link since many of three Welsh neighbourhoods where the majority were the places where yellow appears correspond to England-born, the largest minority birthplace is Wales. locations where British services are based. Thus, the England has a far more interesting picture, with the geography of place of birth may be seen as linked to dark grey colour of those born in Wales and the pink imperial, colonial, military, and, particularly in London’s colour of those born in Scotland dominating in the case, global financial factors. Figure 3: Percentages of rural parts of the country. Within the more urban areas Categorical mapping of this kind is analogous to children in Britain aged there is a wide rainbow of colours. Some of the story geological or land use mapping in that while it does 0-15 born in England, behind this is familiar, such as children born in not give us any idea of the magnitude of what we are Germany, Pakistan and the USA. Bangladesh living in East London (salmon colour) and mapping, it can give some indication of the diversity.

168 © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

AbcdefgIdentity in Britain: investigating the social geology

Figure 5: Majority-minority birthplace of children aged 0-15. Figure 6: Modal mother’s age at giving birth. This is even more apparent when we take this to the The final step is to map two entirely different and next logical step: mapping the modal and second unrelated variables against each other. Figure 8 shows modal occurrences together. That is, we map the most the most common Council Tax Band for each common and second most common categories of a neighbourhood in Britain. As Council Tax Bands reflect particular variable on the same map. property values, the patterning of the map, with London and the South East having most properties in Figure 6 shows the modal age of mothers giving birth the highest band, is what we would expect to see. in each neighbourhood. Note that, contrary to media hype, there are no neighbourhoods where most women If we then combine Figures 6 and 8 we get the result who give birth are below the age of 20. Similarly, shown in Figure 9. By superimposing the map of the mothers over the age of 34 are not in the majority age of the mothers at giving birth onto that of Council anywhere. Across most of the country most mothers Tax Bands we can see that older mothers tend to live fall into the 25-29 age group, with older mothers in the in higher value properties. Conversely, where the 30-34 age group more likely to be found in the south majority of mothers are aged under 24, the highest of England and younger mothers aged 20-24 in the Council Tax Band is C. north of England and Stepney and Bow in London. These maps are just a small selection from the 280 shown in the Identity in Britain atlas, where seven Figure 7 shows the most common and second most common ages for mothers to give birth, merged into one category for different parts of the country. On the map key, the most common age is always shown before the forward slash and the second most common following it. In every case, the second most common age of giving birth is in an adjacent age band to the most common. The map now provides more interesting information, showing areas where 25-29 is the most common age for giving birth but differentiated into two categories according to whether the second most common age is younger (20-24) or older (30-34). What is apparent is that mothers in the north are generally younger as a group than their southern counterparts. By mapping the second most common together with the most common, we have added a level of visual complexity to the map.

Figure 7: Modal and second modal mother’s age at giving birth. 169 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 chapters follow the changing identities of the British becomes impossible to distinguish between different Identity in people, progressing through the seven stages defined classes. Even 50 colours can result in a map with Britain: such complexity that it requires very careful investigating interpretation. the social This form of mapping does not replace conventional geology choropleth mapping; rather it employs a technique that enables us to extend what we can visualise. It is perhaps best used in conjunction with more usual visual displays of information, and can be seen as another method of displaying data that is more commonly shown in tabular format. It enables us to map different variables against each other, with the caveat that geographical knowledge and common sense should be used when deciding which variables to compare. For instance, a map combining method of travel to work and mother’s age at giving birth would not appear to highlight a valuable link, whereas mapping the cross-tabulation of tenure and the number of cars to which a household has access may Figure 8: Modal Council Tax Band. yield some meaningful results.

This innovative mapping method challenges our traditional ways of seeing our country and provokes us to reflect on the myriad factors that go to make up our individual identities. It enables us to move away from a single-topic focus to a far broader overview of our diversity – arguably, reflecting reality rather than providing a narrow academic focus. In this respect it is a first step in understanding the social geography of twenty-first-century Britain.

References Phillips, T. (2007) ‘Diverse Britain’ speech, Equality and Human Rights Commission, 10 December. Available at www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/newsandcomment/spe eches/Pages/DiverseBritain.aspx (accessed 17 March 2008). Thomas, B. and Dorling, D. (2007) Identity in Britain: A cradle- Figure 9: Mother’s age at giving birth and Council Tax Band. to-grave atlas. Bristol: Policy Press.

on page 166. It is suggested that this is an innovative See www.sasi.group.shef.ac.uk/publications/identity. way of mapping social geography which can provide a html for information on the atlas and some example new perspective on the data and raise issues and maps. questions for further research. While it does not The maps accompanying this article are also available indicate the magnitude of any of the variables under via the GA website. Go to www.geography.org.uk/ consideration, it does show the diversity that exists Journals/Journals.asp?journalID=1 and click on and draws attention to the spatial patterns. Such ‘Autumn 2008’. All maps are © The Policy Press diversity is difficult to ascertain using traditional except Figure 3 which is © Bethan Thomas. mapping methods, particularly when there are many variables to consider. Bethan Thomas is in the Department of Geography, University of Sheffield (tel: 0114 222 7962; This type of mapping is limited to an absolute fax: 0114 279 7912; 170 maximum of 50 colours. More than that and it e-mail: [email protected]). © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

AbcdefgSpotlight on: Poetry and place

Photo: Eleanor Rawling.

recent research that focuses on the engagement and Spotlight on … involvement of people ‘in place’ (as in the work of Nigel Thrift, Hayden Lorimer and Tim Cresswell). The first group tends to focus on what places reveal to us about society and culture (the disembodied gaze), Poetry while the second group stresses more emotional and personal (the lived body) responses to places. Neither of these has been followed up to any great extent in the school context, though the pilot GCSE introduces and place some opportunities (Rawling, 2007).

The contributions in this section aim to provoke Introduction thought about these matters through looking at poetry. Keith Hopper, Lecturer in Literature and Film Studies in the University of Oxford’s Continuing Education Department, introduces a range of ways of looking at Eleanor Rawling Yeats’ ‘Lake Isle of Innisfree’ before involving the reader in deconstructing the poem, in order to expand This feature reminds us that it is not only geographers meaning and heighten awareness of the context in who are interested in exploring place. Artists, which the poem was written. Owen Sheers, poet and musicians, writers and, as emphasised here, poets, writer, takes a more phenomenological approach and, have always had an intimate expressive or referring to his own poetry, explains how, for him, the interpretative relationship with real and imaginary experiences of place and poetry are intertwined – places. Geography at school, however, has tended to ‘places define poems which define places’. Finally, ignore poetics and to concentrate in a relatively Hayden Lorimer, a cultural geographer and Senior passive, observational way on the more visual and Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, comments on material features of place – the landscape, the the two articles and makes a plea for geographers to human–physical conflicts, remoteness and pay more attention to various creative writing activities, accessibility, the impacts of changing economy and including poetry. My suggestion is that such activities society. If artists and poets have been mentioned, it is could have immense educational potential, reminding often only with the intention of using a picture or a us that writing about, for, and in place should surely poem as an extra resource to heighten description or not just be left to poets but should be at the heart of analyse past narratives. Meanwhile, in academic being a geographer. Geography as creative writing? geography, cultural geography has developed rapidly since the 1990s, ranging from studies that examine Reference place and landscape as representations of cultural Rawling, E. (2007) ‘Taking a cultural turn’ Teaching meaning and power (as in the writings of Denis Geography, 32, 1, pp. 13-18. 171 Cosgrove, James Duncan and David Matless) to more Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

Poetry and place: some personal reflections

Poetry and place: some personal reflections

Owen Sheers

I fell in love with landscape long before I fell in love with poetry. As a child and a teenager I felt different when I was outside, it was as simple as that. Running on the hills above Abergavenny, walking through a field in the rain, facing up to the breakers on the Pembrokeshire coast or looking at the view from the broken spine of the Skirrid, the hill I woke to, framed in my bedroom window, every morning (Figure 1). In all these situations the landscape affected me in ways I sensed but didn’t know. It was only when I began reading poetry that I started to understand something about this ‘sensed’, yet undefined effect of place; not just in terms of how it worked upon me, but also why.

Many of the early poems I was drawn to as a teenager were rooted within specific rural landscapes, from the sparse yet visually electric poetry of R.S. Thomas to the peaty and lyrical early poems of Seamus Heaney. This was poetry that didn’t so much write about quality of landscape, its ability to represent its own landscape as from within it. The geography of these cultural associations, was itself made physical within poems – the stark North Wales uplands and the damp the poem, as is the case with Heaney’s bog-preserved Irish farmland – operated within the poems as both ‘Grauballe Man’ with his ‘cured wound’ that ‘opens author and subject, often defining a poem’s language, inwards to a dark elderberry place’, or R.S. Thomas’s rhythm, voice and linguistic climate. In turn the poems drowned villages beneath the North Wales reservoirs. excavated the layered associations of their Both these examples are concrete images that environments, revealing these places to be not just a represent how the land can simultaneously hold and physical locale, but also, in Heaney’s phrase, ‘a embody the contemporary and historical signatures of country of the mind’: geographical areas possessed of a place. Such explicit images, however, also point their own internal geographies of memory, history and towards a more subtle and enduring relationship 172 language (Heaney, 1989). Sometimes this metaphoric between place and poetry; a relationship based not © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

AbcdefgPoetry and place: some personal reflections

Figure 1: Skirrid Hill, the Black Mountains. Photo: Eleanor Rawling. only upon what informs the place and the poem in 2), what I see before me seems to embody and define terms of their linguistic or cultural context (often a multitude of vaguer sensations and thoughts about originally created by the geography of an area) but also the place: about the relationship between humans and upon how the place and the poem work upon us as nature in this half-farmed part of the world; about their respective witnesses and readers. Wales’s defensive history; about the sweep of geographical time in the glacier-carved valleys, and the One of the most significant shared qualities of a shorter arc of historical time in the concentric rings of landscape and a poem that works (in both senses of a hill-fort on the opposite ridge. It is the kind of view the word) on us is their ability to ‘situate’ us by that not only makes you think and feel, but also, translating the abstract world of thought and feeling crucially, makes you think and feel differently, from a into a physical language. When I look out over the perspective at once more intimate and more objective. Black Mountains from the ridge of the Hatterall (Figure In a similar way a good poem will ‘situate’ its reader, 173 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

Poetry and place: some personal reflections

Figure 2: View of the Black Mountains from Hatterall Hill. Photo: Eleanor Rawling. pinning down the ‘sense’ of the thoughts and image can be ‘translated’ or explored further and, emotions we carry around every day but which we are most effectively, in a poem – a medium that usually only aware of in the corners of our eyes; those acknowledges and is driven by the same metaphoric parts of us that we are unable to stand back from and qualities we derive from the original landscape. That look at clearly until the poem presents us with the this process is often particularly rewarding in relation words to do so. to place and landscape is, I think, not simply because of the dextrous nature of poetry but because In both landscape and poetry, therefore, a vast array of landscape and poetry share the same grammar and abstract associations are delivered in concrete form semantics of association and suggestion, if not the and presented as a coherent whole. To do this, same vocabulary and language. however, both a poem and a place will draw upon multiple methods of influence. In the place, these As I mentioned earlier, the dialogue between poetry might be the local and national history, the light, the and place is just that, a dialogue in which places weather, the engagement of humans with that place, define poems which define places, and so on. So far I personal experience and memory and even the smell have only discussed rural environments but the same and sound of it. On the page a poem employs rhythm, process is even more potent in urban ones, where idiolect, metre, imagery and rhyme to bring the many history and lives and experience overlap with such layers of association (historical, linguistic, natural, concentration. I recently moved to New York, and for sensory) into a complete whole. They say a picture is my first few months here, found myself using the worth a thousand words, and in a similar way a poetry of the city as a map to both its today and its landscape can embody and communicate the yesterday. In my reading, I’ve been particularly struck ‘meaning’ of a place as effectively, if not more so, than by how the city can influence the form of a poem itself, any one thousand word essay. Think of a dividing wall as if the text has to restructure itself to occupy and in Belfast, or the scar of a torn-away steelworks on a give voice to such a complex environment as valley floor in South Wales. The history and the Manhattan. Perhaps the most famous example of this contemporary situation is all there in that single image was when Walt Whitman moved to New York and found 174 and its associations. I would argue, however, that that his lines lengthening across the page, in response to © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 the city around him. That now well-known History ‘Whitmanesque’ line was, in itself, a product of the Lledr Valley, North Wales AbcdefgPoetry and subject it was trying to capture. In a similar way, when place: some writing a commissioned poem about Manhattan, I Don’t try to learn this place personal found myself turning to a rhyme scheme of ABCBBA. in the pages of a history reflections This pattern of rhyme, was, like Whitman’s long line, but go, instead, up to the ‘written’ by my subject, in that I hoped the tight central disused quarry couplet and the longer echo of the first and last lines would be able to represent the simultaneous sense of where the water lies still concentrated shared experience, so often a feature of and black as oil the city, together with the historical ‘ghosted’ and the only chiselling experience that also exists in such an environment of is that of the blackbird’s song constant change, destruction and resurrection:

drilling its notes Extract from ‘Manhattan – A Poem to be Filmed’ into the hillside’s soil.

Dusk and the city becomes all window, And there, beside the falls of moss, a 2D punch-card skyline of light. pick yourself a blade of slate, Marble-carved women hail taxis like Liberty long as your arm, rusted, as their drivers cross seas to wish goodnight. metallic in sound. And everyone is both where they are and they might be: in office and home, here and abroad, above and Tap it with your heel, below. then, with your fingertips at its leaves, gently (‘Manhattan’ is a commissioned poem about prise it apart. Manhattan, produced for Wales Week, USA by Owen Sheers in collaboration with the film-maker Ben And see how it becomes Thompson.) a book of slate

This article is now a little over one thousand words in which you can read and I’m not sure if it has even scratched the surface a story of stone - of what I think about place and poetry. Perhaps, one that’s written therefore, I should follow my own advice and, in the throughout this valley, absence of a camera, try to put all of the above into a poem instead, which will, I hope, ‘illustrate, as the land in every head, across every heart here always did,/ what we’d but sensed within and down the marrow of every bone. ourselves.’ (Sheers, 2006)

(Sheers, Skirrid Hill, 2005, p. 35)

References Heaney, S. (1989) The Place of Writing. Atlanta: GA: Scholars Press. Sheers, O. (2005) Skirrid Hill. Bridgend, Wales: Seren. Sheers, O. (2006) ‘The Light Fell’. A poem about the Lake District written in memory of Dr Robert Woof, the Director of the Wordsworth Trust. Owen Sheers is currently a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellow at the New York Public Library and is More poetry by Owen Sheers author of two poetry collections – The Blue Book (Seren, 2000) and Skirrid Hill (Seren, 2005) and Sheers, O. (2000) The Blue Book. Bridgend, Wales: two books, Resistance (UK Faber, 2007) and The Seren. Dust Diaries (Faber & Faber, 2005). His poetry has won awards and been short-listed many times, and All poems in the text (‘Manhattan’, ‘The Light Fell’, Skirrid Hill won the Somerset Maugham prize in 175 ‘History’) are © Owen Sheers. 2006. Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

A sense of place: W.B. Yeats and ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ A sense of place: W. B.Yeats and ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’

Keith Hopper

’A significant component of the contemporary intoxicating lure or fascination of islands has to do with the fact that they suggest themselves as tabulae rasae: potential laboratories for any conceivable human project, in thought or in action’ (Baldacchino, 2007).

‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’1 is one of W.B. Yeats’s most anthologised poems (Harmon, 1998), and arguably his most famous and best-loved. In a millennium poll in 1999, the Irish Times and Poetry Ireland asked readers to choose their favourite Irish poems of all time, and ‘The Lake Isle’ comfortably topped the list (in fact, 25 of the top 100 poems were by Yeats, with six of those in the top ten) (Dorgan, 1999). And in a 1935 BBC recording of Yeats reciting his own poem, the 1923 Nobel Laureate rather archly introduced it by acknowledging that ‘It is the only poem of mine which is very widely known’ (Yeats, 1997).2

‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ is notionally set on a small Figure 1: Aerial island in Lough Gill, Sligo, in the north-west of Ireland photograph of Lough (Figure 1). It was composed in a London suburb in Gill, Sligo, May 2006. 1888 and first published in the National Observer in 176 Photo: James Connolly, © Picsell8 Ltd.. 1890 (Jeffares, 1968, p. 32). In many ways it is a © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 typical late-Victorian poem, with its slightly archaic suggestive and ambivalent relationship between word diction and syntax, and its classic romantic tension and world that Seamus Heaney (1984, p. 132) calls AbcdefgA sense of between the city and the countryside. In other ways ‘the sense of place’: that ‘feeling, assenting, equable place: W.B. though, it is a very modern poem, and the binary marriage between the geographical country and the Yeats and opposition between the centre and the margins can country of the mind’. ‘The Lake Isle also be read, allegorically, as a critique of colonialism, of Innisfree’ with the titular isle, ‘Innisfree’, evoking notions of Heaney’s poetical description is obviously directed national as well as personal freedom. It is this richly towards poetry, but his psychogeographical exploration Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 of language can usefully be applied to other forms of indicators or extreme reproductions of what is present A sense of discourse as well. I was thinking of this on a recent or future elsewhere’. place: W.B. visit home to Sligo, where I was once again struck by Yeats and the numerous commercial and cultural references to In any case, as Yeats noted in the first part of his ‘The Lake Isle ‘Innisfree’ throughout the town and county, ostensibly Autobiographies, ‘Reveries Over Childhood and Youth’ inspired by the poem.3 You can now stay at the (1915): ‘I planned to live some day in a cottage on a of Innisfree’ Innisfree Hotel or buy an apartment at Innisfree Court; little island called Innisfree, and Innisfree was you can dance to the Innisfree Céilí Band or listen to opposite Slish Wood’ (Jeffares, 1968, p. 34). So it the Innisfree String Quartet; you can play football with would seem that Yeats really was thinking of the Innisfree Celtic or go cycling with Innisfree Wheelers geographical isle, which does lie opposite Slish Wood (and if you get injured you can attend the Innisfree on the eastern side of the lake (Google Earth co- Clinic of Osteopathy). You can travel the county with ordinates: 54°14’47.44”N / 8°21’28.91”W). In the Innisfree Coaches, who in turn can avail themselves of same memoir, Yeats describes the mythological source Innisfree Motor Factors and the Innisfree Service of his fascination (Jeffares, 1968, p. 34): Station; en route, you can stop off at Innisfree ‘There was a story in the county history [William Potteries or Innisfree Crystal to pick up souvenirs. Gregory Wood-Martin, History of Sligo (1882)] of a tree that had once grown upon that island guarded Despite the anti-materialistic sentiments implicit in the by some terrible monster and borne the fruit of the Yeats poem, businesses seem particularly attracted to gods. A young girl pined for the fruit and told her ‘Innisfree’ as a free-floating signifier for innovation and lover to kill the monster and carry the fruit away. entrepreneurship: in Sligo town alone there is the He did as he had been told, but tasted the fruit; Innisfree Business Centre and Innisfree Promotions, and when he reached the mainland where she and if you fancy improving your public speaking skills waited for him, he was dying of its powerful virtue. you can join the Innisfree Toastmasters. To round off a And from sorrow and remorse she too ate of it and perfect visit you can even take a trip on The Rose of died. I do not remember whether I chose the island Innisfree tourboat, and see the real lake isle for because of its beauty or for the story’s sake, but I yourself. You might be disappointed though. As was twenty-two or three before I gave up the journalist Joe Jennings wrote in 1950: dream.’ ‘[Innisfree] has a mainly rough rocky shoreline. The island itself, about one acre in area, is covered in In another section of his Autobiographies, first rough shrubbery. It is probably the most published in 1921, Yeats described the genesis of the inhospitable place in Lough Gill! […] This could not poem in London (Jeffares, 1968, p. 34): be the place Yeats had in mind when he composed ‘I had still the ambition, formed in Sligo in my the famous poem! […] Was Innisfree, in fact, teens, of living in imitation of Thoreau on Innisfree because of its romantic-sounding name, the title […] and when walking through Fleet Street very Yeats used by way of poetic licence, to describe an homesick I heard a little tinkle of water and saw a idyllic island in the lake that he knew and fountain in a shop-window which balanced a little visualised in his poem?’ (Jennings, 2007). bell upon its jet, and began to remember lake water. From the sudden remembrance came my Instead, Jennings proposes either Cottage Island poem “Innisfree”, my first lyric with anything in its (known locally as ‘Beezie’s Island’, after its last rhythm of my own music.’ resident, Beezie Gallagher), or Church Island, as likelier inspirations. Jennings is right in one sense: There are several ways of looking at this (literary Innisfree is overgrown and rather underwhelming, criticism being a plurality of different methods rather certainly compared to the more picturesque islands than a monological entity). For instance, traditional nearby (in fact, local fishermen refer to the liberal humanist criticism is always keen to stress the inhospitable Innisfree as ‘Rat Island’). But this literal- unity of form and content in poetry, and from this minded approach is surely missing the point. As perspective ‘The Lake Isle’ is essentially a poem Godfrey Baldacchino (2007) notes, ‘Islands are […] about sound. As critic Michael O’Neill (2004, p. 97) sites of innovative conceptualizations, whether of notes: ‘The poem derives much of its beauty from the nature or human enterprise, whether virtual or real. contrast between its apparent assertiveness, “I will They stand out as sites of novelty; they tend toward arise and go now”, and the peaceful, almost 178 clairvoyance; they are disposed to act as advance somnolent, drift of its movement, and from a rhythm © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 that is poised between solemn chant and relaxed for unity and concord in the text, the modern method speech. The stress is on longing rather than arrival’. of literary deconstruction searches for elements of AbcdefgA sense of disunity and discord as well – those gaps, place: W.B. Each of the three stanzas has the same simple ABAB contradictions and silences which constitute the text’s Yeats and rhyming scheme, e.g. Innisfree / made / honey-bee / ‘unconscious’. This critical approach is not as negative ‘The Lake Isle glade, but as one set of school notes (skoool.ie, 2005) as it may sound, or as J. Hillis Miller (1976, p. 341) of Innisfree’ observes, it is the internal rhythms of the text that defines it: ‘Deconstruction is not a dismantling of the elevate it beyond the ordinary. First, there is the use of structure of a text but a demonstration that it has internal rhyme (rhyming inside one line), e.g. ‘I will already dismantled itself. Its apparently solid ground is arise and go now, and go to Innisfree’, with the no rock but thin air’. A good example of this process is repetition emphasising the urgent desire to depart. a satirical article by the columnist Myles na Gopaleen Second, there is the related use of cross rhyme (the journalistic pen-name of the novelist Flann (rhyming inside two successive lines), e.g. the word O’Brien) entitled ‘Innisfreedom’, which appeared in the ‘dropping’ in lines four and five, where the repetition Irish Times in 1958. In this deconstruction avant la helps soften the tone of urgency. Third, there is the lettre, Myles ruthlessly dismantles Yeats’s romantic liberal use of alliteration (the repetition of first yearnings line-by-line, beginning with the etymology of consonants), e.g. ‘lake water lapping with low sounds the poem’s title (na Gopaleen, 1958, p. 6): by the shore’, where the sensuous ‘l’ and ‘s’ sounds ’First of all, Innisfree must be Inis Fraoich [from the help evoke the music of nature. Fourth, there is the Gaelic], or Heather Island. Heather is a pervasive sonorous use of assonance (the repetition of vowel parasitic shrub which will invade any territory it sounds), e.g. the ‘ea’ and ‘ee’ sounds in ‘I hear it in does not already occupy; that is why peasants are the deep heart’s core’, which lends gravitas to the final often reproved for setting fire to the heather. He statement. will have a job clearing his plot for his nine bean rows. But he clearly knows nothing about beans. All of this is underpinned by a skilful use of metre (the The broad bean or vicia faba of these latitudes basic rhythmic structure of a verse), where the first flourishes only on elevated ground and in cool three lines in each stanza are in hexameter (with six temperatures. A gardening book says that it is very stresses in each line) and the last line of each stanza nutritious “but is, however, a rather coarse food, is in tetrameter (with only four stresses). difficult of digestion, and is chiefly used to feed Consequently, as another set of school notes horses”. […] He knows nothing about bees either. A (SparkNotes, 2006) puts it: normal colony amounts to about 100,000 bees, ‘The tranquil, hypnotic hexameters recreate the most of them female and workers. It is true that rhythmic pulse of the tide. The simple imagery of heather yields honey, but it would have to be a very the quiet life the speaker longs to lead, as he big lake isle to keep that crowd going because enumerates each of its qualities, lulls the reader bees will not cross water. […] Living alone on a into his idyllic fantasy, until the penultimate line sole diet of honey and horse beans seems jolts the speaker – and the reader – back into the unrealistic.’ reality of his drab urban existence […]. The final line – “I hear it in the deep heart’s core” – is a And on it goes, comically challenging every metaphor crucial statement for Yeats, not only in this poem and conceit in Yeats’s poem, and pointing out its but also in his career as a whole.’ various inconsistencies, e.g. ‘If the poet means the field or mole cricket [“where the cricket sings”], he This is a typical rhetorical manoeuvre in traditional should know that they burrow and attack the delicate liberal humanist criticism, whereby the unity of form roots of growing plants, which means that his beans and content eventually gives way to wider musings on have gone for their tea if not already strangled by the the supposed unity between the poem and the world it heather’, and so on. As Myles concludes (with a refers to. For instance, as George Sterling wrote in typical, excruciating pun): ‘A bad day’s work and no 1924, ‘in the lines of this exquisite poem are doubt. From time to time I am going to examine some expressed not only man’s longing for material and other poets and string them up. I will probably be extrinsic peace, but his need and hunger, vastly more called the Poet Lariat’ (na Gopaleen, 1958, p. 6). deep, for a fundamental concord with Nature and himself’. Admirable sentiments no doubt, but there are Funny? Certainly. Cynical? Perhaps. But Myles’s other ways of looking at this. Instead of simply looking deconstruction draws attention to the fact that while 179 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 Notes A sense of 1. The text of the poem is available at www.poets.org/ place: W.B. viewmedia.php/prmMID/15529. Yeats and 2. To hear Yeats reciting ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’, ‘The Lake Isle see Nathan D. Rose, ‘The Audible Yeats’ available of Innisfree’ at http://villasubrosa.com/Nathan/audyeats.html (accessed 11 May 2008). 3. Until recently, the Irish Tourist Board used to refer to Sligo as ‘Yeats Country’; its official slogan now is ‘Land of Heart’s Desire’, taken from the eponymous 1894 Yeats play. See Marketing Sligo Forum www.sligotourism.ie (accessed 11 May 2008).

References Baldacchino, G. (2007) ‘Islands as novelty sites’, Geographical Review, 97, 2. Available at: www.britannica.com/magazine/print?query=clairvoyance Yeats’s poem may well be an aesthetic marvel it is &id=1&minGrade=&maxGrade (accessed 11 May 2008). also something of a geographical muddle. Moreover, Dorgan, T. (1999) ‘Right from the heart’, Irish Times, 31 Figure 2: Things don’t go December. Available at: Myles is writing at a time when the Irish Tourist Board www.ireland.com/newspaper/weekend/1999/1231/991 so well on the Isle of had just been inaugurated, hot on the heels of the 23100132.html (accessed 11 May 2008). Innisfree. © Annie West. worldwide success of the 1952 John Ford film The Gibbons, L. (2002) The Quiet Man. Ireland into Film series. Hopper, K. and Humphreys, G. (eds). Cork: Cork UP/FII. Quiet Man, which is set, almost predictably, in the Harmon, W. (ed) (1998) The Classic Hundred: All-time favorite mythical village of ‘Innisfree’. This film, starring John poems. New York: Columbia University Press. Wayne as a returned emigrant, presents a deeply Heaney, S. (1984) ‘The sense of place’, Preoccupations: Selected prose 1968-1978. London and Boston: Faber & stereotypical view of Ireland and the Irish which, Faber. paradoxically, the tourist board were eager to exploit, Jeffares, N. (1968) A Commentary on the Poems of W.B. Yeats. regardless of the debilitating cultural consequences Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. (Gibbons, 2002). It is this commodification of the Irish Jennings, J. (2007) ‘Church Island – Yeats’ beloved Lake Isle of Innisfree?’ (1950), Sligo Champion, 31 October. imaginary that ultimately provokes Myles na Available at www.sligochampion.ie/news/church-island— Gopaleen’s satirical wrath, rather than the poem itself. yeats-beloved-lake-isle-of-innisfree-1212317.html In fairness to Yeats though, he cannot be held (accessed 11 May 2008). Miller, J.H. (1976) ‘Stevens’ rock and criticism as cure’, responsible for the cultural hijacking of his poem. On Georgia Review, 30. the contrary, as Seamus Heaney (1984, p. 135) has na Gopaleen, M. (1958) ‘Innisfreedom’, The Irish Times, 2 noted: October, p. 6. O’Neill, M. (2004) A Routledge Literary Sourcebook on the ‘At a time when the spirit of the age was becoming Poems of W. B. Yeats. London and New York: Routledge. increasingly scientific and secular, […] Yeats and skoool.ie (2005) ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’. Available at his friends embarked upon a deliberately counter- www.skoool.ie/skoool/examcentre_sc.asp?id=1186 cultural movement to reinstate the fairies, to make (accessed 11 May 2008). SparkNotes (2006) ‘“The Lake Isle of Innisfree”: Yeats’s the world more magical than materialistic […]. poetry’. Available at www.sparknotes.com/poetry/ Although it has long been fashionable to smile yeats/section1.html (accessed 11 May 2008). indulgently at the Celtic Twilight, it has to be Sterling, G. (1924) ‘An appreciative note’, ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’: A facsimile of the poem in the poet’s remembered that the movement was the beginning handwriting. San Francisco, CA: J.H. Nash. of a discovery of confidence in our own ground, in Yeats, W.B. (1997) ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ (1935), Now & our place […]. And it seems to me undeniable that In Time to Be: A musical celebration of the works of W.B. Yeats. CD recording. London: Grapevine Label. Yeats’s sense of the otherness of his Sligo places led him to seek for a language and an imagery other than the ones which were available to him in the aesthetic modes of literary London.’

Keith Hopper teaches Literature and Film Studies for Oxford University’s Department for Continuing 180 Education (e-mail: [email protected]). © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

AbcdefgPoetry and place: the shape of words

out of, places. When it is most affective, it can seem Poetry and formed or fabricated not so much of words but of the very things or phenomena it describes. Once shared, poems generate a common sense of place, creating place: the spiritual uplift, deepest feelings of attachment, a longing for retreat, or a patriotic swell. On occasion, poetry can outlast place. Favourite poems keep the shape of words map on a tilt, to such a degree that names and locations fall away or get replaced, and co-ordinates permanently shift. Then again, place can buckle poetry Hayden Lorimer too. Not so much through its sheer heft, but by the same forces which render place insistently elusive. Of The association between poetry and place can be many course, on such occasions blanks are not drawn, things. Poetry might be thought of as psychic weather: poems are still produced. Only they are clamped, passing overhead in systems and spells, creating clenched and crumpled things, shaped by the great effects of darkness and light upon an already present labour of trying. Each of these possible associations landscape. And in one line or phrase, a crackling between poetry and place is explained and evoked in charge of connection. Or, poetry might be figured as the commentaries supplied by Owen Sheers and Keith earth-growth, an expressive form that coils into, and Hopper.

Looking out for landscape. 181 Photo: Tilly Smith. Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

Poetry and place: the shape of words

And should anyone need reminding, the two importance. The desired effect is something more commentaries show how an acute geographical artful and delicate than the categorical indexing of sensibility is by no means the exclusive preserve of identity (or ‘positionality’) demanded as a social the fully paid-up professional geographer. After all, the science standard of the critically engaged geographer. poetics of place are found in life. Having a ‘sense of Of course, experiments with place and personality are place’ is a way of apprehending the world about us never without error. Writing can end up too soupy, that we come by long before scholastic instruction or saddled with sentimentality, or fated to haunt any technical understanding; albeit it is sometimes subject with the idea of loss. But when the mood is through a geographer’s intervention that we can better right, in cursive terms, place and landscape become learn to detect the subtleties of place, to appreciate things sidled up to, and their geographical reporting a the contested formulations of place, or to cope with more precarious kind of achievement. irresolution. The best of both worlds shows up in the writings of the geographer, Yi-Fu Tuan. But for every Adjoining these developments, techniques in vocal acknowledgement of the dynamism and complexity of delivery and dramatisation are being learned from place, there is, just as often, the geographer’s performance studies scholars. In short, acoustics analytical habit to pare place back, so as to disclose matter as much to the poetics of place as they do to spatial, structural and scalar interdependencies, to poetry. When read aloud, and when experienced in highlight power struggles, cultural discourses or social person, inventive geographical writing is carried along relations. And as a consequence, stuff does get lost by its rhythmic qualities. Place condenses when it is along the way. In truth, what a geographical education formed of breath, intonation, emotion and stress. does not always equip us with is a way with words; a Hereabouts, velocity, density, economy, control and language sufficient to do fullest justice to the precision become the writer’s chief concerns. Simply intensities, to the properties and to the rich lore of put, language transforms when it is heard, rather than place. read on the page, such that listeners might reasonably claim to see the sounds spoken. And so, returning to Very briefly, I want to note tentative moves afoot in where I began, the association between poetry and cultural geography that might have catalytic and place can be many things, but it must always be to creative effect in this regard. Geographical writers are care about the shape of words on a page and the forcing thought about the possibilities for, and styles sounds that any such meeting makes. of, narration, and diverse means for expressing the poetics of place. Maybe it was always so, but these days it seems an increased premium is being placed on the creative performance, presentation and writing of geographical studies of place, and of ‘landscape’; a frequently deployed synonym. Various creative writing enterprises – I think here of essays, photo-essays, travelogues, prose-poetry, ethnographic and site- specific portraits, storytelling, life-writing and memory work – demonstrate a growing willingness to experiment with the character and form of writing, and a preparedness to consider style as a pressing issue Hayden Lorimer is Senior Lecturer at the rather than a supplementary concern. Accepting the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences, careful balance to be struck between the self- University of Glasgow (tel: 0141 330 2509; conscious and the self-regarding, it is the crafting of fax: 0141 330 4894; e-mail: 182 an authorial voice, or presence, that is of paramount [email protected]). © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

Review article: The Corruption of the Curriculum

limited functional skills Review article: • History is no longer concerned with narrative and the big sweep of chronology, but with inauthentic comprehension exercises of sources a-e The Corruption • Geography is ‘no longer about maps’ but indoctrinating young people with ‘environmentalism’ in the name of global of the Curriculum citizenship.

In his geography chapter, Standish argues for David Lambert ‘resuscitating the embryonic political subject’ that is geography, so that young people have access to the This book (Whelan, 2007), with chapters on English, ‘essential intellectual and social tools that will enable geography, history, foreign languages, mathematics them to assume political responsibility as adults’ (p. and science, and an introduction by the sociologist 56). Drawing from Furedi, he wants geography Frank Furedi, tackles what is seen to be the steady teachers to resist the therapeutic, rather than erosion in England of important educational principles intellectual, goals that now drive the curriculum and ideals. The opening sentence of the first chapter designed to ‘save the world’ with lesson units on sets the tone: ‘Over the past two decades the school recycling (in other words, how to behave). This is a curriculum has become estranged from the challenge searing attack on school geography, within the wider of educating children’ (p. 1). If only the government framework of the whole curriculum, and in my view we would keep out of education, the authors argue, need to listen carefully to what is being said, everything would be all right again: the curriculum particularly as geography attracted further bad press in would be free for teachers to ‘impart a body of the recent Ofsted report (Ofsted, 2008) – albeit academic knowledge to their students’ (Civitas press perhaps unfairly (see Roberts, 2008). release 11 June 2007, p. 1). Then pupils would be free to decide for themselves on issues they will This is made quite difficult because the grains of truth encounter as adults: we would ‘educate pupils to are badly distorted by other parts of the argument interpret the world for themselves’ (p. 47). In some which are more difficult to take seriously. Take, for ways this is an appealing argument. This is what Alex instance, the science chapter, that baldly states that Standish, the author of the geography chapter, goes on ‘we don’t need to flatter young people by asking them to add: ‘Such learning only comes from a comprehensive education that offers pupils not only knowledge about the world but a theoretical and conceptual framework through which they can situate ideas. This framework is sorely lacking in many geography textbooks today’ (p. 55)

Thus, the book argues, the curriculum has been so corrupted by political interference that: • Science is no longer about scientific knowledge (‘truth’) but scientific literacy • Foreign languages are no longer concerned with opening up other cultures and literatures, but with 183 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 what they think about … issues’ (p. 121). This view is selections and on what basis? I think Standish avoids Review article: inadequate. Indeed, this whiff of adult disrespect gives the question of educational aims, as if these were in The Corruption subject specialist school teachers a bad name: most effect a given. Apart from its own intrinsic of the teachers I know have little difficulty agreeing that it is ‘importance’, what is school geography for? Why always helpful to have some kind of grasp of what is in should it be taught? Assertions that it prepares us for Curriculum the learner’s head during any teaching sequence. adult life will not do: so do dance, drama, media Returning to the geography chapter, at what point does studies, cooking, motor vehicle maintenance, Standish think young people are ‘adult’ enough to philosophy … All of these pursuits can be ‘justified’ in ‘assume political responsibility’? themselves but have varying capacities to contribute to a progressive educational experience. It is also unhelpful to suggest, as this book does, that political interference is new. In particular, Standish It is vital to be clear about the broader function of seems to think that geography has only recently been school subjects, drawing from disciplinary considered a medium for citizenship education. This is communities to become educational resources. If profoundly ahistorical, and, again, an inadequate view subjects are understood simply as bundles of facts, (see Morgan, 2008). For one thing, the state-funded information and ‘explanations’ to be imparted, then we curriculum has always been a selection serving certain are left with only a restricted view of their intellectual purposes. It has never, in this sense, been uncorrupted. purposes, and educational potential. Standish calls for But the book does make us confront what we want a return to a purer subject based curriculum. His from education – and in particular school geography – chapter counts as a warning, for geography teachers in the early years of the twenty-first century. can be vulnerable to what could be called ‘morally careless’ teaching (Morgan and Lambert, 2003), as While I acknowledge that Standish argues for far more the curriculum is always prey to all manner of than a superficial descriptive account of the world (in influences which can weaken its educational potential. the sense that he refers to the explanatory power of the subject being concerned with environmental, I am also concerned about the intellectual vacuum social, economic and political processes), he avoids that can lie the heart of practical curriculum making the fundamental questions that face serious when subjects no longer play a leading part. As I have educators. This is the ‘curriculum question’ of how argued elsewhere (Lambert, 2008), we have a selections are to be made of what to teach. This in curriculum crisis in schools, and it has been caused turn concerns the nature of the relationship teachers partly by the way we treat teachers – or more precisely are to have with the wider discipline. Who makes the the way teachers’ work has been configured, in a highly technicist manner with low risk, ‘delivery’ and very high stakes. In attempting to address the curriculum crisis in secondary schools, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has come up with a ‘big picture’ which tries to incorporate, under a set of clear aims, all the competing claims to school curriculum space. This makes for a highly complicated diagram, although deceptively simple in its layout. It is in effect a ‘talking point’ for all teachers, a kind of post hoc rationalisation of various initiatives introduced to try and make up for the deficiencies of the original national curriculum. Many schools appear to have taken the big picture as an invitation and encouragement to think radically about the KS3 curriculum – themes, topics and integrated days and weeks are all being tried, along with the shortened KS3 as we have noted. In some schools competence- or skills-based curricula are being introduced. Indeed, ‘skills’ have become the new orthodoxy, buoyed up with the beguiling rhetoric of 184 ‘learning to learn’ and ‘personalisation’, but © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 impoverishing the language of education to such a matters a great deal if we acknowledge the importance degree that I fear we may have lost track of its moral of educational aims and purposes. Furthermore, it is AbcdefgReview article: purpose. Don’t we care what young people are taught? not only important to understand ‘the curriculum’ The Corruption Aren’t we interested in what they are learning? ideologically and politically, but also as a product (at of the least in part) of the agency of teachers and young Curriculum At no time since the national curriculum was first people. introduced in England in 1988 has teachers’ subject specialist expertise been more important in schools. The Universities Council for the Education of Teachers As indicated above, by subject expertise I refer to captured the importance of subjects well: something a little more complicated than a ‘working ‘Properly conceived, however they differentiate and knowledge’ of, say, rivers or transport (significant coalesce over time, subjects constitute the topics though these are in the contemporary world). It available ways we have of exploring and is more the capacity to think ‘synoptically’ about the interpreting the world of subjective experience, of subject. That is, to know about the topics, themes and analysing the social environment and of making issues in a way that can enthuse and encourage sense of the natural world. It is through subject learners (sometimes noted as one’s ‘passion’ for the study that learners acquire historical, scientific, subject), but also to have a clear idea about how the mathematical and other forms of understanding; topics link and progress: a clear sense of the big and it is through subject study that learners narrative that the subject can offer in helping us make develop the capacity to engage in the distinctive sense of the world. This is about taking matters of modes of investigation and analysis through which ‘subject’ to the realms of educational aims and human experience is differentiated and extensions purposes, precisely the kind of thinking that has been of human understanding are achieved’ (Kirk and steadily leached out of teacher training and indeed the Broadhead, 2007, para 39). wider professional discourse in recent years. Teaching without this aspect of subject expertise risks banality: I am confident that we can agree on this statement, banal, because it may lack the theoretical and but as we do it is worth noting that the school conceptual frameworks that can support critical curriculum is being eroded of its subject content, and engagement leading to deeper understanding. the Civitas analysis makes a contribution to understanding why – and why this needs to be Standish may be right to complain that geography resisted. education has been ‘corrupted’, but not quite for the reasons he and his fellow authors suggest. He is References surely wrong to urge for a return to straight, mimetic Kirk, G. and Broadhead, P. (2007) Every Child Matters and description and explanation of the ‘world as it is’. Teacher Education: A UCET position paper. London: UCET Certainly the academic discipline has moved beyond Occasional Paper No 17. this point. Furthermore, in education too there is Jackson, P. (2006) ‘Thinking geographically’, Geography, 91, 3, pp. 199-205. widespread acceptance that when we focus not only Lambert, D. (2008) ‘Why are school subjects important?’, on what the students get, but also on what they make Forum, 50, 2, pp. 207-14. of what they get, we gain fresh insight on how much Morgan, J. (2008) ‘Curriculum development in “new times”’, learning is perspectival and contingent. Furthermore, Geography, 93, 1, pp. 17–24. young people are agentive in this process. Morgan, J. and Lambert, D. (2003) Teaching School Subjects: Geography. London: Routledge. Ofsted (2008) Geography – Changing Practice. Making Civitas may have some difficulty with this last fieldwork a focus. Ref No 070044. London: Ofsted statement. But geography (or indeed any other subject (www.ofsted.gov.uk). in school) may no longer be a sufficient end in itself, if Roberts, M. (2008) ‘Editorial’, Teaching Geography, 33, 2, pp. ever it was. Subjects have a justifiable place in the 48-9. curriculum because they serve, and can contribute to, Whelan, R. (ed) (2007) The Corruption of the Curriculum. London: Civitas. a range of educational purposes. Attempts have been made to capture this sense of educational purpose in terms of developing the ‘geographical imagination’, and through ‘thinking geographically’ (e.g. Jackson, David Lambert is Professor of Geography Education at the Institute of Education, University of London, 2006). Addressing and extending young people’s and Chief Executive of the Geographical Association curiosity though subject disciplines such as geography (e-mail: [email protected]). 185 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008

Reviews Reviews Edited by Hedley Knibbs

Against Automobility main significance. As Roger Boyes rehearsed themes? Probably the observed in The Times in 1992 (22 papers develop a lot of these themes Edited by Steffen Böhm, April) ‘ ... the first moral problem of more deeply. It will be of interest Campbell Jones, Chris Land and the Solidarity government after taking potentially to many types of reader, Matthew Paterson power in 1989 was whether to accept from cultural studies and media, Oxford: Blackwell, 2006 a batch of Lancias ordered from Fiat through to such areas as geography, 260pp, 15x23cm, Pb: £17.99, by the Communists, or whether to sociology and politics. I would place it ISBN 978 1 4051 5270 9 travel to work by tram. They chose the at final year undergraduate to Lancias and initiated a car revolution postgraduate level. One area ... democracy has arrived on four- paradoxically where one might doubt wheel drive’. its attraction is on reading lists for The downside of the phenomenon transport courses. Here the gap one of automobility was also commented may identify in the book is that it on quite early on. Accidents, death, nowhere addresses the ‘so what?’ Anyone who would like traffic congestion and pollution, the question. There is no prescription, no to review resources for generation of inbuilt dependence on final concluding/summing up chapter, Geography is invited to the car by long term decentralisation and the book does not address or write to Hedley Knibbs and shapeless suburbanisation have even mention the current pressing at GA Headquarters. long been noted. Equally noted have transport issues in the area of been the adverse effects on personal environment, global warming and behaviour (e.g. the creation inside the sustainability. Practitioners may not car of an isolated personal world like it on this account, but they could cocooned from contact with outsiders well be advised to read it. Transport generated aggression, and even hate planning methods and models may be for them, leading to the modern criticised for proceeding almost phenomenon of ‘road rage’). At a blithely on the basis of unrealistic more aggregate level, we have all the assumptions about human behaviour pseudo-conspiratorial debates about and motivation, and this book, in the relationship of the car industry to terms of encouraging them to think the military-industrial complex, and to about cars, mobility and automobility It has long been observed that the the oil industry, with the consequent in a much wider and deeper context, significance of the car, and the manipulation of oil rich states, and might well give them pause for thought. mobility which derives from arguments about whether the USA Eamonn Judge possession of one, is not just a and UK went into Afghanistan and Iraq Leeds Metropolitan University matter of getting from A to B more to fight terrorism, the Taliban, Osama quickly and more comfortably. The Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Car Sick: Solutions for association of the car (and whatever other bogeyman one cares automobility) with notions of freedom to mention, or for the more prosaic our car-addicted (even political freedom), extension of reason of getting one’s hands on one culture sixth of the world’s oil reserves. personality, a component of life style, Lynn Sloman the epitomy of modernity and At the back of all that we have the Totnes: Green Books, 2006 progress, and so on, have all been spectre of global warming, and noted and expounded upon for many disastrous climate change, leading 192pp, 22.8x15.4cm years. The Buchanan Report ‘Traffic in many to say that the main generator Pb: £10.95, ISBN 1 903998 76 X Towns’ (1963), which heralded the of global warming gases, the USA, is a ‘Smarter Choices’ are a suite of tools start of the automobile age in earnest greater danger to world peace than designed to change people’s travel in the UK, said simply that in a Islamic terrorists. behaviour without the need for large- democratic society we had no option All these themes apart from the scale interventions such as road but to adapt our towns and cities to last are rehearsed in one way or pricing or expensive new tram universal car ownership and use. another (with some exceptions to be systems. They include workplace Equally, the start of the new age of referred to) in this book. It is based travel plans, improved marketing of freedom in Eastern Europe after 1989 on 12 papers derived from a public transport systems, was marked by a mushrooming rate of conference on ‘automobility’ at Keele personalised travel planning and using car ownership growth which was felt to University in 2002. What, one may the web to substitute for certain trips. 186 be its main expression and almost its ask, does it have to add to these well In this book Sloman argues for the © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 adoption of a range of such relatively on short journeys, although to a large policy both expresses and shapes our small-scale and inexpensive policies extent this is understandable because understandings of the urban. to achieve a worthwhile and most trips are local and the quickest, It will be immensely useful at AbcdefgReviews sustainable reduction in traffic levels biggest and cheapest wins can be undergraduate level as it is written and thus safer streets, healthier made at this scale. Her general with a rare depth of understanding people, a cleaner and quieter emphasis on small projects – and fluency of expression. But beyond environment, and better economic effectively Smarter Choices with this its unique approach also means productivity. The author draws upon a improved bus services – is a little that it provides lessons on how to wealth of evidence from a range of optimistic since at some point large- analyse and understand urban and places to argue that if we choose as a scale investment in significantly regional intervention more broadly, society to significantly change our overhauled urban transport systems and I would urge anyone with an current travel habits, we can, and that would be necessary if car users are to interest in the city to read it, rather the whole of lots of little actions is far have genuinely better choices than just those concerned more greater than the sum of its parts. available to them. But this is an narrowly with urban policy. It is In ten thought-provoking chapters excellent book, clearly written and exemplary in the manner in which it Sloman sets out her manifesto for engaging, thought provoking and rich mixes empirical and conceptual change and offers her views as to why in evidence. There will be many who material, and it provides an engaging politicians and civil servants are fundamentally disagree with her narrative woven from a diverse range unable to tackle current transport position, but, as she points out, civil of material. By constantly stressing trends. Following a short introduction, engineers and technocrats, whose how the making of urban policy is she outlines her ‘personal list of answer to transport problems is always an active political process, the objections’ to car culture, which usually only to build more transport book provides an excellent account of moves beyond the usual complaints of infrastructure, ‘have had 40 years to the origins and development of urban congestion and pollution to include show us what they can do, and not policy. loss of social services and social only have they failed to civilise the car, Mark Goodwin capital, and the observation that they have made matters much worse’. University of Exeter owning a car ‘makes you fat’. The Politicians have hardly covered remaining chapters discuss in more themselves in glory during this time, Urban Outcasts: A detail Sloman’s prescriptions for either. Sloman’s contribution to the righting this list of wrongs, culminating transport debate in the form of Car comparative sociology in a call for individual motorists to Sick warrants serious and detailed of advanced make the sacrifice of using their cars attention. less for the common good of an Jon Shaw marginality improved world for everyone. University of Plymouth Loïc Wacquant Sloman denies she is an anti-car Cambridge: Polity Press, 2008 zealot – her point is that we should Understanding Urban 342pp, 15x23cm use cars more sensibly and sparingly. Pb: £16.99, ISBN 978-0-7456-3125-7 Among the welter of information to Policy Economic and social marginalisation support her thesis is a graph showing Allan Cochrane is one of the most pressing issues that around 50% of bus, bike and car Oxford: Blackwell, 2007 facing social scientists. Despite the journeys are under two miles in length 178pp, 17x24.5cm tremendous affluence produced by and another third are between two Pb: £15.99, ISBN 9-7806-3-1211-211 western capitalist economies, and five miles for each of these This excellent book analyses the significant numbers of people, modes. In other words, even accepting evolution of urban policy since the perhaps as much as a fifth of the total that people’s lives are complicated, 1960s. It is centred on urban policy in population, are through poverty that some individuals will always find the UK, but does contain some seemingly permanently excluded from a reason not to change their current important comparative material on mainstream society. This book, by the habits, and that there are deficiencies both the USA and Europe. It is Franco-American sociologist Loïc in our public transport systems, there different from almost every other Wacquant, offers an in-depth account is plenty of scope for modal shift if urban policy text, in that it deliberately of the dynamics of this entrenched the right policy measures are in place eschews a conventional chronological pattern of marginalisation. to promote it. At one stage Sloman history in favour of a thematic Wacquant’s central argument is makes a point which carries more approach. Each chapter takes a that the forms of social significance in 2008 than it would specific theme – race, disorder and marginalisation that have come to have done when she was completing poverty; managerialism; the meanings define Western European and North the typescript: if we didn’t drive so of community; disorderly places; American societies over the past three much, we wouldn’t need to spend so competitiveness; culture; neo- decades are different to those of much on roads, which in turn means liberalism and globalisation – and earlier periods of economic we could pay less tax. Motorists weaves a discussion around this development. Historically, the balking at current fuel prices would no which examines urban policy in the expansion of the capitalist economy doubt welcome now more than ever round as a complex interlinkage of had worked – however imperfectly – to the double saving of buying less petrol different meanings. In this way the integrate those at the bottom of the and paying less on that they did buy to book does not take the nature of social ladder into the overall social the Exchequer. urban policy for granted but structure. In contemporary ‘advanced The focus of Car Sick is generally 187 interrogates it to uncover how such capitalist’ economies this is no longer Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 the case. Now the economy is space (representing a blend of organised through the systematic physical space and virtual space Reviews marginalisation of those with the least underpinned by the adoption of ICTs skills and the poorest education. The to access opportunities for members of this new ‘precariat’ (as telcommuting, teleshopping, Wacquant labels this emergent social telemedicine, e-recreation, e-learning, class, playing on the precariously etc). proletarian nature of its social The text has seven chapters, five position) are trebly marginalised. They of which have been published are marginalised through the elsewhere. An introduction outlines precariousness of their economic core research questions and justifies position, the stigma of their lack of the methodology and theoretical educational attainment, and the framework. Distinctive meanings and reputation of the neighbourhoods they changing measures of accessibility in are forced to live in. hybrid space are then defined and Empirically Urban Outcasts centres contextualised. Further chapters focus on a comparative case study of two on the mathematical modelling of job different hyper-marginalised accessibility and telecommuting the claim that ‘Satellites and their communities: Chicago’s South Side potential in hybrid space. This instruments are extraordinary, almost Afro-American ghetto, and La precedes the statistical re- miraculous devices, among the most Courneuve – a working class suburb interpretation of household intricate and complex things that man on the fringes of Paris. Of the two characteristics, residential has devised’ – but its eyes are firmly case studies, the material from the preferences and relocation decisions on the planet, not the probes. South Side is stronger and more producing an allocation model for Remote sensing has transformed obviously rooted in Wacquant’s own residential land use in the period environmental monitoring from a point- ethnographic research. Nonetheless, 2000-2030. In conclusion, and within based to a spatial, global science. the comparative approach does allow the framework of accelerating urban Benjamin Franklin mapped the Gulf Wacquant to highlight the many deconcentration and planning Stream by measuring the temperature differences between American and intervention, those rural areas of wine served at the captain’s table Western European patterns of pressured for residential development (the bottles having been stored below marginalisation. And, even if some of are located and prospects for further decks against the hull). Our Changing the data is a little dated, Urban research addressed. Planet gives a highly impressive tour Outcasts presents one of the most Throughout, the central argument from space of almost every compelling – and provocative – is underpinned by informative charts, conceivable indicator of earth surface studies of the impoverished detailed national maps and a series geophysics and biogeochemistry. underbelly of urban life published in of statistical and technical Sixty chapters from over 100 recent years. appendices. This well-structured book contributors are grouped into sections Alan Latham is clearly-argued and based on sound on ‘The dynamic atmosphere’, ‘The University College London theoretical foundations, with a vital land’, ‘The restless ocean’, ‘The significant technical content. It is frozen caps’, and ‘Evidence of our Future Urbanisation highly recommended, as a library copy, tenure’. There are some familiar for undergraduates and post- images here (world at night; tsunami Patterns: graduates in geography or planning in Aceh), but even experts will find In the Netherlands, under the engaged in the study of information much that is new in a kaleidoscopic influence of information and society and implications of array including temperature, land use, communications technologies telecommuting for spatial land use ozone depletion, oil spills, contrails, Saim Muhammad policies. dust storms, coccolithophores, snow Robert Gant Utrecht: The Royal Dutch Geographical cover (‘the most dynamic feature on Kingston University Society/Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht the Earth’s surface’), lightning frequency, soil moisture, wind speed, University, 2007, 187pp sea ice, Ebola virus probability and 16.5x23.5cm, Pb: £20.00 Our Changing Planet: dozens more. ISBN 978-90-6809-405-3 The view from space The explanations are as good as This book examines the possible Edited by Michael D. King, the images. Every chapter is effects of the continuous growth in Claire L. Parkinson, Kim C. supported by full colour photographs use of information and communication and diagrams, and by an informative technologies (ICTs) on future Partington and Robin G. Williams text pitched well for the non-specialist. urbanisation and regional Every library should buy a copy; every Cambridge: Cambridge University development in the Netherlands. It re- geography student should have one – interprets concepts of accessibility Press, 2007 and at £25 they can afford it. and discusses the prospective effects 390pp, 25x32cm Hb: £25.00 Chris Pyle of ICTs on job accessibility, place ISBN 978-0-521-82870-3 The Perse School, Cambridge quality and residential preferences. Astronauts flew to the moon – and Six research questions focus on two discovered how precious the Earth is. 188 scenarios: physical space and hybrid This lavish, NASA-led book justifies © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 Human-Induced change and the need for a disappointed if their local area (such multidisciplinary approach to go some as Oxford!) is not included as a case Climate Change: An way towards coping with future climate study. Every school and college library AbcdefgReviews interdisciplinary change. should have a copy. Christopher Holt Garrett Nagle assessment University of Northampton St Edward’s School, Oxford Edited by Michael E. Schlesinger, Haroon S. Kheshgi, Poverty, Wealth and Ormeling’s Cartography: Joel Smith, Francisco C. de la Place in Britain, 1968 Presented to Ferjan Ormeling on Chesnaye, John M. Reilly, Tom the occasion of his 65th Wilson and Charles Kolstad to 2005 birthday and his retirement as Cambridge: Cambridge University Daniel Dorling, Jan Rigby, Ben Professor of Cartography Press, 2007, 426pp, 22x28cm, Wheeler, Dimitris Ballas, Edited by Elger Heere and Hb: £60.00, Bethan Thomas, Eldin Fahmy, Martijn Storms ISBN 978-0-521-86603-3 David Gordon and Ruth Lupton Utrecht: Royal Dutch Geographical This is a welcome review of climate Bristol: Policy Press, 2007 Society/Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht change, especially because of its 111pp, 21x29cm, Pb: £15.95 University, 2007 interdisciplinary and integrated ISBN 978-1-8613-4995-8 212pp, 16.5x24cm, Pb: €20.00 approach to the subject. The book’s This is the first detailed study of the ISBN 978-9-0680-9407-7 33 chapters are split into four geographical distribution of poverty From 1570 to 1670 the Low Countries sections: climate system science, (and to a limited extent wealth) in dominated European commercial map impacts and adaptation, mitigation of Britain. It examines the changing level production and virtually invented the greenhouse gases, and policy design and distribution of poverty since the atlas as a systematic and and decision making under 1960s. The authors use a wide range comprehensive collection of maps of uncertainty. The chapters cover a of data, starting with the original uniform size. Throughout the second broad range of topics, from an Poverty in the UK survey by Peter half of the twentieth century the overview of the development of the Townsend et al. and culminating with Netherlands still maintained an concept of climate sensitivity through data from 2005-06. The population is influence on cartography out of all to the problems of policy design in divided into a number of groups: proportion to its global influence in response to climatic uncertainty. • the exclusive wealthy i.e. those able most other spheres and it continues Those chapters dealing with impacts to exclude themselves from the to do so. During this period Ferjan tend to have a very useful breadth of norms of society Ormeling Sr. and Jr. – father and son – coverage, emphasising the • the asset-rich – those that are rich were particularly influential. Between interdisciplinary nature of the but not exclusively so 1968 and 2007 the son wrote or problem, but lack the depth of • those who are neither rich nor poor edited 432 monographs, papers and exploration that would make them • the breadline poor – those living reports, many in conjunction with much more satisfying, though they do below a relative poverty line others. Until his recent retirement whet the appetite. • the core poor – those who from the Chair of Cartography at the The book is clearly written and experience a combination of Rijksuniversiteit, Utrecht, Ormeling Jr. well supported with references and severe income poverty, material was an influential teacher and PhD examples allowing further exploration deprivation and subjective poverty. supervisor. Ormeling’s Cartography of the themes, and whilst it is aimed The book is divided into 11 celebrates that retirement, but at postgraduates and researchers sections, starting with a summary of Ormeling continues to make major within the field, it would certainly be findings. There are sections on contributions to the development of useful for final year undergraduates, background (a historical account of cartography, not least on the and for dipping into by those in their poverty); methods; the measures; second year of a degree course. This national totals and trends; national is a specialist text, thereby making it a maps and geographic change; useful library purchase, and the polarisation and spatial concentration; integrated approach taken by the local issues (local case studies); chapter authors and the editors change since 2000; discussion and makes it a book well worth looking at. conclusion. It is a shame that the timing of its The text is accessible and the publication precluded use of the book is likely to be of great help to IPCC’s fourth assessment reports, but students completing coursework or the material is still current, and there dissertations on poverty. Teachers are some very useful case studies. and lecturers will find the maps very The individual chapters are well clear and useful for generating supported with diagrams and tables, discussion. and the duplication of some of the The book has many strengths. It more complicated diagrams in colour has detailed maps and is clearly aids their interpretation. Over all, this presented. It is concise and not too is a useful book dealing with the technical. It has some excellent local 189 complexity of the problem of climate case studies. Readers may be Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 international stage. His subfields of secondary teachers to dip into or to interest are numerous and diverse: start a number of discussions or Reviews atlases (particularly school atlases), projects using the attractive maps, toponymy, data quality, cartographic graphs and fact boxes. The further education, cartographic visualisation, references for each chapter will also cartographic infrastructure, maps in be of use. The book would also be the media and the history of suitable as an introductory library text cartography. for secondary school pupils, for Ormeling’s Cartography is a general studies or citizenship, as well collection of 14 papers reprinted to as applied geography. This is not a reflect the nature and range of Ferjan demanding book and could be used Ormeling’s Jr.’s interests to date, with less academic groups. Some of together with a biography, bibliography the illustrations are cosmetic rather of his publications and brief than useful, and could have been description of the father and son’s omitted to cut the cost (and save collection of mainly twentieth century carbon emissions). It will be especially atlases now in the Utrecht University useful, however, for those exploring library. All are in English that is often changes in lifestyle to help counter quaint, sometimes bad but always climate change and perhaps save intelligible. The papers reflect the money. breadth, depth and dynamism of a Chris Barrow field which UK geographers have Swansea University only gives page numbers for the largely lost touch with as they chapters. Ease of reference is hindered by no listings for the inserts, relinquish their once primary concern The Yorkshire Dales: with differences between places on maps, sections and diagrams. The Earth as the home of man. Ormeling’s Landscape and double page maps have overlap and Cartography could usefully be read by geology do not match up, while compass those concerned about how those orientations are absent from the Tony Waltham differences can be – accidentally, sections making it difficult to relate deliberately and some would claim Marlborough: Crowood Press, 2007 them to the maps. The book’s inevitably – visually enhanced, 224pp 16.5x23.5cm, glossary is biased towards geological distorted, suppressed and promoted Pb: £16.99, ISBN 978-86126-972-0 terms and there are few cartographically. Writing with visitors to the Yorkshire recommendations for further reading G. Malcolm Lewis Dales in mind, the author (a geologist, covering this internationally known Sheffield caver and fell walker) shares his limestone karst. understanding of the landscape and Minor criticism aside this is an its history in a book that is readable excellent, affordable and up-to-date How Can I Stop and well illustrated. Two hundred and book set to become essential reading Climate Change? What twenty colour photographs (plus three for all with an interest in this region more on the cover) are complemented and its landscape. it is, why it happens and by 14 colour cross sections and 21 Margaret E. Marker what you can do to help colour maps, including three over Eynsham Edited by Helen Burley and double-page spreads. This book will Chris Haslam be an invaluable reference for The Cultural Geography students and field excursion leaders, London: Harper Collins, 2008 and will interest tourists and local Reader 446pp, 15x19.5cm, readers. Edited by Timothy S. Oakes and Pb: £14.99, ISBN 978-0-00-72513-5 The book is organised into three Patricia L. Price Compiled and edited by Friends of the sections: starting with the rocks Abingdon: Routledge, 2008 Earth staff, How Can I Stop Climate (geology); creating the landscape 482pp, 18.5x24.5cm, Pb: £27.99, Change? presents ten chapters on (geomorphology); and the imprint of exactly what the title says. It is a ISBN 978-0-415-41874-4 man (land use over time). Cultural geography, at least in the profusely illustrated, clear and Inserts covering specialist topics readable introduction to human- context of Anglo-American human are presented on coloured pages geography, appears to be in rude induced climate change and the ways among the chapters; 16 span the in which we might respond. The health. Judging by the volume of history of the Dales ranging from publications devoted to this sub-field coverage is from the viewpoint of one ‘Once an ocean floor’ to ‘Hushes’ non-governmental organisation and alongside important journals such as (mining related scars in the Cultural Geographies and Gender, human causation of change is firmly landscape). Useful guides to four accepted. Aimed at a general UK Place and Culture there is no shortage major walks – Gordale, Malham, the of first rate intellectual endeavour. As readership it has been released to Ingleton waterfalls and the Three broadly coincide with the UK Climate such, the Cultural Geography Reader Peaks – are also included. is yet another illustration of this Change Act, presumably in the hope of Some aspects of the book prompt encouraging individuals to give consolidation of scholarly interest. criticism. Only 66 of the 224 pages Edited by two American-based 190 support. are numbered and the contents page It could be a useful source for geographers, the book is composed of © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 An Everyday Geography of the Reviews Global South Jonathan Rigg Abingdon: Routledge, 2007 232pp, 17.5x24.5cm, Pb: £22.99, ISBN 978-0-415-37609-9 This textbook throws light on the ways in which globalisation, modernisation and development are transforming the contemporary Global South. It may be surprising, therefore, that it begins and ends by looking at the household of a middle- aged widow in northern Laos. This is not a mere stylistic conceit, but eight major components. There is rather gets straight to the heart of also a substantial introductory essay, the book’s central argument: a focus absence: there is a preference and for each section the editors have on people’s everyday lives not only instead for researchers who have written a preface explaining to the gives us new insights into how the themselves been willing to make the reader what is to follow. The sections Global South is changing, it also personal and professional include: approaching culture; a challenges existing ideas about what commitment to develop grounded transatlantic genealogy; landscape; matters within geography, and how it understandings of their subjects nature; identity and place in a global should be studied. through detailed field- and archive- context; home and away; difference; The book’s opening chapters lay based work. and culture as resource. The out this argument, and Rigg writes Rigg is a careful guide to this selected readings include well-known persuasively against both the relative research, and although he is at pains non-geographers such as Edward neglect of the Global South in to point out that there can be no Said and Raymond Williams, academic geography, and the pigeon- single picture of how the Global distinguished geographers including holing of Southern-based research as South is changing, there are useful Denis Cosgrove, Doreen Massey and being exclusively about tables and analytical summaries in Linda McDowell, as well as earlier ‘development’. The alternative he each chapter, mapping out key scholars such as W.G. Hoskins. It is offers is an analytical perspective arguments, and similarities and an eclectic mix and no doubt there that begins with the richness of contrasts between the 90-plus case will be debate about who made it and people’s everyday lives, highlighting studies he draws upon. There are who did not. That is part of the point contingency, complexity and people’s points where some of the subtlety of of readers – to make the consumer agency. His skill is in demonstrating Rigg’s analytical gloss, and the think further about how an that it is possible to ‘theorise up’ significance and detail of some of intellectual field gets defined either from this starting point, using an the theoretical debates to which he via key authors or ideas (or both). understanding of the everyday as makes links, may be lost on some The editors should be perspective from which to comment readers: it is, in short, a book that congratulated for producing a reader on wider theoretical debates and will be both engaging and stretching which is much more than simply a accounts of ‘macro’ level structures for second-year undergraduates. series of readings thrown together. and processes. The rest of the book What it does very successfully is to There has clearly been much thought then goes on to apply this approach provide insights into life in the Global given to the entire enterprise and I to a range of different subjects: South lacking from many textbooks, found their short prefaces to each people’s life courses; their changing and to offer innumerable ‘jumping section extremely clear and helpful. livelihoods; modernity’s impacts on off’ points into the wider literature Students (even those taking rural and urban life; mobility and which many of its readers will be introductory courses) will appreciate migration; state-society relations and enthused to take up. The underlying their summaries. If I have one the politics of resistance. challenge to rethink how the Global complaint, it concerns the use of The breadth and depth of South is valued and studied within abridged papers. It would be more research covered is impressive and geography deserves to find plenty of useful to reproduce them in full and one refreshing aspect is Rigg’s very supporters amongst students and let the reader decide upon its deliberate selection of material. teachers using this book. particular merits. It also makes Important theoretical debates are Glyn Williams referencing potentially less fraught if addressed, but throughout these are University of Sheffield one can read the complete article. investigated through intelligent and Klaus Dodds informed empirical research. As a Royal Holloway, University of London result, some ‘big names’ in development studies and development geography are conspicuous by their relative 191 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 W.G.V. Balchin, 62-3 education, rev. 61 Indexes to Indexes to Cook, B.R. Controversy in Hopper, K. A sense of place: W.B. Yeats and ‘The Lake Isle of Volume Bangladesh: What sort of knowledge for what sort of flood Innisfree’, 176-80 93 (2008) Volume management? 114-18 Cresswell, T. Place: encountering Kearnes, M.B. Spotlight On … Risk 93 (2008) geography as philosophy, 132-9 Society: Towards a new modernity Crewe, L. Ugly beautiful? Counting by Ulrich Beck, 122-3 Author index the cost of the global fashion King, M.D., Parkinson C.L., industry, 25-33 Partington, K.C. and Williams, Anderson, J., Askins, K., Cook, I., R.G. (eds) Our Changing Planet: Desforges, L., Evans, J., Fannin, De Blij, H. Why Geography Matters: The view from space, rev. 188 M., Fuller, D., Griffiths, H., Three challenges facing America: Lambert, D., Lee, R., MacLeavy, J., Climate change, the rise of China, Lambert, D.1 Inconvenient truths, Mayblin, L., Morgan, J., Payne, B., and global terrorism, rev. 56 48-51 Pykett, J., Roberts, D. and Digby, B. The London 2012 Lambert, D.2 Review article: The Skelton, T. What is geography’s Corruption of the Curriculum, 183-5 contribution to making citizens? Olympics, 40-7 1 34-9 Dorling, D., Rigby, J., Wheeler, B., Lane, S.N. Thinking through Archer, E.R.M., Oettlé, N.M., Louw, Ballas, D., Thomas, B., Fahmy, E., climate change: an introduction, 4- R. and Tadross, M.A. ‘Farming on Gordon, D. and Lupton, R. Poverty, 10 2 the edge’ in arid western South Wealth and Place in Britain, 1968 Lane, S.N. Editorial: Living with Africa: climate change and to 2005, rev. 189 hazard and risk, 66-8 3 agriculture in marginal Dwyer, C. The geographies of Lane, S.N. Climate change and environments, 98-107 veiling: Muslim women in Britain, the summer 2007 floods in the UK, 140-7 91-7 Betts, N.L. Whalley, W.B., Lorimer, H. Poetry and place: the Crawford, T., Barry, L. and Foote, M. Spotlight On … shape of words, 181-2 Galbraith, G. Slope failures and Insurance, reinsurance and Macnaghten, P. their response to rainfall intensity: catastrophe modelling, 119-121 Nanotechnology, risk and upstream public an example from Co. Antrim, engagement, 108-13 Northern Ireland, July 2007, 69-77 Gehrels, R. and Long, A. Sea level Massey, D. World City, rev. 56 Böhm, S., Jones, C., Land, C. and is not level: the case for a new Matthewman, S. Spotlight On … Paterson, M. Against Automobility, approach to predicting UK sea-level Capitalism as if the World Matters rev. 186 rise, 11-16 by Jonathon Porritt, 52-5 Bridgman, H.A. and Oliver, J.E. The Getimis, P. and Kafkalas, G. (eds) Morgan, J.1 Editorial, 2-3 Global Climate System: Patterns, Overcoming Fragmentation in Morgan, J.2 Curriculum processes and teleconnections, rev. Southeast Europe, rev. 126 development in ‘new times’, 17-24 124-5 Muhammad, S. Future Urbanisation Browne, K., Lim, J. and Brown, G. Hall, T. Contesting the urban Patterns: In the Netherlands, under (eds) Geographies of Sexualities: renaissance: journalism and the the influence of information and Theory, practices and politics, rev. post-industrial city, 148-57 communications technologies, rev. 58-9 Hartman, C. and Squires, G.D. 188 Burley, H. and Haslam, C. (eds) (eds) There is No Such Thing as a Muir, R. Be Your Own Landscape How Can I Stop Climate Change? Natural Disaster: Race, class and Detective, rev. 59-60 rev. 190 Hurricane Katrina, rev. 124 Butt, G. Is the future secure for Harvey, D. A Brief History of Oakes, T.S. and Price, P.L. The geography education?, 158-65 Neoliberalism, rev. 56-7 Cultural Geography Reader, rev. Heere, E. and Storms, M. (eds) 190-1 Chester, D.K. The effects of the Ormeling’s Cartography: Presented 1755 Lisbon earthquake and to Ferjan Ormeling on the occasion Pike, A., Rodríguez-Pose, A. and tsunami on the Algarve region, of his 65th birthday and his Tomaney, J. Local and Regional southern Portugal, 78-90 retirement as Professor of Development, rev. 57-8 Cochrane, A. Understanding Urban Cartography, rev. 189-90 Pontin, J. and Roderick, I. Policy, rev. 187 Hicks, D.W. Lessons for the Future: Converging World: Connecting 192 Coleman, A. Obituary: Professor The missing dimension in communities in global change, rev. © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 126-7 Subject index Journalism – Hall Radcliffe, S.A. (ed) Culture and Indexes to Development in a Globalizing World, Landscape – Muir, Wylie Algarve – Chester Volume 93 rev. 57 London – Digby, Massey America – de Blij, Rawling, E.1 Editorial: Place and (2008) Hartman/Squires, Veblen et al. identity, 131 Marginalisation – Wacquant Automobility – Böhm et al. Rawling, E.2 Spotlight On … Poetry and place: introduction, 171 Nanotechnology – Macnaghten Bangladesh – Cook Rigg, J. An Everyday Geography of Neoliberalism – Harvey the Global South, rev. 191 Northern Ireland – Betts et al. Cartography – Heere/Storms, Rodrigue, J.-P., Comtois, C. and Thomas Slack, B. The Geography of Olympics – Digby Catastrophe modelling – Foote Transport Systems, rev. 127 Ormeling, Ferjan – Heere/Storms China – de Blij Cities – Hall, Massey Schlesinger, M.E., Kheshgi, H.S., Physical geography – Veblen et al. Citizenship – Anderson et al. Smith, J., de la Chesnaye, F.C., Place – Cresswell, Hopper, Lorimer, Climate change – Archer et al., Reilly, J.M., Wilson, T. and Rawling2, Sheers Burley/Haslam, de Blij, Lane1, Kolstad, C. (eds) Human-Induced Planning – Getimis/Kafkalas Lane3, Schlesinger et al., Stern Climate Change: An interdisciplinary Poetry – Hopper, Lorimer, Rawling2, Climate systems – assessment, rev. 189 Sheers Bridgman/Oliver, Schlesinger et al. Sheers, O. Poetry and place: some Poverty – Dorling et al. Cultural geography - Oakes/Price personal reflections, 172-5 Culture – Radcliffe, Timothy Sloman, L. Car Sick: Solutions for Race – Hartman/Squires Curriculum development – our car-addicted culture, rev. 186-7 Remote sensing – King et al. Morgan2 Smith, M.K. and Robinson, M. Risk – Foote, Kearnes, (eds) Cultural Tourism in a Changing Macnaghten Development – Muhammad, Pike et World: Politics, participation, and al., Radcliffe (re)presentation, rev. 58 Scotland – Taylor/Kitchener Diversity – Thomas Stern, N. The Economics of Climate Sea level – Gehrels/Long Change: The Stern Review, rev. 60 Sexual geographies – Browne et Earth – King et al., Stewart/Lynch Stewart, I. and Lynch, J. Earth: The al. Earthquake – Chester power of the planet, rev. 125 Slope failures – Betts et al. Economics – Harvey, Stern, South Africa – Archer et al. Wacquant Taylor, M.A. and Kitchener, A.C. South America – Veblen et al. Education – Butt, Hicks, Lambert1, Scotland’s Beginnings: Scotland Morgan2 through time, rev. 125-6 Terrorism – de Blij Europe – Getimis/Kafkalas Thomas, B. Identity in Britain: Tourism – Smith/Robinson, Timothy investigating the social geology, Transport – Böhm et al., Sloman Farming – Archer et al. 166-70 Transport systems – Rodrigue et Fashion – Crewe Timothy, D.J. The International al. Flood – Lane3 Library of Essays in Tourism, Tsunami – Chester Flood management – Cook Heritage and Culture, rev. 127 Futures thinking/studies – Hicks Urban policy – Cochrane Veblen, T.T., Young, K.R. and Geology – Taylor/Kitchener Orme, A.R. (eds) The Physical Yeats, W.B. – Hopper Global South – Rigg Geography of South America, rev. Yorkshire – Waltham 60-1 Heritage – Timothy Hurricane Katrina – Wacquant, L. Urban Outcasts: A Hartman/Squires comparative sociology of advanced marginality, rev. 187-8 ICT – Muhammad Waltham, T. The Yorkshire Dales: Identity – Thomas Landscape and geology, rev. 190 Wylie, J. Landscape, rev. 59 Insurance – Foote 193

Regional Conferences Living Geography with the GA A new series of Regional Conferences for secondary teachers

Central London 27 January 2009 York 9 June 2009 Cardiff 29 September 2009 North Wales 13 October 2009 Belfast 3 November 2009

Online booking available now at www.geography.org.uk furthering the learning and teaching of geography GEOGRAPHY EDUCATION @ IOE Who are we? The UK’s largest team of geography educators, playing a prominent role leading research and teaching in this specialist field. What do we do? Teaching programmes include:

• PGCE - the largest and highest rated PGCE course in England

• MA - an established Masters programme in Geography Education, unique in identity and with an outstanding track record

• MPhil/PhD - the largest collection of Geography Education PhDs in the country with a wealth of experience in supervising higher research degrees www.ioe.ac.uk Research interests of the team include:

For further information • Geography teachers’ knowledge development MPhil/PhD enquiries: either • Geography education in the 21st Century Professor David Lambert ([email protected]) Or Dr John Morgan ([email protected]) • New pedagogies and new technologies (such as GIS) Enquiries for MA Geography in Education - Dr Clare Brooks ([email protected]) Enquiries for PGCE in Geography - Where are we going? Dr Clare Brooks ([email protected]) Working with partners, nationally and internationally, we are contributing to the developing field of geography education research, as a platform for the continued contribution geography can make to education in all its forms. © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008

The Geographical The Geographical Association Association 2007-08 The Geographical Association, founded in 1893, exists to Governing Body further the study and teaching of geography in all categories President: Mrs M.G. Roberts of educational institutions from school to university in the UK Past President: Mr E.J. Westaway and abroad. Membership is open to all who are interested in Senior Vice President: Mr J.W. Halocha geography or in education. You can join the Association by Junior Vice President: Dr J.W. Hopkin subscribing to one or more of our journals (see below). Group Named Trustees: Mr P.S. Fox, Mr J. Krause membership is available to schools, colleges, university Honorary Treasurer/Named Trustee: Mr B. Ellis departments and other institutions. Personal full membership Chair, Education Committee: Dr J.W. Hopkin is available to individuals only. Personal associate Elected members: Mr M.J. Higginbottom, Mrs T.D. Horler, membership offers all the benefits of full membership at a Ms H. Martin. reduced rate and is available to students, newly-qualified Honorary Vice Presidents: Dr V. Lawrence CB, teachers, retired people and unwaged people. Professor D. Massey, Mr B. Saunders

The GA publishes three journals: Primary Geographer for Honorary Editors teachers in Early Years settings and primary and middle Professor P. Jackson, Professor S.N. Lane, Dr J. Morgan and schools; Teaching Geography for teachers in the secondary Ms E. Rawling (Geography) phase; and Geography for teachers and students in post-16 Mrs M. Biddulph (Teaching Geography) and Higher Education. All journals are published three times a Dr F. Martin (Primary Geographer) year, in the Autumn, Spring and Summer terms, and are Ms N. Lyons (GA Magazine, incorporating GA News) available both in print form and online. Information about the content and availability of back issues can be found in the Chief Executive: Professor D.M. Lambert online shop (www.geographyshop.org.uk). The Journal Annual subscription rates Editorial Collective: Peter Jackson (University of Sheffield), (September 2008 to August 2009) Stuart N. Lane (Durham University), John Morgan (Institute of Education, University of London) and Eleanor Rawling Category one journal two journals three journals (Research Fellow, University of Oxford). Full personal £55.50 £78.75 £102.00 Advisory Panel: Rachel Atherton (Southfield Technology Associate £27.75 £39.25 £51.00 College, Workington); Brian Chalkley (University of Plymouth); Group £78.25 £112.00 £135.00 Ian Cook (University of Exeter); Maxine Cumming (New Primary Geographer only (full personal) £33.50 College Telford, Wellington); Pamela Field (Palatine Community Primary Geographer only (group) £35.25 Sports College, Blackpool); Roger Firth (University of Nottingham); Duncan Hawley (Swansea School of Education); Jonathan Hooton (Notre Dame High School, Norwich); Nick Information about GA membership and application forms are Hopwood (University of Oxford); Alan Marvell (Bath Spa available from the Geographical Association, 160 Solly Street, University); Timothy Quine (University of Exeter); Roger Trend Sheffield S1 4BF, tel 0114 296 0088, fax 0114 296 7176, (University of Oxford); Lorraine Wild (University of Oxford); and e-mail [email protected]; Richard Yarwood (University of Plymouth). and on the GA website www.geography.org.uk. International members: Hakhee Kim (Institute of Education, Copyright University of London); Andrew Kirby (Arizona State University West, USA); Richard Le Heron (University of Auckland, New Members of the Geographical Association, as a benefit of Zealand); Jamie Peck (University of British Columbia, membership, have the right to reproduce material without Canada); Michael Solem (Association of American charge from the journal(s) to which they subscribe, provided: Geographers, USA) and Christian Vielhaber (University of • the material contains an indication that the copyright is Vienna, Austria). held by the GA; • the material is for use only by the GA member with Honorary Reviews Editor: Hedley Knibbs his/her classes (for group members this would effectively Assistant Editor: Dorcas Turner mean the institution); Copy Editor: Rose Pipes • the material is not used separately or incorporated with Designer: Bryan Ledgard other material for sale; Cartographer: Paul Coles • the copyright in the material being copied is not held by an individual or institution other than the GA (please The authors alone are responsible for the opinions expressed examine the material very carefully before copying it). in their articles.

Non-members of the Association must seek permission in Enquiries for advertising space in Geography should be writing from the GA before copying any material from any e-mailed to Anna Grandfield, [email protected]. GA publication or journal. Members too should apply for permission before copying ISSN 0016-7487 material from GA publications other than the journals they Printed and bound in England by Buxton Press subscribe to. Enquiries regarding copyright should be addressed to Dorcas Turner, e-mail: Cover photo: Aerial photograph of Lough Gill, Sligo. [email protected] Photo © James Connolly, PicSell8 Ltd. Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 AbcdefgGeography

Contents Editorial: Place and identity 131 Eleanor Rawling for the Editorial Collective Place: encountering geography as philosophy 132 Tim Cresswell The geographies of veiling: Muslim women in Britain 140 Claire Dwyer Contesting the urban renaissance: 148 journalism and the post-industrial city Tim Hall Is the future secure for geography education? 158 Graham Butt Challenging Assumptions 166 Identity in Britain: investigating the social geology Bethan Thomas Spotlight on… Poetry and place Introduction 171 Eleanor Rawling Poetry and place: some personal reflections 172 Owen Sheers A sense of place: W.B. Yeats and 176 ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ Keith Hopper Poetry and place: the shape of words 181 Hayden Lorimer Review article The Corruption of the Curriculum 183 David Lambert Reviews 186 Edited by Hedley Knibbs

Indexes to Volume 93 (2008) 192

ISSN 0016-7487

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