Power

Question 1

Defining power:

Answer 1

• DoHG: ‘the ability of capacity to either act oneself or direction the actions of others; may be exercised by individuals, groups, institutions, or any organised entity that can be considered an agent’.
• Corbridge 2013: ‘the ability of agents to affect the actions or attitudes of another’.
• agency: refers to the ability to do something.

Question 2

Criticisms of power using Corbridge’s definition:

Answer 2

• assumes power over others and doesn’t allow for consideration of power over oneself - e.g., self-determination or autonomy - e.g., changes to Row vs Wade in the US.
• Corbridge also says it’s not just about actions, it’s about attitudes too. Can make people think it has direct results and can be more abstract in shaping how people view the world.
• ‘the idea that power animates all spatial practices, and that power is always spatialised, is now widely understood in geography’ (Corbridge, 2013).

Question 3

Where is power?

Answer 3

• government
• resistance

Question 4

Foucault (1980) on resistance?

Answer 4

• ‘there are no relations of power without resistances… like power, resistance is multiple and can be integrated into global strategies.’ We cannot think of power without talking about resistance.

Question 5

Difference between power and resistance.

Answer 5

• there is no clear difference - they are no distinct opposites.
• friction to power: resistance is the ability to resist power. Both the same thing, just operating in different directions.
• resistance can take more direct forms of exercising power from the ground up. E.g. activism - actively exercising agency and power to challenge those top down versions.

Question 6

About power in place:

Answer 6

• it can be quite difficult to separate all four concepts as they are often intertwined.
• power in places and connections to imaginations: places have the ability to affect the way people act, think and feel.

Question 7

Power in space:

Answer 7

• David Harvey: power imbalances in the transition away from spatial composition.

Question 8

Power in time:

Answer 8

• for Harvey, power was very much related to class.
• geographers such as Gillian Rose and other feminist theorists it was linked more closely to gender identity.
• power is influenced by Marxism, feminism and post-colonial and decolonial work.

Question 9

About the emergence of power?

Answer 9

• emerged in the 70s.
• influenced by civil right studies which took shape in the 60s.
  1968: Dagenham Motors strike pushing for equal pay legislation - came about in 1975.

Question 10

Power in geography - feminism:

Answer 10

• internal critiques
• some kind of hierarchy of power in doing research - more important knowledge which gives validity to someone else’s experience. HOWEVER - idea of deconstructing the idea of the expert. May be an expert on migration but may learn from one who has experienced migration.
• critique of methodologies: interviews aren’t really necessary if thinking about power.
• Sarah Marie Hall and Gemma Sou try to engage with feminist theory and try to rethink the way we present knowledge, not just collect it.

Question 11

Theorising power and resistance:

Answer 11

• power geometry
• locating power

Question 12

Power geometry:

Answer 12

• coined by Doreen Massey as a critique of Harvey’s idea of time-space compression (the idea that the world was speeding up/spreading out).
• Massey argues that not everyone experiences changes in the same way and not everyone benefits from them - we don’t necessarily see things speed up and improve everywhere.
• e.g. new tech benefits in the western world - people exploited to make said technology.
• ‘highly complex social differentiations’ (Massey 1993).

Question 13

Power geometry - example of Rio favelas:

Answer 13

• Massey speaks about the influences that have emerged from Rio, e.g., carnival, music, football players and how these are things that have come from a local place and spread out on a global scale.
• however there are plenty living with a low quantity of life in terms of economic and freedom of movement.
• Massey is calling for an appreciation that we can’t think about how these processes take shape without thinking about the power relations that are inherently embroil with it.
• power is at the heart of everything - the way we experience and create things is defined by our relationship with power.

Question 14

Locating power:

Answer 14

• power occurs in clearly defined locations, or sites (e.g., state and territories).
• it’s about recognising that power is much more mundane - can be as simple as earning enough in working hours to have the freedom of how to spend leisure time.
• critique: recognise power as being dispersed and dynamic (feminist and poststructuralism)

Question 15

applying theories of power:

Answer 15

• geopolitics
• representation

Question 16

About geopolitics:

Answer 16

• rose to prominence at end of 19th century.
• coined by Kjellen in 1899 - used to think about the relationship between power states and territories. How dud states exercise power over a territory.
• gains prominence in geography through the work of Mackinder’s Heartland Thesis.
• emerged as a tool of domination/war.
• declined due to associations with extreme right-wing and fascism - idea of Lebensraum from Nazi Party.
• idea of using relationship between states and territories as a way to exercise power.
• quite controversial - many stay away from it due to negative associations.

Question 17

Critical geopolitics:

Answer 17

• a resurgence towards the end of 20th century due to moving towards the era of critical geographies.
• less focus on the state and more on broader political and popular discourse - interested in the politics of popular culture - films, books, cartoons, etc.
• did move from being tied to right-wing associations but still subject to critique. Feminist theorists arguing that it was a still a masculinist way of viewing the world.

Question 18

State power:

Answer 18

• focus on traditional geopolitics - how rules operated within borders and how those borders could influence international relations. Idea of sovereignty meaning absolute power within the borders of a country.
• sovereignty: ‘supreme power which is usually considered to be absolute and unlimited, and usually exercised within a territory’ (Penrose, 2009).
• maps - essentially lines BUT borders don’t exist as straight lines - e.g., Schengen zone and free movement across Europe, or borders in mountainous regions/forestry where there’s no easy way to draw a line.

Question 19

externalising state power:

Answer 19

• propaganda
• immigration/ migration: states can exercise power before approaching their borders - e.g., visas in US.
• govt’s attempt to move migrants to Rwanda. Allows a different conversation about presence, territory and sovereignty.
• international law: sovereignty doesn’t work in an international world as subject to international laws, e.g., copyright.
• Geneva Convention: human rights law and laws relating to waging war - need to be international. Civil war is less common now.

Question 20

‘Power over’ vs ‘power to’

Answer 20

• Habermehl and Mason-Deese (2018) critique analysis of power as being too simple.
• they introduce the terms ‘poder’ and ‘potencia’ which operate in different ways.
• poder: ‘power over’ - tends to be controlling, unidirectional and potentially repressive power of domination.
• potencia: ‘power to’ - dynamic and constantly in a state of becoming. Autonomy, self-determination.
• the separation allows us to think of power in a nuance way.

Question 21

Geopolitics conclusion:

Answer 21

• traditional work focused on the state, sovereignty and power.
• more recent move to consider the role of everyday forms of power and different places and spaces or power.

Question 22

Imagined geographies and the power of representation:

Answer 22

• ‘represent’ - ‘to stand in for’
• representations revolve around forms of power - who controls what representation of people.
• depictions of media, like film, may demonstrate or encourage a particular world view of reinforce an existing world view without necessarily actually being what it is aiming to do.
• over time we begin to develop assumptions, expectations and associations.

Question 23

Distortion of maps:

Answer 23

• all maps have some kind of distortion.
• maps have centred Europe, UK looks bigger and countries close to the equator have been shrunk.
• JB Harley (1988) - argued that the way we understand maps is not objective or scientific but convey a worldview.
• maps have a language
• focus on symbology
• sociology of knowledge - how does production of maps take place - which ones are used by international organisations.

Question 24

Imperial Federation map:

Answer 24

• doesn’t even attempt to be a neutral representation of the world.
• Shows the distribution of the British Empire - message about colonial power, the UK is at the centre of the web of trade network.
• decorative pictures of people and cultures are often displayed in a fairly subservient positioning.

Question 25

Imagined geographies:

Answer 25

• “The ways in which other places, peoples, cultures, and landscapes are represented in discourse and action by another group” (Dictionary of Human Geography).
• one doesn’t need to necessarily go to a place to build an expectation of it - doesn’t need to be a direct encounter - e.g., New York.

Question 26

Discourse:

Answer 26

• an umbrella term for the many ways we may think, write or talk about something.
• orientalism by Edward Said (1978).
• self/other and ‘othering’.
• depiction of literature of particular China which associates it with a kind of mysticism and fascination.
• this shapes people’s opinions, expectations and understanding of that place and therefore the political engagement with the place.
• if we want to justify political action, we need to control how people perceive places.

Question 27

Imagine counter-geographies:

Answer 27

• representations on the Middle East of TV - famously inaccurate showing scenes of rundown towns, and underdeveloped areas. This has been something that activist and protestors have capitalised on.
• writers and artists saw an opportunity to exercise power as this knowledge wasn’t shared or possessed by other parties and they use it to push their religion or share their view.

Question 28

Representation and power conclusion:

Answer 28

• representations are not neutral things, often decontextualised - e.g., maps, pictures, films, etc.
• Said’s work shows how representations have been used to justify aggressive political action.
• there is therefore space for counter-geographies to emerge.