II) Cultural Geography & Regional Identities

Concepts

Cultural Geography is the study of cultural products and norms and their variations across and
relations to spaces and places.

focuses on describing and analysing the ways language, religion, economy, government and
other cultural phenomena vary or remain constant, from one place to another and on explaining
how humans function spatially

creative experience & expressions

Cultural artefacts: architecture, art, texts

Lived cultures: political system, language, social value, lifestyle trend, music, fashion

Cultural Region (formal/abstract, functional/nodes; vernacular/identity)

Cultural Landscape - fashioned from a natural landscape by a culture group.

o

Culture is the agent; the natural area is the medium. The cultural landscape the result
(Carl O. Sauer, 1963, The Morphology of Landscape)

material/ visual/pictorial (physical manifestation of culture Culture as agent, natural area as

medium, cultural landscape the result)

Symbolic/ intangible/ representation of meanings (what is seen is not a given)

Landscape as Text (signifying system social values & ideologies are communicated and fixed in
concrete spaces)

Ways of seeing reflecting different value systems and power relations (multiple meanings)

Environmental determinism versus Possibilism

o

Envi determinism means that man ultimately cannot shape nature (fatalistic viewpoint)
nature sets limits on human environment

Whereas envi Possibilism is the opposite view - environment sets certain constraints or
limitations, but culture is otherwise determined by social conditions.

Links between Cultural Geography and Humanistic Geography (sense of place)

o

The sentiments of attachment (or detachment) that human beings experience, express
and contest in relation to specific locales.

Public symbols: visual prominence & distinctive symbolism create place

attachment & identification

Fields of care: intimate & meaningful interaction in an ordinary landscape

Culture and Globalisation

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Cultural Diffusion, Cultural Hegemony

Placeless landscapes

McDonalisation of culture via globalisation

CULTURAL HEGEMONY

McDonaldisation of culture

Cultural diffusion: transmission of ideas, practices and information from one

locale to another

The world as a single cultural community? -Cultural homogenization argument

-> shared cultural codes, value systems, ideologies, lifestyles, practices

Spatial diffusion is not a new phenomenon: spread of religion, language, diet,

diseases

Geographical perspectives on cultural diffusion:

Diffusion is a spatial and temporal process through which information, ideas,

and practices are transmitted from one location to another.

Geographical traditions in diffusion studies: Carl Sauer and the Berkeley

School of cultural geography; Hagerstrand and the Lund School of time-space

geography

Spatial-temporal dimensions

Agents and Barriers to spatial diffusion

(i) Originator: place of origin

(ii) Carrier: spatial pathways (agents)
(iii) Adopter: place of adoption/destination
(iv) Barrier: spatial & social hindrance
(v) Scales: micro, local, regional, global
Agents of cultural spread:
(a) communication
technology eg. Television,
social media
(b) media corporations eg.
MTV, BBC World Service
(c) language e.g. English
McWorld VS Jihad

Globalism versus tribalism

(regional identity)

McWorld inhabited by western icons

Coca-colonisation of the world by the west

Eg Dubai, Bangalore (outposts of Western culture, no distinct identity)

Jihad as assertion of self/local identity eg. Asian values debate in Southeast Asia

Notice that Islamisation of cultures is also a form of cultural hegemony in itself

Cultural globalisation does not spell the end of local cultures. In fact, local cultures could possibly
benefit. Hence, with the infusion of three cultures, global-local dialectics determine if there is

Resistance by local cultures, or adaptation of traditions

Or application of concepts in cultural adaptation: hybridization, glocalization, transculturation

(a) Not all Global Cultural Artefacts Are Interpreted Similarly

Global icons take on local meanings: no universal meaning!

Geographical specificities: Different places & societies view things differently

Locality matters, geography matters

(b) Resisting global cultures

Installing barriers to diffusion

Jihad forces: self-determination, censorship & control (Barber, 1996)

E.g. control of foreign culture, tourist & internet access in North Korea, Myanmar, China,
PakistanSingapore

(c) Translating Global Products to Suit the Local

selective adoption of global trends/influences to suit local needs creation of hybrid cultural
products: (localization; insiderization; glocalization)

Manuel Castells (1996: 341): We are not living in a global village, but in customized cottages
globally produced and locally distributed.

When cultures receive outside influences, they ignore some & adopt others, &immediately
start to transform them (Zwingle, 1999)

For instance, as much as McDonalds is illustrative of globalisation, for promotions in France, the
restaurant chain recently replace its familiar Ronald McDonald mascot with Asterix the Gaul, a
popular French cartoon character

McDonalds selling chicken, lamb, vegetarian burgers in India where the Hindu populace does not
eat beef

Regional programmes (MTV broadcasts exclusively Asian programmes, or BBC World News
reports your regional news during select hours)