The Relationship between Feminist and Radical Geography - Assignment Example

Final Exams Name Institution Final Exams Question 1: What is feminist geography all about? Moreover, what kind of geography do its proponents want to achieve? Feminist geography comes out as a mechanism within the geography discipline with the potentiality and tendency of adopting and implementing diverse techniques, theories, and subsequent critiques of women in the assessment of the society, human environment, and geographical locality. In 1984, Women and Geography Study Group (WGSG), established in 1980 within the professional Institute of British Geographers, focused on production of the text, Geography and Gender. During this period, the feminist geography was just getting going, thus the characterization of the field with relatively small number of individuals. The groundbreaking text focused on targeting first year undergraduates. The text was valuable because of the influence of the collective WGSG in the development and illustration of its contents in accordance with the demands and expectations of the target audiences. The objective of the feminist geographers in the development of Geography and Gender was to challenge the accepted conventions of academic writing, as well as acknowledge the genuinely collaborative and supportive approaches in relation to the emergence of feminist geography in Britain. In spite of the fact that for many years and in most places, at least half of geography undergraduate students have been women, men have focused on the exploitation of their dominance to execute diverse research and teaching in both human and physical geography. This is still evident in the number of university geography departments. For instance, in the case of the United Kingdom in the early 1980s, a period when numerous changes related to radical and humanistic critiques of positivism for a lively human geography, only 25 percent of graduate students were women. This relates to the data concerning physical and human geography. Similarly, women found it hard to exploit the limited prospects for employment as academic geographers regardless of the existence of few departments with large number of women in pursuit of postgraduate educational and training goals and targets in geography. In the modern context, in spite of the presence of numerous departments, there remains a numerical prevalence of men, especially in the more senior positions. However, there has been substantial change on the events and activities. From this perspective, feminist geography is now a rich field. Furthermore, there are numerous collections and texts to aid the influence and implication of the frequent papers in main disciplinary journals, prominent, specialist, and journal Gender Space and Culture. Feminist geographers focus on the achievement of diverse goals and targets in relation to problems and issues affecting women in the course of understanding and grasping knowledge with reference to human and physical geography. In the course of achieving or realizing these goals, feminist geographers have focused on adoption and implementation of diverse approaches or mechanisms. For instance, there have been numerous articles concerning the mechanisms and recommendations on the problems affecting the women in the field where men express substantial dominance. The first paper focusing on demonstrating or illustrating the issue of the relative status of women in the discipline was in 1973 (Zelinksky 1973). Conversely, a man was behind the documentation of the article. Contrary to the expectation, first papers on feminist geography appeared in Antipode. It is essential to note that subsequent papers aimed at illustrating facts, as well as consequences in relation to exclusion and isolation with reference to women geographers and distinctive geographies of women. The titles of subsequent papers focused on the utilization of terms such as ‘sex discrimination in geography’, ‘the other half’, ‘geographical study of women’, and ‘on not excluding half of the human in human geography’. These articles focus on illustration of the concern to produce or generate a more inclusive human geography. From this perspective, feminist geographers aim at highlighting the concern to produce a more inclusive human geography. According to the early feminist analyses, diverse or different experiences, which structure women’s views or perceptions of the world emanate from the contexts with clear power gradient between the oppressors (men) and the oppressed (women). This relates to the collective experiences of men, as well as women. These experiences tend to be distinctive and unequal. In this context, it is ideal to note that the feminist project is necessarily a political one aiming at removal of the power gradient through emancipatory, as well as other processes. Feminist project provides the perfect platform for the identity politics, thus ‘an emancipatory politics of opposition with the potentiality of resisting, as well as challenging the fraudulent claims of the dominant groups’. In the 1980s, there was an emergence of engaged and diverse feminist geography, which was vibrant domain of research and teaching. This feminist geography focused on illustration of diverse questions in relation to gender inequality, as well as oppression of women in virtually all spheres of life. The objective of the feminist geography during this period was to uncover and counter issues such as inequality and discrimination within the geographical profession. According to McDowell (1999), the specific aim of feminist geography is to ‘investigate, make visible, and challenge relations between gender divisions and spatial divisions while uncovering their mutual constitution and problematize their apparent natural perception.” From this perspective, feminist geographers concentrate on examination of the extent to which women and men experience spaces, as well as places diversely with the intention of showing how these differences are part of the social construction of gender and place. This indicates that the feminist geographers seek to redress the issue of male dominance within the geography field with reference to human and physical geography. From the late 1980s, numerous geographers have moved away from an exclusive focus in relation to gender and class system. The new phase focuses on integration of three critical characteristics. In the first element, the approach focuses on the contestation of gender categories of man and woman. Feminist geography tends to refuse to ignore such categories. Nevertheless, feminist geography concentrates on exploration of ways that human learn to execute accustomed roles and responsibilities of being a man or a woman, as well as how they vary across substantial time and space. These developments have led to increased attentive nature of the feminist geographers concerning diversities in the construction of gender relations across diverse races, ages, ethnicities, sexualities, and religions. Secondly, the new approach concentrates on resorting to a broader array of social, as well as cultural theory inclusive of the post-structuralist thought and psychoanalysis. This is through increased appreciation of how gender relations, as well as identities develop and acquire substantial shape. The third characteristic relates to the objective of the new phase to move towards the concept of situated knowledge. This is through enhanced exploration of the basis of diverse geographical claims, as well as diversity of vantage points from the construction of the allegations. The approach has been ideal in the creation or development of feminist alliances across diversities in relation to race and class. According to Johnson (1989), feminist geography relates to recognition of the women’s common experience of, and resistance to, oppression by men, as well as a commitment to end it with the intention of enabling women to define and control their actions and activities. Conclusively, feminist geography concentrates on identification and resolving of the problems or issues in relation to social constructions within human and physical geography. The purpose of the feminist geography is to recognize and resist any oppression by men within the human and physical geography context. The approach enables women to have substantial or adequate control on their perceptions and activities in pursuit of diverse goals and targets. The group concentrates on the provision of the perfect platform for women to overcome issues of inequality and discrimination within the geographical field. Question 4: Who are the “radical geographers” and discuss to what extent they managed to influence the discipline of geography? Radical geographers focused on integration of the radical geography in the 1970s through engagement of the geographical writings under the influence of Marxist geographical analysis. Most of the radical geographers focused assessment of diverse topics with reference to crime, hunger, health, and poverty. The objective of the radical geographers was to advocate for the change rather than engage in the geographical analysis. According to the information from the chapter, political and social upheavals of the 1960s were essential in the emergence or development of the radical geography. Radical geography focused on integration of appropriate perspectives with the intention of responding to the political, as well as social events with reference to the case of the 1970s and 1980s. Marxist approach was vital in the development or emergence of radicalism within the geography field. It is also essential to note that radical geographers focused on challenging spatial determining, which was implicit in the spatial sciences while seeking to place diverse questions in relation to the influence of geography in the political and social contexts. Radical geography focuses on illustration of the concepts with reference to the poor and the powerless. This relates to the characteristics of places thereof; development and underdevelopment; people of color; women; racism, and causes of environmental degradation. In addition, radical geography relates to colonialism and post-colonialism; the globalization of capitalism; injustices in all its forms; and sexual orientation, as well as sexism. From this perspective, radical geography provides an approach, which encourages personal involvement, as well as advocacy rather than integration of the neutral observation. The approach also relates to the usage of Marxist perspectives especially during the Cold War when mere advocacy of Marxist perspectives suggesting lack of patriotism. It is essential to note that radical geography emerged in the 1970s and 1980s in part as a reaction to counter diverse shortcomings of the positivist/quantitative approach in the course of understanding or illustrating the concepts of human geography. Particularly, while diverse perceptions of positivism as capable of characterizing numerous social problems, radicals believe the quantitative approach had little approach had little value as regards what they see as the ultimate goal of human geography. From this perspective, radical geography focused on providing useful alternatives and solutions to the social problems. It is essential to note that radical geography relates to qualitative methodologies or perceptions. There are numerous reasons behind the growth and development of radical geography. In the first instance, it is essential to note that a growing distrust of authority and the government in relation to the Vietnam War. In addition, there was a growing awareness of the social, economic, and political inequalities, as well as injustices within the case of the United States. There wasalso awareness in relation to the geographical attributes of the social problems. These were amenable to geographical analysis. Moreover, there was a sense that tackling these issues, and possibly finding solutions to them, was relevant and important while reflecting highly on the discipline of geography. Radical geography relates to the Marxist geography, which is a form of critical geography exploiting or utilizing theories and philosophies from the writing of Karl Marx. Marxist geography concentrates on the role of capitalism in the creation of social inequalities while encouraging people-environment relationships with the potentiality of acting to detriment both aspects. The primary goal of radical geography and Marxist geography is the improvement of the society. During 1970s and 1980s, radical geographers focused on examination of the influence of social problems within the space. Similarly, radical geographers focused on placing substantial emphasis on the context, as well as interactions between people and substantial places, thus the perfect platform for the researchers to broaden the research through consideration of diverse issues in relation to social inequality, poverty, ethnicity, discrimination, and hunger. It is critical to note that radical geographers focused on the utilization of analytic framework, as well as the Marxist social agenda within the traditional geography. These attributes were essential in increasing the involvement of the radical geographers on the civil and diverse political movements. Such geographers focused on the development of articles and documentations to criticize different topics and perceptions concerning academic aspect of geography, as well as radical alternatives in the case of the radical geography. According to the information from the chapter, the critical ideas and aspects of radical geography were essential in enhancing the development or expansion of the Anglo-American human geography. Categorically, it is critical to note the subsequent implications of the radical geographers in relation to the growth and development of the diverse disciplines of geography, particularly in the case of urban geography. From this perspective, it is vital to note that urban geography was essential in providing the entry points or aspects for the development and growth of the radical geography. According to the perceptions of the radical geographers, individuals have the freedom to choose which homes they live in accordance with their financial resources and other elements such as security and safety. In the course of understanding the implications of radical geography in the development of other disciplines of geography, it is critical to consider the documentation by Pahl (1969). In this context, the article notes that urban residential pattern relate to the critical factors such as access to resources and facilities, which experience evaluation in terms of time, distance, cost, and social limitations. In terms of time, it is essential to examine bureaucratic rules, which are vital in governing accessibility, as well as distribution of the power within the community. The documentations are clear indication concerning the implications of radical geography in the growth and development of the urban geography, as well as other geography disciplines and sub-disciplines. It is essential to note that radical geographers focused on illustration of the liberal aspirations and interpretations with the intention of describing shortcomings of the conventional geography. This provides the perfect platform for the growth and development of the conventional geography through identification of the areas and aspects of improvement for effectiveness and efficiency in the evaluation of concepts in human and physical geography. This is through understanding the implications of spatial shortcomings and limitations concerning accessibility to facilities, as well as resources on the residential patterns within the urban context. It is critical to note that urban geography was crucial in the course of introducing the radical ideas within the context of diverse discipline of geography. According to the radical geographers, residential separation is essential in representing a reproduction of the class differences, which associate with the aspects or elements of capitalism. In the capitalist societies or communities, individuals have the tendency of losing substantial control of the social conditions with the intention of defining the existence of the people within the society or community of interest. Radical geography focused on the social justice while favoring the political views, as well as the ideologies of the ‘left’. This is through integrating perceptions, which might challenge the economic systems of the essence of capitalism. According to these geographers, capitalism was the onset of social inequalities in diverse parts of the world. This illustrates the influence of Marxism in the development of the perceptions of the radical geographers. Read More