The Japanese Alternative Geography and the Theory of Spatial Configuration : A Disciplinary Reflection with the Prospects into the Future

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  • 批判的地理学と空間編成の理論 : 学説史的反省と将来への展望
  • ヒハンテキ チリガク ト クウカン ヘンセイ ノ リロン ガクセツシテキ ハン

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Abstract

<p>The Japanese alternative geographers, taking a critical position towards exceptionalist conventional geography, have advocated since the pre-WWII days for "geography as a social science. " In an attempt to attain it, those alternative geographers brought the concepts of conventional, non-spatial social science (mainly Marxism) into conventional, empirical geography. Its consequence was, nevertheless, to negate geography as an independent discipline, dissolving it into non-spatial social science or area studies in general In the meantime they created their own comfortable enclave or "critical geography" carved out within the established academic system of geography. Given their insufficient comprehension of the social and economic theories, the emergence of such enclave was inevitable. Compelled by the opening up of the boundaries of social sciences and increased importance of interdisciplinary research, the alternative geographers were put in the position where they needed to contribute to the social science in general. Nevertheless, they then curiously turned back to the conventional paradigms of geography, by reproducing exceptionalism, the concepts of functional and uniform regions (sometimes in a fancy term of "regional structure") or bourgeois location theories, etc. Those social scientists in Japan who began to show interest in space, on the other hand, came to look for spatial conceptions of society directly in the literatures published in the English language, with most of those alternative geographers in Japan left behind. Several books of Yi-FuTuan, for example, have been translated into Japanese but many of them were by the non-geographers. In order to get over this paradoxical situation, the real alternative is needed. It must aim at formulating the robust theory of spatial configuration of economy and society, explaining the socio-spatial processes taking place when material space is subsumed into society, based upon the comprehensive understanding of social and economic theories. This has been the way how geography successfully established itself as an independent discipline among academic division of labour of social sciences in the English-speaking countries over the last 25 years. Japan should indeed be no exception. The main task here is to analyse the socio-economic processes and relations modified through subsumption of various attributes of material space : pristine space and the heterogeneous space with the built environment, created through subsumption of the pristine space into society. Since the author has presented the theory of space subsumption elsewhere already (Mizuoka, 1991), I shall here only outline its framework. Pristine space in principle possesses two material attributes : absolute and relative. The absolute attribute is characterized by the limitless contiguousness and universality ; the relative attribute by the distanciation and uniqueness. These attributes of pristine space "formally subsumed" into society disrupt the normal operation of social and economic processes stipulated in the "one-point" models of society and economy. The social processes to create space then come about in an attempt to overcome these disruptions, in order to regain the "one-point" social processes and relations. The contiguousness and universality of absolute space, detrimental to the exclusive and independent existence of the social agents and groups, are to be annihilated by means of bounding it, when there are other neighbouring groups or agents. The outcome is the formation of a bounded space or territory with its own distinct locality, which eventually configurate together to form a number of vertical strata of the collective absolute spaces. The isolating or distanciating effect of relative space detrimental to the social interactions, on the other hand, is to be annihilated by means of</p><p>(View PDF for the rest of the abstract.)</p>

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