Pavel Doboš

                                                                         ZD331 Geographical Thought

                                                                                        podzim 2013


         GEOGRAPHICAL THOUGHT IN THE THESIS “IMAGINATIVE GEOGRAPHIES IN THE CZECH SOCIETY”


Introduction: representation and imagination of places and regions

               Nowadays many perceptions of the world and its regions are highly influenced by
diverse indirect sources of information that helps people to cultivate their geographical
imagination related to far places. Individuals usually don’t have an opportunity to learn about
most world region through their personal experience so they must rely on different sources of
knowledge making. Among these sources media are widely influential for instance. Nonetheless these
sources are able to introduce highly stereotypized and ideologically biased representations of
places and regions. The reason of this could be traced to the fact that representation can never be
considered as a comprehensive reflexion of certain phenomenon, event or place because values,
attitudes and cultural patterns of the one who represents are always integral part of
representation (Hall 1997b). In this case representation is understood as signification with the
use of linguistic, and sometimes also non-linguistic, means in order to achieve an indirect
mediation of various phenomena to other people. Hall (ibid: 15) asserts that representation is an
important part of the process through which meaning is produced and especially transmitted between
members of society. According to him this is impossible to be accomplished without the use of
language, signs and images, although it cannot be forgotten that these things are influenced by
discourses which circulate in a society.

               The practice of representation is never innocent in its consequences though because
various kinds of representations are mirrored in perceptions that people create for themselves
about diverse phenomena, events, places of even other people. Nonetheless the crucial question is
how and how intensively various representations are able to project themselves into real
perceptions, opinions and sentiments that sediment in minds of real people. As newer approaches of
cultural studies notice, a critical analysis of cultural products, including those with
representations, should never be separated from an analysis of how these cultural products are
perceived and what effect they have on their consumers.

               To make any insight into the complex of this effectiveness possible it is needed at
first to understand how actually real perceptions of phenomena, events, places or other people look
like in a particular society. Since the character of the thesis is supposed to be primarily
geographical the aim is to critically analyse perceptions and imaginations of places and regions
above all, to try to critically interpret how these perceptions and imaginations look like,
including answering the question from what discourses they draw for their existence.


Geographical approach

               The research is about an analysis of perceptions of selected world regions which can
be found in the Czech society. Concerning the variety of geographical subdisciplines it is intended
to keep the research in the field of cultural geography and particularly in the segment of cultural
geography which deals with representations of places. Thus important theoretical recourses should
be also found in Birmingham school of cultural studies, postcolonial studies and generally in those
social scientific approaches that are somehow interested in representations of far places and
regions. These referenced theoretical bases could be interconnected by a proposition that Duncan
and Gregory (1999: 4-5) mention when they give an apt comparison saying that similarly as a
translation of a text cannot underpin all symbolic connotations of the translated language a
translation of one place to a cultural idiom of another place loses certain symbolic content that
is important for inhabitants of the place and replaces it with another symbolic qualities which are
added by translators and their culture.

               The thesis is a part of an approach that began spreading after so called cultural
turn under the name of New Cultural Geography. It was this approach that started to be engaged in
the critique of representation practice of geographical phenomena. This critique aimed at the fact
that represented regions and places imply values of representing group or individual. Coming from
poststructuralist views on language and text new cultural geographers began to urge that
represented places and landscapes can be read as texts illustrating opinions and beliefs of people
(Crang 1996: 27). In this way of seeing place it can be said places acquire their meaning and
identities as a result of culture and context where practice of representation is happening.

               Analytical basis of the research can be traced to the interpretative anthropology
whose notion is that an analysis of a cultural meaning must be carried out primarily as an analysis
of a cultural text. Culture of a society functions as a collection of texts where cultural
interpretations are inscribed and where members of the society draw for their interpretations of
diverse social situations (Geertz 1973). Authors of cultural studies add that it is important to
connect these interpretations with the problem of power. So it is also crucial to observe how
cultural interpretations derive from dominant constellation of power and knowledge that appears in
the society (Hall 1997b: 51).

               The approach was chose for its emphasis on the role of culture in forming
geographical phenomena, for its taking into account questions of discourse and power in their
influence on society and for its critical stance toward the representation practice. These things
are hardly to be found in older geographical approaches. On the other hand newer approaches
emanating from non-representional theory elaborated mainly by Thrift (2008) often ignore the
problematic of power in representations more than desirable. In this theory carriers of
representations become just a superficial causation of emotional and affective reaction in most
cases. This means such a research loses its potential to deeply recognize the connection of power
and representation that is crucial for cultivating societal knowledge through media products that
are usually the most wide-spread carriers of representations nowadays. In other words
non-representional theory has no account of how representional contents and interpretations get
embedded in the world (Couldry 2012: 31).

               Nonetheless it is also important to mention that representations, even media
representations, are performative rather than a cultural product detached from everyday bodily
living. Representations aren’t pre-given substances that subsequently influence peoples’
perceptions and opinions, but are part of the shaping process all the time, performed and also
performing when consumed and rearticulated. Perceptions and imaginations of far places and people
aren’t formed as a reaction on representations as ethereal ideas but rather arise through the
course of representation, through its performance while making emotional relation to the
represented subject (Chouliaraki 2013: 150). This means it remains crucial to work with the concept
of performance in the research, which also means it must be further reconsidered how and whether at
all to use non-representional theoretical approach in the thesis and how it is possible to
approximate to the conception of more-than-representional (Lorimer 2005), since it remains
undesirable to leave representional way of cultural geography as the main theoretical base of the
research.


The importance of media representation in forming of perceptions of places and regions

               In the culturally geographical approach of the thesis place and region are no more
understood as still and rigid geographical phenomena and are much more characterised as active
compositions of traces that are left by various cultural groups, whether traces are of material or
of non-material form. The latter is connected with ideas, opinions and imaginations, thus with all
important aspects which appear through representations. Such traces are never neutral though
because behind them there are certain cultural ideals of how the world should look like, which
shows the presence of an endeavour of persuading people to agree with these ideals (Anderson 2010:
5). Hence region and place are not only reproduced by cultural groups that inhabit them, but can
also be reproduced by other cultural groups. It is then impossible to reach a true image of a place
or region since what image gets to the forefront depends on power struggle between cultural groups
reproducing different images of places and regions. Crang (1996: 40) says reading a place is never
about discovering a cultural essence of a place but about revealing how visions of places means
different things for different groups and how meaning of these visions are being reproduced and
altered.

               In this age it is possible to consider media to be a powerful actor in the struggle
about visions of places and regions because media are the most wide-spread carrier of
representations of far regions and places as was mentioned earlier. Thus cultural groups that have
influence on forming media representations can be regarded as groups in possession of very good
means of spreading their worldviews or opinions and in doing so being able to reproduce associated
cultural meanings in the society. By the society it is meant the group of people that are prevalent
consumers of similar patterns of media representations, typically a national society drawing on
patterns from national media. Adams (2009: 161) notices that meanings in media representation are
internalized by individuals because of a long-term consummation of media products that contain same
or similar patterns of meanings. Due to the long-term exposure of a specific discourse of media
representation people obtain a certain framework for understanding the world. The power of the
framework lies in the fact that it is shared by most members of the society.

               Although it can be said that culture of the society that consume representations can
and probably does correspond with culture of the group that create representations there is always
space for disharmony and it is for several reasons. Firstly consumers of representations can have
access to alternative sources of information about various places and regions. Secondly the
correspondence of cultural meanings of creator and consumer of media representation doesn’t have to
be high because creator and consumer can originate from different social groups. Thirdly the
creation of media representation is usually influenced not only by culture but also by fields of
economics or politics for instance and this very fact can change meanings of created
representations into higher disharmony with cultural meanings of consumer. Fourthly from diverse
reasons consumers of media representations can disbelieve or actively oppose creators of media
representations since there is no power without resistance as famous Foucault’s (1980: 142) thought
claims. That is why Hall (2005 [1980]) recognizes processes of coding and decoding. The final
resemblance of these processes depends on the degree of asymmetry between cultural codes of the
source of a representation and codes of the receiver of a representation. Richardson (2007: 41)
adds that this is in addition influenced by conscious preferences which a consumer of media
representation has for a creator of representation.

               Hence media representation of far places or regions and real perceptions and
imaginations of same far places or regions can differ a lot even at those people who gets knowledge
about them exclusively from media. The research of the thesis wants to explore this difference,
because it is believed that media are in fact the main phenomenon that enables us to think of
cultural globalization. Morley (2000: 14-15) asserts that for most people, even in the West, the
globalization actually means consumption of images of distant places through media from safe place
of their home and locality. That is why it is regarded as important to investigate the problematic
of media representation of far places and regions with its relation to the problematic of actual
perceptions and imaginations of same places and regions that can be found in the society –
particularly at those members of the society whose relationship with media representation is
nothing less and nothing more than the fact they are its receivers or consumers.




Imaginative geographies as the analytical concept

As a basic conceptual fundament of the thesis there are used imaginative geographies that at first
appeared in the work of Edward Said (2008 [1978]). In this sense imaginative geographies are meant
as highly ideological ideas and visions of places which define and emphasize mainly otherness of
these places. As one of the proper ways how to critically approach representations of various
places it is to relate these places to the analysis of discourse of otherness (Duncan 1993: 39).
Said’s imaginative geographies are very useful in this respect because they can be considered as a
part of discursive formation which defines general system of narrating about far regions or places
of the world. Discursive formation is a general system of narrative whereas discourse can be
considered as a group of narratives that belong to the same discursive formation (Foucault 2002
[1969]: 179-180). Thus imaginative geographies are general system of narrating about otherness in
geographical phenomena while discourses under this discursive formation can differ according to the
place or region that is their target.

Imaginative geographies can produce very diverse visions of places and this depends on factors of
who is their creator, what is his relation to the real place which imaginative geography reference
to, and importantly also what is the real place actually. Nonetheless as a part of discursive
formation diverse kinds of imaginative geographies are connected by the way how they construct
knowledge about otherness. Imaginative geographies of even the same places can acquire diversified
shapes in minds of individuals that depend on individuals’ cultural experiences. But constructions
of imaginative geographies are linked by the way how they achieve “regimes of truth”. Imaginative
geographies embrace a principle of ignoring various particular phenomena, things or people in
places and especially they embrace an effort of simplifying the complex, of limiting the complexity
of various places in order to get an easily graspable imagination that is able to point at varied
degrees of otherness. As the conceptual fundament imaginative geographies got a very important role
in cultural geography because working with them allows a geographer to critically examine and
perhaps deconstruct geographical discourses of otherness (Driver 2005).

               Said (2008 [1978]) tells us imaginative geographies are about construction of
perceptions of various places while these perceptions have their own meanings that don’t actually
reflect a real shape of a place very much but much more reflect attitudes and relations to the
place from the position of meaning producers. Meanings that are given to places are here to
dramatize remoteness and otherness between what is near and what is far. Hence a practice of
identifying some space as “ours” and some space as “theirs” can be a geographical distinction of
highly arbitrary character. In other words imaginative geographies can be regarded as constructions
that translate distance into difference through series of spatializations (Gregory 2004: 17).

               Gregory (2000: 313) asserts that through his notion of “poetics of space” Said
thinks of imaginations of places and space as crucial factors for formation of identity. Due to a
practice of creating our known space in contrast to their unfamiliar space the feeling of identity
can come into being. In this way collective identity is adherent to the known and detached from the
unfamiliar. Collective identity then tries to find common language. Thus imaginative geographies
legitimize their own contradictory means and contents of utterances about imaginatively similar and
close places and imaginatively far and different places. These two languages use different
linguistic tropes and figures, which leads to a differentiated reception of otherness for different
places (Said 2008 [1978]: 87). This differentiation usually emanate from the relation of cultural
background of individuals or groups who reproduce an imaginative geography and cultural background
of a real place that is an inspiration for the particular imaginative geography.

               According to Said (ibid: 69) human mind creates specific geographical phenomena
cognitively with interference of external influence and although they subsequently appear to exist
objectively they still have imaginary character limited by cognition. Notions of “our” and “their”
spaces exist in our minds above all. Afterwards it isn’t needed for the boundary to be respected by
“them”, but for its coming into being it is enough when it is part of “our” mentality. This seems
crucial in the present age of global information reach of the media. Morley and Robins (1995: 134)
believe that this reach is primarily one-way though because the West appropriates the right to
represent non-western others through the media and at the same time project its own doubts and
fears into representations. By these means the West is able to grant itself definitions that
distinguish it from non-western others, which is a wide-spread form of articulation of otherness
nowadays. Gregory (1994: 204) asserts this right not only makes possible to imagine various far
places and regions, but also encourages panoptic observation that strengthen a feel of permanent
surveillance over fate of others without demanding a creation of any moral engagement.

               In a similar way Robins (1996: 19-21) explains his distinction between experience of
vision and experience of touch. This distinction is very important in the age of media being
saturated by images about various far places and regions. He says that by having to come to see the
world by means of mediated vision people are also increasingly able to detach from contact with
world reality, from contact with others who are seen through the media. This vision is always
one-way and others or other places can become even more radically different like they weren’t
actually corporeal (ibid: 31). This is why it is important not to see imaginative geographies just
literally imaginatively but to see them as performative and to remember that imaginative
geographies can be constructed in a way of little reference to those who actually live their
everyday lives on places of inspirations for imaginative geographies (Gregory 1999: 145, cf.
Gregory 2004).

               Said (2008 [1978]) used concept of imaginative geographies in the project of
critique of Orientalism to show how Orient was represented and imaginatively produced by Europeans
through textual and visual production introducing it as backward, mystical and irrational place.
For imaginative geographies the practice of stereotypization is widely influential since it can
make Orient to be a place that is transparent so everyone knows what to expect from it. In this way
stereotypization usually works to keep symbolic boundary between what belongs and what doesn’t
belong into the category of otherness (Hall 1997a: 258). Said notices that imaginatively made
superiority through stereotypization helped to legitimize European hegemony over Orient. Orient
became Europe’s opposite and its otherness enabled Europe to get imagination about its own
civilization and right to civilize Oriental others. Approach to Orient might have been imaginative,
but also had real consequences such as colonialism and imperialism.

               Imaginative geographies of Orientalism are specific and cannot be applied on whole
non-western world. Nonetheless the concept, which has been elaborated by Said, can be used for an
analysis of any far place or region of the world notwithstanding imaginative geographies of diverse
places and regions can be highly differentiated nowadays (Sharp 2009: 25). In my previous work
(Doboš 2013) the aim was to search for differentiation of imaginative geographies inside media
representations. In this sense my intention is to continue and analyze what particular and how
differentiated imaginative geographies settle in minds of members of the Czech society through
effects of media influence. An assumed scope of mine is going to be on African and Asian regions
especially.

               From the analytical point of view it is possible to mark three dimensions of
imaginative geographies: textual and visual, geopolitical and performative. For every imaginative
geography dimensions can function in a different way but are always interlinked.  These three
dimensions are regarded as a possible analogy to Soja’s (1999: 265-269) distinction of Conceived,
Perceived and Lived Space as three dimensions of spatiality, but the relation of defined dimensions
to Soja’s trialectics of spatiality must be further elaborated. For the textual and visual
dimension methods of theoretico-methodological project of Critical Discourse Analysis shall be used
most probably (see, e.g., Fairclough 1995). For the geopolitical dimension interpretative technics
of Critical Geopolitics seems proper (see, e.g., Ó Tuathail 1996). Nonetheless the performative
dimension remains a question so far. Analysis of motivations to agency towards distant others in
relation to viewed media performances (Chouliaraki 2013) seems to be a suitable form of analysis.
But still at this dimension the problematic of affect may become enriching therefore further study
of non-representional theory might or might not help to answer the question.




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