Concepts

Cultural Geography

Representation: To exhibit / use/ serve an image as symbol; depict/imitate/ act/ substitute/agent/

sample; performance/ picture/ mental image

A set of practices by which meanings are constituted and communicated within social groups. These
meanings are defined as culture

Representations are not pre-existing realities, they constitute reality. They suggest existence of
relation between two things, though both may never mean the same. There is no intrinsic meaning,
depend on interpretation and therefore multiple, unstable and indefinite World cannot be accurately
and objectively represented, therefore- perceived and constructed from a viewpoint, mediated
through codes and conventions of social groups. Codes and conventions are not always consciously
applied, but semi and unconscious; deeply ingrained in culture, naturalised as real.

Construction of representation is usually effaced, made to believe it is true representation of the

world; conceals the production of the text; legitimises itself. However, the real is not given, but
produced by human actions in cultural frames, has social and cultural character framed historically
(in time). If an image is constructed, then it can be as well pulled apart into elements that give
insights into culture and Ideology (control of rep and Pol power). Representation and Ideology are
interconnected. Unifies ones’ way of seeing as the only way of seeing, as objective, scientific, real;
suppressing diversity and upholding one dominant view. Brings uniformity, conformity, promote
sameness.

Textuality: Everything can be considered as a text They are objects and data that are always open to
readings and interpretations in various ways. Texts are open and not-sealed/ closed/fixed or self-
contained. They keep changing and gaining novel connotations according to how they are received
and perceived by the reader and the cultural circumstances in which they are produced and
consumed. Meanings are unstable and open to re-interpretation

Geertz (anthropologist) considers Culture as Text to be read.

No text is autonomous by itself. Texts absorb and transform other texts. They are built on remains
and traces left by other stories, sites and voices. This is known as inter-textuality.

Responses to texts depend on how each person’s interpretation in turn interacts with interpretations
proposed by others within codes and conventions of a community. This is known as inter-subjectivity.

Reading: A text needs a Reader. Reading a cultural phenomenon. We are all the time decoding signs
and symbols that surround us. It is a vital mechanism on which our social existence depends. We can
make sense by Reading texts depending on our Historical circumstances, political systems and images
unleashed by media, arts and literature. The world is not a linear text but a tangle of stories to be
open for multiple readings. A text is not transparent. It is closed, hidden and silent on many aspects.
Text is not complete without its reader.

Western notions note the Author, creator of the text is supreme.

Foucault says, Author is not a person but a concept defined by specific cultural, social, ideological
and historical circumstances. Barthes challenges this notion through the “death of the Author”
thesis. Text’s meaning is derived from the reader’s interpretation than the Author’s intention. The
author dies as soon as the text is available in public domain to be read. Reader’s Interpretation is
never definite, nor the texts provide monolith messages- they are vast galaxies of signs to be pursued
in different directions. A text is a Multidimensional space where variety of meanings clash and blend.

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Cultural Geography

While the Reader is not constrained by formula and devices adopted by the author, texts do guide
the reader through clues, tips, directions, where to begin and how it needs to be read.

Reading is Historically located within a cultural context, shaped by community of interpreters who
impose a culturally sanctioned way of seeing the world, what is to be said, what is not to be said in a
context. Thus, reading is shaped by processes of socialisation and cultural grooming of perception:
what and how we read depends on what and how we are expected, made or allowed to read. We
should be able to recognize what is unread and unsaid and why.

Critical infrastructure: Critical infrastructure constitutes people and agencies that implement ideas
of culture and solidify ways of life in place, by showing us taste and style, by producing images and
things by which we come to know ourselves and our place in the world.

This includes art critics, academic and social critics, newspaper columnists, editors, movie and book
reviewers, advertising copy writers, waiters and chefs, fashion designers, architects, television
producers and film makers, geographers and anthropologists, politicians, developers etc.

Community panchayats, Spiritual and religious groups/ gurus, Political-cultural groups, elders etc tell
how and why should we live in certain ways and shape the way we make sense of our lives and the
world around us.

Power: ability/ capacity to do work, influence, capture, take-over something/someone. Includes:

Domination & Subjugation, Contestation, Negotiation and Appropriation

Politics: To get one’s way through by attempting to influence the outcome in their favour, by
assertion, dominance, contestation, manipulation, resistance or negotiation. May include pushing
one’s/ community’s agenda, making one’s/ community’s voice heard, making a statement. Politics is
a strong force on shaping representations and against which others voices, opinions and criticisms
are shaped.

Ideology: Set of ideas through which people fashion themselves and others within specific socio-
historical contexts and through which the prosperity of certain groups is promoted.

It is a body of ideas/ values to sustain dominant structures of power. A process and framework
through which meanings are produces and legitimised. They construct something as natural, viable,
and proper way, the only way of seeing things effacing their construction. Ideology uses all sorts of
strategies to legitimise itself by putting itself on a higher pedestal while delegitimising and
sometimes demonising others.

Hegemony: Power of a dominant group to persuade subordinate classes to accept its moral, political
and cultural values as the natural order (Gramsci). Persuasion is an effective strategy- as it reduces
conflict and helps gain control than using coercion. Hegemony is never complete as it is resisted,
which may largely be symbolic.

Cultural Politics: Contestation over meaning, over borders and boundaries, over the ways we make
sense of our worlds and the ways we live our lives. This is played out at multiple scales from the body
to the globe.