Political GeographyAuthor(s): James McCormickSource: Area, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Jun., 1993), pp. 170-172Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20003264 .

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170 Annual Conference

of surplus value. Christine Doel (Cambridge) took up similar themes in the context of the food industry and stressed, in particular, the importance of the 'mode of initiation' of sub contracting relationships between retailers and the suppliers of' own-label ' products. Louise Crewe (Nottingham) and Michelle Lowe (Reading) discussed buyer-supplier relationships in clothing retailing, and Neil Wrigley (Southampton) and Terry Marsden (Hull) considered retailer-manufacturer relationships within the food system.

A second sub-group of papers concentrated on the theme of consumption. Nick Blomley (Simon Fraser, Canada) argued that retail spaces, such as the shopping mall or department store, are not only 'economic spaces ' mediating the relation between retail capital and the sphere of consumption, but are also complex and vitally important sites in which social identities are formed and contested. Most importantly, they are 'gendered spaces ' structuring hegemonic

masculinities and femininities. He demonstrated this via a remarkably illuminating reading of Emile Zola's novel Au Bonheur des Dames. Paul Glennie (Bristol) and Nigel Thrift (Bristol) then took up similar themes of the relation between consumption, space and gender, and attempted to link recent theorising about gender and consumption with debates on historical geographies of

modern consumption. A third distinct theme of the papers concerned retail employment relations. Paul Freathy

(Stirling) and Leigh Sparks (Stirling) considered what lay beyond simple notions of the dual labour market in retailing. Louise Crewe (Nottingham) and Michelle Lowe (Reading) considered issues of labour flexibility, corporate identity, and organisational linkage in their discussion of the

Gap Inc and the fashion retailing system within Nottingham's Lace Market. A fourth theme concerned the interaction of retailing, financial markets and the property

sector. Neil Wrigley (Southampton) discussed sunk costs, commitment, and corporate restruc turing via an analysis of food retailing and the UK property crisis. Alan Hallsworth (Portsmouth) then extended the analysis with a broader consideration of the role of the Stock Market and 'short-termism ' in influencing the scope of retail restructuring in the UK.

Finally, in wider ranging papers, Neil Wrigley (Southampton) and Terry Marsden (Hull) considered the complex set of inter-relations within the food system between retailers, food

manufacturers, farmers and the regulatory state, arguing that these provide an important vehicle for studying the changing nature of the regulatory state, whilst David Clarke (Leeds), in a paper read in his absence by Adam Tickell (Leeds), attempted a theoretical critique of opposing positivist and political-economic retail geographies. His arguments, in a paper entitled ' The Limits to Retail Capital ', that the development of a radical (but' acceptable ') political-economy critique of positivist retail geography would merely serve to preserve the orthodoxy, and that a postmodern perspective on consumption space was necessary, were highly controversial. How ever, they did serve to bring the discusion back full circle to the starting point of Ducatel and Blomley's (1990) attempt to ' rethink retail capital '.

Overall, a stimulating set of papers which will appear in 1993 in book form (publisher Longman) under the title Retailing, Consumption and Capital.

Neil Wrigley University of Southampton

Reference

Ducatel K and Blomley N K (1990) ' Rethinking retail capital ' International Journal of Urban and Regional

Research 14, 207-27

Political geography An important trend at the IBG Annual Conference has been the growth of postgraduate and young research worker sessions. At the 1993 Conference the Political Geography Study Group (with the support of the Postgraduate Forum) organised its first such session for young research

workers after discussion in Swansea (IBG 1992). The result was a research Forum attracting five papers in two modules on the opening day of the Conference.

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Annual Conference 171

Colm McNelis (St Patrick's College, Maynooth) opened the Forum speaking about his post graduate research work. The theme of his presentation (Spatial transformation in Derry after the reform of local government) explored the role of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive since the dissolution of Londonderry Corporation in 1968. This focussed on the growth of a significant public sector housing programme in the city and how the emerging tenure differentiation came to intersect with spatial and religious differences. The wider political context was addressed in terms of the changing relationship between Northern Ireland and Westminster: although trends in public expenditure (especially on housing) evident in Britain were also identified in Northern Ireland, the speaker concluded that the policy context would remain exceptional.

The second speaker, Fiona Smith (Glasgow) drew upon her fieldwork experiences in Leipzig around the title 'Local reactions to restructuring in the ex-GDR: Citizen action in Leipzig since 1989'. This paper considered the changing nature of local political organisation in a city experiencing dramatic socio-economic dislocation by introducing the five neighbourhoods in Leipzig which form the focus of the research. Contrasting the enduring physical structure of the city with rapid changes in overall employment levels (and specific sectoral declines) and the wider social fabric, the speaker identified the demand for action originating in local communities. The role of the city council in its transitional period was discussed and the relationship between formal political organisation and the spontaneous response of neighbourhood groups assessed through interview evidence.

David Atkinson (Loughborough) also presented findings from his postgraduate fieldwork on 'Geographers and geopolitics in fascist Italy'. This paper drew upon analysis of the journal

Geopolitica in the late 1930s/early 1940s as it expressed academic geopolitical discourses. The speaker considered the links between academic geographers and the state in fascist Italy, the importance of Trieste as the origin for much of this work and the use of cartography in confirm ing the value of geography as a science for the state and the military. The nature of the represen tation of Italian academic geopolitical thinking in the project of the state was explored. In addition the position of geopolitics in the discipline as a whole was discussed: the speaker concluded that proponents of the Italian geopolitics school (reflecting both classical ideas and uniquely Italian interpretations) were marginalised, further emphasising the role of Trieste as the focus for such thinking.

In the second module, Klaus Dodds (Bristol) presented 'British narratives of the 1982 Falklands/Malvinas War' under the title 'War Stories'. This paper was based on a detailed study of how the meaning of the Falklands War was constructed in Britain and specifically its transformation into a just war over ' a place worth dying for . British Parliamentary debates and media coverage of Argentine-British relations and the crisis period itself were used to illustrate the speed and the extent of this transformation from an argument over a group of islands which had traditionally been distant from Britain and its concerns. The scripting of the

war was compared to that of World War Two despite the dissimilarity in terms of material interests and broader ideological struggle. The paper also traced the dispute further back in time and identified the ambiguity of Britain's diplomatic and trading relationships with Argentina before 1982.

James Sidaway (Reading) presented the final paper in the session by focussing on the theoretical positions and 'Frontiers of political geography'. A brief review of the traditional range of concerns in the sub-discipline as it has been researched and taught was followed by a consideration of where the subject is going. How political geography is responding to the diversity of concerns emerging from the challenges of postmodernism and feminism for example was one question; how it can reconsider the valuable insights of modernity was offered as another. The implications for methodology were also discussed. The speaker then identified issues related to the position of the researcher and the research subject (particularly in the Two

Thirds World) questioning how 'familiar' perspectives and the post-colonial literature might influence approaches taken in this context. The political revival of political geography was considered to be as yet incompletely defined but not difficult to recognise.

The diversity of political geography research by the participants in this session more than justified the decision to organise it. Moreover, it is representative of a promising future for the sub-discipline and evidence of the philosophical and methodological challenges from young

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172 Annual Conference

researchers. Each speaker either opened up areas of contemporary interest which have been under-emphasised or not yet studied, or interpreted historical-geographical events through alternative methods.

Thanks go to an enthusiastic audience which contributed to the lively discussion in this Forum and the Study Group sponsors who provided financial and practical support. This is certainly a Forum which will be represented at future IBG Conferences although it may be necessary to consider how such sessions are timetabled to avoid clashes between the growing number of postgraduate sessions. On this evidence, Berry's charge that political geography had become a 'moribund backwater' can finally be displaced.

James McCormick University of Glasgow

Fashioning the future city: urban management issues for the 1990s Despite having the unenviable slot at the beginning of the conference, and some stiff competition from the other young researchers sessions, both modules enjoyed a good attendance. As was hoped, some lively debate was stimulated by the discussion session at the end of the post-tea module, led by the paper presenters. This discussion focused on the issue of whether greater public participation in the management of cities could be stimulated, and how this could be achieved. These issues picked up on points raised by the papers in the post-tea module. The need for greater public involvement in planning was the key conclusion of Phil Hubbard's (Birmingham) paper, which considered the gap between public and planner's views of recent commercial redevelopments in Birmingham. Participation was needed as the public held diver gent views of building style from those of planners, who were not seen as representative of the public. Graham Mowl's (Northumbria) paper, looking at women's leisure activities and the implications for management strategies, also highlighted this issue. The paper illustrated the way in which managers could make false assumptions about people's activities if they were not given a voice to express their needs.

The debate focused on whether there was general public interest in the management of cities. The panel considered that interest existed, but that opportunities for participation were limited for public involvement in the management process. Another point raised by the discussion, was the issue of how a coherent management strategy could be generated to meet the needs of a diverse public. In devising management policies, people felt that cities faced the constant problem of trying to avoid ridged, prescriptive solutions and of using consensus to hide 'problematic differences' in society.

Unfortunately, this discussion on public involvement left little time at the end to consider points raised by the pre-tea papers. These addressed the increasingly important role that heritage and the built environment play in many current city regeneration strategies, with a number of common themes emerged from them. Heather Barrett (Worcester) considered the effect on the fabric of the centres of Birmingham and Bristol caused by the tensions between conservation and redevelopment. She concluded that a blanket adoption of national conservation criteria posed problems for the development of locally sensitive and radical brief for conservation. This critical look at urban policies, often only thought of as a positive benefit to cities, was continued by

Tim Hall (Birmingham). He discussed the role that public art had played in the regeneration strategies of Birmingham, looking critically at the motifs, particularly historical, employed in their design and their symbolic significance to these regeneration strategies.

Robert Bartrum (Sheffield), also offered a critical look at urban regeneration strategies, consi dering the regeneration of Nottingham's Lace Market. Again the problems posed by heritage based strategies in commercial redevelopment schemes were highlighted, as was the need to critically examine which (or whose) heritage was being conserved. Overall, the papers high lighted the problems of an often unthinking application of conservation strategies, public art schemes, and heritage marketing projects to urban renewal. The meanings in the art promoted,

which heritage is saved, and how this heritage is used were issues rarely considered in the

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