The Dictionary of Human Geography

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(Fleming, 1998). Amongst early medical

geographers, debates about climate revolved

around whether disease should be understood

in miasmic–ecological terms or in the language

of the new germ theory (Rupke, 2000: see

alsomedical geography). Debate raged too

amongst colonists over whether human accli-

matization was possible and, if so, under what

conditions it could be effected.

Other human dimensions of climatic dis-

course and practice have also recently been

the subject of geographical investigation. The

realization that climate has often been con-

ceived of in moral categories has established

it as a significant component in a range of

moral geographies. Thus historians ofsci-

ence, for example, have demonstrated how

the study of meteorological conditions was

rooted in a suite of discourses about the pre-

diction of ominous social and political hap-

penings (Jankovic, 2000). The ways in which

climate was used to pathologize whole zones of

theglobeby resorting to it as the explanation

for debility as well as parasitic fecundity have

also been exposed (Naraindas, 1996). At the

same time, enquiries within historical geog-

raphy have revealed how climate was cultur-

ally constructed to serve various, often racial,

interests among philosophers, geographers,

medical practitioners, travel writers and artists

(Livingstone, 2002a). These pronouncements

contributed directly to the production of the

idea oftropicalityby castigating the tropical

world as medically and morally degraded, and

by providing a naturalistic justification for

various labour practices in the colonial world

andimmigrationpolicies in the West. Read in

this register, climate has persistently surfaced

as a cultural category that has been deployed

as ahermeneuticresource to advance moral,

political and social interests.

The practices of meteorological instrumen-

tation have also raised significant geographical

questions. Weather conditions are derived

from a variety of instrumental devices, such

as anemometers, hygroscopes, thermoscopes,

barometers and pluviometers (seescientific

instrumentation). At centres of calculation,

such as the Meteorological Office, the aggre-

gate mensural yield of widespread meteoro-

logical networks is assembled as affiliated

observation stations return standardized records

to weather information centres. As Anderson

(2005a, p. 290) puts it: ‘Philosophically, the

science of meteorology was global; in practice,

global science developed in distinctively differ-

ent political and geographical landscapes, and

contemporaries insisted on the importance of

the differences.’ The inherently geographical

nature of this process of knowledge produc-

tion as information moves from specific sites

into general circulation has been the subject of

interrogation by both historians and geograph-

ers, who have examined this scientific impulse

to escape the bounds of the local (Jankovic,

2000; Naylor, 2006). The significance of mis-

sionaries in the gathering of climatological

data has also attracted scrutiny, as their

records provide information on the weather

history of locations in which they worked

(Endfield and Nash, 2002). Such work has

drawn attention to issues congregating around

the standardization of measurement practices,

the social geography of who can be trusted to

deliver reliable climatic information, the regu-

lation and management of distant observers,

and the cultural politics of shifting boundary

lines between amateur and professional.

Matters of climate are thus profoundly

implicated in a range of discourses. The racial

politics of climatic determinists, the apocalyp-

tic tincture of certain strands of climatic proph-

ecy, the economic geography of weather-

related insurance, and the social constitution

of climatological knowledge are just a few of the

ways in which climate is clearly disclosed as a

cultural construct. dnl

Suggested reading

Jankovic (2000); Livingstone (2002a).

clusters A concept usually associated with

the work of Michael Porter, from Harvard

Business School’s Institute for Strategy and

Competitiveness. Porter defines clusters as

‘... geographic concentrations of intercon-

nected companies, specialized suppliers, firms

in related industries, and associated institu-

tions (for example universities, standards

agencies, and trade associations) in particular

fields that compete but also cooperate’

(Porter, 1998c, pp. 197–8). According to

Porter’s work, within a cluster: (1) informa-

tion flows increase between related and sup-

porting industries; (2) market awareness of

firms improves thanks to the concentration in

the cluster of demanding clients; (3) peer pres-

sure/competition drivesinnovationas rivals

seek to out-compete one another; and (4) local

‘factor conditions’, such as the availability

of skilled labour in a particular area, are

exploited to make firms globally competitive.

These four forces form part of Porter’s

‘diamond model’ for successful clusters. In

addition, as Porter also points out, the social

foundations of a cluster are vital because

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_C Final Proof page 91 31.3.2009 9:45pm

CLUSTERS