The Dictionary of Human Geography

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Hay and Johnston (1983) insisted that it was

possible (and necessary) to reconcile these two

approaches. Since their objective was also to

usequantitative methodsto analyse spatio-

temporal sequences and networks of connec-

tion and consequence, they were also seeking

to employ formal language systems to substan-

tive effect.

Through the 1980s and 1990s, most human

geographers resisted such ecumenical attempts

to integrate these different conceptions of pro-

cess, however, and the dominant approaches

focussed on describing processes through

ordinary language systems and conceptualizing

them as mechanisms. ‘Mechanism’ was soon

replaced by more fluid metaphors,a

sharper sense of agency, and a greater historical

sensibility (see, e.g.,structuration theory).

The most common focus was onpowerand

practiceand on the capacity of various forms of

socio-spatial theory to elucidate their operation

and outcome (see, e.g., Pred, 1984). More

recently still, there has been a return to the sort

of (non-Kantian) philosophical reflection

recommended by Blaut forty years earlier, as a

way of reworking these understandings of

place, power and, crucially, practice. Much of

this effort has been directed towards the elab-

oration of arelational philosophyin which ‘pro-

cess’ takes centre stage, but in startlingly

different guises. Thus Harvey (1966) turned

to G.W. Leibniz (1646–1716) and A.N. White-

head (1861–1947) to guide his theorizations of

a dialectical space–time (Sheppard, 2006) and

co-productions ofspaceandnature(Braun,

2006). Thrift (1999) and his collaborators

turned to a dazzling array of European philo-

sophers, including Ludwig Wittgenstein

(1889–1951), Martin Heidegger (1889–

1976), Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908–61),

and Gilles Deleuze (1925–95) and Fe ́lix Guat-

tari (1930–92), to address similar themes, but

in ways that animate an altogether different

politics. Thrift’snon-representational the-

oryinvolves an attempt to rethink our most

basicontologyas a means of coping with an

always becoming world of contingency, change

and emergence (through what Thrift (2006,

p. 140) calls a ‘processual sensualism’); to

invoke radically different conceptions oftime

as well asspaceas a means of sensing the mul-

tiple elements that flicker into being in net-

works of places; and to incorporate

performanceandperformativityas a means

of grasping the precarious, conditional and

always consequential achievements of ‘world-

making’ and ‘geo-graphing’ (Thrift, 1999).

There are substantial disagreements between

thesematerialisms, but they share a view of

human geographyas incomplete project and

unmastered process. dg

Suggested reading

Pred (1984); Harvey (1996); Thrift (1999a).

producer services Services provided as

inputs into the production process. This is in

contrast to thoseservices– consumer services

• that are supplied to individuals or ‘end’ con-
  sumers, such as other firms or governments.
  Producer services are often characterized as
  intermediate inputs, before the product is
  completed. They include a diverse set of eco-
  nomic activities, such as accountancy, adver-
  tising, finance, marketing and research and
  development. It was in the late 1970s that
  geographers first became aware of the growing
  contribution that this type of economic activ-
  ity was beginning to play towards economic
  growth (Dicken, 2006). Work on producer
  services became important in economic
  geographyin the 1980s and early 1990s in
  its own right (Daniels, 1993), as well as being
  the basis for research into the emergence and
  classification ofglobal cities.
  Theresearchinthegeographicallyuneven
  developmentof producer services has revealed
  how and why they have important economic
  consequences (Bryson, Daniels and Warf,
  2004). First, the supply and the demand for
  these services need not take place in the same
  place. Adverts can be produced or supplied in
  one place, and then e-mailed elsewhere, to the
  end consumer, from where there is demand.
  Second, and stemmingfromthisspatial disjunc-
  ture between supply and demand, producer ser-
  vices are only partially dependent on the level of
  economic activity in their cities and regions.
  clustersof interconnected activity – around,
  for example, advertising in London (Grabher,

2001. – raise the city’s profile but are not reliant
      on selling the product, in this case the advert, in
      London. Rather, the producer service is sold all
      over the world. The economic development to
      be wrung out of expanding producer services
      has been noted by policy-makers and politi-
      cians, and the sectors have found themselves
      important elements in the formation of urban
      andregional policy. kwa

Suggested reading

Bryson, Daniels and Warf (2004); Dicken

(2006).

product life cycle A concept used to connect

the evolution of a product to changes in the

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 587 1.4.2009 3:20pm

PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE