The Dictionary of Human Geography

Comp. by: LElumalai Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 9781405132879_4_P Date:1/4/09
Time:15:20:56 Filepath:H:/00_Blackwell/00_3B2/Gregory-9781405132879/appln/3B2/re-
vises/9781405132879_4_P.3d

(Hubbard, 2004). In all cases, research sug-

gests the gendered inequalities of sexual

commerce produces a series of spaces where

women’s sexuality can be bought and sold by

men with relative impunity, albeit that these

spaces may be important in the forging of new

gender identities and formations (Law,

1997). In this sense, the relative silence on

forms of male sex work poses some interesting

questions about gender inequalities within and

without the discipline. ph

Suggested reading

Hubbard (1999).

proto-industrialization A term proposed by

economic historian Franklin Mendels (1972)

to denote ‘the rapid growth of traditionally

organised but market-oriented, principally

rural industry’. Whilst the presence of such

industries had long been recognized,

Mendels presented proto-industrialization

not merely as a description of (pre-)industrial

organization, but also as anexplanationof

industrial change, arguing that it ‘preceded

and prepared for’ industrialization.In

emphasizing the continuities between trad-

itional systems of domestic production and

the centralized and mechanized factory sys-

tem, Mendels’ thesis is central to the broader

reconceptualization ofindustrial revolution

as an evolutionary and gradual process. Two

different models have been proposed, each

with its own empirical and conceptual

emphasis. Ecological models focus on the

pre-conditions for proto-industrialization, par-

ticularly the ways in which under-employed

peasantlabour was drawn into industrial pro-

duction. There is little consensus on the type of

agrarian economy that would favour such

development, with rural industries emerging

in both arable areas (with seasonal unemploy-

ment) and pastoral regions (with diurnal time-

budgets). In reality, much depended upon the

social and institutional environment of the

area, especially land holding and the type and

flexibility of labour skills. Once established, it

is argued thatcomparative advantageled to a

growingdivision of labourbetween specialist

industrial and agriculturalregions. However,

this not only makes unwarranted assumptions

about individual and collective rationality, but

also fails to acknowledge the importance of

other variables, such as the presence of com-

mercialized mercantile and urban networks

(Stobart, 2004).

Economic modelsfocus on the structural rela-

tionship between the peasant/artisan and the

merchant/capitalist. The artisanhousehold

sought to balance production and consump-

tion by adjusting the level of engagement in

manufacture for themarket, whilst the mer-

chant collected together the products of

domestic labour and consigned them to dis-

tant markets. Although mutually dependent,

the interests of these two parties were inher-

ently contradictory. When prices fell, artisans

increased production to maintain household

income, thus saturating the market and wor-

sening the recession. When prices rose, artisan

households could more easily satisfy their

needs and production slowed, just when mer-

chants would seek to take advantage of

increased profits. This conflict is seen as being

resolved through the increasing control exer-

cised by merchants over the production pro-

cess. Initially, this involved a shift from the

Kaufsystemof independent artisan production

to theVerlagssytemof putting out, wherein the

means of production remained in the hands of

the merchant, who effectively employed

dependent outworkers. This was subsequently

superseded by a merchant-led centralization

of production into proto-factories (Kriedte,

Medick and Schlumbohm, 1981).

This version of proto-industrialization as a

theory of industrial change has been chal-

lenged from three very different directions.

At the level of the peasant household, de

Vries (1994) has argued that consumption as

well as production became ever-more market

oriented, increasing household specialization

and growing consumption inspiring an

artisan-centred ‘industrious revolution’. At a

broader scale, studies of regional industrializa-

tion have emphasized that the logic ofcapit-

alismwas played out differently in different

places: factory production was one of a range

of possibilities, which included workshop-

based flexible specialization as well as hybrid

factory–workshop systems (Berg, 1994). More

fundamentally, others have questioned

whether proto-industrialization was, indeed,

a necessary stage in industrial development,

arguing that the switch from organic to

mineralresourceswas the real key to indus-

trialization. jst

Suggested reading

Berg, Hudson and Sonenscher (1983); Houston

and Snell (1984).

psychoanalytic theory Originating in the

late nineteenth century in the work of

Sigmund Freud (1986–1939), psychoanalytic

theory and practice offers a distinctive way of

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 595 1.4.2009 3:20pm

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY