The Dictionary of Human Geography

Comp. by: LElumalai Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 9781405132879_4_R Date:2/4/09
Time:21:12:27 Filepath:H:/00_Blackwell/00_3B2/Gregory-9781405132879/appln/3B2/re-
vises/9781405132879_4_R-new.3d

had an economic as well as a moral rationale.

It was thought that by helping to maintain the

level of demand in the economy during

periods of slow growth or recession, redistri-

bution would reduce the risk of a major crisis

of accumulation such as that associated with

the stock market crash of 1929 (cf.fiscal

crisis). In practice, the extent of the redistri-

bution provided by specific welfare states

varied depending on their scope, the levels

of benefits provided and the balance bet-

ween universal provision and means-testing

(Esping-Andersen, 1990). The rise of the

New Right in the 1980s saw sustained political

attacks in many high-income countries on the

idea of progressive redistribution in line with

the doctrines ofneo-liberaleconomic policy.

Neo-liberalism has been associated with a shift

from the welfare to the workfare state, with the

continuation of redistribution conditional on

labour-market reform (Peck, 2001b). Work on

redistribution within political geography

has focused on the implications of the territor-

ial restructuring of thestate. For example, in

devolved and federal systems, redistribution

may involve ‘fiscal federalism’, in which the

central (federal) level of the state arranges

the transfer of resources between territorial

units at lower levels. However, underneo-

liberalism, a shift from managerial to entre-

preneurial forms of urbangovernancehas

seen local agencies increasingly having to

compete for a share of these redistributed

surpluses (Harvey, 1989a). The forms of

redistribution mentioned here mostly take

place within the framework of thenation-

state, despite the fact that the greatest

inequalities in income and wealth are between

those living in high-income and low-income

countries. In development geography, a con-

cern with redistribution at the international

scale is reflected in research on the politics

ofaid. jpa

Suggested reading

Harvey (1989a); Painter (2002).

redistricting The redrawing of the boundar-

ies of electoral districts (termedredistribution

in the UK: see Rossiter, Johnston and Pattie,

1999). Redistricting can be manipulated to

promote one party’s cause over another’s, as

inmalapportionmentandgerrymandering.

In the USA, the former was ruled unconstitu-

tional in the 1960s, and redistricting is

required after each decennial census (cf.

racial districting). In most states, this is

done by political parties, who deploy

gerrymandering wherever possible to promote

their cause. In the UK and some other coun-

tries, however, redistricting is undertaken by

independent, non-partisan commissions,

operating under legally defined rules. rj

Suggested reading

Handley (n.d.).

redlining A mortgage lenders’ practice of

mapping high-risk neighbourhoods by encirc-

ling them with red lines. Lenders refuse to

extend loans in these ‘redlined’ areas because

of fears of default. Redlining discriminates

against ethnic minority, low-income, female-

headed and ‘non-traditional’ households

because of the neighbourhoods in which

they live. The practice has been widely pro-

hibited but still occurs informally (e.g. estate

agents/realtors ‘steering’ clients into select

neighbourhoods). Severe consequences ensue

for cities, including vacancy, dereliction and

neighbourhood decline (Darden, 1980).

Recent research suggests that lending discrim-

ination is contingent on a combination of the

‘race’ of prospective borrowers and the char-

acteristics of neighbourhoods in which they

hope to buy (Holloway, 1998). em

Suggested reading

Darden (1980).

reductionism The methodological presump-

tion that complex phenomena or events can

be explained by their reduction to simpler, more

fundamental entities. For example, rather than

to talk about human behaviour it is better to

talk about genes, or even more fundamentally

strands of DNA molecules. Or, rather than talk

about lightning, it is better to speak about an

electrical discharge, or more fundamentally

the flow of electrons. Reductionism as a strategy

is especially common in the natural sciences

that strive to decompose phenomena or events

into their most basic constituents or causes. For

example, under ontological reductionism, the

properties of matter are reduced to sub-atomic

particles, quarks and leptons. Or under meth-

odologicalreductionism,theworld,theuniverse

and everything else are reduced to a single

explanation, string theory.

Reductionism is also found in the social

sciences, includinghuman geography. The

exemplar ismethodological individualism.

In this case, the complexities of human behav-

iour are reduced to the single fundamental

cause and typically cast as individualrational

choice. While it might appear that the diverse

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_R-new Final Proof page 626 2.4.2009 9:12pm

REDISTRICTING