The Dictionary of Human Geography

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rare ineconomic geography, the approach

can be credited with helping to establish the

widely held view that economies are socially

embedded and institutionally regulated, rather

than being guided by some ‘hidden hand’ of

market forces. jpe

Suggested reading

Jessop and Sum (2006); Peck (2000).

relational database Relational databases

allow tables to be joined using columns of data

common to the tables in which the various

data sets are stored. For example, if one table

has a list of countries and population size, and

a second the countries and their land areas,

then relating one to another by each country’s

name permits calculation of population dens-

ity. In GIS, thevectordata model is rela-

tional, storing the attributes and geography of

objects in linked tables: for example, place

named A [in table 1] has a boundary I [in table

2] that includes point 1 [in table 3] which has

location (x,y) [in table 4]. rh

Suggested reading

Longley, Goodchild, Maguire and Rhind (2005).

relativism Understanding the production

and justification ofknowledgeas relative to

the standards of thesocietyandculture

within which it arises. In emphasizing the

social rather than individual variability of

ideas and beliefs, relativism gives explanatory

power to historical and geographicalcontext-

uality, and suggests that because knowledge

is dependent upon context, truth will itself

be relative. Relativism is opposed byuniver-

salism, which holds that true knowledge tran-

scends context, and that reason can cut across

contextual difference to judge the truth of

knowledge.

human geography has been concerned

with both cultural and epistemological relativ-

ism. While explicit geographical arguments

for relativism are rare, the term has a positive

and negative presence in debate; as an

approach consonant with long-standing geo-

graphical interests in cultural difference, and

as an accusation levelled at those thought to

be subverting the foundations of geographi-

cal enquiry. Cultural relativism is evident in

anthropological enquiry concerned to under-

stand the beliefs and practices of different

societies without reducing them to some com-

mon explanatory schema. Fierce debate has

proceeded over the moral and political conse-

quences of cultural relativism. Geertz (1984)

argues for ‘anti anti-relativism’, criticizing the

argument that challenging universal standards

of cultural understanding and judgement

leaves one unable to provide moral or political

commentary on the world. Geertz under-

stands the debate as an expression of anxieties,

‘rather more an exchange of warnings than

an analytical debate. We are being offered a

choice of worries’ (Geertz, 1984, p. 265).

Questions of cultural relativism connect tocul-

tural geography, but alsotoepistemological

questions concerning reason, rationalism,

science andhermeneutics(Hollis and Lukes,

1982; Bernstein, 1983), often raised under the

heading ofpostmodernism. Relativism serves

as a marker in the psychology of theory.

Relativistworryiscountered bythepragmatism

of Richard Rorty (1979), who suggests that

relativism is a problem only because of the

foundationalist vocabulary through which

orthodoxphilosophycondemns it. With a dif-

ferent vocabulary, relativism disappears as a

problem. Such an argument has been regarded

as political and moral evasion by those from

both the political Right and Left, who present

themselves as defending traditional standards

and/or maintaining positions for progressive

political judgement. Debates overpostmod-

ernismin geography reflect such tensions and

antagonisms.

Relativism has informed debates in thehis-

tory of geography, and the geographies of

science. Relativistic understandings, from

paradigm approaches through to science

studies work, have presented science as a

social practice: Livingstone (1992) discusses

the consequences for the status of scientific

and geographical knowledge. Smith (2000a)

considers the implications for the geography

ofethicsandmoral geographies, showing

that relativism is a moral and philosophical

impulse with its own history and geography.

Whether this relativistic understanding of

relativism confirms or undermines relativism

is another matter. For many in human

geography, the means to address or side-step

such questions has been provided by argu-

ments forsituated knowledge, seen as a

means to negotiate the twin perils/demons/

temptations of relativism and universalism.

Clear resolution of such issues is unlikely:

indeed, pragmatist and/or postmodernist

arguments would suggest that searching for

resolution is futile, and desiring resolution

misguided. dmat

Suggested reading

Geertz (1984); Smith (2000a).

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_R-new Final Proof page 641 2.4.2009 9:12pm

RELATIVISM