translated into geography by means of feminist
writings. A major source is Judith Butler’s
Foucauldian theory ofperformativity,under-
stood as ‘the reiterative and citational practice
by which discourse produces the effect that
it names’ (1993a, p. 2). For Butler, the body
is socially constructed, embodying possibilities
both conditioned and circumscribed by
historical convention. Moi (1999), following
Simone de Beauvoir, forwards a concept of
the body as a ‘situation’ – a situation amongst
many other social ones, but fundamental in
the sense that it will always be a part of our
lived experience and our coping with the
environment. Grosz (1994) argues for a
sexed corporeality in whichalterityis consti-
tutive of (material, psychological and cultural)
bodies and emphasizes the volatile boundaries
of the bodies, permeated by bodily flows
and fluids (see alsoabjection).
Within geography, the degree to which
time-geographydealt with the body is a con-
tested matter, but two approaches to human
geography in the 1970s and 1980s did contain
traces of the body. Inhumanistic geography,
lived and sentient body-subjects appeared,
and inmarxist geographythe body was im-
plicitly present in notions of the material re-
production of labour power. The real upsurge
of interest in the body, however, occurred in
the 1990s, not surprisingly led byfeminist
geographies. This work can be summarized
around three themes.
The first one is the body asthe geography
closest in. It includes thespatialityof the
body, drawing on phenomenology or on
Lefebvre’s theory of the production of
space, including both the generative spatializ-
ing body and the historical confinement of the
body in abstract space (Simonsen, 2005).
Mostly, however, the literature has dealt with
the inscription ofpowerand resistance on
the body, concurrently involving issues of
performativity, body politics and the body as
a site of struggle. Due to her processual, non-
foundational approach to identity, many
have incorporated Butler’s notion of perfor-
mativity into their work on the intersections
betweengender, sexuality, spaceandplace
- for example, the performance of gay skin-
heads and lipstick lesbians in sexualized spaces
(Bell, Binnie, Cream and Valentine, 1994), or
gendered performances of work identities
within the finance industry (McDowell and
Court, 1994). The notion is, however, con-
tested. For example, Nelson (1999) criticizes
the translations of the language of performa-
tivity into geography for not being aware of
what she sees as its radical representational
notion of body andsubjectivity,inthisway
initiating a lively discussion of the limits of
performativity.
The second, related, theme isother bodies.
Taking off from the insights of feminism,
post-structuralismandpost-colonialism,
it tackles the necessity of acknowledging
differences and power in embodiment. The
body is central in the process where dominant
cultures designate certain groups (disabled,
elderly, homosexual, fat, female, people of
colour, people of other nations and so on: see
ageism;disability;ethnicity;homophobia
and heterosexism; racism; sexuality)as
Other. Subordinate groups are defined by their
bodies and according to norms that diminish
and degrade them as ugly, loathsome, impure,
deviant and so on, while privileged groups, by
imprisoning the Other in her/his body, are able
to take on the position as disembodied subjects.
This ‘scaling of bodies’ has provoked analyses
that on the one hand expose processes of dom-
ination and socio-spatial exclusion (Sibley,
1995) and on the other explore struggles
for recognition and appropriation of space.
A well-developed area within this group is
queer theory, which explores negotiations
and conflicts over symbolic and material
spaces marked by exclusionary imperatives
and politics.
Third, philosophies on the body have
inspired theorists todismantle dualismsthat
have long troubled Western thought and
culture. Primarily, the mind/body dualism is
addressed, subsequently leading to the ones of
subject/object, culture/nature, sex/gender
andessentialism/constructionism. Feminists
have shown how such dualisms have been
strongly gendered, connecting the female body
to nature, emotionality, non-consciousness
and irrationality. Substantially, the dismant-
ling of dualisms has worked as a means to
expose the instability and fluidity of bodily-
ascribed identities. Epistemologically, it has
enforced the acknowledgment that not only
the objects of analysis but also the geographer
her-/himself are embodied. Many geographers
have, at least in principle, adopted the notion
of embodied orsituated knowledge as a
substitute for decontextualized, disembodied,
‘objective’ knowledge.
As pointed out by several authors (e.g. Call-
ard, 1998), the first wave of body-literature
within geography favoured particular ways of
understanding the body. A wealth of studies
was devoted to body-inscriptions, body regimes
and discourses on bodies, while practices ofGregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_B Final Proof page 51 31.3.2009 11:01amBODY