The Dictionary of Human Geography

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vector data Vector is a primary data type

encoding geographical phenomena in GIS

(another israster). It is based on recording

point locations (zero dimensions) usingxand

ycoordinates, stored within two columns of a

database. By assigning each feature a unique

ID, arelational databasecan be used to

link location to an attribute table describing

what is found there. Line segments (one-

dimensional) have two points: a start and end

node. Polylines are connected line segments;

for polygons (two-dimensional) the start and

end node is the same.topologymay also

be encoded. Vector objects are discrete but

sometimes represent continuous fields; for

example, as contours. rh

Suggested reading

O’Sullivan and Unwin (2002).

vertical theme A method of exploring

change incultural landscapesby describing

the processes visibly effecting that change.

Attention to ‘vertical themes’ is an enduring

feature inhistorical geography, but follow-

ing the template set out by H.C. Darby the

traditional approach has been to identifypro-

cessesin landscape terms: thus in Darby’s

(1951) essay on the changing English land-

scape, six vertical themes were identified:

clearing the wood, draining the marsh,

reclaiming the heath, the changing arable,

laying out the landscape garden, and urban–

industrial growth. It would be possible to

identify quite other themes in altogether dif-

ferent terms – the transition fromfeudalism

tocapitalism, includingaccumulation by

dispossession, for example, and civilwarand

the consolidation of the modernstate– all of

which left their marks on the landscape. But

Darby was concerned to distinguish historical

geography from history, and so insisted on

processes that could be located directly within

thelandscape. He subsequently used ‘vertical

themes’ defined in less restrictive terms,

but still expressed in cartographic-narrative

form (diachronic analysis), to connect a series

of cross-sections through the landscape at

particular dates (synchronic analysis) in his

New historical geography of England and Wales

(1973). (See alsosequent occupance.)cw/jw

Suggested reading

Darby (1951, 1962).

verticality, politics of A term devised by

Israeli architect and analyst Eyal Weizman

(2002) to describe the three-dimensional

relations between power, sovereignty and

territory. Weizman’s argument is both gen-

eral and particular. Most generally, he argues

that territory must be conceptualized not as a

flatmapin two dimensions but as a three-

dimensionalspace. Sovereignty has had a ver-

tical dimension since at least the nineteenth

century through claims over subsurface

resources (Braun, 2000), and since the

Convention on the Regulation of Aerial

Navigation (1919) individualstateshave rou-

tinely claimed complete and exclusive sover-

eignty over the air space above their territory.

Indeed, modernwarhas come to rely on air

power to such a degree that Graham (2004b)

insists that the key vector of military power is

now vertical and that it is necessary to formu-

late a ‘verticalgeopolitics’.

Weizman’s core argument, however, is that

these general claims have assumed a particular

and intense significance during the continuing

Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.

He has shown how the Israeli political strategy

of colonizing the West Bank has involved

extraordinary three-dimensional contortions

of space to separate Israeli from Palestinian

areas while maintaining Israeli control over

both. Weizman emphasizes the intricate parti-

tioning of the West Bank, the grid of Israeli

colonies on the hilltops, and the network of

Israeli by-pass roads, tunnels and checkpoints

that work to produce ‘parallel geographies’

of First andthird worlds, ‘inhabiting two

distinct planes in the startling and unexpected

proximity that only the vertical dimension of

the mountains can provide’. dg

Suggested reading

Campbell (2004); Weizman (2007).

violence In her essay on violence, poli-

tical philosopher Hannah Arendt (1906–75)

emphasizes its instrumental character. Violence

appears wheneverpoweris in jeopardy and ‘it

always stands in need of guidance and justifi-

cation through the ends it pursues’ (Arendt,

2004 [1969], p. 241). Hence, violence in

and of itself stands emptied of strength and

purpose: it is part of a larger matrix of socio-

spatial power struggles (Kaur, 2005). Violence

has been defined by the Norwegian peace

researcher Johann Galtung (1969, 1990) as

tripartite: (1) asdirect violence, or personal

injury; (2) asstructural violence, where struc-

tures of social injustice violate or endanger the

right to life of individuals or groups of people

in a society; and (3) ascultural violence,inwhich

any aspect of culture, such as language,

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_V Final Proof page 798 30.3.2009 7:45pm

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