haveresponsibilityforpolicyfieldssuchasplan-
ning, economicdevelopment, health care
and environmental protection, while defence
and foreign affairs remain the responsibility of
thecentralstate.Devolvedinstitutionsmayalso
have revenue-raising powers. Devolution may
also be ‘asymmetrical’ with some territories
having more autonomy and greater power than
others within the samenation-state.
Devolution has been an importantstate
strategy for the management of territorial poli-
tical and cultural differences and the political
claims associated with them (Keating, 1998:
cf.territory;territoriality). It has also
been an important demand of territorial (espe-
cially regionalist) political movements, whether
as an end in its own right or as a step towards
either independence or political separation
(seeregionalism).
Regional devolution has been a notable fea-
ture of the political geography of the European
Union since the 1970s. For example, of the
six largest EU countries, different forms of
regional autonomy were introduced in Spain
in 1978, in France after 1982, in Italy during
the 1990s and in Poland after 1999. In the UK
in 1999, a devolved parliament with some tax-
raising powers was established in Scotland,
along with elected assemblies of more limited
scope in Wales and Northern Ireland (Germany
had adopted a federal constitution in 1949: see
EU Committee of the Regions, 2003). jpa
Suggested reading
Jones, Goodwin and Jones (2005); Swenden
(2006).
dialectic(s) The perpetual resolution of bin-
ary oppositions, a metaphysics most closely
associated in Europeanphilosophyand social
thought with G.W.F. Hegel (1770–1813) and
Karl Marx (1818–83). Inhuman geography,
a simple example would be the following,
essentially Hegelian reading of August
Lo ̈sch’slocation theory. There:
a perfectly homogeneous landscape with
identical customers, working inside the
framework of perfect competition, would
necessarily develop, from its inner rules of
change, into a heterogeneous landscape,
with both rich, active sectors and poor, de-
pressed regions. The homogeneous regional
system negates itself and generates dialect-
ically its contradiction as regional inequal-
ities appear. (Marchand, 1978)This is a helpful first approximation, but
the dialectic is usually deployed outside the
framework ofneo-classical economicsthat
contains traditional location theory. In fact,
it is a characteristic of the Lo ̈schian system
that once the heterogeneous landscape has
emerged, it is maintained in equilibrium rather
than convulsed through transformation. As
such, it is really an example of acategorical
paradigm– one in which change is simply the
kaleidoscopic recombination of the same,
ever-present and fixed elements – rather than
a fullydialectical paradigm.
The most developed dialectical paradigms
in human geography have been derived from
Marx’s historical materialism. A formal
statement of principles has been provided by
Harvey (1996, pp. 48–57; cf. 1973, pp. 286–
302). Its key propositions include the following:. Dialectical thinking emphasizesprocesses,
flows and relations.
. The formation and duration ofsystems
and structures is not the point of departure
(these ‘things’ are not treated as givens)
but, rather, the problem for analysis: pro-
cesses, flows and relations constitute –
form, shape, give rise to – systems and
structures.
. The operation of these processes, flows
and relations is contradictory, and it is the
temporary resolution of these contradic-
tions that feeds into the perpetual trans-
formation of systems and structures. All
systems and structures thus contain possi-
bilities for change.
. Spaces and times (or, rather, ‘space–
times’) are not external coordinates but
are contained within – or ‘implicated in’ –
different processes that effectively produce
their own forms of space andtime.
Particular importance is attached to the
identification of contradictions. Formally, a
contradictionis a principle that both (i) enters
into the constitution of a system or structure,
and also (ii) negates or opposes (‘contradicts’)
the stability or integrity of that system or
structure.
These principles seem abstract when set out
in this form, but they have been used to con-
siderable analytical effect by Harvey in his
explorations of the contradictory constitution
and restless transformation ofcapitalismas a
system ofcommodityproduction: hence his
insistence on the crucial, dialectical concept of
‘creative destruction’. Harvey wires this to the
dialectical production of spaceitself (see
Barnes 2006a; Sheppard, 2006a). Indeed,space
has occupied centre-stage in many dialectical
geographies, but several of these owe as much
Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_D Final Proof page 157 1.4.2009 3:15pmDIALECTIC(S)