The Dictionary of Human Geography

wariness of spoken communication, he follows
the impetus of CA in foregrounding ‘talk’ as
social action, within which members under-
take ‘representational work’ as it occurs in
the immediacy of the here-and-now. He rec-
ognizes the objection that ethnomethodology
appears not to tackle what theorists take as
larger, more enduring ‘social structures’,
responding on the one hand (with ANT) that
such structures cannot just be the fragile
accomplishment of countless interlinking
peoples, conducts and situations, and on
the other by seeking commonalities with the
‘archaeological’ method pioneered by Michel
Foucault when dealing with the (seemingly
grander) operations ofdiscourseandpower
(Laurier and Philo, 2004). cp

Suggested reading
Laurier (2001, 2004).

Euclidean space The metric space defined
by the geometric system devised by the
Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria.
Euclidean space (sometimes called Cartesian
space: seecartesianism) is thespacetypically
presumed in everyday discussion and in more
formal accounts of distance, interaction or
spatial distribution in human geography.
Euclidean space is based on five axioms:

. Any twopointscan be joined by astraight line.
. Anystraight-line segmentcan be extended
indefinitely in a straight line.
. Given any straight-line segment, acircle
can be drawn having the segment asradius
and one endpoint as centre.
. Allright anglesarecongruent.
. Theparallel postulate. If two lines intersect
a third in such a way that the sum of the
inner angleson one side is less than two
right angles, then the two lines inevitably
must intersect each other on that side if
extended far enough.

From the 1970s, geographers explored both
the power and the limits of Euclidean space for
mapping the Earth (seecartography), recog-
nizing that the surface of theglobeis not
Euclidean but a two-dimensional surface of
constant positive curvature. Spatial analytical
modelling often presupposes Euclidean space,
althoughtherehavebeensomeexperimentswith
non-Euclidean spaces, such as Riemannian
and Lobachevskian geometries and multi-
dimensional spaces (see alsospatial science).
Euclidean space has long been treated as
absolute and homogeneous, properties that
for Lefebvre (1991b) guarantee its social and

political utility. This utility emerges first as

‘nature’s space’ and later as all of social life

is reduced to Euclidean space. The result is a

double reduction of complex three-dimen-

sional realities to a two-dimensional space,

and to the space of two-dimensional objects

that can be ‘naively’ mapped or represented.

At this point, the spaces of lived experience are

normalized and seen as reducible to abstract

and transparent spaces: the god-trick has ren-

dered the world as something to be looked

at from a distance, as a world-as-picture or

world as exhibition, where complex social and

natural worlds have become intelligible to the

eye, to be read and represented (Heidegger,

1962 [1927]: see alsoepistemology;produc-

tion of space). jpi

Eurocentrism A world-view that places

‘Europe’ at the centre of human history, social

analysis and political practice. These three

spheres are closely connected, and revolve

around the constitution of ‘Europe’ as subject

and object of enquiry, as architect and arbiter

of method, and as exemplar and engineer of

progress. Thus:

(1) ‘Europe’ is placed at the centre of human

history through the assumption that it

provides the model and master-narrative

of world history: that its histories (and

geographies) are the norm and the rule,

from which others learn or deviate.

(2) ‘Europe’ is placed at the centre of social

analysis through the assumption that its

theoretical formulations and methods

of analysis provide the most power-

ful resources for all explanation and

interpretation.

(3) ‘Europe’ is placed at the centre of poli-

tical practice through the assumption

that its cultural and political systems act

as the bearers of a universal Reason that

maps out the ideal course of all human

history (seeenlightenment).

europeappears in scare-quotes throughout

the preceding paragraph to draw attention

to its cultural construction. The very idea of

‘Europe’ has a long and far from unitary

history. Eurocentrism has a long history (or

rather historical geography) too, through

which it has been so closely entwined with

the projects ofcolonialismandimperialism

(Blaut, 1993) that it cannot sensibly be con-

fined to thecontinentof Europe. In the course

of those discursive expansions, ‘Europe’ has

turned into ‘thewest’(cf.orientalism), which

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EUCLIDEAN SPACE