The Dictionary of Human Geography

been learnt, and a defining characteristic of
feminist animal rights analyses (as compared
to those of ‘mainstream’ animal rights advo-
cates) is the tendency to theorize an ethics of
care without erasing the differences between
humans and non-humans. Feminist geograph-
ers continue to focus on the body, but are
possibly more effective in theorizing the body
at a multiplicity of ‘scales’ and institutional
sites, especially in relation to the economy
(Wright, 1999a) and the state. Feminist
geographers are tending more and more to
develop their analyses beyond their national
boundaries, to understand the connections
between processes and lives in the global
North and global South (Katz, 2001a; Nagar,
Lawson, McDowell and Hanson, 2002; Pratt,
2004). As part of this, feminist geographers

are re-inventing critical geopolitics to develop

a politics of security that includes the civilian

body and decentres a focus on state security

(Hyndman, 2005). State violence; the rape

and torture of men and civilian women as

technologies of war; the production of ‘the

monster’, ‘the fag’ and ‘the terrorist’ as figures

of surveillance and criminalization (Puar

and Rai, 2002); the re-masculinization and

militarization of daily life; the impact of neo-

liberal policies on the global gender division

of labour – these are themes that press for

attention in our contemporary world. gp

Suggested reading

Domosh and Seager (2001); Moss (2002);

Nelson and Seager (2005); Pratt (2004); Rose

(1993); Sharp, Browne and Thien (2004).

GEOGRAPHY OF WOMEN

Topical focus Theoretical influences Geographical focus

Description of the effects of

gender inequality

Welfare geography, liberal

feminism

Constraints of distance and

spatial separation

SOCIALIST FEMINIST GEOGRAPHY

Topical focus Theoretical influences Geographical focus

Explanation of inequality, and

relations between capitalism

and patriarchy

Marxism, socialist feminism Spatial separation, sedimentation

of gender relations in place

FEMINIST GEOGRAPHIES OF DIFFERENCE

Topical focus Theoretical influences Geographical focus

The construction of gendered

heter(sexed) identities;

differences among women;

gender and constructions of

nature; heteropatriarchy and

geopolitics

Cultural, post-structural, post-

colonial, psychoanalytic, queer,

critical race theories

Micro-geographies of the body;

mobile identities; distance,

separation and place; imaginative

geographies; colonialisms and

post-colonialisms;

environment/nature

FEMINIST TRANSVERSAL GEOGRAPHIES

Topical focus Theoretical influences Geographical focus

Citizenship; migration;

nationalism; transnationalism;

ethnographies of the state;

development; political ecology;

geopolitics; state violence;

relations between global North

and global South; material

objects; progressive possibilities

for mapping and GIS; affect and

emotions

Theories of transnationalism,

globalization and transversal

networks and circuitries; non-

representational theory; political

ecology; Agamben; political

economy; theories of affect

Global networks and circuits;

multi-scalar and multi-site focus

on connections, relations and

processes; constructions and

disruptions of scale; space of

exception; borders and border

breakdowns; embodiment and

connectivity; dispossession

feminist geographies Interwoven strands of feminist geography

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_F Final Proof page 248 31.3.2009 1:20pm

FEMINIST GEOGRAPHIES