baseline, maritime zones and the deep-seabed,
high-sea freedoms and navigation, and marine
pollution and environmental protection.
The international community continues its
efforts to strengthen the international legal
framework to prevent and suppress acts of
terrorism (including acts at sea), safety of navi-
gation, maritime security and the protection
of marine environment. The 1995 United
Nations Fish Stocks Agreement, considered
the most important multilateral legally binding
instrument for the conservation and manage-
ment of high-seas fisheries since the conclu-
sion of UNCLOS III, calls upon states to
establish new regional fisheries management
organizations where none exist in a particular
region or sub-region. Its objectives are to en-
sure the long-term conservation and sustain-
able use of straddling and highly migratory fish
stocks and to protect marine biodiversity.sch
Suggested reading
Rothwell (1996).
learning regions Spatialclustersof linked
industries whose continued growth is a func-
tion of permanent innovation, through inter-
firm co-operation and competition.agglom-
erationeconomies were first associated with
industrial districts by the economist Alfred
Marshall (1890) and the role of innovation in
spatially proximate linked networks of firms is
usually associated with the work of Piore and
Sabel (1984), who stress that the importance
of both formal and informallinkageswithin a
cluster mean that the whole is more than the
sum of its parts because of both the local
‘industrial atmosphere’ and the ‘mutual know-
ledge and trust’ resident there. Scott (2006)
uses the alternative term creative field to
describe the social relations within such a clus-
ter, defining it as ‘all those instances of human
effort and organization whosespatial and loca-
tionalattributes, at whatever scale they may
occur, promote development and growth-
inducing change’ (p. 54). Recognition of the
importance of such fields to the development
of clusters such as Silicon Valley in California
has stimulated many public policy initiatives
aimed at creating and fostering learning
regions – as withscience parks. rj
Suggested reading
Longworth (2004).
Lebensraum Literally translated as ‘living
space’, the term was used by Friedrich Ratzel
inhisrepresentationofthestateasanorganism
to identify a ‘geographical area within which
living organisms develop’ (seeanthropogeo-
graphy). The term was developed by the
Geopolitikschool and partially adopted by the
Nazis to justify the extension of the borders of
the German state eastwards for the benefit of
Germans and at the expense of the Slavs, who
were represented as inferior and ‘unworthy’ of
the territory (Smith, W.D., 1986; Clarke, Doel
and McDonough, 1996). Territorial expansion
was represented as a ‘natural’ consequence of
the survival of the fittest (cf.darwinism). cfSuggested reading
Smith, W.D. (1986b)leisure Either freedom from doing some
things, or freedomtodo other things – both
definitions connote an existential state that
involves pleasure and enjoyment, alongside
choice. In many definitions and surveys, it is
construed as activities that are not biologically
necessary, that are not constrained by demands
of work or other social actors, but that are
chosen for personal pursuits. Much analysis has
looked either at the changing ways in which
‘leisure’ intersects with other activities or at the
changing forms of leisure activities themselves.
The first approach thus looks at how leisure
fits into the mix of activities that make up life.
The most influential founding work in this re-
gard is Thorsten Veblen’sTheory of the leisure
class(first published in 1899). In it, Veblen sees
leisure as a positional good that shows relative
status and power within a system ofconsump-
tion. For Veblen, ability to consume leisure was
a signal of wealth and status. This was set within
the context of long struggles in the later nine-
teenth and much of the twentieth century
betweenlabourandcapitalover reductions in
the working week and paid holiday time. Con-
siderable argument has emerged over whether
the deregulated economies beginning in the late
twentieth century, with demands for 24/7 ser-
vices,havereversedthattrend(e.g.Schor,1991)
orwhetherpeoplefeel morestressed,andleisure
is more structured, but may have increased. All
thesestudiesfocusontheamountofleisuretime.
However, difficulties arise about definitions
when one considers forms of leisure that involve
‘serious leisure’, such as volunteering or educa-
tional hobbies (Stebbins, 1992), orsocial re-
production, such as cooking or eating, which
may be for pleasure as well as necessity. These
latter highlightgenderissues in definitions, and
that men in developed countries enjoy far more
choicethandowomenwithwhattodowithtime
that is free from paid work.Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_L Final Proof page 416 31.3.2009 2:44pmLEARNING REGIONS