The Dictionary of Human Geography

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philosophical basis for radical geography was

short-lived, and in the late 1970s its influence

declined (Peet, 1977b; Peet and Thrift, 1989).

More recently, Blunt and Wills’ (2000) identi-

fication of radical geography’s attention to

anarchism as facilitating the ‘breakthrough’ to

marxismechoes Peet’s sentiments, but they

also highlight Emma Goldman’s contribution

to anarcho-feminism and its role in stimulating

feminist geographies.

However, there has been renewed interest in

the philosophy and practice of anarchism in

explaining contemporary human geography.

Sibley (2001) has identified the importance

of anarchist theory in promoting the challenge

to binary thinking that has developed into the

concept of third space. Bonnett’s (1996)

study ofsituationists(a political force that

was particularly active in the 1960s, seeking a

‘new human geography’ by critiquing contem-

poraryurbanism,planningand architecture)

focuses upon the creation of politicized urban

spaces as a way of challenging authority. Eco-

nomic geographers interested in contemporary

resistance to neo-liberalist globalization

have identified the creation of autonomous

geographies that are underpinned by anarchist

principles. Chatterton’s (2005) study of workers’

co-operatives in Argentina defines three au-

tonomous geographies: a territorial geography

of networked autonomousneighbourhoods,

a material geography of mutual aid, and a

social geographyof daily practice and inter-

action. Following the tension in anarchism

between individual freedom and social action,

Chatterton shows how the groups try to man-

age their interaction with the rest of the world

while simultaneously creating a network of

autonomous places. Taylor (2004a) has taken

a more structural approach to anarchism in

identifyingglobal citiesas a basis for resist-

ing state power. Blunt and Wills’ claim that

anarchist ideas have ‘spawned only the out-

lines of a tradition of geographical scholarship

and there is plenty of scope for further elabor-

ation’ (2000, p. 2) is still true, but there are

signs that urban, economic and political geog-

raphers find contemporary changes a catalyst

for elaboration. cf

Suggested reading

Blunt and Wills (2000); Peet (1977).

androcentricity Viewing the world from a

male perspective. Some feminist theorists

view mainstream scholarship or science such

as geography as androcentric, in that what is

presented as a gender-neutral analysis or

method, in practice embodies masculine values

and assumptions (e.g. Rose, 1993; see also

feminist geographies). Eichler (1988) out-

lines six types of androcentricity: male frame

of reference; locating men as agents and

women as objects; female invisibility; main-

taining male over female interests; misogyny;

and defending male dominance. She also traces

five manifestations of androcentricity in the

research process (seemasculinism). sw

Suggested reading

Eichler (1988); Rose (1993).

Anglocentrism An attitude that unreflex-

ively assumes the superiority ofknowledge

produced in Anglo-American contexts (see

alsoethnocentrism;eurocentrism). In con-

temporary geography it refers to a debate – in

particular, withincritical human geography

• addressing the social and epistemological
  mechanisms that construct an ‘international’
  writing space imbued with Anglo-American
  hegemony. The debate mostly has been
  performed at International Conferences of
  Critical Geography and in commentaries and
  editorials in ‘international’ journals (e.g. Berg
  and Kearns, 1998; Minca, 2000; Braun,
  Vaiou, Yiftachel, Sakho, Chaturvedi, Timar
  and Minca, 2003;Geoforum, 2004).
  This Anglo-American hegemony does not
  work as an intentional domination of debates,
  norisitsomething tobeacceptedasinevitable –
  it is the outcome of a series ofpower-constitut-
  ing practices. One of these islanguage.Toan
  increasing extent, English has become the
  lingua francaof ‘international’ academic (and
  other) discourses, a practice giving precedence
  to some while putting ‘others’ in a position
  where they have to cope with the burden
  of translation and struggle to communicate
  thoughts and concepts in an idiom that to
  them is a secondary skill. This is not only
  about translation in a literal sense, because no
  language is a neutral medium; the adoption of
  any language has a range of cultural and con-
  ceptual consequences. The question of lan-
  guage therefore folds into a much broader
  power–knowledge system, which constitutes
  geographical writing spaces including Anglo-
  phone journals, books, conferences, seminars
  and so on. In these writing spaces, power and
  knowledge connect, through the media of lan-
  guage, institutional arrangements and social
  practices of inclusion/exclusion and through
  the political economy of international publish-
  ing, to produce a ‘centre–periphery’ imaginary
  with regard to the relationship between

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ANDROCENTRICITY