The Dictionary of Human Geography

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dissidents who were sceptical of its ability to

address what they regarded as more important

questions. On one side, Harvey claimed that

‘those who have stuck with modelling since

those heady days have largely been able to do

so by restricting the nature of the questions

they ask’. To Cosgrove, modelling was the

quintessential expression of highmodernism,

and the privilege it accorded to abstraction,

functionality, generalization and simplicity

was altogether incapable of responding to the

challenge ofdifferencein a late modern,

evenpostmodern, world. On the other side

were a large number of unrepentant spatial

scientists who had no time for such concerns,

and who reaffirmed their faith in the central,

instrumentalimportance of formal model-

ling. The publication of these exchanges

two years later, as Remodelling geography

(Macmillan, 1989) coincided with a radically

different collection edited by R. Peet and N.

Thrift entitledNew models in geography(1989).

Their subtitle indicated a tectonic shift in the

foundations of model-building: ‘the political-

economy perspective’ signalled a range of dif-

ferent approaches that had a common ground-

ing in various forms ofpolitical economy,

critical social theoryandhistorical mat-

erialism. Partly as a consequence, the original

claim for analytical model-building as the cen-

tral object of geographical enquiry was displa-

cedandeffortsweredirectedtowardsmethods

as means rather than ends in themselves.

Since then, however, the prospectus

advanced by Haggett and Chorley has been

renewed in two ways. First, model-building

had been advanced as (at least in part) a solu-

tion to an exploding data matrix: the architects

of the model-basedparadigm insisted that

geographers had no choice but to move

beyond the accumulation of ‘facts’ that had

reduced their field to an endlessly enlarging

global gazetteer, with no clear logic of selec-

tion or organization. Since then, however, the

development of electronic modes of data stor-

age and retrieval, analysis and display – most

visibly through geographic information

systems– has provided much more sophisti-

cated algorithms for data management. Sec-

ond, model-building was originally advertised

as a necessary moment in the ‘puzzle-solving’

activity required for the inauguration of a new,

properly scientific, paradigm for geographical

enquiry: ‘That there is more order in the world

than appears at first sight,’ Haggett and Chor-

ley reminded their readers, ‘is not discovered

till the order is looked for.’ Since then, many

human geographers have been drawn to

forms of cultural and social theory that insist

on the radical non-innocence of just ‘looking’,

and non-representational theory, post-

structuralismandscience studies(among

others) have directed attention towards the

ways in which ideas and images enter directly

into the very constitution – the ‘ordering’ – of

the world. dg

modernism Strategies of representation

closely identified with late-nineteenth- and

twentieth-century movements in the arts that

challenged the conventions of romanticism

andrealism. There are many modernisms,

but Lunn (1985) identified four common

preoccupations:

(1) Aesthetic self-consciousness. ‘Modern art-

ists, writers and composers often draw

attention to the media or materials with

which they are working’ and in doing so

emphasize that their work is a fabrication

in the literal sense of ‘something made’;

they thus seek to escape from the idea of

art as a direct reflection of the world

(cf.mimesis).

(2) Simultaneity and juxtaposition. Modern-

ism often disrupts, weakens or dissolves

temporal structure in favour of simultan-

eity: different perspectives are often juxt-

aposed within the same frame or narrative.

(3) Paradox, ambiguity and uncertainty. Mod-

ernism often explores ‘the paradoxical

many-sidedness of the world’: instead of

an omniscient narrator, for example,

modernist writers may use multiple

points of view.

(4) The demise of the centred subject. Modern-

ism often exposes and disrupts the fiction

of the sovereign individual or the ‘inte-

grated subject’.

Modernism did not emerge in a vacuum: it

was a critical response to a series of crises

within capitalistmodernity. Its coordinates

included: the explosive growth of modern cit-

ies and the radical transformation of their

built forms, economies and cultures; the

restructuring of Europeancapitalism, espe-

cially through the Agricultural Depression at

the end of the nineteenth century and the

intensified technical changes brought about

by a new round ofindustrialization; the ag-

gressive advance of Europeancolonialism

andimperialism; and the turbulence of the

First World War and the Russian Revolution.

This mapping has three implications of direct

relevance tohuman geography:

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MODERNISM