The Dictionary of Human Geography

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been continued byglobalizationtheorists –

is close attention to the ways in which these

new industrial spaces (including high-tech

spaces in Indian cities such as Bangalore and

Hyderabad) are linked to international capital

and consumermarketsby firms such as IBM,

Hewlett-Packard and Sony. NIDL theorists

largely discounted the domestic bases of in-

dustrial success in the Asian Tiger economies

and important policy differences between

them. They were ahead of the game, however,

in recognizing some of the global shifts set in

motion by the restructuring of capitalism as it

moved into an era ofneo-liberalismand dee-

peningtime__space compression. sco

Suggested reading

Dicken (2003); Schatz and Venables (2000).

new town A planned town in an area that

previously lacked a substantial urban settle-

ment. Although such planned settlements

can be found throughout history, the term

was first widely used after passage of the

BritishNew Towns Act 1946. The New Town

movement there, based on the earliergarden

citymovement and the concept ofneigh-

bourhood units, stimulated the creation of a

number of new settlements, most of them out-

side London, designed to limit urbansprawl

and protect agricultural land (seegreen belt),

to decentralize population and economic ac-

tivity and to contribute to rehousing policies

necessitated by bothslumclearance ininner

citiesand the destruction of much housing

during the Second World War. The first of

those towns was Stevenage, with ten being

created between 1946 and 1950. Eventually,

28 were designated and built, including major

cities such as Milton Keynes, which incorpor-

ated several small existing towns.

The model set in the UK has been widely

adopted over the past 60 years, and there are

New Towns in a large number of countries.

Although the utopian ideals of many of the

movement’s originators have not been met –

notably with regard to the creation of relatively

self-contained communities – most new

towns represent relatively high standards of

housing and urban design. rj

Suggested reading

Hardy (1991); Osborn (1977); Stein (1966).

NGO The acronym for Non-Governmental

Organizations – not-for-profit voluntary asso-

ciations that seek to act for the public good.

The term covers a variety of bodies from

international agencies with large professional

staffs to small groups of unpaid volunteers.

Their functions are diverse and include cam-

paigning, humanitarian relief, development

work, social welfare, cultural activities and

conservation. Many provide services and

programmes on behalf of governments and

intergovernmental organizations and some

have become highly dependent on government

financial support. According to some accounts

they operate in the space between thestate

and the private sector and are sometimes mis-

leadingly regarded as synonymous withcivil

society. jpa

Suggested reading

Townsend, Porter and Mawdsley (2004).

NIMBY The acronym for ‘Not-In-My-Back-

Yard’, an attitude adopted by individuals

resisting the siting of a source of perceived

negativeexternalities(such as shelters for

the homeless (seehomelessness) and those

recently released fromprison) close to their

homes, and campaigning for it to be located

elsewhere (cf.zone of dependence). rj

nodal region Aregionwhose defining char-

acteristic is the links between its component

parts and one or more focal points. Nodal (or

functional) regions are usually defined using

flow data, as in the definition ofhinterlands:

they form the core of Haggett’s (1965)loca-

tional analysisschema. rj

nomadism A livelihood – including hunter–

gathering, pastoralism, begging and com-

merce – that involves the intra-annual move-

ments of families (or other social production

units), necessitating the displacement of

their dwelling(s). During the nineteenth and

early twentieth centuries, the term was used

more indiscriminately to refer to any livelihood

associated with intra-annual humanmobility.

Nomadism has historically elicited both fascin-

ation and revulsion (negative connotations of

the terms shiftless, rootless, vagabond, vagrant,

itinerant etc.) within Westernculture and

science(see alsomigrancy). Cultural evolu-

tionists have seen it as a primitive cultural trait,

while environmental determinists and cultural

ecologists have portrayed it as a feature inhibit-

ing the development of complex, hierarchical

political systems (seecultural ecology;en-

vironmental determinism). Reflecting this

history, nomadism incorrectly conjures upes-

sentialistnotions of wandering and livelihood

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_N Final Proof page 501 31.3.2009 3:13pm Compositor Name: ARaju

NOMADISM