The Dictionary of Human Geography

Comp. by: LElumalai Stage : Revises1 ChapterID: 9781405132879_4_P Date:1/4/09
Time:15:20:52 Filepath:H:/00_Blackwell/00_3B2/Gregory-9781405132879/appln/3B2/re-
vises/9781405132879_4_P.3d

speculation, a troubling expansion of the

privatizationofstatefunctions, high levels

of economic inequality alongside increased

racial and ethnic tensions, and a neo-liberal

excitement for free markets for capital

but sealed borders for labour (see neo-

liberalism). Meanwhile, all of these markers

of instability are smoothed over with a blind,

middle-class nostalgia for a media-invented

image of modernity,democracyand white

heteronormativity. Meanwhile, the export-

ation of cowboy capitalism to the globalsouth

serves to hide exploitative production prac-

tices and their associated environmental con-

sequences from the eyes of Northern

consumers, while simultaneously exporting

jobs and hardening borders. Finally, capital-

ism has had its own hand in the selective

deconstruction of the notion ofproperty, par-

ticularly in spaces in the South where indigen-

ous rights are repeatedly trampled or simply

ignored as opportunistic state leaders and cor-

porations collude to exploit localresourcesin

the name of the global consumer.

Within all of this we might find some opti-

mism in the postmodern character of new

social movementsand alternative forms of

political organizing, both of which have seen

radical transformation in the late twentieth

century as the union-based strategies of

Fordism gave way to the post-NAFTA emer-

gence of the Zapatista rebellion in Chiapas,

Mexico. To the extent that postmodernity

is associated with flexibility, so too goes

resistance. Characteristic of the contem-

porary scene are roving protests against neo--

liberalism sparked by the successful disruption

of theworld trade organizationmeeting in

Seattle, Washington in 1999; the emergence of

hundreds of globally linked collectives of indi-

genous peoples, operating under a common

proclamation ofrightswhile preserving the

singularities of their different political projects;

and the widespread attraction of youth across

the world to the ‘newanarchism’, tominor

theory, to grassrootsenvironmentalism,to

living beyond racial and national identifica-

tions, and to sexual freedom. These contrast

markedly to mobilizations under modernity,

which insisted on coherence in politicalideol-

ogyand uniformity in goals for change (think

global proletariat) – often topped off by rigid

organizational hierarchies. In their place, and

taking cues from many post-structurally

inflected approaches to feminism, anti-

racism,queer theory, anti-statism and anti-

capitalism, are thousands of collectives geared

to produce radical change from the

perspective of difference. Contemporary activ-

ists produce a continuously unfolding multi-

plicity of small, terminal actions that

constantly work at ‘expanding the floor of the

cage’ (in Noam Chomsky’s words) within

which we currently find ourselves. kwo/ jpj

Suggested reading

Gregory (1994, pp. 406–14); Harvey (1989b);

Soja (1989).

post-normal science (PNS) Silvio Funtowicz

and Jerome Ravetz (1993) contend that a new

form of scienceis needed when ‘facts are

uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and

decisions urgent’. The figure shows that where

‘decision stakes’ and ‘systems uncertainties’

are low, there is routine Kuhnian science (see

paradigm): when both are moderate, we have

consultancy, which copes withuncertainty

by working within tolerances and by profes-

sional judgement. But with high stakes and

high uncertainty (the ‘post-normal’ condition),

policy has to be implemented before the

evidence is certain (cf.risk society). This

requires new ways of working based on an

‘extended peer community’ (all those affected

by an issue who are prepared to enter into

dialogue) and ‘extended facts’, which include

anecdotal evidence, confidential information,

local knowledge and ethical commitments. As

such, PNS aims to provide a coherent frame-

work for participation in decision-making,

which includes tools developed by Funtowicz

and Ravetz to manage and communicate

uncertainty and to allow for the qualitative

assessment of quantitative information as pro-

vided by the NUSAP website (http://nusap.

net/), and that goes beyond confirmatory

Post-normal

science

Professional

consultancy

Applied

science

High

Low High

Systems uncertainty

Decision stakes

post-normal science

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_P Final Proof page 570 1.4.2009 3:20pm

POST-NORMAL SCIENCE (PNS)