The Dictionary of Human Geography

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offshore financial centres of Bermuda and the

Cayman Islands emphasizes how the stabiliza-

tion of such centres relies upon their capacity to

be trusted as regulatory landscapes. Trust is

here defined as ‘relatively stable expectations

about the actions of others, a particular level

of the subjective probability with which an

actor assesses whether one or more actors,

with whom cooperation is envisaged, will also

cooperate’ (Hudson, 1998, p. 918).

Parallel concerns have shaped studies of the

geographies of scientific knowledge, where the

capacity for knowledge to be credible is con-

nected to the capacity of scientists, including

geographers, to be trusted. Livingstone dis-

cusses the ‘techniques of trust’ that developed

in connection with geographical travel (2003c,

pp. 147–71). Historical geographies ofsci-

encein general, and of geographical science

in particular, have connected trust to issue of

classandgender, following Shapin’s studies

of science in seventeenth-century England

(Shapin, 1994), where a particular sense of

gentlemanly civility was shown to be central

to the emergence of scientificculture. Sub-

sequently, Shapin (1998) directly addressed

thespatialityof the trust relationship in the

production and validation ofscience, includ-

ing the finding of ‘means to bring distant

things near’, and the ways in which ‘those

who have not seen these things know them

by trusting those who have, or by trusting

those who have trusted those who have’ (Sha-

pin, 1998, p. 8). Driver’s studies of cultures of

explorationandempirehave shown how the

trustworthiness and credibility of geographical

knowledge claims concerning distantregions

were shaped through institutions such as the

Royal Geographical Society, whether in their

production of published ‘Hints for Travellers’,

or their reception of the knowledge ‘brought

back’ fromafricaby figures such as Henry

Morton Stanley. In the latter case, lack of

trust in exploratory findings was bound up

with judgements concerning the character of

the explorer, with issues of ‘social standing,

scientific merit and moral legitimacy’ becom-

ing intertwined (Driver, 2001a, p. 129). The

geographies of trust also encompass the

questions of why geographers should be

trusted, why the discipline should have

credibility and who counts as a trustworthy

geographer. dmat

Suggested reading

Livingstone (2003c); Shapin (1994).

turf politics Political activity undertaken by

residents of aneighbourhoodto resist pro-

posed changes that are viewed as potentially

significant negative impacts upon the local

community and also to promote changes

that are perceived to carry potential positive

impacts. The activity is usually locally based

but is often oriented to the broader scales of

local orstategovernment (Ackerman, 1999).

Catalysing changes usually take the form of

development proposals (such as a new road),

demographic change (such as the influx of a

new ethnic group or social class) or investment

decisions (such as continued funding for

health facilities). cf

Suggested reading

Cox and McCarthy (1982).

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_T Final Proof page 778 31.3.2009 9:40pm Compositor Name: ARaju

TURF POLITICS