The Dictionary of Human Geography

regarded wilderness as unproductive, as
wasteland, full of danger, a place to be crossed
without delay. It was also land ripe fordom-
estication, for bringing into the house of
human and godly order. The gendering of
such landscapes (the fertile though poorly
harnessed feminine wilds, set against the pro-
gressive and ordered masculine settlement) is
another element to this entrenched cartog-
raphy ofnatureorculture. The dualism is
carried forward, rather than being overturned,
by more contemporary environmentalist
interest in wilderness as a refuge from the
ravages of modern industrial and urbansoci-
ety. The valorization is reversed and wilder-
ness becomes something to save. Particularly
evident in thenational parksmovement in
North America, and later in africa and
australasia, conservationists have sought to
protect wilderness from human incursion,
producing a form of fortressconservation
(Adams and Mulligan, 2003). Such enclosures
are highly controversial, particularly since the
advent of a series of critiques of the idea
of wilderness, specifically the sense that cur-
rent understandings of wilderness tend to be
rooted in Western value systems and fail to
adequately understand the complexities of
landscape histories and geographies. The
environmental historian William Cronon
produced one of the more telling critiques,
arguing that current concerns over biodi-
versityand endangered species continue the
wilderness tradition, producing a deep fascin-
ation for remote and exotic ecosystems (the
classic example being the tropical rainforest)
(Cronon, 1996). As Cronon went on to sug-
gest, protecting the forests often involved
protecting them from the people who lived
there (and were in fact partly responsible
for the existing ecologies). The cultural myth
andecological imperialismof a peopleless
nature resulted in forced removals akin in his-
torical and ecological terms to the tragedy
that befell the American Indians. Historical,
geographical andpost-colonialimaginations
have started to displace wilderness, demon-
strating its peculiar heritage and power as an
idea, and the material consequences of empty-
ing wild places of people. In addition, there
has been work that has sought to demonstrate
the material and social connections between
so-called wilderness and so-calledciviliza-
tion, particularly through figures such as wild
animalswhich, it turns out, exist within and
across a complex web of spaces, neither con-
fined to wilderness nor ever reduced to civiliz-
ing processes (Whatmore, 2002a). The result

of this work is certainly fraught by the

realization thatenvironmentalismhas a good

deal invested in pure categories such as wil-

derness. Practical manifestations such as fort-

ress conservation are certainly not criticized

across the board, even while the complexities

and paradoxes of such practices are recognized

(Adams and Mulligan, 2003). Meanwhile, the

power of the idea is evident in its longevity and

cross-cultural currency. The polarization of the

civil and the wild is not confined to Western

cultures. While the dynamics can be different,

the place of wilderness as other to (or distance

from) society often seems to be populated in

different ways and at different times where

it forms part of a spatial practice or rite of

passage. From the recuperative desert of the

Old and New Testaments, to male circum-

cision rituals, to contemporary safaris and

gap-year treks (see alsotourism), wilderness

acts as a complex repository of values. sjh

Suggested reading

Cronon (1996).

world city A major node in the organization

of the world-economy. The term was origin-

ally coined by Geddes (1915) to denote those

‘great cities in which a quite disproportionate

part of the world’s business is conducted’.

But contemporary usages owe much more to

Friedmann’s much later (1986, 1996) discus-

sions of world cities as global control centres,

which gave the term both a theoretical and

an analytical inflection. Those conceptual

elaborations, in concert withworld-systems

analysis, have inspired a major programme

of research into Globalization and World

Cities at Loughborough University in the

UK. In fact, the intimacy of the connections

between ‘world cities’ and globalization

have prompted many researchers to substitute

the term ‘global city’. rj

Suggested reading

Taylor (2004).

World Social Forum (WSF) First convened

in January 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, the

World Social Forum is an annual meeting held

by members of the so-called anti-globalization

movements – sometimes dubbed the ‘move-

ment of movements’ (Mertes, 2004) – to pro-

vide a setting in which global and national

campaigns can be coordinated, shared and

refined. It is not an organization or a united

front, but ‘an open meeting place for reflective

thinking, democratic debate ... by groups

Gregory / The Dictionary of Human Geography 9781405132879_4_W Final Proof page 811 31.3.2009 4:10pm

WORLD SOCIAL FORUM (WSF)