Material and the Representational - Essay Example

Social and cultural geography have, over time, experienced a lot of change as a result of developments in schools of thought. Modernization processes of various countries have expressed the extent of the relationship between modernity and geography. There is literature that has indicated that modernization is a project of geography. With modernization and its key concepts such as globalization of affairs social and cultural geography have moved closer. In (Barnes et al. 2004), it is indicated that the reconstruction of geographical conditions is as a result of the production process which incorporates nature and society.

In this reconstruction, there is the production of a restless hybrid quasi-object that welds together representational, symbolic and material practices of the production process, often characterized with competition. The coming together of social and cultural theory has revitalized human geography. Smith (2000) underlines that the recombination of social geography with cultural is a welcome idea. In this recombination, the role of material culture perspective is referred cited as being central.

According to Jackson (2000), there are good reasons for contemporary social and cultural geography to incorporate material culture. In the same article, materialism role is demonstrated using food and textile. The flows of these goods and their related activities have social implications dictating the kind of relationships amongst people. While linking culture and the social process Smith (2000), demonstrates how both are related by work. In this taxonomy, culture is delineated as work which is a social process.

Their symbiotic relational point-work- is deeply entrenched to political economy (Smith 2000). The materialism of the social geography is also one of the chief ways of representing how a society makes and sustains connections with the ‘social’. In his arguments Gregson (2003), indicates that reclaiming the ‘social’ has a direct relationship to social life materiality. This is so with specificity to key components of the society such as production processes, reproduction and organization.

With regard to this reclamation, Gregson further indicate to the need to less contemporary questions on materiality and inequalities in the society. The issue of inequalities, both regional and urban transcends societies. Essentially, it has close relations with representation and the social materialism as regarding the role of organization and the production process. According to a World Bank report, inequalities present analysts with complexity of historical and geographical factors. In these inequalities there are factors such as weak resources endowment and distribution as well as market inaccessibility affecting development (World Bank 2005).

As such, there have been long standing disparities. Further, the report alludes that regional inequalities are reflected when groups- social, racial and ethnical- are concentrated in common places. The concern for representation is manifested by the extent of effectiveness of decentralization of resources relative to power concentration. With imbalances in representation and, public policy carries biases and can therefore not adequately address spatial inequalities. This has effect on social mobility, risk