Our Geographic Mosaic: Research Essays in Honour of G.C. Merrill 9780773595965

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OUR GEOGRAPHIC MOSAIC

Research Essays in Honour of G.e. Merrill

OUR GEOGRAPHIC MOSAIC: RESEARCH ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF G.C. MERRILL

David B. Knight Editor

Carleton University Press Ottawa, Canada

©

Carleton University Press Inc., 1985

IS BN 0-88629-034-1 Printed and bound in Canada Canadian Cataloguing in Pu blication Data Main entry under title: Our geographic mosaic: research essays in honour of G.C. Merrill (Carleton contemporary; no. 8) I ncludes index. Bibliography: p. ISBN 0-88629-034-1 1. Merrill, Gordon Clark, 1919- 2. CanadaDescription and travel-1981- -Addresses, essays, lectures. 3. Geography-CanadaAddresses, essays, lectures. I. Knight, David B. II. Merrill, Gordon Clark, 1919- Ill. Series. G62.087 1985

917.1

C85-090 169-3

Distributed by: Oxford University Press Canada 70 Wynford Drive DON MILLS, Ontario, Canada, M3C 1J9 (416) 441-2941 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Carleton University Press gratefully acknowledges the support extended to its publishing programme by the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council.

TO GORDON C. MERRILL

Preface The inspiration ofthis volume came from the realization that Dr. Gordon C. Merrill was scheduled to retire in July 1985. It was the wish of his colleagues that his work should be fittingly celebrated at the time of his retirement so the challenge was put to all of Professor Merrill's full-time geography colleagues to write essays that reflected their ongoing research. Everyone responded positively. For some months after the collective decision to proceed, these compatriots wrote and revised papers to meet my arbitrary deadlines, vetted papers by colleagues, permitted me to edit all of their papers, and generously encouraged me as the volume was brought into existence-all without Gordon knowing about "it". We enjoyed creating this book behind his back! I feel confident that the volume would not have been possible had it not been for the strong sense of collegiality that exists amongst the group and also for the research vibrancy that exists within the department. But this book did not result only from the research and writing activities of the faculty, for we had help from many hands. Indeed, all of the support staff in the department assisted in one way or another: Alan Pendlington, Larry Boyle and Stephen Prashker, plus Danny Patterson and a number of graduate students, assisted in various technical ways as some of the research was done; the secretaries - Hazel Anderson, Judy Katz, Marie Kerridge, Mary Orser and Janet Wilson - patiently typed manuscripts in draft and revised forms even while continuing with their other many duties; Judy Katz greatly assisted me by coordinating the typing; Pete Stanley kept the financial books; Donna Williams and Malcolm Anderson assisted me with compiling the index; and Christine Earl expertly crafted the many graphs and maps. In short, this volume truly resulted from a "departmental affair". The volume is dedicated by all members of the Department of Geography to Gordon Merrill, in thanks for what he has given us and to geography during his twenty-eight years at Carleton University. Gordon Merrill was born in Windsor, Ontario. His B.A. and M.A. degrees in geography are from McGill University, Montreal, and his Ph.D. in geography is from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied with Professor Carl Sauer. Merrill served as an instructor with the University of California Far East Extension in Korea and Japan in 1953-54 and then was lecturer in geography at Indiana University, Bloomington (1954-55) before becoming an assistant professor at McGill University (1955-57). In 1957 he was appointed the first continuing full-time faculty member in geography at Carleton University, thus he was responsible for building on the heritage started by Dr. Wreford Watson and other part-time lecturers who had been teaching geography courses at Carleton since 1949. Merrill was Associate Dean and then Dean of Arts, Division II (Social Sciences) at Carleton from 1966 to 1971. During these years the University and the department experienced remarkable growth. It is note-

iii

worthy that all but one of the contributing authors to this book were hired full-time by the University during the time span 1961-1971. Merrill's professional publications are referenced in the "Introduction" to this volume. He was the first Geography Editor on the Editorial Board of the Carleton Library Series that is now published by the Carleton University Press. Over the years he has taught a range of courses in the Department but his speciality is cultural geography with an applied focus. Students, faculty and staff benefit from his caring for others, a well developed sense of fairness, and delightful wit. Merrill also has been very active beyond the bounds of the University: he has served on the Editorial Advisory Committee ofthe Royal Canadian Geographical Society; was elected President of the Canadian National Committee for Geography (1968-1972), during which time the Canadian Committee had the responsibility for organizing the 22nd International Geographical Union Congress that was held in Montreal in 1972; and has had a long involvement with the Unitarian Service Committee of Canada, as Special Advisor on Planning and Development, evaluator in the field of welfare and development projects (in the Middle East, Africa and Asia), fund raiser in Canada, member of the Board of Directors, and current Chairman of the Board. Professor Merrill links his ··on-campus" and ··off-campus" concerns and so challenges geography students to relate classroom work to the ··real" world in order to be sensitive and responsible citizens, a challenge he gives also to his colleagues. David B. Knight

IV

Table of Contents

Preface

Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. iii

List of Figures ............................................................... vii List of Tables ................................................................ ix INTRODUCTION I. II

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

23 33

D. Michael Ray, "Canadian Regions: A Hierarchy of Heartlands and Hinterlands" ................................... 49 M.F. Fox, "Some Agents of Change in Canadian Agriculture" ..................................................... 59 J. Peter Johnson, Jr., "Geomorphic Evidence and the Upper Marine Limit in Northern Labrador" .............. 70 David Bennett, "Infant Mortality in Ontario: Incidence and Context" ......................................... 81 T.P. Wilkinson, "Rideau River Flood Forecasting at Ottawa" ............... ......... .. ... .. .. .................. ... 92 John Clarke and Karl Skof, "Social Dimensions of an Ontario County: 1851-1852" .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. . .. .... 107

SEARCH FOR EXPLANATION 10. II.

12.

V

lain Wallace, "Coherence is Not a Luxury" .................... D.R.F. Taylor, "Rural Development Space in Africa"

PATTERNS AND PROCESSES 4.

IV

3

PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY 2. 3.

III

David B. Knight, "Introduction"

David B. Knight, " 'Minorities' and Self-Determination" ..... 139 J. Kenneth Torrance, "Particle Size Distribution and Its Influence on the Rheology and Sensitivity of Leda Clay" ...................................................... 148 Michael W. Smith, "Obtaining Climatic Information From Tree Rings" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 158

VALUES AND CHANGE 13.

Duncan M. Anderson, "Packaged Whitewater Rafting: Changes in Outdoor/Wilderness Use in Canada" . . . . . . . . . . . .. 173

v

14.

15. 16. Index

John E. Tunbridge, "Blending New with Old on Main Street: Some Canadian Insights From Salem, Massachusetts" ................................................. 182 Peter J. Williams, "Pipelines, Policies and Permafrost" ..................................................... 190 Barbara E. Farrell, "Cartography at Carleton University" ...................................................... 198

....................................................................... 211

VI

List of Figures Page

Figure 4.1

Canadian population foreign born 1971

52

4.2

Dominant urban functions in Canada's "heartland" ..............

54

5.1

Changes in farmland area, 1951-1981

.............................

61

5.2

Areal changes in improved farmland ..............................

63

5.3

Changes in mean farm size, 1951-1981

..................... .......

65

6.1

Selected dates of shell samples from marine deposits of northern Labrador .................................................

75

7.1

Neonatal and post-neonatal deaths, Canada, 1936-1974 ..........

86

7.2

Infant mortality: endogenous and exogenous causes of death, Canada, 1936-1974 ...............................................

86

Significantly high and significantly low infant mortality rates, Ontario counties, 1976 .............................................

88

Infant mortality rates, Canada, Ontario, and selected counties, 1940-1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

89

7.3 7.4 8.1

Acres/ RVCA March 1 flood forecasting relationships ............ 94

8.2

Sample hydrograph and associated weather conditions, 1976 ..... 95

9.1

Location of Essex County, Ontario

108

9.2

The immigrant population, 1851-52

110

9.3

The native born population, 1851-52 .............................. 111

9.4

Age and ethnicity ................... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 115

9.5

Age and religion ................................................... 117

9.6

Baptist and Methodist populations by age ........................ 118

9.7

Ethnicity and size of family ........................................ 122

9.8

Cross-tabulation of family size with age groupings ............... 123

9.9

Family size and religion

9.10

Family size and occupational categories .......................... 133

........................................... 125

11.1

Particle size distribution curves for the soil materials

11.2

X-ray diffraction patterns of the soil materials

vii

............ 150

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 151

11.3

Yield stress-water content relationships for the soil materials at a) 20 g/litre, b) 5 g;litre and c) 2 g/Iitre ......................... 152

11.4

Derived yield stress: percentage clay relationships at various water contents at a) 20 g/litre, b) 5 gflitre and 2 gflitre ......... 153

11.5

(a) Liquid limit: percentage clay relationships at various salinities (b) Plasticity index: percentage clay relationships at various salinities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 155

12.1

Location map, Yukon

............................................. 161

12.2

Correlation diagram of tree ring data .............. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 163

14.1

Downtown Salem, Massachusetts ................................. 185

14.2

Essex Street, Salem: a study in pinks and greys

14.3

East India Square (Mall exterior): compatible colours and textures ................................... 187

15.1

Pipelines in the permafrost region of the Soviet Union ........... 193

16.1

Carleton University's Map Library ................................ 20 I

16.2

Map types and scale ranges ........................................ 202

VllI

187

List of Tables Table

Page

5.1

Changes in farmland area 1976-1981 by province

................

60

7.1

Infant mortality rates, Canada, Ontario, and selected counties, 1940-1981 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

82

Infant mortality: absolute numbers of deaths of children aged under one year: Canada, Ontario, and selected counties, 1940-1981 ..........................................................

90

7.2

8.1

Thaw degree day index developed .................................. 96

8.2 8.3

Variables used in Newman's long-term forecasting model ......... 98 Variables used in Newman's short-term forecasting model 99

8.4

Variables used in Bradshaw's (1985) short-term forecasting model .................................................. 100

8.5

Bradshaw's (1985) factors

8.6

Bradshaw's (1985) long-term normality groupings, 1950-1983

8.7

K=4 clusters from Bradshaw's factor scores (1985)

8.8

K=5 clusters of raw data ........................................... 108

8.9

1984 forecast year - grouping of similar years ................... 105

9. I

Percentage contribution of the various groups .................... 112

9.2

Major religious groups, Ontario and Essex County 1851-52 ..... 112

9.3

A cross-tabulation of place of origin and religious denomination,

......................................... 102 ... 102

. ........... . .. 104

Essex County, 1851-1952 .......................................... 114 9.4

Cross-tabulation of place of origin and age ....................... 119

9.5

Cross-tabulation of religion and age

9.6

Cross-tabulations of age of households as a percentage of total householders within the group and within particular religious denominations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 120 Cross-tabulation of ethnicity and size of family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 121

9.7

.............................. 119

9.8

Cross-tabulation of size of family and age as a percentage of numbers in particular age cohorts .............................. 123

9.9

Cross-tabulation of religion and size of family .................... 124

9.10

Percentage of size of family with origin and religion

ix

............. 127

9.11

Percentage of particular categories in the available sample of Essex occupations 1851-1852 ................................... 127

9.12

Cross-classification of ethnicity and occupation, Essex County, 1851-1852 .......................................... 128

9.13

The relationship of occupation to religion

9.14

Cross-tabulation of occupation with ethnicity and religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 129

9.15

Occupation in relation to age ...................................... 132

9.16

Cross-tabulation of occupation and family size ................... 132

. . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . .. . .. 128

11.1

Atterberg limits of the soil materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 154

11.2

Clay content, water content and undisturbed shear strength data for resedimented Leda clay ......................... 156

12.1

Correlation matrix for Mayo master chronology ................. 163

12.2

Climate variables

12.3

Correlation coefficients for Mayo, 1926-1979 ..................... 165

12.4

Correlation coefficients for Dawson and Whitehorse (5-year RM data, 1944-1979) ...................................... 166

12.5

Multiple R2,S, for Dawson, Mayo and Whitehorse (5-year RM data, 1944-1979) ...................................... 168

12.6

Climate-tree growth relationships (R2,S and ranks) for Mayo ........................................................... 169

12.7

Multiple R2,S for Dawson (5-year RM data) for 1921-1965 and 1944-1979 ...................................... 169

13.1

Global classes of outdoor / wilderness

13.2

Canadian Government Office of Tourism's classes of outdoor packaged vacations ....................................... 175

13.3

Current types of packaged outdoor/wilderness recreation opportunities in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 176

13.4

Distribution of Major packaged outdoor/wilderness operations in Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 176

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 164

x

. . . . . .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. .. . .... 175

I INTRODUCTION

,

.

Introduction by David B. Knight

Geographers focus on spatial patterns, processes, and relationships between human societies and their physical environments and the resulting regional structures. Some geographers stress physical properties and processes and therefore are more aligned with the physical sciences, whereas other geographers stress societal organization and human behaviour and so are more aligned with the social sciences and, in some cases, the humanities. Geography is a discipline that lies athwart many disciplinary groups - but still being a discipline in its own right - so professional practitioners in geography often challenge "conventional" thinking by posing new questions based on their concern for seeking interrelationships and by bringing their perspectives to enduring questions. Accordingly, geographers' insights may be useful when considering a variety of environmental and ecological issues as well as when considering regional and locational contrasts and imbalances in a variety of patterns that reflect human welfare for example. For each of the contributors to this volume, as with all geographers, the guiding question is: why is what is where it is, and when and how did it come to be there? Some geographers approach this question historically, others in the very recent past or in the present, while some are more concerned with futures and forecasting. Some geographers are quite practical and applied in their work while others are more abstract. The scale of approach to the question can vary, from laboratory to small areas, to large regions, to world scale. In total, however, for all geographers there is always the goal of making" ... sense of that vast panorama of fact and fiction, pattern and event, on the surface of the earth" (Buttimer 1983, p. 12). Practitioners in the discipline know and accept many time-honoured themes, perspectives, and tools for analysis, yet there also have been remarkable changes within the discipline over the past thirty or so years - some people refer to it as a revolutionary period - as new modes of structured thought, new paradigms, new philosophical stances, new research tools, new interpretations, and new understandings have been incorporated into geographic thought and method. Some of the changes have had lasting impact but others have been ephemeral (see, for example, Johnston, 1983; Johnston and Claval, 1984; Bennett 1984; Billinge, Gregory and Martin, 1984). The discipline is an exciting one because of the continued intellectual debate. The authors have accepted the new challenges and continue to apply themselves in refreshed ways to their special foci or even have been brought to recognize quite new themes for research. Some of the geographers at Carleton University have written introductory and advanced textbooks which reflect changes within sub-fields of geography

3

(for example, Fox, Wilkinson, Clarke and Tunbridge 1978; Wilkinson, Fox, Clarke and Tunbridge 1984; Williams 1979, 1982; Berry, Conklin and Ray 1976; Fox 1979) or have contributed to "state-of-the-art" volumes (including Merrill 1968, 1961 b,; Taylor 1969, 1975, 1983, 1985; Wallace 1978, 1982; Brohman and Knight 1981; Knight 1983a, 1984b). But the general survey nature of such publications is not what this book is about. Rather, this volume is comprised of a collection of research essays. Some of the essays present mature thoughts at the close of research projects while others anticipate further research as a result of exploratory work. The volume does not try to reflect all that has been happening within the discipline generally nor the Department of Geography at Carleton University specifically. For example, environmental perception and behaviour research in geography is widespread (see for example, Gold 1980; Saarinen, Seamon and Well 1984) and finds expression in courses at Carleton (especially in cultural, political, and recreation geography) and also finds expression in faculty research (for instance, Knight 1977, 1983b) but this aspect of the discipline's concern is not explicitly represented within this volume, even though the role of behaviour and perception of environment is implicit in several of the essays. Similarly, environment assessment work (for instance, Smith, et. al. 1980), the geography of religions (Merrill 1964), and many other strands are not represented. The essays contained within this volume could have been grouped in any number of possible ways. An easy method would have been the ordering of papers by the date of each author's appointment to the Carleton faculty, but this would not have been too helpful to the reader! Another structure would have presented the physical geographers' contributions in one cluster and those by the human geographers in another, but since there are not always distinct differentiations in development so as clearly to separate "physical" from "human", this method also was thought to be unsatisfactory. A further method would have clustered Canadian focussed papers in one group and non-Canadian papers in another but, as will be seen by the reader, even this seemingly neat division presents problems, inasmuch as some of the essays are comparative. Finally it was decided to group the papers under four headings, although it should at once be recognized that the headings and the groups of essays are not mutually exclusive. The essays are divided into sections on: Philosophy and Theory, Patterns and Processes, Search for Explanation, and Values and Change.

Philosophy and Theory Any serious scholar must eventually face squarely the impact of various theoretical and philosophical issues that underlie the questions that are asked, the approach to research that is taken, and the implications of results. In an era of increasing pluralism in society at large and in intellectual life (including geography), the question must be posed as to whether or not coherent world-

4

views are tenable. What are the consequences if they are not? What are the theoretical issues involved? These questions are partially addressed in this section. Marxian theorists do not hesitate to proclaim that their interpretation of reality has the necessary philosophical coherence for the development of a critical human geography. But not all geographers accept the values expressed in Marxian thought, even though their criticism of such thought is often poorly elucidated. An alternative basis for coherence, grounded in biblical theology (Ley 1974; Houston 1978; Wallace 1978a), merits attention, despite its lack of plausibility in contemporary culture. In the essay in this volume lain Wallace indicates that before a theological framework for geographic practice can be elaborated a number of cultural and intellectual obstacles to its reception need to be removed. In the process, some of the directions of current philosophising in geography are revealed by him as being problematic. Implicit in his essay is the conviction that one cannot evacuate values and beliefs from systems ofthought. We think from a position based on certain assumptions. All systems of thought - including those that purport to be value free - are founded on certain fundamental values and beliefs. In this volume Wallace is the one writer to make the issue explicit. Not all of the other contributors agree with his philosophical stance, but no reader can ignore his challenge that we should. at least become serious thinkers about why and how we do what we do. Explanation often needs a theoretical foundation and theory is useful if one is forward looking. Some geographers have focussed on developmental issues, feeling strongly that a geographical perspective is necessary to those involved with seeking to explain and guide development processes within states (for example, Brookfield 1975; Brookfield, editor 1973; Mabogunje 1981). Within the field of "development studies" generally we find increasingly that there is, of necessity, interdisciplinary work. I n the Department, geographers, through several courses and also research. focus on development issues in Canada (including. for instance, Merrill 1953. 1968, 1981; Clarke 1975a, 1978a, 1982; Clarke, Taylor and Wightman 1978; Knight 1984a; Ray 1976. 1977; Ray, Roberge and Villeneuve 1975; Ray and Roberge 1981; Wallace 1975, 1977, 1978b, 1982; Williams 1979) and abroad (including, for example, Merrill 1958a, 1958b, 1961a. 1961b; Brohman and Knight 1981; Knight 1974.1975; 'faylor 1969, 1975, 1980, 1981; Stohr and Taylor 1981). In this volume Fraser Taylor presents a theoretical paper based on a critical reading of existing regional development theory, discussions with colleagues on the International Geographical Union's Commission for Regional Development, and on reflections on the extensive empirical work he has carried out in Africa over the past twentyfive years. Territory is seen as an organizing framework for community-initiated and controlled development action. He sees the local scale as critical and he stresses the importance of building on the foundation of indigenous environmental knowledge, something that many western derived theories of develop5

ment now ignore. In contrast to earlier theories such a "centre-down" or "development from above", Taylor suggests that as part of "development from below" developmental strategies there really should be "development from within". This concern arises in Taylor's mind largely because of the demonstrated dissatisfaction with other theories and because, as a geographer with extensive field experience, his work is deeply rooted in a concern for people in their own setting. In short, Taylor attempts to develop theory that keeps people's needs and aspirations in mind. His work focusses on values as they relate to and find expression in development theory. When values as expressed in development theory clash with values that are important to local peoples the end result can be failure. Taylor suggests that such clashes are not necessary if "development from within" theories and strategies are applied. Patterns and Processes Why "what" is "where" is not always easy to determine, yet "where" is an important issue for geographers to wrestle with before proceeding to analyze other elements of the total matter under investigation. Indeed, the concern for determining areal patterns is fundamental to the geographer's search for order. Of course, as Haggett (1966, p. 2) has noted, the order we find is greatly influenced by what we are prepared to look at and accept as order! Pattern for geographers generally means spatial pattern or spatial arrangement. A key element is scale, for the scale of analysis will largely circumscribe the kinds of generalizations and conclusions that can be drawn and determine the nature and pattern recognized. In this section, for example, scales vary from Canada-wide to smaller regions, and the types of research questions posed, observations made, and responses received necessarily are different. While patterns are important for what they reveal there is the awareness that "form expresses process", to cite Ray in this volume. The determination of "pattern" may lead to the delimitation of regions. There really is no such thing as a "natural region" for regions are intellectual constructs designed to function as a means for ordering what at first glance may seem to have no order. Richard Hartshorne defined a region broadly as "an area of specific location which is in some way distinctive from other areas and which extends as far as that distinction extends" (Hartshorne, 1959, p. 130). A region thus has both location and area and, by implication, has bounds. At first glance the concept of region is deceptively simple and is frequently used yet it often is rather difficult to observe and measure. Michael Ray has long been concerned with regions within Canada and the ways they interact, within and between themselves and with neighbouring regions of the U.S.A. In his paper he states that the concept of region is linked to our paradigm or concept of geography and he then spells out a general systems theory concept of region. From Ray's explorations of Canadian regions one is tempted to ask about the policy ramifi-

6

cations of his findings. Can what he reveals be taken into account by federal and provincial governments or large businesses in their planning of economic and social strategies for development? Do the patterns and processes identified by Ray have landscape impact? Or are the patterns and processes he discusses existent only in the output of the computer? On another plane, do his regions matter to people who Uknow" that Ureal" regions exist, such as the UOttawa Valley" or wherever else? The latter type of region form part of ourUgeographies of the mind", being part of our mental constructs of what ureality" is. But are Ray's regions any less Ureal"? It is true that he does not reveal elements of uregionalisms" which, of course, truly are matters of the mind. Nevertheless, using a particular method of approach, he is able to delimit and then discuss some of the essential qualities of Canada's regional differences. Most readers will at some stage past have looked at land-use maps in an atlas and wondered why the different land uses are located where they are. Why, for example, are some portions of the earth's surface used primarily for cropland or forestry rather than cattle herding or perhaps sheep grazing? Or, what have been the changes in land use patterns over the past fifty years as there have been improvements in technological support for agriculture and changes in the infrastructure? Clearly (whenever one looks at the patterns ofland use) there is a wide variety of physical, economic, political, social and technological factors that interplay to bring about the land use patterns we see. To usee" land uses, it is possible to use air photo interpretation and remote sensing techniques, and such research tools are part of a geographer's Ubag of tricks". It is also possible to do field work and to map out what is seen during a personal traverse, but clearly this method has its limits. Another way to usee" the patterns of land use is to map census data (for different periods if possible) for such data when mapped and analyzed can be used to locate broad patterns as well as, if desired, the identification of areas that might deserve close field inspection in order to better understand the factors of change at the more local scale. Michael Fox's present research relates to the growing concern for land resource conflicts in Canada, a topic of considerable interest to geographers (for example, Krueger 1978). In the paper in this volume, Fox presents an overview of recent trends in agricultural land use in Canada at national and regional scales, with a discussion of the general economic, social and political forces that appear to have contributed to these changes. By mapping and graphing statistics and drawing upon bibliographic research about the forces that have generated the changes, Fox is able to work at scales somewhat removed from local forces. To whom is his scale of approach meaningful? Is it too removed from the reality of the individual farm to be of significance? Without doubt some of what Fox relays has little direct significance for an individual farmer but from his work Fox can raise questions that have local, regional and national implications. Indeed, monitoring land use change at various scales of analysis is a prerequisite to the ultimate development of rational land allocation policies.

7

Data gathered in the field may have to be manipulated in some way or another to reveal patterns before insights can be gained so as to then best answer the initial research question. Sometimes field data are difficult to obtain or may take years of observation before conclusive answers are reached about some landscape feature, especially when the field work is done in difficult environments, such as in Canada's north (Johnson 1973; Johnson and Nickling 1979). Some problems are difficult to decipher, and the issue of the amount of emergence of coastal areas in northern Labrador by isostatic adjustment during and following glaciation is a case in point. Peter Johnson is a glacial geomorphologist who is interested in this problem as well as low temperature mass movements and development issues in northern lands. As answers are sought concerning the geomorphic character of isostatic adjustment Johnson and others find it necessary to do extensive field work to gather the necessary evidence. Form alone is not sufficient so the three dimensional relationships of the features, their sedimentological characteristics and history, as well as accurate dating ofthe events leading to formation of the present landscape also are required if a satisfactory accounting is to be provided. A variety of techniques offer help in these matters. In the essay in this volume Johnson first discusses some of the difficulties involved in doing field research in northern Labrador; in this instance he studied an area of 250 miles of coastline, from Nain to the Button Islands. He then provides a discussion of the implications of some of his findings and those of other researchers. Few dates have been obtained which can be used to support any of the existing interpretations of late glacial history offered by earlier researchers. Indeed, only in this last decade have some researchers begun to accept that parts of the Labrador coast were un glaciated during the last major advance of ice (Wisconsin), although Johnson and Ives had provided evidence more than twenty years ago. A geographical approach to understanding human societies can take any of several forms, but increasingly we find that geographers are focussing on a variety of measures that, one way or another, reflect a concern for social well-being. Emanating from a dissatisfaction with earlier studies that focussed principally on areal variations of "economic health", geographers increasingly have turned from a rather narrow economic view to including a wider variety of social indicators. This change is a reflection of a desire to measure, as far as is possible, what constitutes "quality of life". Clearly much more than income, wealth, and employment are involved with such measures, thus today we witness geographers tracing the interplay (often by sophisticated quantitative techniques) of such factors as health, education, employment and quality of working life, time and leisure, command of goods and services, physical environment, personal safety and administration of justice, and social opportunity and participation (for example, Smith, D.M. 1977). There are a variety of problems related to description, analysis, and interpretation of quality oflife indicators, however, which lead to debates concerning the relative importance of equity and effi8

ciency, and the degree to which the State should be involved. It is in the concern for these combined issues that increasingly we find a very healthy marrying of what formerly were seen as separate sub-fields of the discipline, political, economic, and social geography. Of course, and perhaps quite expectedly, different philosophical stances will and do lead to contrasting conclusions about the nature of society, and thus of the appropriateness of the indicators being examined. Scholars dealing with social well-being must become fully aware of the place of values and concepts associated with the technicalities of research methods as well as with the explicit impact of values associated with how society is conceptualized (Bennett, 1980). David Bennett, a social geographer who has examined a variety of indicators useful to an improved understanding of social well-being (for example, income; Bennett 1976), in this volume examines one element of the larger picture, that is, infant mortality for selected parts of Ontario. Infant mortality is seen to be a good indicator of changes in the social environment as affected by policies and institutions ofthe welfare state, particularly as felt via universal health insurance and improvements in medical practice and infrastructure. Bennett constructs a picture of contrasting patterns over space and notes changes through time of essential substantive elements of population characteristics. Basically, he identifies something that ··rich" societies tend to view as a ··problem" that only exists somewhere else. His research methods are deliberately simple, that is, the graphical and tabular presentation and discussion of selected secondary (census-type) data. He intentionally chose to show that readily available data and straightforward argument can lead to useful insights and can prevent unwarranted conclusions being drawn from ··snapshot" data that some researchers might feel should undergo ··technical overkill". The simplicity of his method is instructive and the findings illuminating. Attempts to seek explanations for certain patterns and processes may lead to prediction. So it is with the paper by Tom Wilkinson. A fluvial geomorphologist who has focussed on reconstructing the fluvial history of the Ottawa Valley and latterly on hydrology (for example, Thomson and Wilkinson 1984), Wilkinson explores refinements of spring flood prediction models developed initially by students working under his supervision. Using the Rideau River, he analyzes twenty-six hydroclimatic variables that hypothetically explain or influence peak spring flow over a thirty-four year period. He identifies flood type groups using either principle components analysis and factor scores or cluster analysis of the raw data. Multiple regression models are then developed for each type. Although such models are used widely in the hydrological literature Wilkinson adds something new by his use of cluster analysis to identify, for an upcoming flood prediction, those years having winter conditions similar to those for the peak flood being forecast. Thus Wilkinson demonstrates that it is possible to use a more accurate model for predicting spring flood flows than current practice allows. Application of the approach should lead to fewer false alarms or missed alarms for Rideau flood plain occupants in Ottawa. 9

Some geographers focus on the past, either for its own sake or as a means for better understanding the present. Historical geographic research is represented in this volume by a paper by John Clarke and Karl Skof, the latter being a graduate student and research assistant to Professor Clarke. In his previous research Clarke has examined the role of land speculators in influencing land development, with particular reference to southwest Ontario during the early decades of settlement. He has published numerous, very detailed articles on many interrelated facets ofthe settlement process for Ontario as a whole and for southwest Ontario in particular as part of a research project that has been going on for fifteen years and is continuing (for example, Clarke 1971, 1975a, 1975b, 1978a, 1978b, 1981, 1982; Clarke, Taylor and Wightman 1978; Clarke and Brown 1982). In this volume, with Skof's assistance, Clarke adds yet another stepping stone to fuller understanding of nineteenth century land development processes in his study area. Specifically, the authors establish the ethnic composition of the population of Essex County, Ontario, and demonstrate the extent to which this co-varied with religious adherence, age, size of family, and occupational structure. The paper is rooted in the historical geographical literature (epitomised by the late Professor Andrew H. Clark) and the emerging literature of North American social historians, and builds towards theory in the neglected field of ethnicity and the settlement process. The authors investigate the respective patterns of age, religion, occupation and ethnicity for a number of ethnic groups, thus reveal comparative dimensions within their study area that not only have to be explained but also which raise questions for further research. By mapping distributions, they are able to point out the role of location. Search for Explanation The search for explanation is not value free, as demonstrated by David Harvey (1969) and many others, including in this volume, Wallace. Some scholars use "the scientific method" (which, of course, is a cultural construct and thus is not totally value free) while others work with other paradigms. In the "search for explanation" collection of papers there is a special concern for attempting to understand the "why" or "how" question. In the search it sometimes is necessary to go beyond disciplinary bounds, even while always remaining geographic in focus. Some individual's research in part may be a reflection of interests that are not easily categorized even within the discipline of geography. Marvin Mikesell (1984, p. 202) suggests that "many of the more impressive accomplishments in human geography have reflected individual interest or leadership that is difficult to relate to recognized subfields" and he cites several works to support this statement (Glacken 1967; Wheatley 1971; Schwartzberg 1978; Jordan 1981). Mikesell (1984, p. 202) also suggests that focussing on the progress within main sub-divisions of the discipline "minimises the importance of hybrid enquiries",

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and he notes as examples of the latter, urban biogeography (Schmid 1975) and historical-political geography (Knight 1977). The use of hyphens to best grasp the research orientation of some geographers still applies to David Knight, although he would now make it cultural-political geography, for in his search for explanations of the differing character and significance of links between group identity and territory he finds it necessary to bring together perspectives from two sub-fields of the discipline (Knight 1982, 1983a). His work led him to focus specifically on self-determination and also necessarily brought him into contact with pertinent literature from other social sciences, history and law. The paper in his volume draws especially from the perspectives of international law, as he explores the meaning of "minorities" , a concept he links to his on-going study of self-determination. His exploration of the many claims for and forms of selfdetermination in the post-colonial era brings him to suggest that new forms of sub-state self-determination (and thus also restructuring of political territories) need to be developed (Knight 1983a, 1984b). If they are not developed and legitimized under national and international systems of law then we will continue to witness both continued suppression of minorities and agitation by minorities against existing state structures. It is suggested that a freeing of the rigid definition of sovereignty could assist in the granting of international contacts for peoples who would still remain within existing state structures. Whatever the future will bring, the international system of states will be different from the way it is now for the simple reason that the evolution ofthe bounding of political territory has not ceased. The search for explanation may take place in the laboratory, as with the work completed for this volume by Kenneth Torrance. Not all geographers come to the discipline directly through the "normal" geography channels. Torrance's early studies were in soil science, a focus that he retains now as he teaches courses in soils geography and continues his research into soil chemistry and mineralogy. The latter has a very applied nature, and Torrance is one of the cluster of physical geographers who through the Department's Geotechnical Science Laboratories are linked to the Ottawa-Carleton Centre for Geoscience Studies. Torrance's principal research relates to the landslide-prone post-glacial marine clays that are found in much of the Ottawa region and many other portions of the former pleistocene marine environments in Quebec. Popular knowledge of the Leda clays generally is derived from well-publicized land slides (for example, the St. Jean Vianney landslide; Tavenas, el. 01. 1971), but there is still much to learn of a scientific nature about these sediments. In the paper in this volume, Torrance writes on his demonstration that the remoulded shear strengths and sensitivity of Leda clay are influenced by clay contents. The sensitivity that can develop, upon leaching of salts from these marine sediments, appears to be approximately constant for clay contents between 65 and 36 per cent but increases for clay contents below 25 per cent. This conclusion supports contentions in the literature that high silt contents are conducive to the development of II

high sensitivities in these post-glacial marine clays. Knowledge of material properties and factors controlling these properties (including human-created processes) is essential if the distribution of landslide activity in the clays is to be understood (Torrance 1983). Without this knowledge, the risk for human use of such areas cannot be adequately assessed. Research carried out in the Department's physical geography laboratories, where variables can be controlled, thus can have important practical uses for society, specifically, in this case, leading to improved understanding of some potentially unstable portions of the earth's surface on which there happen to be human settlements. Sources for geographic analysis are many but sometimes it is necessary to use surrogates for unobtainable data. To the surprise of many geography field course students, data on cemetery gravestones are shown to be good surrogates for other types of data, or at least for their usefulness in posing questions when considering settlement history. The same need to use surrogate data sometimes holds true for physical geographers, a point nicely developed in this volume by the essay by Michael Smith. Smith is a geographer who has specialized in microclimatology (for example, Smith, M.W. 1975, 1978). Working in the Department's research laboratories as well as supervising his students and doing his own field research, Smith is concerned with attempting to understand the role of climate in the northern physical environment, especially in relation to permafrost (for example, Smith M.W. 1976, 1985; Smith and Riseborough 1983; Smith and Patterson 1981 a; Smith and Rigby 1981 b). He also is concerned with environmental impact assessment in relation to pipeline and other technological developments in the north. Together with Peter Williams, Smith is involved with the Department's Geotechnical Science Laboratories frozen soils studies in research facilities in Caen, France. In the paper for this volume Smith turns to attempting to explain something of past climates, using surrogate data. I n this case he uses tree rings as a surrogate for human recorded climate readings. Tree ring data are perceived as a potential source of proxy climate information, for it is assumed that it is possible to determine something of past climates from the nature of rings on trees that are alive today. As a source, they are chronologically exact and spatially extensive, both important hallmarks for geographers. A quite considerable tree ring literature has developed over the past 30 to 50 years with most success being achieved in using rings for cross-dating. By comparison, however, relatively little success has come in deciphering the climatic content of tree ring data and it is to this issue that Smith is focussing his attention and also that of some ofthe graduate students within the Department. Smith's paper is an initial exploration into the climatic information within tree rings. Most importantly, as a geographer, his aim is to established the spatial and temporal patterns of past climates by means of analyzing tree rings. Thus, he is concerned with both the spatial representativeness of tree ring data and the consistency of these relationships through time. Smith is critical of much of the large literature on tree ring analysis, at least as it applies to climate studies, for neglecting these 12

issues (but see Pittock 1982). Smith uses data collected in the field but he also uses special laboratory equipment (x-ray densitometry) which yields more tree ring information than the more normal, routine method of simple ring width measurement. Finally, as with many human and physical geographers, Smith uses statistical methods for analysing his data. Values and Change Values here is taken to mean broad societal values that can give direction to and find expression in behaviour. Landscape change occurs because of both individual and collective behaviour. Some landscape change is due to purposeful design, whereby "signatures" are placed on the land by grand gestures, while other changes occur incrementally as part of evolving uordinary" landscapes (Meinig 1979). Societal values must change as technological developments occur but environmental consequences may not always be clear. Technological change may also force pedagogical reflection and reaction. Some elements of these thoughts are explored in this section. Geographer Yi-Fu Tuan suggests that "wilderness" is widely accepted as being the anthithesis ofthe city (Tuan 1974, p. J09) yet there is no clear understanding of what this term really means. Is it possible to have wilderness exist in or near cities (in, say, forest preserves) or must it always be far away? Can a landscape that has been affected by human action still be called wilderness? To what extent does a wilderness landscape, however defined, represent a reflection of "nature"? Some people see wilderness as sacred space (Graber J976); some are attracted to wilderness; some are afraid of it. Perhaps wilderness is a relative term, in the sense that there can be a range of meanings? In Biblical times, wilderness was seen to be a place of desolation, of banishment and of punishment. Yet it also was seen to be a place of refuge and contemplation. Both senses still find expression today, but an additional meaning has come into existence in our modern world, that is, wilderness now is seen (by some) to be a place for recreation. The latter word covers many activities, from passive to active. A linking of "wilderness" to "recreation" is now occurring as wilderness is coming increasingly to have the connotation of a place of active involvement. The participants do not necessarily have an involvement with the landscape itself, however, since their involvement is more with an activity that takes place in some part of the "wilderness". This thought underlies much of Duncan Anderson's recent research into the growing phenomenon of whitewater rafting as an organized "wilderness experience" - even when agricultural fields may lie just beyond the trees that embrace the shores of the river in question! Still near the beginning of a large research project, Anderson, a specialist in recreation and land use development(for example, Anderson 1983; Anderson and Rigby 1981), lays out for us something of the changing patterns in Canada for packaged outdoor / wilderness recreational activities. In focussing on the Ottawa River he

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discusses some essential qualities and categorizations of outdoor recreation, traces the development of whitewater areas as recreation areas, and notes that such areas are thought of as representing a wilderness experience. For a long time urban geographers were particularly interested in urban function and the dynamics of urban change, without being too concerned for the people and environmental quality within cities. Such myopia has changed and we find that within the past two decades there has been increasing attention placed on how people perceive and actually use their urban environments (for example, Ley 1983). As part of this, and as a reflection perhaps of a growing societal concern for urban "heritage" preservation, geographers put their special insights to bear on identifying and interpreting what is important in the townscape and thus may be worth retaining and reusing for future generations to see and know. John Tunbridge is interested in the geographical dimensions of heritage issues (including, for example, Tunbridge 1977, 1981a, 1981b, 1984). One of his particular concerns is with the ways that revitalization of old commercial areas in the central areas of small cities and towns can be both socioeconomically successful and yet also sensitive to the heritage of the existing build environment. He currently is researching the revitalization of the Byward Market area (Lower Town West) in Ottawa. The upsurge of interest in caring for past environments within our urban structures clearly represents some important changes in societal values, as people take a more focussed look at their living environment and ask if "change" in the name of "progress" really is creating places with meaning. In the paper for this volume, Tunbridge presents a brief account ofthe successful blending of a historic main street landscape in a United States city and discusses its comparative value in the context of relative failure to achieve a satisfactory blend of functions and structures in the revitalization of Canadian main streets. His use of field observations against a documentary backdrop reflects well on some ofthe kinds of mix of sources that geographer are trained to use. Pipelines and Permafrost has a nice ring to it. This title is used for Peter Williams' (1979) successful book which examines some geotechnical issues relating to pipeline developments in the northern regions of Canada. The author of that "frost heave thriller" (as one reviewer put it) is also the author of many other studies concerned with the properties and processes of frozen soils and of the earth's surface more generally (e.g. Williams 1982; Williams and Fremond 1977; National Research Council 1984). Together with Michael Smith and others, he is exploring geotechnical questions relating to the wisdom of building large oil and gas pipelines in frozen soils. They feel strongly that considerably more research needs to be undertaken on problems arising from placing pipelines into or onto permafrost before they are constructed. Their words of caution, backed by scientific evidence, have been noted (Berger 1977, p. 19; FEARO 1979). In the paper in this volume, Williams turns a comparative eye on the Soviet Union, U.S.A., and Canada. In the Soviet Union there are several 14

large gas and oil pipelines built through permafrost with both good and bad results. There, as in Canada and the United States, geotechnical difficulties relating to pipeline development have been underestimated. In his paper, Williams considers the interesting scientific and political state of affairs in the Soviet Union relative to the U.S.A., as far as pipeline developments in permafrost are concerned. In this sense, in a brief exploration of Soviet sources, he is able to identify how societal values in differing states may lead to contrasting decisions to develop pipelines in difficult terrain. In Canada there is the decision to await further scientific assessment; in the Soviet Union the "testing" comes from seeing what happens as the pipelines are constructed. An essential quality of a university teacher is that he or she also is a researcher. Teaching and scholarship go hand in hand; they cannot be separated. The various papers in this volume are based upon the use of "traditional" and "new" conceptual frameworks and methods for analysis. The research of each author finds expression in the classroom as well as in publications for a wider audience. The final essay in the collection focusses on instruction, in this case in relation to cartography, and on the essential link with research. Barbara Farrell is Carleton University's Map Librarian and a lecturer in cartography in the Department of Geography. She has long been interested in geographic and cartographic education. Her involvement with the Map Library at Carleton led to a concern for the development and organization of map resources for research and education (Farrell and Desbarats 1984). She also has witnessed something of the revolution in cartography as a result of recent technological developments. Students increasingly are computer literate although as Farrell notes, they do not arrive at university graphically literate. The challenge thus is to help the students develop a degree of skill in graphicacy as part of their training as geographers who will author maps. A Concluding Thought The essays in the volume represent something of the research richness to be found in a typical department of geography. All the authors are geographers, and they implicitly involve themselves with a common question. Within that common question the "what", "where", "when", "why" and "how" have different foci, spatially and temporally, and the methods and scales of analysis often are quite different, so we find that colleagues are contributing contrasting yet complementary insights concerning the geographic mosaic that is our shared world. References Anderson, D.M. and Rigby, B. (1981). "White Water Rafting on the Ottawa River," Canadian Geographic, 101(2), pp. 20-25. Anderson, D.M. (1983). "PackagingofOutdoorj Wilderness Experience: Does It Hold Implications for National Parks?" Park News, 19(1). pp. 5-7.

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Bennett. David (1976). "Income." in Canadian Urhan Trends. D. Michael Ray. editor (Toronto: Copp-Clark). pp. 141-202. _ _ _ _ (1980). "The Future of Welfare Geography." The Canadian Geographer. 24( I). pp. 88-98. _ _ _ _ (1984). Gelling There: Experience and Epistemology (Ottawa: Carleton University. Department of Geography. Discussion Paper No.2). Berger. T. R. ( 1977). Northern Frontier. Northern Homeland. The Report of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry. Volume I (Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada). Berry. B.J.L.. Conkling. E.C. and Ray. D.M. (1976). The Geography of Economic Systems (Englewood Cliffs. N.J.: Prentice-Hall). Billinge. M .• Gregory. D .• and Martin. R. (1984). Recollections of a Re\'olution: Geography as Spatial Science (London: Macmillan). Brohman. John A. and Knight. David B. (1981). "Some Geopolitical Aspects of the Conflict in Namibia/South-West Africa." in Political Studies From Spalial Perspectives. A.D. Burnett and P.J. Taylor. editors (Chichester: Wiley). pp. 489-513. Brookfield. Harold. editor( 1973). The Pac[{ic in Transition: Geographical Perspecl;\'eson Adaplation and Change (London: Edward Arnold). _ _ _ _ (1975). Interdependelll Developmelll (London: Methuen). Buttimer. Anne (1983). The Practice u.fGeography (London: Longman). Clarke. John( 1971). "Mapping the Lands Supervised by Colonelthe Honourable Thomas Talbot in the District of Upper Canada. 1811-1849." The Canadian Cartographer. 8(1). pp. 8-13. _ _ _ _ (1975a). "Military and United Empire Loyalists in the Western District of Upper Canada in 1836." The Canadian Cartographer. 11(2). pp. 186-190. _ _ _ _ (1975b). "The Role of Political Position and Family and Economic Linkage in Land Speculation in the Western District of Upper Canada." The Canadian Geographer. 19( I). pp. 18-34. _ _ _ _ (1978a) .•• Aspects of Land Acquisition in Essex County. Ontario 1790-1900." HislOire Sociale. II. pp. 98-119. _ _ _ _ (1978b). "Land and Law in Essex County: Malden County and the Abstract Index to Deeds." Histoire Sociale. II. pp. 475-495. _ _ _ _ ( 1981). "Foci of Human Activity. Essex County. Ontario 1825-1852: Archival Sources and Research Strategies." Archivaria. 12. pp. 31-62. _ _ _ _ ( 1982). "The Activity of an Early Canadian Land Speculator in Essex County, Ontario: Would the Real John Askin Please Stand Up"" in Canadian Papers in Rural History. D.H. Akenson. editor (Langdale Press). Clarke. John. Taylor. H. W .• and Wightman. W. R. ( 1978). "Areal Patterns of Population Change in Southern Ontario 1831-1891: Core. Frontier and Intervening Space." Ontario Geography. 12. pp.27-48. Clarke. John. and Brown. D.L. (1982). "Land Prices in Essex County. Ontario 1798 to 1852:' The Canadian Geographer. 26(4), pp. 300- 317. Farrell, Barbara, and Desbarats, Aileen (1984). Guide for a Small Map Collection (Ottawa: Association of Canadian Map Libraries). FEARO (Federal Environment Assessment Review Office). (1979). Alaska Highway Gas Pipeline Project. Report of Environmental Assessment Panel (Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada). Fox, M.F. (1979). An IllIroduction to Em'ironmental Remote Sensing (Ottawa: Carleton University. Department of Geography). Fox. M.F .• Wilkinson. T.P .• Clarke, J. and Tunbridge. J.E. (1978). The Geographic Web: Student Study Guide (Ottawa: Carleton University, Department of Geography). Glacken, c.J. (1967), Traces on Ihe Rlrodian Shore: Nature and Culture in Western Thoughtfrom Andelll Times to the End oflhe Eighteenth Century (Berkeley: University of California Press). Gold, John R. (1980). An Imroduclion to Beha\'ioural Geography (Oxford: Oxford University Press). Graber. Linda H. ( 1976). Wilderness as Sacred Space (Washington, D.C.: Association of American Geographers, Monograph Series No.8). Haggett. Peter (1966). wcational Analysis in Human Geography (New York: S1. Martin's Press). Hartshorne. R. (1959). Perspective on the Nature of Geography (Chicago: Rand McNally for Association of American Geographers, Monograph Series No. I).

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Harvey, David (1969). Explanation in Geography (London: Edward Arnold). Houston, J.M. (1978). "The Concepts of 'Place' and 'Land' in the Judaeo-Christian Tradition:' in Humanistic Geography, David Ley and M.S. Samuels, editors (Chicago: Maaroufa), pp. 224-237. Johnson, Jr., J.P. (1973). "Some Problems in the Study of Rock Glaciers," in Research in Polar and Alpine Geomorphology, B.D. Fahey and R.D. Thompson, editors (London: Geo-Abstracts). Johnson, Jr., J. P. and Nickling, W.G. (1979). "Englacial Temperature and Deformation of a Rock Glacier in the Kluane Range, Yukon Territory, Canada," Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 16( 12), pp. 2275-2283. Johnston, R.J. (1983). Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American Human Geography Since 1945, Second Edition (London: Edward Arnold). Johnston, R.J. and Claval, P. (1984). Geography Since the Second World War: An International Survey (London: Croom Helm; New York: Barnes and Noble). Jordan, T.G. (1981). Trails to Texas: Southern Roots of Western Callie Ranching (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press). Knight, David B. (1974). "Racism and Reaction: The Development of a Batswana 'raison d'etre' for the Country," in Cultural Discord in The Modern World, L.J. Evenden and F.F. Cunningham, editors (Vancouver: Tantalus), pp. 111-126. _ _ _ _ (1975). "Botswana at the Development Threshold," Focus (American Geographical Society), 26(2), pp. 9-13. _ _ _ _ (1977). A Capitalfor Canada: Conflict and Compromise in the 19th Century (Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography, Research Paper No. 182). _ _ _ _ ( 1982). "Identity and Territory: Geographical Perspectives on Nationalism and Regionalism," Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 72(2), pp. 514-531. _ _ _ _ ( 1983a). "The Dilemma of Nations ina Rigid State Structured World," in Pluralism and Political Geography: People, Territory and State, Nurit Kliot and Stanley Waterman, editors (London: Croom Helm), pp. 1/4-137. _ _ _ _ (1983b). "Urban Images and Cognitive Mapping," Ontario Geography, 21, pp. 29-48. _ _ _ _ ( 1984a). "Regionalisms, Nationalisms, a nd the Ca nad ian State," Journal of Geography, 83(5), pp. 212-220. _ _ _ _ (1984b). "Geographical Perspectives on Self-Determination," in Political Geography: Recent Advances and Future Directions, Peter J. Taylor and J. W. House. editors (London: Croom Helm: New York: Barnes and Noble), pp. 168-190. Krueger, Ralph R. (1978). "Urbanization of the Niagara Fruit Belt," The Canadian Geographer, 22. pp. 179-194. Ley, David (1974). "The City of Good and Evil: Reflections on Christian and Marxist Interpretations," Antipode, 6( I). pp. 66-74. _ _ _ _ (1983). A Social Geography of The Cit)' (New York: Harper and Row). Mabogunje, Akin L. (1981). The Development Process: A Spatial Perspective (New York: Holmes and Meier). Meinig, D. W., editor( 1979). The Interpretation of Ordinary Land.'icapes: Geographical Essays (New York: Oxford University Press). Merrill, Gordon C. (1953). "Human Geography of the Lesser Slave Lake Area of Alberta," Geographical Bulletin. 3, pp. 36-49. _ _ _ _ (1958a). The Historical Geography of St. KillS and Nevis. The West Indies (Mexico: Instituto Panamericano de Geografia e Historia). _ _ _ _ (1958b). "The Historical Record of Man as an Ecological Dominant in the Lesser Antilles," The Canadian Geographer. II. pp. 17-22. _ _ _ _ (196Ia). "Recent Land Developments in Coastal British Guiana," The Canadian Geographer, 5(2). pp. 24-29. _ _ _ _ (1961 b). "The Survival of the Past in the West Indies." in The West Indies Federation. David Lowenthal. editor (New York: Columbia University Press), pp. 17-34. _ _ _ _ (1964). "The Role of the Sephardic Jews in the British Caribbean Area During the Seventeenth Century," Caribbean SlUdies, 4(3). pp. 32-49. _ _ _ _ (1968). "Regionalism and Nationalism in Canada," in Canada: A Geographical Interpretation, J. Warkentin. editor (Toronto: Methuen), pp. 556-568.

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_ _ _ _ ( 1981). "Regionalism and Resources in Canada in the 1980's:' in Man and Resources in Canada, K. Atkinson and A. McDonald, editors (Leeds: University of Leeds), pp. 35-47. Mikesell, Marvin W. (1984). "North America," in Geography Since the Second World War: An International Survey, R.J. Johnston and P. Claval, editors (London: Croom Helm; New York: Barnes and Noble), pp. 185-213. National Research Council ( 1984 ).Ice Segregation and Frost Heaving (Washington, D.C.: National Research Council, Committee on Permafrost). Pittock, A.B. (1982). "Climate Reconstructions from Tree Rings," in Climate From Tree Rings, M.K. Hughes, et. al., editors (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), pp. 62-67. Ray, D. Michael, editor (1976). Canadian Urban Trends, 3 volumes (Toronto: Copp Clark). _ _ _ _ (1977). "Demographic Trends and Policy in Canada," The Quarterly of Canadian Studies,4, pp. 172-179. Ray, D. Michael, Roberge, R. and Villeneuve, P. (1975). "Invention, Diffusion and Allometry: A Study of the Growth and Form in Central Canada," in Spatial Perspectives on Industrial Organization and Decision Making, F.E.I. Hamilton, editor (London: Wiley), pp. 143-168. Ray, D. Michael and Roberge, R. (1981). "The Pattern of Post-War Urban Growth: Multinationals as City and Regional Planners," in After the Developers, J. Lorimer and C. MacGregor, editors (Toronto: James Lorimer). Saarinen, T.F., Seamon, D. and Sell, J.L. (1984). Environmental Perception and Behaviour: An Inventory and Prospect (Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geography, Research Paper No. 209). Schmid, J. A. ( 1975). Urban Vegetation: A Review and Chicago Case Study (Chicago: University of Chicago, Department of Geogra phy, Research Paper No. 161). Schwartzberg, J. E. (1978). Historical Atlas of South Asia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Smith, D.M. (1977). Human Geography: A Welfare Approach (London: Edward Arnold). Smith, Michael W. (1975). "Microclimatic Influences on Ground Temperatures and Permafrost Distribution, Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories," Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 12(8), pp. 1421-1438. _ _ _ _ (1976). Permafrost in the Mackenzie Delta. Northwest Territories (Ottawa: Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 75-28). _ _ _ _ (1978). "Principles of Surface Energy Exchange and Soil Thermal Regime," in Soil Freezing and Highway Construction, P.J. Williams and Fremond, M., editors (Ottawa: Carleton University; Paris: Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussees), pp. 20-26. _ _ _ _ (1985). "Observations of Soil Freezing and Frost Heave at Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada," Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 22(2), pp. 283-290. Smith, M.W., Williams, P.J., Wilkinson, T.P. and Torrance, J.K. (1980). Preliminary Report ona Review of Environmental Impact Statement Relating to Norman Wells Oilfield Expansion and Pipeline (Hull: Environment Canada). Smith, M.W. and Patterson, D.E. (198Ia). Measurement of Frozen Soils Using Time Domain Rej7ectometry (Ottawa: Energy, Mines and Resources, Earth Physics Branch). Smith, M.W. and Rigby, B.G. (198Ib). "Distribution of Polynyas in the Canadian Arctic," in Polynyas In the Canadian Arctic, I. Stirling and H. Cleator, editors (Ottawa: Environment Canada, Canadian Wildlife Service, Occasional Paper No. 45), pp. 7-28. Smith, M. W. and Riseborough, D. W. ( 1983). "Permafrost Sensitivity to Climate Change," Proceedings, Fourth International Conference on Permafrost, Fairbanks, Alaska, pp. 1178-1183. Stohr, Walter and Taylor, D.R.F., editors (1981). Development from Above and Below: The Dialectics of Regional Planning in Developing Countries (Chichester: Wiley). Tavenas, F., Chagnon, J-Y. and LaRochelle, P. (1971). "The Saint-Jean-Vianney Landslide: Observations and Eyewitness Accounts," Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 8, pp. 463-478. Taylor, D.R.F. (1969). "Agricultural Change in Kikuyuland," in Environment and Land Use in Africa, M.F. Thomas and A. W. Whittington, editors (London: Methuen), pp. 463-493. _ _ _ _ (1975). "Growth Centres and Rural Development in Africa," in Regional Developmenl and Planning: International Perspectives, Antoni R. Kuklinski, editor(Leyden: Sijthoff), pp. 307-319. _ _ _ _ ( 1980). "Computer-Assisted Cartography and Rural Development: A Case Study from Kenya," Cartographica (formerly The Canadian Cartographer), 17(1), pp. 72-87.

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- - - - ( 1981). "Conceptualizing Development Space in Africa," Geografiska A nnaler, 63 B(2), pp.87-93. - - - _ , editor( 1983). Communication and Design in Contemporary Cartographer (Chichester: Wiley). - - - _ (1985). "The Educational Challenges of a New Cartography," in Education in Contemporary Cartography, D.R.F. Taylor, editor (Chichester: Wiley). Thomson, C. and Wilkinson, T.P. (1984). Methodology Developmentfor Hydraulic Investigation of Mineral Sublayers of Peatlands (Ottawa: Carleton University, Department of Geography, Geotechnical Science Laboratories). Torrance, J.K. (1983). "Towards a General Model of Quick Clay Development," Sedimentology, 30, pp. 547-555. Tuan, Yi-Fu (1974). Topophi!ia: A Study of Environmental Perception. A l1itudes. and Values (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall). Tunbridge, John E. (1977). "The British National Trusts: Conservation in the Private Non-Profit Sector," Bulletin of the Conservation Council of Ontario, 24, pp. 12-20. _ _ _ _ (198Ia). "Conservation Trusts as Geographic Agents: Their Impact Upon Landscape, Townscape and Land Use," Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, N.S. 6, pp. 103-125. _ _ _ _ (1981 b). "Heritage Canada: The Emergence of a Geographic Agent," The Canadian Geographer, 25(3), pp. 271-277. _ _ _ _ (1984). "Whose Heritage to Conserve?: Cross-Cultural Reflections on Political Dominance and Urban Heritage Conservation," The Canadian Geographer, 28(2), pp. 171-180. Wallace, lain (1975). "Containerization at Canadian Ports," Annals ofthe Association of American Geographers, 65, pp. 433-448. _ _ _ _ (1977). The Transportation Impact of the Canadian Mining Industry (Kingston: Queen's University, Centre for Resource Studies). _ _ _ _ (1978a). "Towards a Humanized Conception of Economic Geography," in Humanistic Geography, D.R. Ley and M.S. Samuels, editors (Chicago: Maaroufa), pp. 91-108. _ _ _ _ (1978b). "Railways in the Service of Canadian Mining," Canadian Geographic, 96, pp. 66-71. _ _ _ _ ( 1982). "The Canadian Shield: The Development of a Resource Frontier," in Heartland and Hinterland: A Geography of Canada, L. McCann, editor (Toronto: Prentice-Hall), pp. 372-409. Wheatley, Paul (1971). The Pivot of the Four Quarters: A Preliminary Enquiry into the Origin and Character of the Ancient Chinese City (Chicago: Aldine). Wilkinson, T.P., Fox, M.F., Clarke, J. and Tunbridge, J.E. (1984). Introduction to Physical Geography (Edmonton: Athabasca University Press). Williams, Peter J. (1979). Pipelines and Permafrost: Physical Geography and Development in the Circumpolar North (London and New York: Longman). _ _ _ _ ( 1982). The Surface ofthe Earth: An Introduction to Geotechnical Science (London and New York: Longman). Williams. Peter J. and Fremond, M., editors (1977). Soil Freezing and Highway Construction (Ottawa: Carleton University, Paterson Centre; Paris: Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chausses).

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II

PHILOSOPHY AND THEORY

2 Coherence Is Not a Luxury lain Wallace

Johnston (1983) concludes his masterly survey of contemporary human geography on a note of disquieting complacency. Having characterised the discipline as being highly fragmented into distinct research communities which are making little effort to speak meaningfully to one another, he nevertheless assures us that human geography, so depicted, has a future. This confidence appears ill-founded and inappropriate. It is ill-founded because it provides no rationale (beyond institutional inertia) for the preservation of geographical enquiry as a distinctive branch of intellectual activity. It is inappropriate because it fails to address the responsibilities of geographers (Morrill 1984) in and to a world which does not owe them a living. The fragmentation of systematic interests and epistemological approaches which Johnston documents gives substance to Gregory's (1978, pp. 170-171) by no means flippant question: whether it is not "high time to abandon the pretence of a separate existence for geography". He argues that its traditional claims to provide a distinctive bridge between the natural and social sciences ""have been advanced ... more often as pious hopes or rueful excuses than as serious propositions". On the other hand, as Harvey (1984, p. 8) observes, the insertion of fundamental geographical concepts into the theories of other social sciences ""has a numbing effect upon [their] central propositions ... social theory that ignores the materialities of actual geographical configurations, relations, and processes lacks validity". Geography is clearly too important to be allowed to disintegrate into a myriad autonomous specialisations. Its potential contribution to human understanding and wise social practice will not be realised, however, unless the discipline's traditional aspiration to coherence, ""to study the earth as the habitat of man, and ... not some small sub-set of that gigantic theme" (Hare 1977, p. 266), is given renewed substance and legitimacy. A revitalised regional geography, a mature heir of the discipline's quantitative revolution and recent philosophical coming-of-age, has been proposed as the medium to achieve that goal (e.g. by Gregory 1978). Important as this program is, it does not adequately come to grips with the serious issues raised by the global interdependencies of the late twentieth century. These involve more than just a different scale of analysis, they require explicit attention to the normative questions which confront the international community (White 1985). To address them adequately, geographers require a coherent understanding of world-scale processes and of the human condition. Indeed, Morrill's (1984) conception of

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the "responsibility of geography" depends upon a holistic understanding of personhood. As we shall see below, however, contemporary philosophy seriously challenges accepted notions of what is human. The future of the discipline demands of its practitioners, therefore, a coherence which will not be easily attained, but which is no luxury. It is in this context that I wish to further the argument begun in Wallace ( 1978) that biblical theology offers a promising framework within which to construct a coherent geography. Theology's academic marginality in a secular and pluralist culture reflects its perceived implausibility rather than its failure to address fundamental human concerns. The role ofthe churches in challenging the values expressed in public policy in recent situations as different as Poland, South Africa, British coalfields and Canadian inner cities suggests that theology deserves to be engaged, not ignored, by contemporary social scientists. Certainly, the only theology which has anything to offer is that which is constituted as a disciplined and critical search for truth, but the same criterion applies to all intellectual activity, and Harrington (1983, pp. 10-11) has recently argued: that in the late twentieth century serious atheists and serious believers have more in common with one another than with mindless, de/acto atheists ... and with routine churchgoers. Both have looked into the same void at the centre of this incredible age. David Harvey is one of those "serious atheists": he characterises the present situation thus (1984, p. 6): Those who broke out from behind the safety of the positivist shield ruptured the political silence within geography and allowed conscience and consciousness freer play. But they spoke with many voices, generated a veritable cacophony of competing messages, and failed to define a common language to voice common concerns. Between the safety of the positivist silence and the risk of nihilistic disintegration lies the passage to a revitalized geography .... How to negotiate that passage is our dilemma of this time. Whether Harvey offers an adequate map to navigate this passage is disputable, but "serious believers" must be committed to sharing the exploration with him. Despite its inevitable metaphysical overtones, the theological claim to coherence is fundamentally anchored not in philosophy but in the person of Jesus Christ. This gives it a distinctive character which needs to be elaborated in the face of contemporary critics, not least because of its implications for a coherent understanding of personhood. Some writers, such as Gale (1977), appear to regard any claims to coherence as a threat to intellectual integrity; others, proclaiming the death of God and "the twilight of Man" (Lemert 1979), call us to recognise that coherence is a fiction. Foucault's recent arrival in the geographical literature (Foucault 1980; Claval 1981; Johnston 1983) focuses the concerns

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of Harrington and Harvey. Even if his immediate impact is limited, he signals the need for human geographers to clarify their concept of personhood and of the traditional grounds for humanistic knowledge. Without unduly vulgarising a radically challenging thinker, it is fair to portray Foucault as committed to the demolition of homo centrism. That is, he seeks to undermine the contemporary social sciences which "all return to the particularly nineteenth-century idea that man is the measure of all things", bringing order and coherence to the phenomenal world and situating himself "as the principal agent in a subjective world of consciousness" (Lemert 1979, pp. 13, 15). Foucault argues that the forms of rationality which define personhood (historically, Man) take shape contingently in different historical periods, and that they are structurally determined by rules which implicitly govern the creation of knowledge and the disposition of the power which both resides in it and is necessary to produce it. He rejects the notion that human beings are a centre of meaning and the source of significant actions which express a universal human nature (Gordon 1980; Lemert and Gillan 1982). His historical analyses have concentrated on the institutional and intellectual contexts within which the modern human sciences were born, revealing the extent to which "technologies" of control (prisons, asylums, hospitals, factories) were developed to produce human "normality". His detailed research lends credence to the conclusion that "history, knowledge and the human subject are fundamentally rooted in contingency, discontinuity and iniquitous origins" (Philp 1984, p. 13). Where is all this leading? The characteristic of modernity in intellectual life is that it is neither humanistic nor homocentric. The great dilemma of the humanities today is not simply that scientism has made people inhuman, but that the humanistic disciplines themselves have lost their consensus on the self-evident ness of man as the source of art and thought (Lemert 1979, p. 228) In art, music, literature and linguistics (increasingly central to much social theory), Man, as an organising centre of coherence, has been displaced by an infinity of structural relations in which there is no inherent meaning. With respect to language, Foucault (1973, p. 383) argues that: by reaching the summit of all possible speech, [Man] arrives not at the very heart of himself but at the brink of that which limits him; in that region where death prowls ... where the promise of the origin interminably recedes. In public life, the decentring expresses itself in a variety of interrelated developments which tend to dehumanise society (the rise of technique; Ellul 1964), delegitimise the political order (Habermas 1976) and destabilise the basis for exerting reasoned control over the economy (Hirsch 1976). Significantly, Har-

25

rington (1983) characterises these contemporary challenges to individual and social coherence as "the politics of God's funeral", for they represent the culmination of a process begun in western culture when Man deposed God as the source of meaning. The humanism which was nurtured by the Enlightenment and reached its zenith in the Promethean Man of the confident nineteenth century has ultimately proven to be vulnerable. Modern Man is in his twilight because he knows too much. Former certainties have been shattered: relativity and contingency undermine his aspirations to make sense of himself and his world. It follows that coherence is seemingly a luxury which in honesty he must forego for it is without foundation. The disquiet with Johnston's (1983) passive acceptance of fragmentation must be allowed to penetrate geographers' selfunderstand ing. If, however dimly most of us may perceive it, this reading of the human condition is accurate; ifthe world can no longer meaningfully be regarded as the home of Man because there is ultimately no ontological basis for our aspirations towards coherent personhood and the social, international, and environmental relationships which reflect it; then those who attempt to foist a holistic (coherent) worldview on the geographical community are a threat to its intellectual integrity. Gale (1977, pp. 272, 270) questions whether, in a world of "short-term truths, context-dependency, and partial information", the validity of our analyses depends on our knowing "the ultimate laws of human behavior or that a new economic, social, or epistemological order must exist". He is suspicious of the ideology which results when "understanding and decision are ... the partners in a strange cosmic marriage of ultimate justification". His principal target is the Marxian geo gra phy whose agenda is to forge coherent knowledge (dialectically, within a framework of historical materialism) and to shape the practice of coherent people whose actions are consistent with that knowledge (Harvey 1984). Obviously, however, a theological claim to coherence entering this intellectual environment invites the same critique. Despite the decisive distinction between the cosmological starting point of Marxian and Christian thinkers and all that flows from that, there is today, as Harrington's quotation above suggests, much in their encounter with other philosophies which provides a basis for mutual sympathy (Lash 1981). I have, for instance, already hinted (Wallace 1978) at the nature ofthe affinity between Habermas' critical theory and biblical theology. Marxism and Christianity have many features in common, not least their internal diversity of thought and social expression. (It is for this reason that I argue for a "biblical" theology, without having the space in this paper to define it fully). Thompson (1978, p. 110) classifies "Marxisms" in terms of their appearance as doctrine, method, heritage and tradition, and Lash (1981, pp. 26-34) explores the applicability of these categories to Christianity. In so doing, he identifies the grounds on which, as "doctrines", both worldviews are justifiably seen to threaten intellectual freedom, and as "traditions" both can feasibly claim 26

a critical role in the formulation of a coherent human existence. This distinction is easily misinterpreted. It does not deny that Christian (or Marxian) tradition is based upon commitment to a set of internally-consistent truth claims. It affirms, however, that the way in which these truths are appropriated must be the "comfortless and strenuous" (Thompson 1978, p. 122) task of defining (and necessarily redefining) "with accuracy and integrity" (Lash 1981, p. 33) where it is within the tradition that one stands. Biblical theology claims to convey sure knowledge about an almighty God, creator of the universe and source of its history, whose Spirit leads those who respond to the divine self-disclosure in Jesus Christ into "all the truth". But theology remains a human enterprise, continually threatened by ideological distortion and idolatry (claiming its own necessarily provisional attempts to bridge the ontological gap between God and humanity to be the truth which it attempts to express). The condition of theology's truthfulness (and of the integrity of "serious believers") is thus that it be "permanently iconoclastic" (Lash 1981, p. 132), not only of naturalistic philosophies but also of its own conditional formulations. (It is significant that Marx's critique of Christianity completely ignored the historical evidence for this radical element of its tradition.) The biblical understanding of what is true is grounded in an independently attested (and by no means flattering) history of people and peoples in encounter with God. Crucially, it focuses on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, whose humanity occupied specific space-time coordinates and who has subsequently been encountered by millions of people throughout the world (not least by some quite reputable contemporary geographers). In attempting to do justice to the evidence of this unique person, the New Testament writers expressed the ontological conviction that "all things were created through him and for him ... and in him all things hold together" (Colossians 1: 16-17). Confidence that the ontological basis of coherence is secured in Christ is not granted as an intellectual luxury to be flaunted in the face of an impoverished modern humanism but as the staple to sustain men and women in their struggle to embody that coherence in life and thought. Contemporary manifestations of "revel ationa I positivism" (Lash 1981, p. 63), such as the bulk of religious television in the United States, obviously aggravate the credibility gap which "serious believers" have to overcome to gain a ~earing from their academic colleagues. This trivialisation of God and personhood does not, however, destroy the ground on which a biblical worldview rests; and we are now better equipped to judge whether a coherent human geography built on theological foundations necessarily constitutes the sort of threat which Gale (1977, p. 272) perceives. In place of the "strange cosmic marriage of ultimate justification", Christianity as tradition displays an "understanding" that is sensitive to its limits (I Corinthians 13: 9-12) and a "decision" which continuously requires to be taken responsibly, contextually, trusting in God - who alone knows the shape the future will take - to empower his people to work towards it 27

(Philippians 2: 12-13). Here, surely, is the threat posed by theology (very different from that posed by Marxism): that coherence becomes possible only with our acknowledgement of creaturehood. This affront to post-Enlightenment Man's self-understanding may perhaps elicit a more sympathetic response within the discipline as the thrust of modern philosophy towards the destruction of the person becomes more widely recognised. One articulation of a coherent human geography begins, then, with a theological understanding of humanity. This is as multi-dimensioned as its subject is complex (Macquarrie 1982). One can readily identify, however, the fundamental orientations which it gives to the traditionally-defined task of studying "the earth as the home of man". There is, first, an inescapable dimension of materialism, in that the universe, and particularly the earth (of which human beings are an integral if distinctive part), has been created with an ordered energy/ matter consistency. This confronts human beings as an objective 'given', inviting 'scientific' investigation leading to cumulative knowledge which, in its applied (technological) form, gives them substantial powers to harness that consistency to human purposes. They are not ultimately free, however, to negate their own and their environment's materialism in forms of social practice born of philosophical idealisms, whether subjectively forgetful of material necessity or technocratically forgetful of the limits to human action which its structured consistency imposes. Second, there is the crucial dimension of a humanity (personhood) which is constituted "in the image of God". Given historical and material substance in the person of Jesus Christ, the theological understanding of human nature identifies the source of the existential ambiguities of personhood and human action as the estrangement between God and (wo)mankind. Created by God with the potential for a relationship with him that can best be characterised as inter-personal (a radical challenge to Marx's concept of a transcendent God imposing on an alienated, servile humanity), human beings are shown in the biblical account to regard this potential more as a threat than as a privilege full of promise. Claiming autonomy in defiance of their creaturehood, from Genesis to the present day they have sought to make their own world (and their own gods). It has only ever been a minority who, acknowledging their revolt and its cosmic consequences, have accepted the reconciliation with God made possible through the death and resurrection of Christ and begun to take up the challenge of giving substance to a true humanity. Let us briefly examine some of the implications which this ontology of personhood has for "human" geography. It validates and gives coherence to a wide spectrum of conceptualisations of human behaviour insofar as they reflect authentic dimensions of personhood. Yet it radically questions the sufficiency of conclusions derived from specific, inevitably reductionist models, such as "economic man" (Wallace 1978). It secures the fundamental dignity and significance of each individual as a bearer of the divine image, while simultaneously insisting that human life is corporate,

28

that personhood can be realised only in a matrix of relationships to which are attached legitimate expectations and obligations. Neither coherent theory nor authentic practice can ignore the tension involved in attempting to balance these potentially conflicting claims (cf. Berger 1974). Third, there is the normative dimension. Acknowledgement of creaturehood logically entails acknowledgement of the creator's ontological distinctiveness and acceptance of his/ her project. This could, of course, be interpreted as a metaphysical sanction for the complete abdication of human initiative and responsibility in favour of submission to the capricious will of a transcendent despot. Such a caricature of Christian theology is closer than many postEnlightenment intellectuals would care to admit to their taken-for-granted ideas of the "truth" about God. The biblical account affirms, in contrast, that it is in the space-time concreteness of the life and personhood of Jesus Christ that God's character and program are most fully revealed. The Creator's ethical norms for human behaviour - wholehearted love of God and unselfish love of fellow human beings - are demands made by a God "who so loved the world" that, in Christ, he put aside his ontological distinctiveness and accepted the consequences (death) of the universal rejection of those norms by men and women. To claim of such a God that conformity to his ethical demands is the basis of human freedom is no more paradoxical than to accept that mastery of his material creation springs from adherence to its ·laws'. Stated concisely, the theological basis for a coherent social science consists in the acknowledgement that the material universe and the realm of values originate in one and the same God. The parallel between a theologically-grounded social science and the form of critical theory advanced by Habermas is worth reviewing briefly at this point. The coherence which characterises Habermas' project arises, we can now claim, from an ontology of personhood which, in its breadth and particularly its normative dimension, is by far the closest approximation to the biblical model to appear in contemporary social science. Held (1980, p. 345) notes, for instance, that Habermas' value-directed concept of critical-emancipatory knowledge is shaped by a vision of "a form of life in which truth, freedom and justice are possible". The shift of Habermas' attention towards the basic structures of human language reflects his concern to show that embedded in them is the possibility of an "ideal speech situation" (and hence of uncoerced determination of what is true or normative). In the absence of a theological foundation for ethics, Habermas requires this construct to give his emancipatory values a rationalist legitimation. This solution is, however, patently idealist, not least in its silence concerning the process whereby individuals with self-centred interests in the real world become willing to suppress them in the ideal speech situation (Lukes 1983). The theological account of repentence and conversion leading to moral transformation speaks into this silence not merely conceptually but with the promise of spiritual resources to effect the necessary ethical reorientation.

29

The nature of Habermas' incorportion into recent human geography is instructive. Gregory (1978) in particular and Johnston (1983) are two authors whose significant synoptic accounts of the development of the discipline have been structured in terms of Habermas' set of cognitive interests. In neither case. however, has the reliance of their framework on Habermas' project for its coherence impelled them towards a serious engagement with the ontology of personhood underlying the critical-emancipatory interest. Nor does the recent literature as a whole suggest that human geographers view Habermas as a singularly compelling source of ideas. This is regrettable, for he has much to offer '·serious atheists" and "serious believers" alike. From a theological perspective, however, it is not really surprising. In the contemporary cultural climate of relativism and pluralism (Gale's "nonideological society"), his commitment to truth, norms and coherence finds little sympathy. Where it evokes some, it is readily domesticated and accepted into geographical discourse as offering "in fact" just another interesting perspective (a response equally available to blunt the impact of theological treatment of these issues). Where the emancipatory themes of Habermas might be expected to resonate on account of a shared intellectual tradition, amongst Marxian geographers, one finds deep discomfort or even antipathy towards the thrust of critical theory. This is common to all social scientists who adhere to Marxism as "doctrine", to use Thompson's (1978) categories cited above. rather than as "tradition". It is an attitude easier to justify, perhaps, within geography, given Habermas' increasing preoccupation with human communication (and its distortions) to the neglect of the human interaction with the material world (work, and its distortions) necessary to support life (Eyerman and Shipway 1981). Overall, it seems unlikely that the recent reliance on Habermas to provide the basis for a coherent human geography will prove durable. The discipline appears to be left with limited alternatives: to accept the inevitability of progressive fragmentation and the decentring of the human, to chart its course through Harvey's (1984) Marxian dilemma, or to take up the challenge of giving substance to theological claims to coherence. What does this last option entail, and where might it begin? If the immediate goal is to sustain the credibility of a coherent geography as a distinctive branch of knowledge (and I share Morrill's ( 1984) conviction that this is a responsible contribution to human well-being), the broader intent is to secure the coherence and dignity of personhood threatened by "the twilight of Man" and to promote coherent human behaviour toward the earth threatened by socially-engineered perils ranging from soil erosion to nuclear winter. A theologically-informed geography, will, as we noted above, be material, expressive of personhood (which does not require it to be methodologically individualistic) and normative (in an ethical rather than a rationalist sense). Wright (1983) provides a singularly helpful starting point, for in the process of addressing important epistemological questions raised by the application of biblical ethics he demonstrates the central30

ity of concrete economic, social and environmental issues involving ancient Israel's relationship to its homeland. A theology which proclaims that human beings are accountable stewards, not autonomous owners, of land leads, for instance, to distinctive social practices governing the use of natural resources, provision for the landless, and the processes of economic growth. Wolterstorff ( 1983) elaborates related themes in the context of selected economic and political trends in the contemporary international system. The theological claim to coherence does not provide a detailed blueprint for putting the world to rights, however; it takes human initiative and creativity too seriously for that. Rather, it provides basic principles for participating contextually in a project of reconciliation and renewal which has both social and environmental dimensions.

References Berger, P.J. (1974).Pyramids of Sacrifice: Political Ethics and Social Change (New York: Basic Books). Claval, P. (1981). "Epistemology and the History of Geographical Thought," in D.R. Stoddart, editor, Geography, Ideology. and Social Concern (Oxford: Basil Blackwell) pp. 227-239. Eyerman. R. and Shipway. D. ( 1981). "Habermas on Work and Culture." Theory and Society 10, pp. 547-566. Foucault. M. (1973). The Order of Things (New York: Vintage). Foucault. M. (1980). "Questions on Geography:' in Power/ Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Essays, C. Gordon. editor (New York: Pantheon). pp. 63-77. Gale. S. (1977). "Ideological Man in a Nonideological Society." Annals. Association of American Geographers 67(2). pp. 267-272. Gordon, C. (1980). "Afterword," in Power/ Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Essays, C. Gordon, editor (New York: Pantheon), pp. 229-259. Gregory. D. (1978). Ideology. Science and Human Geography (London: Hutchinson). Hare. F.K. (1977). "Man's World and Geographers: A Secular Sermon" in Geographic Humanism. Ana~rsis and Action, D.R. Deskins et al.. editors (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan, Department of Geography). pp. 261-273. Harrington. M. (1983). The Politics at GOd'.f Funeral: The Spiritual Crisis of Western Civilization (New York: Holt. Rinehart & Winston). Harvey, D. (1984). "On the History and Present Condition of Geography: An Historical Materialist Manifesto." Professional Geographer 36. pp. I-II. Held, D. ( 1980). Introduction 10 Critical Theory: Horkheimer to Habermas (London: Hutchinson). Johnston. R.J. (1983). Geography and Geographers: Anglo-American Human Geography Since 1945. Second Edition (London: Arnold). Lash, N. (1981). A Maller of Hope: A Theologian's Reflections on the Thought of Karl Marx (London: Darton. Longman & Todd). Lemert. c.c. (1979). Sociology and the Twilight of Man: Homocentr;sm and Discourse in Social Theory (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press). Lemert, c.c. and Gillan, G. (1982). Michael Foucault: Social Theory as Transgression (New York: Columbia University Press). Lukes, S. (1982). "Of Gods and Demons: Habermas and Practical Reason," in J.B. Thompson and D. Held. editors, Habermas: Critical Debates (London: Macmillan). pp. 134-148. Macquarrie, J. (1982). In Search of Humanity: A Theological and Philosophical Approach (London: SCM Press). Morrill, R. (1984). "The Responsibility of Geography." Annals, Association of American Geographers 74(1), pp. 1-8. Philp, M. (1984). "When Knowledge Becomes Power: The Return of Grand Theory II Michael Foucault The Listener 12 April. pp. 12-13.

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Thompson. E. P. (1978). The Poverty oj Theory and Other Essays (London: Merlin). Wallace. I. (1978). "Towards a Humanized Conception of Economic Geography," in D. Ley and M.S. Samuels, editors. Humanistic Geography: Prospects and Problems (Chicago: Maaroufa), pp. 91-108. White, G. F. (1985). "Geographers in a Perilously Changing World," Annals. Association oj American Geographers 75( I). pp. 10-16. Wolterstorff. N. (1983) Until Justice and Peace Embrace (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans). Wright, c.J.W. (1983) Living as the People oj God: The Relevance oj Old Testament Ethics (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press).

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3 Rural Development Space in Africa D.R.F. Taylor

Rural development in Africa is of critical importance since more than eighty percent of the population is still rural. Friedmann ( 1981) has argued that rural people feed the nation, are a major source of capital accumulation, are the principal market for domestic manufacturers and as the source of most of the country's population increase, their progress or lack of it will to a large extent determine the future quality of national life. Existing approaches to rural development clearly have not succeeded in reducing either absolute or relative poverty to any significant degree for the majority of Africa's rural peoples (World Bank 1981). Rural development is a complex process which is still poorly understood and ideas on how the quality of life of rural peoples can be improved have changed radically over the last two decades. Centralized approaches to rural development, whether along the lines of neo-classical "trickle down" expectations or socialist "distribution" and state ownership of the means of production, are being seriously questioned and new ideas and strategies are emerging. Although "new" in the current context, many of these may have their roots in the populist or neo-populist ideas ofthe 19th and early 20th centuries (Kitching, 1982). These strategies have a variety of names such as "development from below", "alternative development", Uagropolitan development" and "ecological development", but they contain certain common elements. Development within these strategies is seen as an essentially indigenous process in which concepts of self-reliance and popular participation loom large, involving the maximum mobilization of each area's natural, human and institutional resources so as to meet the primary objective, that is satisfying the needs of the inhabitants of that area. There is an inherent distrust of the Utrickle down" or "redistribution" expectations of existing development policies. These new strategies can be categorized as "development from within" (Friedmann 1983) to emphasize that they are defined, motivated and controlled by the rural popUlation itself. The dominant building block is the rural territorial-based community at the smallest efficient and effective scale. Development in this context is essentially a political act empowering local peoples to control their own destiny. A new balance of power between local communities and the central state is to be established. Such strategies are basic needs oriented, labour intensive, ecologically sensitive, regional resource based, rural centred and argue for the use of "appropriate" rather than "highest" technology.

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Development in Africa has been largely viewed as the responsibility of the central state and participation of the rural peoples has been sought to pursue development as defined by the state (Friedmann 1981). Various methods, from exhortation to force, have been used to incorporate rural peoples but as yet, Africa's rural peoples remain largely "uncaptured" by either socialist or capitalist approaches and cling, apparently stubbornly, to what Hyden (1980) has called "the economy of affection." Development from within strategies see that economy as a system upon which meaningful rural development can be built by the people themselves. Rural peoples are far from static and are perfectly capable of making rational choices regarding their own destinies when given the real power to do so. The human potential of Africa's peasants has been seriously underestimated. Richards (1983) presents an interesting set of arguments on the value and importance of indigenous agricultural knowledge much of which has been until very recently largely ignored. Peasants are not a "target group" to be "mobilized" or "captured" as in a military campaign nor are they the objects of a development which will trickle down or be redistributed to them. Given a real opportunity there are few African rural communities which cannot improve their own situations. The role of central government and other external agencies should be to help bring about conditions in which rural peoples can realize their potential (Friedmann, 1981). Development from within cannot take place in isolation from external influences especially in areas where there have been centuries of exploitation which has undermined the vitality of many rural communities. A new balance of power must be struck. In most instances this will result in conflict between the local community and the state, but these conflicts will have to take place and be resolved if any real progress is to be made by Africa's rural peoples. Friedmann (1982) argues that an attempt must be made to combine two essentially contradictory goals: the desire of the state to expand capitalist or socialist modes of production; and the desire of the peasantry to evolve within its own mode of production. Friedmann argues that the state has a clear priority in this respect. I n the current circumstances in rural Africa it might be argued that rural communities should have at least equal priority with the state, especially in circumstances where central government is as much a part ofthe problem as it is part of the solution. In the rural development process, space or territory has an important role to play. Territory has real meaning to Africa's rural peoples and is a significant basis on which rural people can organize themselves in the political struggle to control their own development. But rural development in Africa has been dominated by a functional approach and territory has been largely ignored. In the initial phase of nation-building from diverse ethnic groups, this may well have been necessary. "Tribes" within clearly defined territories have strong

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negative connotations for most central government who see "nation building" as a prime objective. Too much attention has been paid to the negative aspects of tribalism and not nearly enough to the positive aspects upon which a more meaningful and successful rural development may be built. Territory and territoriality are increasingly important and complex issues, as Knight (1982) recently pointed out. Territory is, of course, not the only basis upon which the development process can be politicized. There are others, such as class. In some instances, as in the Basque region of Spain, both may be used together. Friedmann (1983) advances the argument that there is no necessary contradiction between struggles based on class and struggles based on territory, although there is no general agreement on this point (Soja 1982). Politicization based on class would cut across ethnic lines and this has considerable intellectual appeal to writers such as Ake (1978), but for the purposes of development from within, such an approach has certain drawbacks which are outlined by Moris (1981). A class based strategy by definition is often deeply divisive at the local community level and can alienate people who share common aims and who often have much to offer to the rural development process. Clear cut classes in African rural communities are difficult to delineate and Marxist attempts to do so are often somewhat artificial. Many of these communities are dominantly peasant communities and Marxism remains somewhat ambivalent about peasants. The literature is full of terms such as "poor peasants", "rich peasants", "kulaks", and "middle peasants", which have meaning to the analyst but much less meaning to the people or the reality they are meant to describe. Hyden, (1980, 79) for example, argues, when discussing progressive farmers in Tanzania, that "To refer to them as 'kulak' farmers is strongly misleading." The concepts and importance of the extended family unit and its rights and obligations, of the economy of affection, of the remittance economy, of patron-client relationships, of tribalism and ethnicity, cannot simply be explained as a "false consciousness" which must be overcome. To suggest that there are no conflicts in African rural communities would be foolish. There is social stratification and competition for ownership of the means of production, especially areas where there is land hunger leading to the increasing emergence of a landless class, but at this point of time, territory is, in general, a sounder base on which to politicize the rural development process in Africa than class. Spatial factors and how they are organized are obviously key variables in a rural development process based on territory. Spatial factors are not the only variables in a process as complex as rural development but their significance in that process has not been fully appreciated. Space is not just the inanimate stage on which the drama of rural development is played. It is a produced entity of human action. The choice of the size, shape and organization of the stage will influence the drama and new approaches to rural development may require fundamental changes in the stage and its scenery.

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Territory can be conceptualized at various scales although for rural development the local scale is the most critical. Local communities cannot ignore the national and international contexts in which they exist and these larger scale spaces clearly influence the development patterns at the local level and their influence must be considered (Taylor 1981). At the international scale there is the whole gamut of relations between North and South, including issues such as commodity prices, aid, technology transfer, tariff barriers, etc. In Africa these influences are filtered for the many land-locked states such as Uganda, and even more so for double land-locked states such as Rwanda. At the national scale there are the important relationships between rural and urban areas and decisions such as pricing policies for foodstuffs and investment in basic infrastructure such as roads, power and water supply and how these are to be made on a regional basis. Developments at these two scales will either hinder or promote rural development at the local level but rural development should be essentially an indigenous and local process if substantial progress is to be made. There are a number of reasons why the local scale is critical. If rural development is an essentially political act then there is a need for self determination of political communities at the lowest levels. It can be argued that it is the local "life space" (Friedmann 1983) which has most meaning in rural Africa and it is from these local life spaces that the interconnected political communities can be derived. Such spaces do not necessarily coincide with bureaucratic space. Within local life space Friedmann (1983) argues that the community has a claim to an autonomous (if constrained) right to: i) ii)

iii) iv)

Define what is of public concern, Order social or public priorities for action, Choose methods of implementation, and Marshall resources for action.

If the arbitrary wishes of the state are forced upon local communities then the concept of autonomous life space disappears and people have no say or sense of their own development. Without this, rural development is unlikely to be successful. There are also ecological and technical arguments for the importance of the local scale (Friedmann 1983). If ecological balance and environmental quality are deemed to be important then the actions required to ensure these must be achieved at the micro-scale. If effective action is not taken at this scale it is difficult to see how environmental concerns during the development process can be met. Richards (1983,2) writing from the perspective of a human ecologist makes a strong case for the importance of 'particularism' and the local scale:

The changes inherent in a universalist approach and the corresponding importance of local knowledge and local level adaptations recur as

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major themes .... Interpretative frameworks and research approaches based on temperate-latitude experience have led to significant undervaluation of the historical achievement of cultivators in the African tropics and have damaged prospects for further development along indigenous lines. Recent progress in tropical agronomy and farming systems research reflects a new sensitivity to the local diversity of African agricultural ecologies. Faith in the all-purpose technological 'fix' is now on the wane, and there is much more emphasis on local level adaptation, much of which it is conceded will depend on the ingenuity and initiative of African rural communities. In Richards' view, both agricultural production and the ecology of health, disease and land use depend upon local knowledge and involvement and can therefore most effectively be dealt with at the local scale. "Whatever the imperfections of pre-colonial ecological science in Africa, it was specific in time and place and responsive to local needs. A major contribution of human ecology is to remind us that this specificity is still important" (Richards 1983, 54). I t is difficult for central governments to reach all rural peoples and respond to their needs, even in situations where this is the real objective of government. Few African governments have the resources, either financial or human, to deal effectively with rural peoples given the large numbers involved and the generally dispersed nature of rural settlement. There is a need for rapid and accurate feedback which requires action at the local level but central planning models are too highly aggregated and their feedback mechanisms are both slow and often very inaccurate. Stohr ( 1982) has argued that localizing the planning process can create more effective feedback mechanisms through a process of mutual adaptation and innovation. Richards (1983, 57) argues that only agricultural research and extension which is" ... highly decentralized, village based, and participatory in style to make maximum use of the knowledge and skills already in the possession of the majority of cultivators ... " is likely to succeed. He also argues that such an approach would be highly cost effective. It should be emphasized that the aim of "development from within" is not to preserve local communities as they are but to give a greater degree of control over the direction of change so that the situation, so prevalent in rural Africa, in which the costs are felt locally and the benefits centralized is altered. There is a need for the retention of a much higher degree of surplus val ue in the community which is largely responsible for the generation of that surplus. If the local scale is of importance then what changes in spatial organization are required to give it primacy and how are these changes to be brought about? The orientation to the micro-level is more than just a change in strategy - it is in essence a look at power relations and the unequal division of power. We must begin to examine conflict between the local community and the state and means

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of resolving that conflict. The picture is complicated further by the existence of political conflicts within local communities, although this is usually a less prevalent situation in Africa than in Latin America or Asia. As a minimum, a reorganization of the role of the state at the local level is required and existing state organizations may well have to be replaced. Regionalization and decentralization of decision making may not be enough: what may be required is structural recognition of regionalism and devolution of fiscal and political power. The local economy must have resources at its disposal and a much greater degree of control of inter-regional exchange. A first step is conceptualizing the development space in which African rural peoples live (Taylor 1981) and recognizing the impact of both existing structural constraints and the systemic influence of larger scale linkages at both national and international levels. Such influences must be identified, described, and where possible altered. Stohr (1982) has argued, using system analysis, that local communities are open sub-systems and can only move forward by optimizing closed feedback loops. What he called "selective spatial closure" (Stohr and Todtling 1978) may therefore be required at various points in time and space to allow a local community to marshall the resources and strengths required to redress some of the existing imbalances caused by the influences of these other spaces. Selective spatial closure, however, is only a partial solution because no community can afford to be autarchic, although most can be much more self-reliant. Self-reliance should not be mistaken for self-sufficiency, for the latter may not be possible for many societies. Self-reliance as used here means the maximum use of all local physical and human resources available to any community for purposes determined and controlled by that community itself. Local communities in Africa can only benefit from increasing their degree of self-reliance which is a necessary condition for "development from within." For many rural communities in Africa an obvious first step is the increase in food crop production and a strengthening of the reciprocal ties still prevalent in many of those rural communities. Here, of course, a conflict immediately emerges between the state (whether capitalist or socialist), with its desire to extract surplus, and the local community whose desire is to retain that surplus or, in some instances, to produce only what it needs to consume. The literature is full of the "failures" of African agriculture in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana and Tanzania. When these "failures" are more closely examined, the picture that emerges is one of ailing cash crop production and the failure of farmers to produce cheap food for the urban areas. The fact that farmers and their families may well be eating better than ever before may be missed. If the rural population is in the vast majority then surely there may have been a dramatic increase in the overall quality of life. Indeed, perhaps agriculture has "failed" only in the sense of not generating the foreign exchange required by government, and not providing cheap food for the urban proletariat. If inequitable pricing policies for food

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crops and the propensity of marketing boards for cash crops to "stabilize" prices by retaining a large share of income earned from those crops were altered, farming communities might respond differently. Here, of course, the vagaries of prices for cash crops on the world market also playa significant role. It is almost a truism to observe that what success has been achieved in rural development in Africa has come not from a transformation approach but from building on existing structures and knowledge. Richards (1983) argues that much more could be done in this respect. In reorganizing local space a similar approach may be of considerable value. Once development space has been conceptualized in a systemic sense the traditional organization of local space must be examined with a view to maximizing its potential for development from within. Here there are at least three interrelated elements: I) The traditional territorial organization of space, 2) Spatial flows, links and nodes in the traditional exchange system, and 3) The social and political organization which society used to control and manage local space. It is probably not enough, as Mabogunje (1981 a,b) points out, to simply call for popular participation. The framework in which this is to occur must be specified and hence the proper organization of territory is critical: "This is essentially a spatial issue where detailed consideration is often gleaned over in most discussions of popular participation. Yet without attention being paid to the appropriate spatial units within which to mobilize the population, it can be argued that no effective participation of the masses can be expected" (Mabogunje 1981a, 103). For development to occur in the rural sub-system, changes in spatial organization are required which emphasize territory as opposed to function and within which the types of institutions necessary to the effective involvement of people in their own development can emerge. Parameters of what is required are already being set. Friedmann and Douglass (1978) talk of "Agropolitan Districts", Mabogunje (1981 b) of "People Space", 1981 b), Claeson (1979) of "integrated area development", and Stohr and Taylor (1981) of "development from below". Space has an important role to play in a development process involving people but some aspects of geographical thinking in this respect which emphasize functional space, hierarchical structures and diffusion of innovation from the top of an urban hierarchy may be as much a part of the problem as part of the solution. The functional and hierarchical organization of space, especially bureaucratic space, has often proven to be a barrier to effective development of rural peoples. Mabogunje (1981 a, 105) argues that the result of this form of spatial organization" ... is a wide gap in perception and communication between the bureaucrat and the community he is meant to serve." Decentralization of bureaucratic space may not in itself lead to any improvement. The Nigerian case is a good example

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where 19 states and 299 local government units have been created. This has had some positive effects especially in the state capitals but Mabogunje (1981 b, 107) comments that" ... it is becoming increasingly clear that the impact of this development on the masses of the population within these states remain marginal." Rondinelli, (1981, 134) in reviewing decentralization processes in East Africa has arrived at similar conclusions: Recent evaluation raises profound questions about the commitment of national bureaucracies to decentralization, about the political motivations for decentralization in some countries and their implications for achieving socially equitable economic growth. Decentralization has been thwarted in some cases by conflicts arising between the desire of government leaders to control fragile and poverty-stricken economies and their programs for encouraging widespread participation in development. Local government should not automatically be equated with participation. Mabogunje (198Ia, 107) writing of Nigeria's political units argues: This number oflocal government units in the country represents one of the most parsimonious in the world, and is certainly not designed to encourage popular participation among the masses. Rather, it ensures that bureaucrats at this level have an adequate scope for their type of decision making, which is expert, professional, and depersonalized, and which involves little direct contact with the people, except perhaps with the small elite of the local population. In East Africa where some ofthe most extensive programs of decentralization in Africa have been carried out the result is little better. Rondinelli (1981, 14I) comments that "The value of participation in development planning becomes questionable when local communities have little or no control over financial resources with which to carry out their plans." Popular participation may require the devolution of power to different territorial units than those currently used for administrative purposes and in which effective institutional structures can emerge. Esman (1978) has provided evidence of the importance of institutions to successful rural development and Montgomery's study (1972) provides evidence that devolution is much more likely to lead to success than decentralization. The essential difference between decentralization and devolution is that in the latter local leaders are given real power, including fiscal power. For the purpose of popular participation, there is evidence to suggest that territorial units should be quite small. Mabogunje (1981 b), using the concept of "perceptible interdependence", makes an argument for the utilization of units as small as two or three thousand people. He also points out correctly that "the territorial basis of such organization is critical because many of the benefits

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required from group effort are location-specific and, for farmers with their restricted range of mobility, 'perceptible interdependence' involves a high degree of spatial propinquity" (Mabogunje 1981 b, 83). Both Friedmann and Douglass (1978) and Taylor (1975) argue for larger units which in both cases are centred on new forms of urban structure. For Taylor this is a "development centre" (Taylor 1979) and for Friedmann an "agropolis." Mabogunje (1981 a, b) argues that Friedmann's "agropolitan districts" are essentially forms of bureaucratic space and that growth centres, or even the expanded and redefined concept of development centres, " ... are unlikely to provide an appropriate institutional framework for mobilizing the vast majority of low-income and underprivileged people for participation in their own development" (Mabogunje 1981 a, 105). At the same time, however, he talks of the need to manipulate bureaucratic space and activate popular spaces as complementary and mutually re-inforcing actions (1981 a, 114) and comments that his suggested new territorial entities" ... must be as significant an aspect of regional development planning as programmes of growth centre development" (198Ia, 110). Development from within argues that in the rural sub-system the emphasis should be on the peasant and traditional economy. Experience with rural development in Africa suggests that a transformation approach is much less likely to succeed than an approach which is more evolutionary and builds on existing structures and knowledge (Richards 1983). In choosing appropriate spatial strategies for development this is also an issue. Kimani and Taylor (1972) in their study of M uranga District in Kenya identify nodes in the traditional spatial system which could act as small growth centres. Mabogunje (1981 b) makes a plea for the investigation of traditional territorial spatial structures such as the "omodia" in the Sudan as potential candidates for rejuvenated territorial planning. Gana (1982) has produced a fascinating study of traditional spatial organization for northern Nigeria. These approaches could be combined in an innovative way. At the smallest scale in Kenya, for example, traditional spatial units such as the Kikuyu "mbari" were not destroyed by colonialism or by subsequent administrative boundary changes after independence. The British renamed these traditional units sub-locations, locations and divisions, and bureaucratic space used the same bound.aries as "people space", although the people at the local level lost control ofthe space. The Government of Kenya has not altered this situation although they have altered the internal boundaries at the District and Provincial levels to break up the "White Highlands" and to control the perceived evils of tribalism. In the Kenyan case, the spatial restructuring ideas of Mabogunje, Friedmann, Taylor and others could be implemented without altering existing bureaucratic space, at least in terms of its boundaries, too dramatically. A combination of small development centres (Taylor 1979) embedded in, and effectively linked to, small scale "people spa-

41

ces", in which new organizational structures for popular participation could emerge (Mabogunje, 1981 a, b), might well form building blocks for Friedmann's (1978) agropolitan districts. This might well provide the type of spatial organization required for development from within. The maj or barrier to such change in Kenya, and in other African countries, is the lack of willingness of Government and bureaucracies to allow for any devolution of power. In Kenya even decentralization has been a slow, painful and as yet largely ineffective process. The announcement by President M oi in June, 1983, of a strengthening of district level planning may lead to some improvement, but that remains to be seen (Republic of Kenya 1983). Southall (1979, 9) sums up the position well: The positive development role of small urban centres ... presupposes the possibility of decentralization and deconcentration, permitting genuine grass roots participational input to the development process. Despite some serious efforts in this direction it is doubtful whether this is a reality anywhere in Africa. He comments further: Only a very strong idealistic and ideological commitment from the top can permit the decentralizing forces to win at the bottom against the very prestigeful and contradictory pressures in the direction of centralization. Centralizing pressures have not only dominated capitalist countries, but most of the more advanced socialist countries as well (1979, II). It is also clear that reorganization of space in the rural sub-system must be accompanied by change in both structures and relationships at other scales. If this does not take place then the situation for rural peoples may decline rather than improve. Southall puts the case forcefully:

To study small urban centres without paying attention to the macroeconomic and political context in which they are set may therefore be futile (1979, I) .... Most small towns appear as the lowest rung of systems for the oppression and exploitation of rural peoples. (1979, 2) .... Thus many studies seem to document conclusively the overwhelming trends of centralization and international capitalist penetration, stifling the possibility of small urban centres themselves stimulating their rural hinterlands in a positive way (1979,5). A much higher degree of territorially-based community self-reliance would help control these trends. At the national level the terms of exchanges of all types, including the important area of prices for food crops, should be altered in favour of the rural areas. Urbanization and ind ustrialization instead of looking only outwards to world markets, could be more inward looking. Industry could

42

be geared more closely to meeting the needs of rural development and the type of urban growth could well be of Friedmann's agropolitan type. In existing urban areas attention and resources should be concentrated on the "informal" sector, and the formal sector instead of being the only focal point of attention, would become of secondary importance and might initially be given relatively few resources. In terms of north-south relationships on the international scale there would be an attempt to lessen dependence, as Seers (1977) has argued, by a self-reliant strategy. It should be stressed that an emphasis on lessening dependence does not mean autarchy. How far it is possible to pursue a policy of national self-reliance depends upon a country's size, location, natural resources, political system, socio-cultural makeup, and the extent to which its economy needs imported inputs and foreign exchange. The key to a development strategy of this type is not to break off all links, which would not only be damaging but also politically infeasible for any African country, but to adopt a selective approach to external influences of all types. In economic terms this means reducing dependence on imports, especially of basic foods and energy. It also means increasing national ownership and control and improving national capacity for negotiating with multinational corporations. In social and cultural terms, the strategy would also imply increasing awareness and pride in indigenous values and lessening dependence on and imitation of northern countries. North-south relationships could also be emeliorated by replacing them with south-south alternatives wherever possible. In the African context, many difficulties have been encountered with regional co-operation and integration but it is clearly an avenue which must continue to be explored. Such a strategy probably has a greater chance of success than the strategies being followed at present which, in any case, are not bringing the results expected ofthem. In Africa, 20 percent ofthe population may be improving both in terms of wealth and quality oflife but this is more than counter-balanced by at least 40 percent of the population which is getting absolutely and relatively poorer. Some argue that this is not because the strategies being used are wrong or because governmental commitment for change is not strong, but is mainly because there is a lack of technical and human resources to implement these strategies. Others - more radical - argue that the lack of success is due to an absence of political will in those in power and pose a simple but vital question: Why should those with economic and political advantages give them away especially to the rural poor? The same question might be asked of the self-reliant development from within strategy. Its strength in this respect might lie in the fact that it explicitly endorses nationalism at the international level, as Seers (1977) has suggested, and in addition supports regionalism at the sub-national level. Both of these are powerful contemporary forces. Nationalism and regionalism both cease to be obstacles to development and become instead the very essence of it. Nationalism and 43

regionalism in Africa have often been seen as conflicting forces. This may, in fact, be a false perception. There is no inherent reason why there cannot be complementary ways of re-organizing space despite the political difficulties involved. If the theoretical approaches outlined above can be translated into sound implementable policies, then the next decade in Africa may see some radical (in the sense of getting at root causes) approaches to spatial organization and development and an increase in the quality oflife of all people - which is the ultimate goal of that development. Development from within may hold out more promise for Africa's rural peoples, at least in the forseeable short term future, than the current strategies which are clearly not succeeding. Such strategies must, of course, be viewed in a dynamic rather than a static fashion and will have to be adjusted over time and space to suit the wide variety of experiences in rural Africa. Given the pressing immediate needs of Africa's rural people and central governments' inability to improve the quality of life, new more effective approaches must be found.

References Ake. C. (1978). Revolutionary Pressures in Africa (London: Zed Press). Esman. M.J. (1978). "Development Administration and Constituency Organization:' Public Administration Review. 38 (2). pp. 166-172. Claeson. C.F. (1979). "Integrated Area Development - An Introduction to the Concept:' Columbo, Sri Lanka: Seminar Paper. Matara Integrated Development Project. Friedmann, J. & Douglass. M. (1978). "Agropolitan Development: Towards a New Strategy for Regiona I Planning in Asia," in Growth Pole St rategy and Regional Development Policy, F. C. Lo. and K. Saleh, editors (Oxford: Pergamon) Friedmann. J. (1981). "Regional Planning for Rural Mobilization in Africa:' Los Angeles: U.C.L.A. Working Paper 339, Institute of Urban and Regional Development. _ _ _ _ (1982). "Regional Planning for Rural Mobilization in Africa," Rural Africana 12-13 (Winter-Spring), pp. 3-20. _ _ _ _ (1983). "Political and Technical Moments in Development: Agropolitan Development Revisited," Los Angeles: University of California, Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, WCPS. Gana, G. (1982). "The Political Economy of Integrated Rural Development in Nigeria." paper presented to seminar on regional development alternatives. Belo Horizonte. Brazil. Hyden, G. (1980). Beyond Ujamaa in Tanzania (Berkeley: University of California Press). Kitching, G. (1982). Development and Underdevelopment in Historical Perspective (London: Methuen). Kimani. S. & Taylor. D.R.F. (1972). Growth Centres and Rural Development in Kenya (Thika, Kenya: Maxim Printers). Knight. D.B. (1982). "Identity and Territory: Geographical Perspectives on Nationalism and Regionalism." Annals of the Association of American Geographers 72 (4), pp. 514-S31. Mabogunje, A. (1981 a). "Geography and the Dilemma of Rural Development in Africa," Geografiska Annaler. 63 B (2). pp. 73-86. _ _ _ _ (/98/b). "The Dilemma of Rural Development in Africa." Regional Development Dialogue. 2 (2). pp. 1-19. Montgomery. J. D. ( 1972) .•• Allocation of Authority in Land Reform and Programs: A Comparative Study of Administrative Processes and Outputs." Admini.'lIrative Science Quarler~l" 17 (I). pp. 62-7S. Moris, J.R. (/981). Managing Induced Rural Development (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. for the International Development Institute).

44

Republic of Kenya (1983). District Focus for Development Planning (Nairobi: Office of the President). Richards. P. (1983). "Ecological Change and the Politics of African Land Use," African Studies Review. 26 (2). pp. 1-72. Rondinelli. D. (1981). "Government Decentralization in Comparative Perspective: Theory and Practice in Development Countries." International Review of Administrative Science, 47 (2), pp. 133-145. Seers. D. (1977). "The New Meaning of Development,"lnternational Development Review, 19 (3), pp.2-7. Soja. E.W. (1982). "Spatiality, Politics, and the Role of the State," presentation to the I.G.V. Congress, Rio de Janeiro. Southall. A. (1979). Small Urban Centres in Rural Development in Africa (Madison: University of Wisconsin, African Studies Program). Stohr, W. & Taylor, D.R.F. (1981). Developmentfrom Above or Below: The Dialectics of Regional Planning in Developing Nations (Chichester: John Wiley & Sons). Stohr. W. and Todtling, F. (1978). "Spatial Equity - Some Antitheses to Current Regional Development Doctrine," Papers of the Regional Science Association, 38, pp. 33-53. Stohr. W. (1982). "The World Economic System and the Development of Local Communities", presentation to Seminar on Regional Development Alternatives, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Taylor, D.R.F. (1975). "Spatial Organization and Rural Development," in Freedom and Change. Essays in Honour of Lester B. Pearson. M. Fry, editor(Toronto: McClelland and Stewart), pp. 217-41. _ _ _ _ ( 1979). The Role and Function of Lower Order Centres in Rural Development (Nagoya, Japan: UNCRD Working Paper 79:07). _ _ _ _ ( /981). "Conceptualizing Development Space in Africa," Geogra/iska Annaler, 63B(2), pp.87-93. World Bank (1983). World Development Report 1981 (New York: Oxford University Press).

45

III

PATTERNS AND PROCESSES

4 Canadian Regions: A Hierarchy of Heartlands and Hinterlands D. Michael Ray HIt is unlikely that regionalism is anywhere at the centre of more national problems than in Canada" Gordon Merrill

Heartlands and Hinterlands Spatial Pattern and Process If any given characteristic, whether economic, demographic, cultural or political, changes sytematically outwards from some centre, then a centre-periphery or heartland-hinterland pattern may be said to exist. If that pattern, in turn, changes systematically through time, then spatial concentration or devolution may be said to be occurring. Manufacturing activity in Canada, for example, tends to decrease in intensity outwards from the Windsor-Quebec corridor, which has been described by a number of writers as the national heartland: a centre-periphery pattern exists. We shall see that redistribution of industry in the present century has increased the heartland-hinterland disparity: concentration is occurring. Form expresses process (Thompson 1919). A systematic spatial pattern points to an underlying systematic spatial process. A centre-periphery pattern in the distribution of some characteristic suggests a centre-periphery interaction process. Spatial interaction comprises the flows of people, for whatever purpose, of goods and services, and of information and ideas. Interaction is centre-periphery when these flows focus on a central node, thereby creating a functional region. Emotive connotations are sometimes attached to the labels of heartland and hinterland, and hinterlands are generally defined as regional sub-systems that stand in a relationship of economic, political and cultural dependency to a heartland (Friedmann 1973). But the definition is reversible: consider only the world heartland's need for OPEC oil. Thus heartlands too could be defined as regional sub-systems existing in a relationship of dependency on their hinterland. There is no principle of spatial organization or spatial interaction that argues for an intrinsic one-way dependency. Heartlands and hinterlands are interdependent.

Composite Pattern and Complex Proces.f) Moreover, there is a danger of attributing centre-periphery patterns and

49

process to the single geographic centre at which they are observed. The world economy has been sometimes caricatured as a dependent global periphery producing food and raw materials for a great industrial heartland (Prebisch 1950). Similarly national economies have been oversimplified into national peripheries and heartlands (Economic Council 1965). Spatial pattern and process has been more usefully conceptualized as a process of dual polarization operating simultaneously at both the national and international scale (Sunkel 1973). Raw materials for example are channelled from regional peripheries via centres in the world hinterland to centres in the world heartland. The resulting benefits and disparities are similarly structured into heartland-hinterland patterns at two geographic scales. In fact, spatial patterns are a composite of centre-periphery patterns operating at a hierarchy of scales, together with other, non centre-periphery forces. The underlying process has been most simply modelled in studies of diffusion with barriers (Yuill 1965). It is possible to decompose a spatial distribution into its component patterns and to identify the contribution made by centre-periphery processes at various scales. If time-series data are available, it is also possible to trace changes in each component pattern through time and determine whether concentration or devolution are occurring. This paper describes the heartland-hinterland forces evident from such an analysis for census data for Canada, retabulated to standardized census divisions, for the census years 191 I to 1971. The 0 bjective is to present a new conceptionalisation of regions and regionalism in Canada based on general system theory (Bertanlanffy 197 I), to complement the conceptualizations of earlier geographies.

Canadian Heartlands and Hinterlands Three scales of heartlands and hinterlands emerge from a longitudinal analysis of Canadian census data, 191 I to 1971. At the international scale an east-west dimension of regionalism was established when Canada served as a resource hinterland to heartland Europe. At the national scale the western, northern and Atlantic peripheries are linked to the central Canada manufacturing belt. This centre-periphery pattern fractures into two factors, however, because of the distinctiveness ofthe northern periphery. At the regional scale there are sets of heartlands focussed on the metropolitan and on the urban centres. Additional dimensions of regionalism describe English-French contracts and the regional impact of United States investment. The spatial patterns of individual census characteristics are composites, in varying proportions, of these dimensions. The International Scale and the East-West Pattern The first heartland-hinterland dimension of regionalism reflects the vestigial impact of the early production of staple exports for European markets, and the associated tendency for the development of the country to proceed westwards

50

from the Atlantic seaboard. Thus the time sequence in which Canada's staple exports entered world markets is also their spatial sequencing east to west across the country. The spatial-temporal sequencing of exports was ordered by the classical interaction factors of heartland Europe's needs, hinterland Canada's resources and relative accessibility. Thus Innis (1930), wrote, "The economic history of Canada has been dominated by the discrepancy between the centre and the margin of western civilization". Careless (1954) notes that, "The St. Lawrence System that funneled traffic from the continental interior out to sea was closely connected with British finance and markets across the waters in an east-west trading network that reached halfway around the world". The staple export theory is, in essence then, a heartland-hinterland theory of regional development on an intercontinental scale.

Demographic and Cultural Attributes But the east-west dimension is not simply about staples. A comprehensive set of demographic, cultural and economic contrasts vary east to west across Canada. Immigrants become a progressively larger proportion of the population (Figure 4.1) as do also the ethnic groups associated with the settlement of the west, such as the central and East European groups. The railways which helped to open Western Canada to immigration also helped to open Eastern Europe to emigration. The ethnic map of Canada has thus become a splintered mirror image of the ethnic map of Europe. Migration within Canada has also been predominantly east to west. Each census shows that provinces have tended to lose population to those provinces west of them and to gain population from those east of them. The combined effect of these inter- and intra-national shifts in population has been to increase the diversity of ethnic origin and mother tongue, and of place of birth and religion progressively east to west across Canada. East- West Devolution of Population The east to west gradient which can be detected in Canada's population distribution has changed progressively since Confederation. A century ago, population density tended to decrease east to west across the country. Today it tends to increase east to west. The changeover from decrease to increase occurred at the turn of the century. The changing distribution of immigrants tells a somewhat different story. The pre-World War I flow of immigrants toward the west has been followed by a post-World War I I flow of immigrants to our large urban centres, particularly in the Windsor-Quebec corridor. The east-west distribution of immigration is thus being erased by time.

51

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A N THE NATIVE·BORN POPULATION, 1851/52

Figure 9.3

The native born population, 1851-1852.

TABLE 9.1 Percentage Contribution of the Various Groups

English and Welsh Scots Irish French Canadian Non-French Canadian Other British Americans Americans Europeans Others

Essex County

Southern Ontario

Ratio

7.0 2.0 8.0 32.0 38.0 0.4 11.0 1.0 0.6

9.0 8.0 18.0 3.0 55.0 0.7 5.0 1.0 0.3

0.78 0.25 0.45 10.66 0.69 0.57 2.2 1.0 2.0

Source: Upper Canada Personal Census by Origin 1851-52.

concomitant correspondence with Anglicanism and Calvinism; the southern dimension being American, Methodist, Episcopal and Baptist {Clarke 1973}. With respect to the distribution of people, our study area shows a broadly similar dichotomy although the constituent elements are different. In this respect Essex County is a good mirror of the society of Upper Canada in the 1850's although as the ratios of Table 9.1 show, Essex had almost 11 times the concentration of Frenchmen as Ontario as a whole and 2.2 times that of Americans, representing the two earliest waves of settlers {see Table 9.1}. In keeping with this ethnic concentration Essex exhibited regional concentrations of particular denominations. Table 9.2 shows that the county had fewer Presbyterians than in Ontario as a whole, as it had fewer Scots, slightly under the proportion of Anglicans and Methodists and much greater concentrations of TABLE 9.2 Major Religious Groups, Ontario and Essex County, 1851-52

Religion Roman Catholic Anglican Presbyterian Methodist Baptists Other Christians Not Known or Not Given Other Creeds

Absolute Numbers Ontario

Absolute Numbers Essex County

Percentage of Ontario Total

167,695 223.190 204,148 207,656 45.353 49,883

7,669 3,354 793 3,051 1,380 132

17.6 23.4 21.4 21.8 4.8 5.2

45.6 19.9 4.7 18.1 8.2 0.8

2.6 0.85 0.22 0.83 I. 71 0.15

42,484 7,908

268 119

4.5 0.8

1.6 0.7

0.36 0.88

Source: Upper Cunada Personal Census by Origin 1851-52.

112

Ratio of Percentage County to Ontario of Essex Total Percentage

Roman Catholics and Baptists. The point here is not the imbalance between any group or denomination but the fact that all are represented at levels permitting meaningful analysis. Not all counties would be so amenable. Ethnicity and Religion As Table 9.2 shows, Essex at mid-century was a dominantly Roman Catholic county whose Catholic fabric was composed predominantly of French Canadian and Irish stock. About 98 percent of French Canadians were Roman Catholics, the remainder possibly of Hugenot stock being mainly Anglicans (see Table 9.3). This obvious and expected relationship has also been shown for a larger area of Ontario at a later period by Darroch and Ornstein. A somewhat weaker but still predictable association between Irishness and Catholicism is seen on Table 3 where about 64 percent of the heads of household are shown as Roman Catholics and 23 percent as Anglicans. Given the low incidence of Presbyterians among the Irish and based only upon surmise one might hypothesise that this Irish Protestant population was primarily a Southern Irish population (Cousens, 1960, 1963, 1965). Anglicans were the dominant group among those born in England and Wales, but Anglicanism's evangelical offshoot Methodism claimed 23 percent of this population. The Scots were overwhelmingly Presbyterian; the Americans primarily Methodist (47 percent) and Baptist. In short, Table 9.3 confirms the expected relationship between ethnicity and religion; a chi-square analysis of these data proved statistically significant at the 95 percent confidence level. 2 Ethnicity and Age A similar analysis showed a statistically significant relationship3 between age and ethnicity in the direction indicated on Table 9.4 and Figure 9.4. The Americans with a mean age of 47.4 and a modal age of 40 years were the oldest group in 1850 although, of course, the history of their association with the county was younger than that of the French Canadians. Given the legal requirements for the Americans to swear allegiance to the Crown and given that a number might choose to return to the United States rather than do so, this is understandable. In contrast Canadians were the youngest group. The mean age of French Canadians was 43.0 years, their modal age was 32, their median age 40.9. "Other Canadians", as one might expect of a group that grew as the offspring of all others was the youngest single group. Their mean age was 38.8, their median age 36.1 years and their modal age 25. Between these North American born groups, were the Scots, the English and 2. 3.

The chi-square value observed was 1962: the chi-square value needed to reject the null hypothesis at the 95 percent confidence level was 52.6. The chi-square value observed was 97.36 and the value needed to reject the null hypothesis was 43.77.

113

TABLE 9.3 A Cross-Tabulation of Place of Origin and Religious Denomination Essex County, 1851-52 (Percentages in Bracket) Place of Birth French Canada Non-French Canada United States .J:>.

England and Wales Ireland Scotland British North America Other Europeans Total Source: Calculation of the authors

Roman Catholic

Anglican

Methodist

Presbyterian

Baptists

Other

None

Total

520 (97.9) 20 (9.0) 13 (5.1) I (0.6) 115 (63.9) 3 (5.9) I (25.0) 5 (20.0) 679 (46.7)

10 ( 1.9) 69 (31.1 ) 24 (9.5) 117 (65.0) 42 (23.3) 5 (9.8) 2 (50.0) 3 ( 12.0) 273 ( 18.8)

I (0.2) 86 (38.7) 119 (47.0) 42 (23.3) II (6.1 ) 4 (7.8) 0 (0.0) II (44.0) 275 (19.0)

0 (0.0) II (5.0) 5 (2.0) 3 (1.7) 6 (3.3) 37 (72.5) 0 (0.0) 2 (8.0) 65 (4.5)

0 (0.0) 27 ( 12.2) 72 (28.5) 12 (6.7) 3 ( 1.7) 0 (0.0) I (25.0) I (4.0) 118 (8.2)

0 (0.0) 6 (3.0) 4 (1.6) 4 (2.2) I (0.6) 2 (3.9) 0 (0.0) 2 (8.0) 14 (1.2)

0 (0.0) 3 ( 1.0) 16 (6.3) I (0.6) 2 (1.1 ) 0 (0.0) 0 (0.0) I (4.0) 23 (1.6)

531 222 253 180 280 51 4 25 1,452 (100.0)

10

FRENCH.CANADIAN

20%

ENGLISH & WELSH

=

Kurtosis -0.124 Skewness = 0.38 Standard Deviation = 12.99

KUrtosis = -0.325 Skewness = 0.579 Standard Deviation = 14.3 N=531

N=180

Mean=43 Median=40.9 Mode=32

Mean=45.6 Median=44.0 Mode=42

!

20%

10

,

,

10

20%

~--------~!--------~!

!

10 ,

CANADIAN, non-French

20%

IRISH

Kurtosis = 0.64 Skewness = 0.82 Standard Deviation = 12.24 N=225

N=180

Mean=44.2 Median=41.7 Mode=40

Mean=38.!! Median=36.1 Mode=2S 10

,

20%

20%

,

10

~---------'~--------~'

SCOTTISH

N=253

N=51

Mean=47.4 Median=46.5 Mode=40

Figure 9.4

Mean=46.5 Median=44.2 Mode=33

Age and ethnicity.

115

Irish. Indeed "t" tests for difference of means between the last three proved insignificant 4 although there are slight differences apparent on Figure 9.4. The Scots, numerically smaller than the other two exhibit an almost bi-modal distribution; perhaps a group of older, fur-trading Scots being renewed by a second wave of immigrants. The Irish, numerically equal to the English, were slightly younger, the distribution of the former as indicated by skewness being below the mean. S Analysis of the variation in age with respect to religion also proved statistically significant 6 using the data of Table 9.5. These data are displayed in percentage terms on Figure 9.5 so that comparison can be made between the various religions, irrespective of the absolute size of particular denominations. There is an obvious if not complete similarity between Figures 9.4 and 9.5 since, as Table 9.3 shows, there was indeed considerable overlap between origin and religion, particular groups being overwhelmingly of some particular denomination. For example, the similarity of the Roman Catholic group and the French Canadian group is marked; the descriptive statistics accompanying both mirror this fact. French Canadians had a modal value of32 years, Roman Catholics one of 30; the means were almost identical at 43.0 and 43.7 respectively; the standard deviations were 14.3 and 14.5 and skewness was almost 0.6 in both cases. This is to be expected. Table 9.3 shows that French Canadians were 97.7 percent Roman Catholic and 76.7 percent of Roman Catholics were French, the Irish contributing 17.0 percent of the remainder. Roman Catholics were the youngest group, Baptists (mean of 45.2 and mode of 40.0 years) the oldest followed by the Anglicans (43.0 and 42.0 respectively). Broadly similar patterns can be identified for Anglicans and the English although not as marked since the English were not nearly as loyal to one faith as the French. Other patterns are not nearly as clear and this too is understandable since religion can transcend origin and even within the same family fellow co-religionists can be assigned to different ethnic groups. For example, the profile for the American ethnic group approximates the minority Baptist population within the American group (Figure 9.6) but not that of the Methodists. The Methodists, however, closely resemble the Canadian Methodist population, mirroring the extent to which Methodism appealed to young Canadians and to which young Canadian Methodists were the children of American and British Methodists. In the same way the profile of American Baptists is very different from Canadian Baptists and, as noted earlier, similar to the age profile of Americans and American Baptists (see Figure 9.6). In Table 4. 5.

6.

The tests were conducted at the 95 percent confidence level. Blalock. H.M. (1960). Sodal Statistics (Toronto: McGraw Hill) pp. 169-186. Computation of all descriptive statistics. mean. median. mode. standard deviation. skewness and kurtosis was obtained with the aid of SPSS routines. Nie. N.H .. C. Hadlai Hull. J.G. Jenkins. K. Steinbrenner and D.H. Bent (1970). Statistical Package/or the Sodal Sciences. Second Edition (Toronto: McGraw Hill). pp. 181-202. The chi-square value observed was 57.44; the chi-square needed for rejection of the null hypothesis was 43.77.

116

10 20% 100 '--_ _ _--'-,_ _ _ _...J'

10 20% ~--------~,~--------~,

ROMAN CATHOLIC

ANGLICAN

90 Kurtosis = -0.15 Skewness = 0.60 Standard Deviation = 14.5

80 70

Kurtosis = -0.38 Skewness = 0.50 Standard Deviation = 13.2

N=678

N=272

Mean=43.7 Median=4I.6 Mode=30

Mean=43.0 Median=41.6 Mode=42

60 50 40 30 20 10

Age 0

o

~'----

20 ______10__________...J' ~'

%

10

METHODIST

PRESBYTERIAN

Kurtosis = 0.06 Skewness = 0.63 Standard Deviation = 13.5

Kurtosis = -0.65 Skewness = 0.25 Standard Deviation = 13.67

N=274

N=64

Mean=44.0 Median=42.0 Mode=32

Mean=46.0 Median=46.75 Mode=26 10

20%

10

20%

~--------~'----------~'

20%

~--------~'--------~'

~--------~'~--------~,

BAPTIST

OTHER & NONE

N=116

N=43

Mean=45.2 Median=44.9 Mode=40

Figure 9.5

Mean=4J.J Median=41.S Mode=35

Age and religion.

117

~

10_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _-J! 20%

________

~!

10

20

CANADIAN, non-French METHODIST N::86

CANADIAN, non-French BAPTIST N= 27

10 20% ~------~,~------~!

10

20

AMERICAN BAPTIST

N:: 119

N=72

20%

I

,

ENGLISH METHODIST

N=42

Figure 9.6

30%

~--------~!--------~I--------~!

AMERICAN METHODIST

10

30 %

~--------~I--------~I--------~!

Baptist and Methodist populations by age.

118

TABLE 9.4 Cross-Tabulation of Place of Origin and Age Origin

20 and Under 21-25

26-30

31-35

36-40

41-45

46-50

51-55

56-60

61-70

71-80

81-90 91-100 Total

French Canada Non-French Canada United States England and Wales Ireland Scotland British North America Europe

I 2 I 0 0 0 0 0

44 28 7 9 14 2 0 2

81 40 22 16 17 2 2 0

66 35 25 20 22 10 0 3

66 32 32 24 33 7 0 5

61 25 31 27 22 5 2 3

52 21 40 17 20 7 0 4

49 17 31 25 16 4 0 I

43 15 23 19 12 5 0 4

46 8 25 18 14 6 0 2

18 I 13 4 8 3 0 I

2 I 2 I 0 0 0 0

2 0 I 0 2 0 0 0

531 225 253 180 180 51 4 25

Total

4

106

180

181

199

176

161

143

121

119

48

6

5

1,449

Source: Calculation of the authors \0

TABLE 9.5 Cross-Tabulation of Religion and Age Origin

20 and Under 21-25

26-30

31-35

36-40

41-45

46-50

51-55

56-60

61-70

71-80

81-90 91-100 Total

Roman Catholic Anglican Methodist Presbyterian Baptist Other and None

I 0 2 0 0 I

55 23 II 4 9 3

94 32 31 6 II 5

82 33 45 7 8 4

86 43 37 8 16 8

81 39 33 5 13 3

69 28 32 II 24 6

65 24 28 7 12 6

54 20 24 7 II 2

59 22 21 5 8 4

25 8 7 4 3 I

5 0 3 0 0 0

2 0 0 0 I 0

678 272 274 64 116 43

Total

4

105

179

179

198

174

170

142

118

119

48

8

3

1,447

Source: Calculation of the authors.

TABLE 9.6 Cross-Tabulation of Age of Householder as a Percentage of Total Householders within the group and within Particular Religious Denominations

IV

Origin

Religion

No.

20

French Canada

Catholic Other

520 II

0.19 0.00

21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60 61-70 71-80 81-90 91-100 8.27 15.38 12.12 12.31 11.73 10.00 9.04 9.09 9.09 27.27 18.18 0.00 0.00 18.18

8.08 9.09

8.65 9.09

3.46 0.38 0.00 0.00

0.38 0.00

12.79 12.79 11.63 5.81 17.39 14.49 8.69 4.35 11.11 3.70 7.41 7.41 12.50 7.50 10.00 10.00

8.14 4.35 3.70 5.00

2.33 0.00 0.00 5.00

1.16 0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 2.50

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Non-French Canada

Methodist Anglican Baptist Other

86 69 27 40

2.33 0.00 0.00 0.00

United States

Methodist Baptist Other

119 72 62

0.00 0.00 1.61

0.84 10.92 13.45 13.45 13.45 13.45 12.61 7.56 8.40 2.78 5.56 5.56 13.89 15.28 16.67 12.50 12.50 9.72 6.45 8.06 8.06 9.68 6.45 20.97 11.29 8.06 12.90

2.52 0.00 4.17 0.00 8.06 0.00

0.84 1.39 0.00

England and Wales

Anglican Methodist Other

117 42 21

0.00 0.00 0.00

5.98 10.26 8.55 16.24 16.24 9.40 11.11 8.55 11.11 2.38 9.52 14.92 9.52 9.52 7.14 16.67 16.67 9.52 4.76 0.00 19.05 4.76 19.05 14.29 23.81 9.52 4.76

2.56 2.56 2.38 2.38 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00

Ireland

Catholic Anglican Other

115 42 23

0.00 0.00 0.00

8.69 10.43 9.57 14.78 1.48 11.30 11.30 9.52 9.52 16.67 19.05 19.05 7.14 2.38 0.00 4.35 17.39 34.78 0.00 17.39 8.69

6.96 7.83 7.14 4.76 4.35 13.04

5.22 1.74 4.76 0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00

Scotland

Presbyterian Other

37 14

0.00 0.00

2.70 7.14

8.11 10.81 10.81 7.14 7.14 14.29

8.11 0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00

0

British North America

Anglican Catholic Baptist

Other Europeans

Methodist Catholic Anglican Other

Source: Calculation of the authors.

I 0.00 2 0.00 1 0.00

0.00 5 0.00 3 0.00 6 0.00

II

8.14 11.59 25.93 15.00

16.28 17.39 22.22 17.50

2.70 13.51 16.21 10.81 16.21 7.14 35.71 7.14 7.14 7.14

0.00 0.00 0.00 100.0 0.00 0.00 18.18 0.00 0.00 0.00

18.60 13.04 14.81 15.00

0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 100.0

0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 9.09 27.27 18.18 0.00 9.09 9.09 9.09 0.00 0.00 20.00 20.00 0.00 20.00 0.00 20.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 33.30 0.00 0.00 66.60 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 16.67 16.67 0.00 16.67 0.00 16.67 16.67

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

TABLE 9.7 Cross Tabulation of Ethnicity and Size of Family 2 and Under

3-4

5-6

7-8

9-10

11-12

13 and Above

French Canada Non-French Canada United States England and Wales Ireland Scotland British North America Europe Others

104 42 78 39 34 13 0 9 2

135 61 71 44 52 15 2 9 0

129 44 48 43 41 2 3 2

90 44 37 32 38 6 0 0 0

48 28 17 17 10 5 0 I I

20 5 4 6 5 2 0 0 0

5 I I 0 0 0 0 0 0

531 225 256 181 180 51 4 25 5

Total

321

389

322

250

127

42

7

1,458

10

Total

Source: Calculation of the authors.

9.6, where religion and origin are cross-tablulated with age, the age group 21-30 contains 48.15 percent of all Canadian Baptists; by contrast the same cohort contains only 9.3 percent of the Americans. Ethnicity and Size of Family While Table 9.7 summarises the data, a chi-square analysis of the interrelationship of origin and family size did not prove significant nor did a series oftests of difference of means at the 95 percent confidence level. The mean size of family was 5.0, the modal value was 2.0, indicating couples beginning and ending families. Generally, as Figure 9.7 shows, the Canadians (French and NonFrench) showed the strongest tendency towards larger families. The Americans and Scots, whose populations included'greater proportions of elderly than the population as a whole, had smaller families on average (means of 4.7 and 4.5). The differences between these were small, however, and not statistically significan t. Religion, Size of Family and Age Figure 9.8 summarizes a cross-tabulation of seven sizes offamily with thirteen different age groups (Table 9.8). It shows the expected relationship between age and size of family, the number of children increasing towards middle age and decreasing thereafter. There is some departure from the ideal bell curve in the early age cohorts; obviously when the head of household was about 30 was the deciding time for British Americans to question their family size. A second plateau occurs around 41 to 55 when families generally reached their maximum size of about eight persons. Obviously, these age cohorts constitute a useful time in which to investigate the relationship between religion and family size. A series

121

40-

40FRENCH CANADA

ENGLAND & WALES

N=531

N= 181

30-

eu u

cE

30-

~

20-

100~2

34

limB_ 5-

£

20 -I'::::::::: II1I1

lHH

10_111i

I:I.!:I.,.I:!.I:I

0_

~2

7- 9- 11- 13+

6 8 10 12 Number in Family

40CANADA, non-French

IRELAND

N= 225

N= 180

30-

cE

30-

~;~~~~

0

I ~l~lW

2°10

-_Iliil .~: ;.t.l~:.; :'I...:

. l::, . . :;.

~2

~::

1!111

III~- ]~:~ 1111. ~2

3- 5- 7-

9- 11- 13+ 10 12 Number in Family

4

6

8

3- 54 6

9 _

7- 9- 11- 13+ 8

10

12

Number in Family

40-

40UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

SCOTLAND

N=256

N=51

30-

30-

eu

e

~ 20-

~

10-

0-

9- 11- ~ 10 12

Number in Family

40-

~

. Ilem

3- 5- 74 6 8

~2

u

I111_-

cE

10-

0-

3- 5- 7- 9- 11- 13+ 4 6 8 10 12 Number in Family

Figure 9.7

20-

Ethnicity and size of family.

122

III~-

5- 7- 9- 11- 13+ 6 8 10 12 Number in Family

N

W

t;

,~ -.J

o

106

4

Total

Source: Calculation of the authors.

49.0 38.0 7.5 4.7

50.0 50.0

Two and Under 3-4 5-6 7-8 9-10 11-12 13 and Above

20 and Under 21-25

180

26.1 45.5 20.5 5.5 2.2

26-30

183

18.0 32.8 31.7 14.2 2.2 0.5 0.5

31-35

164

176 199

18.9 17.1 14.6 22.6 16.5 8.5 1.8

14.8 12.5 25.0 28.4 14.8 4.5

15.1 24.1 29.1 21.6 10.0

46-50

41-45

36-40

119

124 145

25.2 25.2 21.8 16.0 8.4 2.5 1.25

21.8 20.2 21.8 18.5 11.3 4.8 1.6

17.2 20.7 20.0 22.1 13.8 6.2

61-70

56-60 51-55

49

28.6 38.8 20.4 4.1 6.1 2.0

71-80

6

50.0

50.0

81-90

5

20.0 40.0 20.0 20.0

91+

~