IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v36y2004i3p405-419.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Area Studies after Poststructuralism

Author

Listed:
  • J K Gibson-Graham

    (Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia; Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA)

Abstract

In this paper we address the question of ‘what next after poststructuralism’ through a reassessment of area studies. In a narrative of our own involvement with place-oriented research and institutions, we examine the traditional position of area studies in geography and anthropology and its reevaluation by poststructuralist scholars in a number of disciplines. We argue that both prestructuralist and poststructuralist treatments of areas are oriented by a narrative of capitalist development; at the same time, we recognize that traditional area studies has a deep interest in noncapitalist economic practices and relations. It is therefore a resource for those of us who want to create a discourse of economic diversity as a contribution to a politics of economic innovation. The latter half of the paper presents an extended example of reading for economic difference drawn from fieldwork in the oil-palm sector in Papua New Guinea. We conclude with a ‘post-poststructuralist’ reflection on geographic field research. From our evolving perspective, the fieldwork practices that are the principal research methods of area studies constitute a relatively untheorized form of academic politics, creating differences in thought (and thus in the world) via new interpenetrations of concepts and ‘matter’.

Suggested Citation

  • J K Gibson-Graham, 2004. "Area Studies after Poststructuralism," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 405-419, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:3:p:405-419
    DOI: 10.1068/a3652
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a3652
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a3652?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Duncan Ironmonger, 1996. "Counting outputs, capital inputs and caring labor: Estimating gross household product," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 2(3), pages 37-64.
    2. Katherine Gibson, 2002. "Women, Identity and Activism in Asian and Pacific Community Economies," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 45(1), pages 74-79, March.
    3. Gina Koczberski, 2002. "Pots, Plates and Tinpis: New income flows and the strengthening of women's gendered identities in Papua New Guinea," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 45(1), pages 88-92, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Amy Glasmeier, 2005. "Book reviews," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 39(6), pages 829-834.
    2. Deborah P Dixon & John Paul Jones III, 2004. "Guest Editorial," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 381-390, March.
    3. Richard Harris, 2008. "Development and Hybridity Made Concrete in the Colonies," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(1), pages 15-36, January.
    4. Giles Mohan, 2006. "Embedded Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Obligation: The Ghanaian Diaspora and Development," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(5), pages 867-883, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julie A. Nelson, 2013. "Gender and caring," Chapters, in: Deborah M. Figart & Tonia L. Warnecke (ed.), Handbook of Research on Gender and Economic Life, chapter 5, pages 62-76, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Paul Dalziel, 2019. "Wellbeing economics in public policy: A distinctive Australasian contribution?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 30(4), pages 478-497, December.
    3. Jara-Díaz, Sergio & Rosales-Salas, Jorge, 2017. "Beyond transport time: A review of time use modeling," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 209-230.
    4. Lili Vargha & Róbert Iván Gál & Michelle O. Crosby-Nagy, 2017. "Household production and consumption over the life cycle: National Time Transfer Accounts in 14 European countries," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(32), pages 905-944.
    5. Larrivee, John & Shaffer, Ron E., 2007. "Understanding the Local Unrecorded Economy: Informal Work and Home Production in Non-Metropolitan Wisconsin," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 37(2), pages 1-17.
    6. Marilyn Power, 1999. "Parasitic-Industries Analysis and Arguments for a Living Wage for Women in the Early Twentieth-Century United States," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(1), pages 61-78.
    7. Jon Altman & Geoff Buchanan, 2006. "Measuring the ‘real’ indigenous economy in remote Australia using NATSISS 2002," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 9(1), pages 17-32, March.
    8. Joachim Frick & Markus Grabka & Olaf Groh-Samberg, 2012. "The impact of home production on economic inequality in Germany," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 1143-1169, December.
    9. Michael Bittman & Duncan Ironmonger, 2011. "Valuing Time: A Conference Overview," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 101(2), pages 173-183, April.
    10. Michael Webber, 2012. "The Dynamics of Primitive Accumulation: With Application to Rural China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 44(3), pages 560-579, March.
    11. Lans, Cheryl, 2016. "Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) as part of the existing care economy in Canada," MPRA Paper 72713, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Zannella, Marina, 2015. "Reallocation of resources between generations and genders in the market and non-market economy. The case of Italy," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 5(C), pages 33-44.
    13. Michael Kevane & Leslie Gray, 1999. "A Woman's Field Is Made At Night: Gendered Land Rights And Norms In Burkina Faso," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(3), pages 1-26.
    14. Nancy Folbre & Julie A. Nelson, 2000. "For Love or Money--Or Both?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(4), pages 123-140, Fall.
    15. Koczberski, Gina & Curry, George N., 2005. "Making a living: Land pressures and changing livelihood strategies among oil palm settlers in Papua New Guinea," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 85(3), pages 324-339, September.
    16. Susan Himmelweit, 2002. "Making Visible the Hidden Economy: The Case for Gender-Impact Analysis of Economic Policy," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(1), pages 49-70.
    17. Morne Oosthuizen & Kezia Lilenstein, 2018. "Counting Women’s Work in Mauritius: Household Production across the Lifecycle in 2003," Working Papers cwwwp7, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    18. David de Vaus & Matthew Gray & David Stanton, 2004. "Measuring the value of unpaid household, caring and voluntary work of older Australians," Labor and Demography 0405006, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Zaiceva, Anzelika, 2022. "Multitasking," IZA Discussion Papers 15681, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    20. Morne Oosthuizen, 2018. "Counting Women's Work in South Africa: Estimates of Household Production across the Lifecycle in 2000," Working Papers cwwwp6, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:3:p:405-419. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.