THE DIVERSION OF CULTURE, THE POLITICS OF CULTURAL GEOGRAPHY

The 1980s and 1990s witnessed the emergence of a new cultural geography, primarily as a reaction to the power that Marxism and political economy had acquired in the field of geography from the 1970s onward, but also reflecting broader social changes in advanced capitalism. Putting into question the priority given to the realm of production in geographical analysis, this new cultural geography shifted emphasis instead to matters of consumption, representation and identity. This paper has three basic objectives. First, it is intended as an assessment of the political role that the "new cultural geography" has played in Anglo-American geography. Second, it seeks to suggest ways in which, within a geographical context, the concept of culture might be rescued from itself. Finally, it aims to rethink the connections between cultural politics and political economy.