Dividing practices

From Geography

Dividing practices

This is a key concept of Derek Gregory in his postcolonial theory. Dividing practices are practices which are used to make a distinction between the insiders and the outsiders. Dividing practices are related to othering, but by othering the distinction is made between the self and the other and by dividing practices groups of people are divided in insiders and outsiders. Edward Said showed in his critique of Orientalism that the representation of the east by the west is a dividing practice which makes spaces outside the west different from and subordinate to the west. Derek Gregory build on Saids work to show how everyday cultural practices work to produce spaces of the same and spaces of the other on global scale (Gregory et al., 2009). A good example of dividing practices in the work of Gregory is Guantánamo Bay. Law and violence are here used as dividing practices to inside and outside. The prisoners are inside and outside the united states. They are inside so coercive interrogation is allowed, but are definitely other than other prisoners in the united states because they do not have the right to a trial and can be kept in indefinite detention. This results in spaces of exception (Gregory, 2006). Institutions are made to regulate the distinctions made by dividing practices, like hospitals are made to separate the sick from the healthy.

Foucaultt on Dividing Practices

The foundation of the term dividing practices is in the work of Michel Foucault. Foucault defined three modes of objectification, which are organizing principles that explain how human beings become subjects. These modes are: dividing practices, scientific classification and subjectification. Dividing practices involves the exclusion of people who are viewed as a threat to the community. For example lepers were forced to live in leper colonies during the Middle Ages and criminals are placed in prisons.

References

• Gregory, D. (2006). The black flag: Guantánamo Bay and the space of exception. Geogr. Ann.
• Foucaults Theory. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2011 from http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kate.broom/ap/lecturefoucault/06foucault_objectivication.htm
• Gregory, D., Johnston, R. Pratt, G., Watts, M.J., Whatmore, S. (2009). The Dictionary of Human Geography. Wiley-Blackwell.
• Best, S. (n.d.) Foucault. Retrieved October 5, 2011 from http://shaunbest.tripod.com/id7.html

Contributors

• page created by --SusanVerbeij 12:01, 4 October 2011 (UTC)