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This volume investigates the transformation of Ceylon during the mid-nineteenth century into one of the most important coffee growing regions of the world and the subsequent, sudden removal of coffee from the island. Using this fascinating case study by way of illustration, this book reveals the spatial unevenness and fragmentation of modernity through a focus on modern governmentality and biopower. It argues that the practices of colonial power, and the differences that race and tropical climates were thought to make, were central to the working out of modern governmental rationalities. Contributing an important rural focus to current work on studies of governmentality in geography, In "The Shadows of the Tropics" offers a welcome non-state dimension, with its emphasis on the role of the expanding plantation economy and the power of individual capitalists in the management of the lives and deaths of labourers, the destabilization of subsistence farming and the aggressive re-territorialization of populations from India to Ceylon. In this context, usefulness of Foucault's notion of biopower, discipline and governmentality are examined.
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IN THE SHADOWS OF THE TROPICS
Re-materialising Cultural Geography Dr Mark Boyle, Department of Geography, University of Strathclyde, UK and Professor Donald Mitchell, Maxwell School, Syracuse University, USA Nearly 25 years have elapsed since Peter Jackson’s seminal call to integrate cultural geography back into the heart of social geography. During this time, a wealth of research has been published which has improved our understanding of how culture both plays a part in, and in turn, is shaped by social relations based on class, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, age, sexuality and so on. In spite of the achievements of this mountain of scholarship, the task of grounding culture in its proper social contexts remains in its infancy. This series therefore seeks to promote the continued significance of exploring the dialectical relations which exist between culture, social relations and space and place. Its overall aim is to make a contribution to the consolidation, development and promotion of the ongoing project of re-materialising cultural geography. Other titles in the series Geographies of Muslim Identities Diaspora, Gender and Belonging Edited by Cara Aitchison, Peter Hopkins and Mei-Po Kwan ISBN 978 0 7546 4888 8 Presenting America’s World Strategies of Innocence in National Geographic Magazine, 1888–1945 Tamar Y. Rothenberg ISBN 978 0 7546 4510 8 Regulating the Night Race, Culture and Exclusion in the Making of the Night-time Economy Deborah Talbot ISBN 978 0 7546 4752 2 Mixed Towns, Trapped Communities Historical Narratives, Spatial Dynamics, Gender Relations and Cultural Encounters in Palestinian-Israeli Towns Edited by Daniel Monterescu and Dan Rabinowitz ISBN 978 0 7546 4732 4
In the Shadows of the Tropics Climate, Race and Biopower in Nineteenth Century Ceylon
JAMES S. DUNCAN Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge, UK
© James S. Duncan 2007 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. James S. Duncan has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England
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Ashgate website: http://www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Duncan, James S. In the shadows of the tropics : climate, race and biopower in nineteenth century Ceylon. - (Re-material