Population geography II

Mortality, premature death, and the ordering of life

Bibliographic Data

ID11949342
AuthorsJames A Tyner (Kent State University, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume39
Issue3
Pages360-373
Publication date2014-03-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueProgress in Human Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0309-1325 • E-ISSN: 1477-0288
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0309132514527037
OpenAlexW1987088206
LanguageEN
Citations received27
References cited73

The geographic study of mortality is enjoying a renaissance. This is indicated by the growing number of studies on necropolitics, thanatopolitics, ‘deathscapes’, and the inequalities of premature death. Population geographers, however, have contributed little to the broader theoretical conceptualization – and spatiality – of mortality. Previously, I encouraged population geographers to reflect on the survivability of vulnerable populations. In this second progress report, I extend this focus through a reconsideration of mortality from the standpoint of survivability. As a discipline, population geography has long engaged with the concept of ‘premature’ death; here it is indicated how this concept is intimately bound to the modernist ordering of life that dominates our contemporary understanding of bodies and populations. First, I reflect on the embodiment of mortality, and this is followed by a critical engagement with the ‘bio-logics’ of life and death. I maintain that population geography is well positioned to contribute to ongoing debates regarding who lives, who dies, and who decides

Conceptualization · Economic geography · Geography · Human geography · Inequality · Population · Sociology · The Renaissance · Demography · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History

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