Diffusionism
A Uniformitarian Critique
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8375798 |
|---|---|
| Authors | J M Blaut (University of Illinois Chicago, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1987 |
| Volume | 77 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 30-47 |
| Publication date | 1987-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/j.1467-8306.1987.tb00143.x |
| OpenAlex | W1968573189 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 53 |
| References cited | 84 |
Diffusionism assumes that (1) inventiveness is rare and therefore diffusion accounts for nearly all significant culture change and (2) certain places are permanent loci of invention and thus are more advanced and more progressive than other places. If, however, inventiveness and innovativeness are assumed to be uniformly distributed, different spatial models emerge, different diffusion processes gain salience, inadequacies of current diffusion-of-innovation theory become evident, and new hypotheses about broad-scale culture change are uncovered. This paper examines the structure of diffusionism, puts forward a nondiffusionist alternative structure, and employs the alternative to modify diffusion-of-innovation theory and to argue five nondiffusionist hypotheses for culture history and present-day rural development. Key Words: diffusiondiffusionisminventioninnovationcultural evolutiontechnological changecolonialismuniformitarianism
Business · Cognitive psychology · Diffusion · Diffusion of innovations · Diffusion theory · Economic geography · Economics · Epistemology · Geography · Innovation diffusion · Positive economics · Salience (neuroscience) · Social science · Sociology · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Marketing · Philosophy · Psychology · University-Industry-Government Innovation Models
Moved by the Spirit
Pensando Geograficamente
Dialectic and Explaining Eurocentrism
Algunas consideraciones en torno a la transdisciplinariedad y a la educación superior
Diffusionism and Beyond in IR Norm Research
Regional Landscape Change in Fishing Communities of the Mexican North Pacific
The Making of the Myth in Postcolonial Development
What are Improved Seeds? An Epistemology of the Green Revolution
Space, Knowledge and Power
Distance to the Technological Frontier and Economic Development
In psyche, we unite
What drives the Pioneers? Applying lifestyle theory to early electric vehicle buyers in Canada
Intellectual entrepreneurs and the diffusion of ideas
Geography, nature, and the question of development
Mapping social activities and concepts with social media (Twitter) and web search engines (Yahoo and Bing)
Putting ‘Good Society’ Ahead of the Economy
Ontologies of place, placelessness, and movement
Political geography debates no. 3
A Tale of Two Regions
The centrality of Islam
Lightning teeth and Ponari sweat
Ex post evaluation of technology diffusion in the African palm oil sector
Covid-19 Pandemic in Africa, “Copy-and-Paste” Policies, and the Biomedical Hegemony of “Cure”
The Social Acceptability of Clearcutting in the Pacific Northwest
Colonialism and the Rise of Capitalism
Evaluating Imperialism
Blaut's Early Natural/Social Theorization, Cultural Ecology, and Political Ecology
Anti‐racism in ‘White’ Areas
Jim Blaut's Model of the World
Editing Blaut
Jim Blaut
Introduction
Communication and Social Forms
James Blaut's Critique of Diffusionism through a Neolithic Lens
The Theory of Cultural Racism
Human Space, Territoriality, and Conflict
Urban Policy Mobilities and Global Circuits of Knowledge
Thinking Geographically
Commercialization and Community Life
North American Origins of Middlewestern Frontier Populations
VI. Response to comments by Frank, Amin, Dodgshon and Palan
Africa’s Contributions to the Economy of Europe’s Two “World” Wars
Environmentalism and Eurocentrism
Diffusion as a colonizing process and the challenges of decolonizing Extinction Rebellion Aotearoa New Zealand
Genealogies of the Grid
La diffusion spatiale à l'épreuve des rodéos
The Incredible Shrinking World? Technology and the Production of Space
Queer Diffusions
Technology, Power, and Space-The Means and Ends of Geographies of Technology
Interpersonal influence within car buyers' social networks
Shamanism and Christianity
Magicians, Sorcerers and Witches
Russia's Growing Military in Africa
How Europe underdeveloped Africa
Anthropology & the colonial encounter
Traditional cultures and the impact of technological change
Medieval technology and social change
Communication of innovations
On the theory of social change
Latin America
Marx and the end of Orientalism
Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences
The aboriginal cultural geography of the Llanos de Mojos of Bolivia
The food crisis in prehistory
The achieving society.
Conceptions of Space in Social Thought
The Origins of Agriculture
Settlement, trade and polities in the seventeenth century Gold Coast
Neo-colonialism in West Africa
The history of ethnological theory
Network analysis in geography
Natural hazards, local, national, global
The Indigenous Origins of Chinese Agriculture
Technology and the Third World
Rise of Anthropological Theory
Discourse on Colonialism
The hazards of scientism
Asia and Western Dominance
Geography
Progress in Human Geography
Development, the diffusionist paradigm and geography
Sunda and sahul—Prehistoric studies in southeast Asia, Melanesia and Australia
The food crisis in prehistory
The Theory of Development
Where Was Capitalism Born
Nairn on Nationalism
Geographic Models of Imperialism
Geographic Models of Imperialism
The New Geography and the New Imperialism
Asia and Western Dominance
Seeds of Plenty, Seeds of Want
The Third World
Open Veins of Latin America
Frontier Settlement in Early Dutch South Africa∗
Two Views of Diffusion
The Green Revolution
A Cross-cultural Diffusion of Colonization
Economic Transition From Traditional to Commercial Agriculture
Folk Housing
Mexican Americans Circa 1850∗
Accessibility and Technological Change in Northern India∗
How Modernization Can Also Increase Fertility [and Comments and Reply]
The Retreat from Migrationism
Tanzania 1920-63
Origins and history of agriculture in the Indian sub-continent
The Theory of the Spatial Diffusion of Innovations
Interdependent Development
A History of Ethnology
Transport Expansion in Underdeveloped Countries
Spatial Aspects of Development
Machina ex Deo. Essays in the Dynamism of Western Culture
Seeds of Plenty, Seeds of Want
Man and the Land
Colonialism in the French Geographical Movement 1871-1881
Oriental Despotism
Non-Adoption of Innovations
Behavioral Problems in Geography Revisited
Innovation Research and Public Policy
Sierra Leone
Settlements, Trade, and Politics in the Seventeenth Century Gold Coast
Death in India, 1871-1921
Culture, the Diffusion Controversy
An Economic History of West Africa
On the Theory of Social Change. How Economic Growth Begins
Neolithic Diffusion Rates
| Unique citing works | 53 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,39 |
| Citation span | 1988 - 2026 (39) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 46 |