Synthesis as a way of understanding the changing uniqueness of rural Ireland

Killala Harbour Throughout these articles on Uniqueness, Interdependence, Uneven Development and Change in the West of Ireland, the concept of synthesis is used as a way to understand how places are continually evolving while retaining their uniqueness. This may sound complicated at first, but can perhaps best be approached by applying the idea to a familiar real-world example. 

Synthesis

The way in which places retain their uniqueness within wider systems of interdependence is an important methodological issue within geography and is approached through the method of synthesis. This is a way of explaining:

• how the different elements of society are linked together in any one particular place and,
• how links between places, for example particular kinds of housing, industry and agriculture, in any one area are part of wider geographical patterns. Each area is a particular focus of activities within a wider system of interdependencies; in a sense each area has a ‘role’ within the wider system.

The notion of synthesis is cumulative. It helps us to understand how, in the process of change, some things may be lost as others are gained, exchanged or modified. Examples might be the loss of traditional agricultural practices, the gain of modern communications networks, abandonment of local traditional building methods in favour of mass modern techniques and architectural style, or retention of local craft skills geared to modern tourism or new markets.

Moreover, what happens in particular places also has an effect on the wider system. Not only does the existing character of an area influence the ways in which general social processes operate in and affect that local area - the outcome of that interaction can also affect the way those processes operate elsewhere, even at a wider scale.

Layers

One way of understanding the ‘changing fortunes’ of an area over time, is to think of layers accumulating. Layers are different combinations of characteristics that are new and specific and never quite the same as somewhere else, and they can be seen at different scales, including the local and regional level.

New processes operate in the context of a particular historical period. Each happening - such as migration, a change in farming practices, a tourism initiative - is affected by and impacts on a particular place differently. New layers merge with, and build upon, the area’s existing characteristics, producing changes which will in turn affect the impact of the next happening. Each new layer starts as the combination of economic, political and cultural factors which themselves originate as processes within a wider social context. The ‘layers' represent the interaction between the local area and general social processes. You will discover that industrial restructuring not only operates at national and international levels, but also combines with specific features at a local level. For this reason, general processes do not produce similar outcomes indiscriminately over space. In other words, the new layer does not simply arrive and sit on top of the previous layer. The new layer interacts with the existing layer.

In short, as you will discover in these articles, the economic and political factors which combine to produce the location of a factory or a tourism initiative in a particular place, and the social and cultural implications which come with it, are not in themselves unique. What is unique is the specific combination of those factors within that particular place at that particular time. In the articles on Northeast Mayo and Southwest Donegal, you will find that the outcome of national processes, for example industrialisation, can be very different even within the same region. Each of these areas has its own uniqueness yet both are very unmistakably part of the West of Ireland.

The construction of new layers is about the combination, over time, of new elements with existing circumstances; that is, it is about the process of local social change. Each layer is unique; each place is unique; but as they accumulate over time, the uniqueness changes.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this series of articles, you will be able to:

• Recognise how the different elements of society are linked together in any one particular place
• Apply the method of synthesis to explain how places in rural Ireland retain their uniqueness within evolving systems of interdependence
• Recognise how links between places, are part of wider geographical patterns
• Identify how uneven development in the West of Ireland has both persisted and changed over time.
• Apply the geographical concepts of uniqueness and interdependence of place to other locations with which you are familiar.