Geographical categories remain real even when they are conventional historical constructs.

Evidence

To understand exactly what might be meant by the problem of the reality of the external world it might be worth taking up the example of the notions of “East” and “West” which do not cease to be “objectively real” even though analysis shows them to be no more than a conventional, that is “historico-cultural” construction. (The terms “artificial” and ” conventional” often indicate “historical” facts which are products of the development of civilisation and not just rationalistically arbitrary or individually contrived constructions.) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1590

Categorization

• DEFINE: Gramsci’s key move: ‘conventional’ means historically produced rather than rationally arbitrary, giving a working definition of historico-cultural construction.
• XREF: Feeds directly into Orientalism readings — the construction of ‘East’/‘West’ through European hegemony is the canonical example for Said’s later work. — connects to: Spatial categories like East and West are real yet historically constructed, not natural. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1590
• ADDENDUM: Useful for the Islamophobia toolkit because it explains how ‘East’/‘West’ distinction is a product of European hegemony, which the later readings build on.