"The book outlines how the theoretical ideas, empirical foci, and methodological techniques of cultural geography make sense of the battlegrounds on which contemporary politics and society determines our opportunities, rights, and futures. By focusing on the notion of 'place', it showcases how this discipline can be used to understand how cultures define and form our spatial lives. It is the ideal text for students being introduced to the discipline through either undergraduate or postgraduate degree courses. The third edition is an important update to a highly successful text that incorporates a vast foundation of knowledge; it is an invaluable book for lecturers and students"--
Our world is a water world. Seventy percent of our planet consists of ocean. However, geography has traditionally overlooked this vital component of the earth's composition. The word 'geography' directly translates as 'earth writing' and in line with this definition, the discipline has preoccupied itself with the study of terrestrial spaces of society and nature. This book challenges human geography's preoccupation with the terrestrial, investigating the terra incognita of the seas and oceans.
Planning systems are not the property of planners alone, rather they are collectively owned by the broad range of stakeholders that planning involves and affects (after Hague, 2000). As a consequence, issues of participation, responsiveness and relevance are fundamental to the health and vitality of planning systems. To accurately diagnose this aspect of the patient's condition it is necessary, as Allmendinger notes, to examine `the rich context in which planning operates' (2002: 4). This article does so by shedding light on planning consultation at the local level. It examines the often overlooked relationships between community councils (the lowest level of statutory community representation in planning) and principal councils (a term employed to include all local authorities and national parks that make planning decisions). The article will illustrate the frequency, function and degree of agreement existing between different council tiers on planning deliberations and, from this, identify a number of crucial points of tension between community councils and the planning system. These tensions centre on the nature of democracy within the system, the legitimacy of local knowledge in deliberation, and perhaps most importantly, the (perceived) interests and values of the planning system as they are practised. The article will argue that these tensions produce both competence and confidence disparities between councils and, as a consequence, the planning dialogue is reduced to each council `talking to the hand' of the other. Such circumstances raise important concerns regarding the vitality of the planning system in remaining relevant and responsive to these local participants, and thus the health of the planning system overall.
During the last decade resistance against environmental destruction has spread throughout much of the developed world. Over this period Environmental Direct Action (EDA) has evolved into an inventive and dynamic movement that not only rallies against specific environmental damages, but also the broader political and economic systems that are perceived to facilitate them. With the growth of Environmental Direct Action there has been a concomitant increase in the number wishing to understand and explain the phenomenon. This expansion of academic interest raises two questions: (1) Are conventional academic epistemologies suitable to understand and explain the motivations of and challenges posed by EDA?, and (2) Do the power relations inherent within such approaches facilitate or preclude our opportunities to make sense of this resistance movement? This paper uses experience gained from my own empirical work on EDA in the UK to explore these issues. Beginning with what Soja terms the 'Secondspace' approach to social science research, it will focus on the problems posed by issues of positionality and power relations for the study of EDA. The paper will go on to illustrate that, although entailing a number of problems, a 'Thirdspace' approach offers some solutions that can secure important insights into this political practice.
