Spaces of Geographical Thought: Deconstructing Human Geography′s Binaries

by Paul J. Cloke (Editor), Ron Johnston (Editor)

Spaces of Geographical Thought examines key ideas - like space and place - which inform the geographic imagination. The text explains the significance of these binaries in the constitution of geographic thought and shows how many of these binaries have been interrogated and reimagined in more recent geographical thinking.



A consideration of these binaries will define the concepts and situate students in the most current geographical arguments and debates. The text will be required reading for all modules on the philosophy of geography and on geographical theory.

Genres: Nonfiction, Geography

232 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 2005

Reviews

[missy jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a clever way to introduce some of the big conversations in human geography: as a series of essays designed to explore and destabilize various binary constructions (e.g., Man/Woman, Agency/Structure, Space/Place, etc.). Some chapters were better written than others, and my favorites were Smith's chapter on Black/White and Watts's chapter on Nature/Culture.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book to think with. While some of the essays are a bit sloppy and disjointed, the book illuminates a lot of the debates going on within human geography today and provides insight into the secret and special connotations various terms carry with them when used by geographers.

[Grant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book. Each dichotomy is so well constructed that together they form a series of small arguments which really add up to an intuitive sense of geography as a discipline.