Place: A Short Introduction (Short Introductions to Geography)

Place is one of the most fundamental concepts in human geography. This short introduction marries familiar everyday uses of the term with the more complex theoretical debates that have grown up around it.

This text makes debates about intelligible to students, using illustrations from the news, popular culture, and everyday life as a way into more abstract ideas. It traces the development of the concept of place from the 1950s through its subsequent appropriation by cultural geography and the linking of place to politics. Substantial parts of exemplary papers by Doreen Massey and David Harvey are included as a focus for discussion, and the author also considers empirical examples of ways in which the concept of place has been mobilised in research.

Teaching and learning aids include an annotated bibliography, lists of key readings and texts, a survey of web resources, and suggestions for pedagogical resources and student projects.

This text introduces students of human geography to the fundamental concept of place, marrying everyday uses of the term with the complex theoretical debates that have grown up around it.

This text introduces students of human geography to the fundamental concept of place, marrying everyday uses of the term with the complex theoretical debates that have grown up around it.

• A short introduction to one of the most fundamental concepts in human geography.

• Marries everyday uses of the term "place" with the more complex theoretical debates that have grown up around it.

• Makes the debates intelligible to students, using familiar stories as a way into more abstract ideas.

• Excerpts and discusses key papers on place by Doreen Massey and David Harvey.

• Considers empirical examples of ways in which the concept of place has been used in research.

• Teaching and learning aids include an annotated bibliography, lists of key readings and texts, a survey of web resources, suggested pedagogical resources and possible student projects.

Tim Cresswell is Professor in Social and Cultural Geography at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. He is the author of In Place / Out of Place (1996) and The Tramp in America (2001). He is also the co-editor of Mobilizing Place. Placing Mobility (2003) and Engaging Film (2002).

List of Figures.

Series Editors’ Preface.

Acknowledgements.

1. Introduction: Defining Place.

Space and Place.

Place and Landscape.

Place as a Way of Understanding.

The Remainder of the Book.

2. The Genealogy of Place.

Regional Geography.

Discovering Place: Humanistic Geography.

Place as Home.

Radical Human Geography and the Politics of Place.

Place as ‘Being-in-the-world’ versus Place as Social Construct.

Place, Practice and Process.

Place, Openness and Change.

The End of Place?.

Conclusion: Versions of Place.

3. Reading ‘A Global Sense of Place’.

Historial Context.

Harvey on Place.

A Global Sense of Place.

Beyond Reactionary and Progressive Senses of Place.

Conclusions.

4. Working with Place.

Creating Places.

In Place / Out-of-place Anachorism.

Conclusions.

5. Place Resources.

Key Books on Place.

Key papers on Place.

Introductory Texts on Place.

Other Books and Papers on Place.

Other Approaches to Place: Ecology, Planning, Architecture.

Key Journals.

Web Resources.

Student Projects and Exercises.

Bibliography.

Index.