How is it that, in the course of everyday life, people are drawn away from greenspace experiences that are often good for them? By attending to the apparently idle talk of those who are living them out, this book shows us why we should attend to the processes involved. Develops an original perspective on how greenspace benefits are promoted Shows how greenspace experiences can unsettle the practices of everyday life Draws on several years of field research and over 180 interviews Makes new links between geographies of nature and the study of social practices Uses a focus on social practices to reimagine the research interview Offers a wealth of suggestions for future researchers in this field
How is it that, in the course of everyday life, people are drawn away from greenspace experiences that are often good for them? By attending to the apparently idle talk of those who are living them out, this book shows us why we should attend to the processes involved. Develops an original perspective on how greenspace benefits are promoted Shows how greenspace experiences can unsettle the practices of everyday life Draws on several years of field research and over 180 interviews Makes new links between geographies of nature and the study of social practices Uses a focus on social practices to reimagine the research interview Offers a wealth of suggestions for future researchers in this field
Deciding what user impacts are natural or unnatural has inspired much debate. Biophysically, moose cause similar kinds of soil and vegetation impacts as hikers. Yet moose are the sign of nature while hikers are the sign of damage. The field of outdoor recreation is beset with paradoxes, and this book presents a unique, alternative framework to address these dilemmas. Examining outdoor recreation through the lens of ecological theory, Ryan draws from theorists such as Foucault, Derrida and Latour. The book explores minimum impact strategies designed to protect and enhance ecological integrity, but that also require a disturbing amount of policing of users, which runs counter to the freedom users seek. Recent ecological theory suggests that outdoor recreation's view of nature as balanced when impacts are removed is outdated and incorrect. What is needed, and indeed Ryan presents, is a paradoxical and ecological view of humans as neither natural nor unnatural, a view that embraces some traces in nature.
Against the backdrop of an accelerating global urbanization and related ecological, climatic or social challenges to urban sustainability, this book focuses on the access to “safe, inclusive and accessible green and public space” as outlined in United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal No. 11. Looking through the lens of environmental justice and contested urban spaces, it raises the question who ultimately benefits from a green city development, and – even more importantly – who does not. While green space benefits are well-documented, green space provision is faced by multiple challenges in an era of urban neoliberalism. With their interdisciplinary and multi-method approach, the chapters in this book carefully study the different dimensions of green space access with particular focus on vulnerable groups, critically evaluate cases of procedural injustice and, in the case of Northern Europe that is often seen as forerunner of urban sustainability, provide in-depth studies on the contexts of injustices in urban greening. Chapters 1, 5, and 6 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.
This is a key reference guide for the exploration of leisure and outdoor recreation. It reflects the multidisciplinary nature of these fields and contextualizes the leading research and knowledge on key concepts, theories and practices. Edited by leading authorities in the field, this volume includes a comprehensive index, and up-to-date suggestions for further reading. It is an essential resource for teaching, an invaluable companion to independent study, and a solid starting point for wider subject exploration.
MAPPING PARTITION “A hugely productive partnership between geography and history, ‘Mapping Partition’ does a great service to the field of Partition studies - it leaves us in no doubt about both the long-term cartographical processes that contributed to how South Asia was divided in 1947, and the importance of bringing a geographer’s insights to bear on this complex history of boundary making.” Professor Sarah Ansari, Professor of History (South Asia), Royal Holloway University of London “Fitzpatrick produces spatial readings of partition’s knowledge formations, geopolitical imaginaries, administrative cartography, and legal geographical expertise. These enrich the histories and geographies of partition through painstaking archival, textual, and visual analysis which will resonate far beyond historical geography and South Asian studies.” Professor Stephen Legg, Professor of Historical Geography, University of Nottingham Mapping Partition delivers the first in-depth geographical account of the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. The book explores the impact of colonial geography and geographers on the boundary, both during the partition process and in the period preceding it. Drawing on extensive archival research, Hannah Fitzpatrick argues that colonial geographical knowledge underpinned the partition process in heretofore unacknowledged ways. The author also discusses the consequences of placing different ethnic, communal, and linguistic groups onto the colonial map and the growing importance of majority and minority populations in representative democratic politics. Mapping Partition: Politics, Territory and the End of Empire in India and Pakistan is required reading for students and researchers studying geography, colonial and imperial history, South Asian studies, and interdisciplinary border studies.
THEORY AND EXPLANATION IN GEOGRAPHY “With this book Henry Yeung puts Geography back into the driver’s seat of new theory development. Foregrounding mid-range theories and mechanism-based explanations, he offers a pragmatic approach that has the capacity to shape the wider social sciences for years to come. The timing of this intervention is pitch-perfect, as scholars search for ways to understand and intervene in an increasingly distrustful and polarized world.” —KATHARYNE MITCHELL, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA “Critical human geography possesses a distinctive theory culture—pluralist, creative, distributed, restless, contested—prone to “turning,” wary of orthodoxies and fixed positions. In this original and provocative contribution, the leading economic geographer Henry Yeung steps out beyond his home turf to engage styles and practices of theorizing across this diverse field, carving out a new remit and rubric for middle-range theorizing.” —JAMIE PECK, Canadian Research Chair and Distinguished University Scholar, University of British Columbia, Canada Grounded in a generous reading of a multitude of critical approaches in human geography and their diverse conceptions of theory, Theory and Explanation in Geography draws upon cutting-edge debates on the mechanism-based approach to theory and explanation in analytical sociology, political science, and the philosophy of social sciences to inform current and future geographical thinking on theory. This consolidated conceptual work represents an extension and much further development of the author’s well-cited works on relational geography, critical realism and causal explanation, process-based methodology, globalization and the theory of global production networks, and “theorizing back” and situated knowledges that were published in leading journals in Geography. The work has several chapters that identify new directions for Geography’s current and future engagement with the wider social sciences and relevant research agendas in geographical thought. Its main chapters provide the necessary conceptual toolkits for mobilizing such an expanding research program in the 2020s and beyond. Compared to typical texts on geographical thought, this book is less retrospective and historical and more prospective in nature. Detailing why and how mid-range explanatory theories can be better developed through causal mechanisms and relational thinking that have been revitalized in the social sciences, Theory and Explanation in Geography is an essential read for academics, geographers, and scholars seeking unique perspective on an important facet of the field.
The first systematic examination of the role of geomorphological processes in the cycling of carbon through the terrestrial system. Argues that knowledge of geomorphological processes is fundamental to understanding the ways in which carbon is stored and recycled in the terrestrial environment Integrates classical geomorphological theory with understanding of microbial processes controlling the decomposition of organic matter Develops an interdisciplinary research agenda for the analysis of the terrestrial carbon cycle Informed by work in ecology, microbiology and biogeochemistry, in order to analyse spatial and temporal patterns of terrestrial carbon cycling at the landscape scale Considers the ways in which, as Humanity enters the Anthropocene, the application of this science has the potential to manage the terrestrial carbon cycle to limit increases in atmospheric carbon
Both theoretically informed and empirically rich, Defensible Space makes an important conceptual contribution to policy mobilities thinking, to policy and practice, and also to practitioners handling of complex spatial concepts. Critically examines the geographical concept Defensible Space, which has been influential in designing out crime to date, and has been applied to housing estates in the UK, North America, Europe and beyond Evaluates the movement/mobility/mobilisation of defensible space from the US to the UK and into English housing policy and practice Explores the multiple ways the concept of defensible space was interpreted and implemented, as it circulated from national to local level and within particular English housing estates Critiquing and pushing forwards work on policy mobilities, the authors illustrate for the first time how transfer mechanisms worked at both a policy and practitioner level Drawing on extensive archival research, oral histories and in-depth interviews, this important book reveals defensible space to be ambiguous, uncertain in nature, neither proven or disproven scientifically
