'Place like this – you know this – place like this gets in your blood. Once it's in your blood, you can't get it out.' One night under Cardiff skies, four lost souls go looking for answers. After dark, when the world is quiet, their paths weave and collide as they all go in search of salvation. When dawn breaks, life will go on but there will be another night to contend with soon enough. As the sun rises over the Taff, can anyone break free from the past?
Understanding Cultural Geography: Places and Traces offers a comprehensive introduction to perhaps the most exciting and challenging area of human geography. By focusing on the notion of ‘place’ as a key means through which culture and identity is grounded, the book showcases the broad range of theories, methods and practices used within the discipline. This book not only introduces the reader to the rich and complex history of cultural geography, but also the key terms on which the discipline is built. From these insights, the book approaches place as an ‘ongoing composition of traces’, highlighting the dynamic and ever-changing nature of the world around us. The second edition has been fully revised and updated to incorporate recent literature and up-to-date case studies. It also adopts a new seven section structure, and benefits from the addition of two new chapters: Place and Mobility, and Place and Language. Through its broad coverage of issues such as age, race, scale, nature, capitalism, and the body, the book provides valuable perspectives into the cultural relationships between people and place. Anderson gives critical insights into these important issues, helping us to understand and engage with the various places that make up our lives. Understanding Cultural Geography is an ideal text for students being introduced to the discipline through either undergraduate or postgraduate degree courses. The book outlines how the theoretical ideas, empirical foci and methodological techniques of cultural geography illuminate and make sense of the places we inhabit and contribute to. This is a timely update on a highly successful text that incorporates a vast foundation of knowledge; an invaluable book for lecturers and students.
Over 250 old photographs, many published for the first time, appear in this new collection covering the districts of Roath, Splott and Adamsdown. This area, along with Penylan, Tremorfa and part of Cathays, once had a collective unity as the ecclesiastical parish of Roath created in the late sixteenth century. Roath as an historical entity is much older, however. Reputed to be pre-Norman in origin, in its time it has served as a manor, parish and village as well as a latter-day Cardiff suburb. Although earlier centuries are not neglected, particular focus is given to the period 1890 to 1950, which saw the emergence and maturity of these communities so familiar to present-day Cardiffians. Scenes of streetlife, work, worship and leisure are captured in a wide variety of often striking and atmospheric images. These are amplified by the fascinating historical detail in the captions providing the reader with a vivid appreciation of the richly significant past of this part of Cardiff.