Kevin R. Cox is an emeritus distinguished professor of geography at the Ohio State University. Born in England, he studied geography at Cambridge University and then at the University of Illinois. His major interests are in the politics of local development, geographic thought and method, and the difference that countries make. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Making Human Geography and The Politics of Urban and Regional Development and the American Exception. He has a personal website, including frequent blogs, at Unfashionable Geographies. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow. Murray Low′s research focuses on relationships between geography and democracy including institutional and spatial aspects of elections, changing practices of accountability and legitimacy in cities, and the geography of political party organisations and social movements. His work has dealt with the relationships between global networks and democracy, constructions of globalization and states in geography, and geographical aspects of political representation. He has recently completed research funded by the Leverhulme Foundation into city democratisation in South Africa. He is co-editor of Spaces of Democracy: Geographical Perspectives on Citizenship, Participation and Representation (Sage, 2004), and of The Sage Handbook of Political Geography (Sage, 2008) Current research builds on my book, Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development (Routledge, 2006) which develops a postcolonial critique of urban studies, presenting resources for cutting across the thinking which has divided understandings of Western and Third World Cities. I argue against perspectives which categorize cities as Global, Third World, Mega, African etc. and suggest instead an attentiveness to the diverse trajectories of ′ordinary cities′. This work has strong implications for the practices of urban studies internationally, and invites a regrounding of comparative urbanism in rigorous practices able to encompass both wealthier and poorer cities so as to generate approaches to understanding cities which are properly international. Future plans include an empirical project to exemplify comparative methods incorporating wealthier and poorer cities, taking as the object of study the ubiquitous technology of developing city strategies and visions. This will also enable an investigation of the international circulation of urban policy to understand how policy arrives in and is adopted or adapted in different localities. The research will press an engagement with analyses of neoliberalism in urban studies to incorporate perspectives from cities in poorer contexts. It contributes to conceptualisations of the spatialities of circulation, reflecting my wider interests in general theoretical accounts of space.Previous research has centred on the relationship between power and space, specifically in cities and mostly in relation to South African politics. For example, I have written on the 1936 Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg to explore spaces of racial interaction in South African cities. I have also written on issues in feminist politics, including questions of difference and methodology, and more recently on the implications of Julia Kristeva′s psychoanalytic writing for feminist theorizations of space. More broadly, I have explored ways of postcolonializing the theoretical and empirical practices of Geography.

′A thorough and absorbing tour of the sub-discipline... An essential acquisition for any scholar or teacher interested in geographical perspectives on political process, this Handbook is sure to become the major reference work in anglophone political geography′ - Sallie Marston, University of Arizona′This unique book is a true encyclopedia of political geography... The volume is a result of cooperation between a big international team of well known geographers, including scholars beyond the Anglo-American world′ - Vladimir Kolossov, Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, and Vice President of the International Geographical Union

• PART ONE: THE SCOPE AND DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL GEOGRAPHYThe Politics of Political Geography - Guntram HerbThe Geography of Political Geography - James SidawayGeographies of Space and Power - Joe PainterFeminist Transformations of Political Geography - Eleonore KofmanPART TWO: STATESTheorizing the State Geographically - Merje Kuus and John AgnewSovereignty, Subjectivity, TerritorialityState and Society - Stuart CorbridgePlanning, Space and Government - Margo HuxleyWelfare Provision, Welfare Reform, Welfare Mothers - Kim EnglandMaking Space for Law - Nick BlomleyCoercion, Territoriality, Legitimacy - Steve HerbertThe Police And The Modern StatePART THREE: RE-NATURING POLITICAL GEOGRAPHYTheorizing the Nature-Society Divide - Bruce BraunThe State in Political Ecology - Paul RobbinsA Postcard to Political Geography from the FieldRegulating Resource Use - Karen Bakker and Gavin BridgeGlobal Environmental Politics - Becky MansfieldThe Politics of Transition - Joshua MuldavinCritical Political Ecology, Classical Economics and Ecological Modernization in ChinaPART FOUR: IDENTITIES AND INTERESTS IN POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONSNation-States and National Identity - Jan Penrose and Richard MoleWorking Political Geography Through Social Movement Theory - Michael BrownThe Case of Gay and Lesbian SeattleContrapuntal Geographies - Noel Castree, David Featherstone and Andrew HerodThe Politics of Organising Across Socio-spatial DifferenceThe Political Geography of Many Bodies - Arun SaldanhaTransnational Political Movements - Paul RoutledgePART FIVE: FROM ′LA GEOGRAPHIE ELECTORALE′ TO THE POLITICS OF DEMOCRACYPlace and Vote - Ron Johnston and Charles PattieThe Territorial Politics of Representation - Benjamin ForestDemocracy and Democratization - Lynn A. StaeheliConvening Publics - Clive BarnettThe Parasitical Spaces of Public ActionPART SIX: GLOBAL POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY`Global′ Geopolitics - Simon DalbyGeo-graphers - Elena Dell′AgneseWriting WorldsEmpire - Alan LesterRe-Bordering Spaces - Jouni HakliTransnationalism and (Im)mobility - Rachel Silvey, Elizabeth Olson and Yaffa TrueloveThe Politics of Border CrossingsSpatial Analysis of Civil War Violence - John O′Loughlin and Clionadh RaleighPART SEVEN: THE POLITICS OF UNEVEN DEVELOPMENTPolitical Geography of Uneven Development - Peter TaylorThe Politics of Local and Regional Development - Andrew WoodThe Politics of Localization - Giles Mohan and Kristian StokkeFrom Depoliticizing Development to Politicizing Democracy′Development′ in Question - Hariprya RanganSustainable Development and Governance - Yvonne RydinUrban Governance in the South - Sue ParnellThe politics of rights and development

Kevin R. Cox is an emeritus distinguished professor of geography at the Ohio State University. Born in England, he studied geography at Cambridge University and then at the University of Illinois. His major interests are in the politics of local development, geographic thought and method, and the difference that countries make. He is the author of numerous books, most recently Making Human Geography and The Politics of Urban and Regional Development and the American Exception. He has a personal website, including frequent blogs, at Unfashionable Geographies. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow. Murray Low′s research focuses on relationships between geography and democracy including institutional and spatial aspects of elections, changing practices of accountability and legitimacy in cities, and the geography of political party organisations and social movements. His work has dealt with the relationships between global networks and democracy, constructions of globalization and states in geography, and geographical aspects of political representation. He has recently completed research funded by the Leverhulme Foundation into city democratisation in South Africa. He is co-editor of Spaces of Democracy: Geographical Perspectives on Citizenship, Participation and Representation (Sage, 2004), and of The Sage Handbook of Political Geography (Sage, 2008) Current research builds on my book, Ordinary Cities: Between Modernity and Development (Routledge, 2006) which develops a postcolonial critique of urban studies, presenting resources for cutting across the thinking which has divided understandings of Western and Third World Cities. I argue against perspectives which categorize cities as Global, Third World, Mega, African etc. and suggest instead an attentiveness to the diverse trajectories of ′ordinary cities′. This work has strong implications for the practices of urban studies internationally, and invites a regrounding of comparative urbanism in rigorous practices able to encompass both wealthier and poorer cities so as to generate approaches to understanding cities which are properly international. Future plans include an empirical project to exemplify comparative methods incorporating wealthier and poorer cities, taking as the object of study the ubiquitous technology of developing city strategies and visions. This will also enable an investigation of the international circulation of urban policy to understand how policy arrives in and is adopted or adapted in different localities. The research will press an engagement with analyses of neoliberalism in urban studies to incorporate perspectives from cities in poorer contexts. It contributes to conceptualisations of the spatialities of circulation, reflecting my wider interests in general theoretical accounts of space.Previous research has centred on the relationship between power and space, specifically in cities and mostly in relation to South African politics. For example, I have written on the 1936 Empire Exhibition in Johannesburg to explore spaces of racial interaction in South African cities. I have also written on issues in feminist politics, including questions of difference and methodology, and more recently on the implications of Julia Kristeva′s psychoanalytic writing for feminist theorizations of space. More broadly, I have explored ways of postcolonializing the theoretical and empirical practices of Geography.

′A thorough and absorbing tour of the sub-discipline... An essential acquisition for any scholar or teacher interested in geographical perspectives on political process, this Handbook is sure to become the major reference work in anglophone political geography′ - Sallie Marston, University of Arizona′This unique book is a true encyclopedia of political geography... The volume is a result of cooperation between a big international team of well known geographers, including scholars beyond the Anglo-American world′ - Vladimir Kolossov, Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, and Vice President of the International Geographical Union

• PART ONE: THE SCOPE AND DEVELOPMENT OF POLITICAL GEOGRAPHYThe Politics of Political Geography - Guntram HerbThe Geography of Political Geography - James SidawayGeographies of Space and Power - Joe PainterFeminist Transformations of Political Geography - Eleonore KofmanPART TWO: STATESTheorizing the State Geographically - Merje Kuus and John AgnewSovereignty, Subjectivity, TerritorialityState and Society - Stuart CorbridgePlanning, Space and Government - Margo HuxleyWelfare Provision, Welfare Reform, Welfare Mothers - Kim EnglandMaking Space for Law - Nick BlomleyCoercion, Territoriality, Legitimacy - Steve HerbertThe Police And The Modern StatePART THREE: RE-NATURING POLITICAL GEOGRAPHYTheorizing the Nature-Society Divide - Bruce BraunThe State in Political Ecology - Paul RobbinsA Postcard to Political Geography from the FieldRegulating Resource Use - Karen Bakker and Gavin BridgeGlobal Environmental Politics - Becky MansfieldThe Politics of Transition - Joshua MuldavinCritical Political Ecology, Classical Economics and Ecological Modernization in ChinaPART FOUR: IDENTITIES AND INTERESTS IN POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONSNation-States and National Identity - Jan Penrose and Richard MoleWorking Political Geography Through Social Movement Theory - Michael BrownThe Case of Gay and Lesbian SeattleContrapuntal Geographies - Noel Castree, David Featherstone and Andrew HerodThe Politics of Organising Across Socio-spatial DifferenceThe Political Geography of Many Bodies - Arun SaldanhaTransnational Political Movements - Paul RoutledgePART FIVE: FROM ′LA GEOGRAPHIE ELECTORALE′ TO THE POLITICS OF DEMOCRACYPlace and Vote - Ron Johnston and Charles PattieThe Territorial Politics of Representation - Benjamin ForestDemocracy and Democratization - Lynn A. StaeheliConvening Publics - Clive BarnettThe Parasitical Spaces of Public ActionPART SIX: GLOBAL POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY`Global′ Geopolitics - Simon DalbyGeo-graphers - Elena Dell′AgneseWriting WorldsEmpire - Alan LesterRe-Bordering Spaces - Jouni HakliTransnationalism and (Im)mobility - Rachel Silvey, Elizabeth Olson and Yaffa TrueloveThe Politics of Border CrossingsSpatial Analysis of Civil War Violence - John O′Loughlin and Clionadh RaleighPART SEVEN: THE POLITICS OF UNEVEN DEVELOPMENTPolitical Geography of Uneven Development - Peter TaylorThe Politics of Local and Regional Development - Andrew WoodThe Politics of Localization - Giles Mohan and Kristian StokkeFrom Depoliticizing Development to Politicizing Democracy′Development′ in Question - Hariprya RanganSustainable Development and Governance - Yvonne RydinUrban Governance in the South - Sue ParnellThe politics of rights and development