Rachel Pain is a Lecturer in Cultural and Social Geography at the University of Durham. Her teaching and research interests include geographies of crime, fear of crime and community safety, health, gender, ageing, and qualitative methods. Michael Barke is a Reader in Human Geography at the University of Northumbria. His teaching and research interests include the impact of housing policy change on local communities, the changing social geography of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Tyneside, and global change and development. His previous books include: Barke, M. and O’Hare, G. P. (1984) The Third World: Diversity, Change and Interdependence. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd (2nd edn, Oliver & Boyd/Longman, 1991). Barke, M. (1986) Transport and Trade. Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd. Barke, M. (1991) Cast Studies of the Third World. Harlow: Oliver & Boyd/Longman. Barke, M. and Turnbull, G. (1992) Meadowell: The biography of an ‘Estate with Problems’. Aldershot: Avebury. Barke, M. and Buswell, R. J. (eds) (1992) Newcastle’s Changing Map. Newcastle upon Tyne: City Libraries and Arts. Barke, M. Towner, J. and Newton, M. T. (1996) Tourism in Spain: Critical Issues. Wallingford: CAB International. Duncan Fuller is a Lecturer in Social and Economic Geography at the University of Northumbria. His teaching and research interests include geographies of inclusion and exclusion, money, credit union development, poverty, disability, anthropological and psychoanalytical theories, and qualitative methods and academic activism. Jamie Gough is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Northumbria. His teaching and research interests include industrial, economic and urban geography, particularly labour processes and their geography, urban and regional economies, flows of value within cities, and relationships between economic governance at different spatial scales. His previous books include: Gough, J. and MacNair, M. (1985) Gay Liberation in the Eighties. Pluto: London. Eisenschitz, A. and Gough, J. (1993) The Politics of Local Economic Policy. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Gough, J. (2001) Work, Locality and the Rhythms of Capital. London: Continuum. Robert MacFarlane is a Senior Lecturer in Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Northumbria. His teaching and research interests include the meaning and management of landscapes, urban nature conservation initiatives, landscape ecology and Geographical Information System applications in the developed and developing worlds. Graham Mowl is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Northumbria. His teaching and research interests include geography of leisure, impacts of tourism development, disability, gender relations and ageing.

Good value for money; it is highly recommended as essential reading for students engaging with the central concerns of a modern social geography. Submitted to Geography, April 2002 An ideal book for students first encountering social geography and a must for social geography courses. Educational Book Review

• Chapter 1 Introduction; Part I Society, material life and geography; Chapter 2 Work, class and social life; Chapter 3 The place of leisure; Chapter 4 Communities; Part II Power, identity and social geography; Chapter 5 Race and ethnicity; Chapter 6 Geographies of gender and sexuality; Chapter 7 Age, generation and lifecourse; Chapter 8 Geographies of disability; Part III Social geography and social problems; Chapter 9 Society, nature and landscape; Chapter 10 Housing, space and society; Chapter 11 Crime, space and inequality; Chapter 12 Geographies of poverty;