At the heart of this important and timely study of contemporary geography lies a deceptively simple question: how should geographers respond to a world which is changing fast - perhaps faster than ever before?The Challenge for Geography addresses this question directly, bringing together ten prominent geographers to examine both changes in the contemporary world and transformations within the discipline of geography.

This volume of especially commissioned essays explores the geography of, and the role of geography in, national and proto-national identity. Place and national identity are bound together. Attachment to the one is almost always inseparable from the sense of the other. Yet, as this volume shows, the articulated self-conscious linking of place and identity is by and large a modern phenomenon that took root in nineteenth-century Europe. The formation of supranational states and the much vaunted globalization of culture led many to believe there would be a progressive dilution of national identities and a growing agglomeration of places and nations into larger state units. Precisely the reverse has taken place. This book explores the connections between identity and homeland, showing how a place may be perceived as archetypal, endowed with love and celebrated in music and poetry, yet be a pretext for violence and war. It examines the evolution of ideas about identity and their manifestations in a wide variety of settings, from the former Soviet Union to the island states of the South Pacific.

Urban landscapes are an important part of the daily lives of most of the population of the western world. Buildings, streets, gardens and parks are a fundamental means by which we orientate ourselves within cities, and contribute significantly to our daily levels of efficiency and well-being (or lack of them). The creation and maintenance of the urban environment accounts for a sizeable proportion of public and private expenditure. Yet despite the controversy surrounding a few special places, the people and forces responsible for shaping ordinary town and city landscapes have rarely been systematically investigated and are poorly understood. By viewing urban landscapes in relation to the individuals and organizations responsible for their creation, this book supplies a crucial missing dimension to urban landscape history and a sharp insight into the dynamics of contemporary urban change.

Wetlands occupy some six per cent of the Earth's land surface. They vary from fens and freshwater marshes to tropical mangroves and tundra swamps. They perform vital hydrological, chemical and biological roles and contain unique and diverse forms of wildlife and habitat. They are disappearing at an alarming rate and are threatened by both the direct and indirect effects of human activity. The purpose of this book of especially commissioned articles is threefold: (a) to explore the occurrence and composition of wetlands and their physical and biological dynamics; (b) to consider the impact upon them of agriculture, industry, urbanisation and recreation; and (c) to examine what steps can be taken to manage and to preserve their future survival.

The last decade has been a decade of tremendous change across the broad of the human and social sciences. Ancient certainties, trusted ideologies and tested methods all came under immense pressure once so-called 'postmodern' ideas and concepts gained wider currency particularly among those with an interest in social theory. No longer content with framing social reality according to the logic of one core metaphor, the human and social sciences both rediscovered the local particularity of truth where hitherto a general explanation was deemed sufficient. In short: the revitalizing and formative power of 'space' was acknowledged once again.More than ten years into the debate, the present collection of original essays seeks to assess both the impact and current state of the debate around postmodernism and the spatial social sciences. It aims not at solving contradictions and differences within the debate since such a claim would be both fruitless and immature; rather, it seeks to demonstrate the diversity of interpretations that has come about by the mutual discovery of postmodern discourses and human geography since the mid 1980s.Celebrations of postmodernity, the insistence of a continuation of modernity, interpretations of globally-emerging postmodern spaces, even the call for an analysis of hypermodernity thus coexist in the collection at hand.In-between the essays, a new discursive agenda for the spatial human sciences emerges: not to pave the way for a new orthodoxy but simply to allow for the recognition of new ideas taking root in today's academic environment. This book is at once critical, provocative and accessible. It will be widely welcomed by advanced students of spatial and social theory in geography and related disciplines.

In this book, the world's leading spacial theorists provide new accounts of the central questions and issues in social-spacial theory with critical perspectives on the post-modern condition.

At the heart of this important and timely study of contemporary geography lies a deceptively simple question: how should geographers respond to a world which is changing fast - perhaps faster than ever before?The Challenge for Geography addresses this question directly, bringing together ten prominent geographers to examine both changes in the contemporary world and transformations within the discipline of geography.

This volume of especially commissioned essays explores the geography of, and the role of geography in, national and proto-national identity. Place and national identity are bound together. Attachment to the one is almost always inseparable from the sense of the other. Yet, as this volume shows, the articulated self-conscious linking of place and identity is by and large a modern phenomenon that took root in nineteenth-century Europe. The formation of supranational states and the much vaunted globalization of culture led many to believe there would be a progressive dilution of national identities and a growing agglomeration of places and nations into larger state units. Precisely the reverse has taken place. This book explores the connections between identity and homeland, showing how a place may be perceived as archetypal, endowed with love and celebrated in music and poetry, yet be a pretext for violence and war. It examines the evolution of ideas about identity and their manifestations in a wide variety of settings, from the former Soviet Union to the island states of the South Pacific.

Urban landscapes are an important part of the daily lives of most of the population of the western world. Buildings, streets, gardens and parks are a fundamental means by which we orientate ourselves within cities, and contribute significantly to our daily levels of efficiency and well-being (or lack of them). The creation and maintenance of the urban environment accounts for a sizeable proportion of public and private expenditure. Yet despite the controversy surrounding a few special places, the people and forces responsible for shaping ordinary town and city landscapes have rarely been systematically investigated and are poorly understood. By viewing urban landscapes in relation to the individuals and organizations responsible for their creation, this book supplies a crucial missing dimension to urban landscape history and a sharp insight into the dynamics of contemporary urban change.

Wetlands occupy some six per cent of the Earth's land surface. They vary from fens and freshwater marshes to tropical mangroves and tundra swamps. They perform vital hydrological, chemical and biological roles and contain unique and diverse forms of wildlife and habitat. They are disappearing at an alarming rate and are threatened by both the direct and indirect effects of human activity. The purpose of this book of especially commissioned articles is threefold: (a) to explore the occurrence and composition of wetlands and their physical and biological dynamics; (b) to consider the impact upon them of agriculture, industry, urbanisation and recreation; and (c) to examine what steps can be taken to manage and to preserve their future survival.

The last decade has been a decade of tremendous change across the broad of the human and social sciences. Ancient certainties, trusted ideologies and tested methods all came under immense pressure once so-called 'postmodern' ideas and concepts gained wider currency particularly among those with an interest in social theory. No longer content with framing social reality according to the logic of one core metaphor, the human and social sciences both rediscovered the local particularity of truth where hitherto a general explanation was deemed sufficient. In short: the revitalizing and formative power of 'space' was acknowledged once again.More than ten years into the debate, the present collection of original essays seeks to assess both the impact and current state of the debate around postmodernism and the spatial social sciences. It aims not at solving contradictions and differences within the debate since such a claim would be both fruitless and immature; rather, it seeks to demonstrate the diversity of interpretations that has come about by the mutual discovery of postmodern discourses and human geography since the mid 1980s.Celebrations of postmodernity, the insistence of a continuation of modernity, interpretations of globally-emerging postmodern spaces, even the call for an analysis of hypermodernity thus coexist in the collection at hand.In-between the essays, a new discursive agenda for the spatial human sciences emerges: not to pave the way for a new orthodoxy but simply to allow for the recognition of new ideas taking root in today's academic environment. This book is at once critical, provocative and accessible. It will be widely welcomed by advanced students of spatial and social theory in geography and related disciplines.

In this book, the world's leading spacial theorists provide new accounts of the central questions and issues in social-spacial theory with critical perspectives on the post-modern condition.