Human geography Books

Book SynopsisA provocative counterargument to the blue/red divide that illuminates our country''s multidimensional political spectrum. In a climate of culture wars and economic uncertainty, the media have often reduced America to a simplistic schism between red and blue states. In response to that oversimplification, journalist Dante Chinni teamed up with political geographer James Gimpel, using on-the-ground reporting and statistical analysis to get past generalizations and probe American communities in depth.Looking at the data, they recognized that the country breaks into twelve distinct types of communities, whose differences and specific concerns shed light on the subtle distinctions in how Americans vote, shop, and otherwise behave. Showcasing personal interviews, combined with facts and statistics, Our Patchwork Nation offers a brilliant new way to examine the issues that matter most to our communities, and to our nation.

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Book SynopsisEnvironmental Security in Africa: Conflicts, Politics, and Development investigates the nature, scope, and dimension of environmental security in Africa from a multidisciplinary perspective to examines the history, theories, spatial patterns, sociocultural, socioeconomic consequences, and legal ramifications of Africa's environmental concerns. This book is grounded in theories that cut across the social, behavioral, and environmental sciences, arguing that environmental security is a multifaceted subject intricately linked to global climate change and magnified by globalization. Drawing from case studies across different parts of Africa, Elisha Jasper Dung, Leonard Sitji Bombom, Augustine Avwunudiogba, and the contributors argue that the integral part of the solution to Africa's environmental security issues are entrenched in victims'' local, regional, social, cultural, political, and economic circumstances in specific geographical locations, such as Nigeria, Northeast Africa, Kenya, and South Sudan. Comprised of 17 chapters, this book provides a unique perspective that facilitates understanding the complex problem of environmental security and its sundry ramifications for scholars and policymakers.

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Book SynopsisBetween the slum clearances of the early twentieth century and debates about the post-Olympic city, the drive to 'regenerate' London has intensified. Yet today, with a focus on increasing land values, regeneration schemes purporting to foster diverse and creative new neighbourhoods typically displace precisely the qualities, activities and communities they claim to support. In Remaking London Ben Campkin provides a lucid and stimulating historical account of urban regeneration, exploring how decline and renewal have been imagined and realised at different scales. Focussing on present-day regeneration areas that have been key to the capital's modern identity, Campkin explores how these places have been stigmatised through identification with material degradation, and spatial and social disorder. Drawing on diverse sources - including journalism, photography, cinema, theatre, architectural design, advertising and television - he illuminates how ideas of decline drive urban change. Richly illustrated and engagingly written, Remaking London is both a compelling account of contested sites from the capital's recent history and a powerful critique of the contradictions of contemporary regeneration.Trade Review'An important and much needed corrective, full of fascinating insights, which exposes the myths of regeneration' - Anna Minton, author of Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the Twenty-First-Century City 'Thoughtful and timely - an invaluable text'-Building Design 'a skillful historical account of the intertwined aesthetic, moral, social, and political projects that have been pursued in the name of regeneration - a crucial intervention into contemporary debates about urbanism' -LSE Review of Books 'Beautifully written, Remaking London provides a powerful critique of the contradictions of contemporary schemes, refreshingly 'un-academic' in tone, yet carefully researched'-Urban Times 'a beautifully crafted book and a jolly good read'-The GeographicalTable of ContentsContents List of Illustrations vii Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1. Slum Spectacle 19 2. Life in the Ruins 37 3. Regeneration ad nauseam 57 4. Sink Estate Spectacle 77 5. Crisis and Creativity 105 6. Ornament from Grime 127 7. Burial and Bioremediation 149 Conclusion 163 Notes 169 Bibliography 215 Index 237

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Book SynopsisWalking Inside Out is the first text that attempts to merge the work of literary and artist practitioners with academics to critically explore the state of psychogeography today. The collection explores contemporary psychogeographical practices, shows how a critical form of walking can highlight easily overlooked urban phenomenon, and examines the impact that everyday life in the city has on the individual. Through a variety of case studies, it offers a British perspective of international spaces, from the British metropolis to the post-communist European city. By situating the current strand of psychogeography within its historical, political and creative context along with careful consideration of the challenges it faces Walking Inside Out offers a vision for the future of the discipline.Trade ReviewAcademic and/or non-academic, [psychogeography] sprawls across traditional boundaries of subject matter in a way that I find delightful; I loved this book for its diversity, quirkiness, and thoughtfulness … [This book] is rich, witty, thought provoking. For any therapist who embraces a social constructionist view of the self, it is a wonderful read! * Therapy Today *This book is full of unanticipated gems […] it’s an enlightened celebration of the breadth of the contemporary psychogeographical practice. * Slow Boat Blog *Walking Inside Out . . . [is] a diverse and lively assortment of literary and more scholarly essays that constitutes a collective intervention in debates about the continued valence of walking as a species both of politics and aesthetics. . . .[This book] open[s] up an important space for debating the political and aesthetic value of walking in cities and their fringes. * CritCom: a Forum for Research & Commentary on Europe *“[A] diverse and lively assortment of literary and more scholarly essays that constitutes a collective intervention in debates about the continued valence of walking as a species both of politics and aesthetics, [Walking Inside Out] open[s] up an important space for debating the political and aesthetic value of walking in cities and their fringes in an epoch of rampant, even epidemic gentrification.” * Europe Now *"Tina Richardson is one of the key figures in contemporary British psychogeography and urban aesthetics. [F]or those of us interested in psychogeography she has provided a map of where we have come from and some pointers towards where we are going." * Psychogeographic Review *Editor Tina Richardson skillfully guides the reader through the diverse field of British psychogeography through a useful introduction – perfectly appropriate for both readers who are new to the subject as well as those with prior exposure to it. . . .Walking inside out is a focused, enthused, engaging and diverse resource full of memorable narratives and transferable insights. It is a book that testifies to the rich diversity of ways of walking, the multiplicity of walking styles and motivations, and the depth of a tradition that is very much alive both in and outside the British Isles. Equally theoretical and substantive, playful and serious, and balanced in its attention to methodological and counter-cultural possibilities, Walking inside out will lead readers to wonder, and wander, through the vast field of psychogeography. * Social & Cultural Geography *Richardson’s book testifies to the richness and profusion of British urban walking today, by turns serious and light-hearted, intensely focussed, and freely rambling. More than armchair philosophy, these essays—by a motley rabble of loiterers, strollers, academics, writers, agitators and wastrels—make me want to depart my desk and head out into the city, leaving all maps behind. -- Will Buckingham, School of Humanities, De Montfort University.I read this book in a single sitting, flying from Singapore to London. By the time we were over Afghanistan, I was hooked. Stumbling into the London streets from Heathrow Airport, I needed to walk into British pyschogeography, which as this collection shows, blends British grittiness and continental influences, creating something vital. -- James D. Sidaway, Professor of Political Geography, National University of SingaporeA bumper compendium, bubbling with insights and oddments, and a multiplicity of perspectives, Walking Inside Out accentuates the vibrancy of British psychogeography, its varied theories, walking styles, pathways, motivations. It will inspire you to stride out, to wallow in this weird Island, looking askance at its incongruities, vestiges, banalities, security apparatus, rural idylls, shabby seafronts, and the less trodden ways. -- Tim Edensor, Cultural Geographer, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityWalking Inside Out is more than a history of British psychogeography: it is a compelling drift through the conceptual space of the discipline as practised in the contemporary cultural and social situation. It points to psychogeography’s possible futures in all their theoretical complexity, playful subversiveness, political and therapeutical potential. An essential addition to the growing corpus of psychogeographical literature. -- James Lawrence, Writer, poet and translator[T]he strength of this collection is to offer an overview of contemporary British psychogeography while also practicing it. This means that the essays presented in the collection are not only about psychogeography, but psychogeographic in the first place, in that they embody (different conceptions of) psychogeography even before reflecting upon it. * Parallax *As one of the first academic surveys of the heterogeneous field of psychogeography as it is practiced across the United Kingdom in the present day, Walking Inside Out is an ambitious undertaking … Bringing together both recognizable and established names in the field alongside contributions from emerging researchers and practitioners, Walking Inside Out demonstrates just how thoroughly the appeal of the ‘toolbox’–like quality of psychogeography (Richardson 2015: 3) cuts across disciplines. * Journal of Urban Cultural Studies *Table of ContentsDedication / Introduction: A Wander Through the Scene of British Urban Walking / Part I: The Walker and the Urban Landscape / 1. Longshore Drift: Approaching Liverpool from Another Place by Roy Bayfield / 2. Walking the Dog by Ian Marchant / 3. Incongruous Steps Towards a Legal Psychogeography by Luke Bennett / Part II: Memory, Historicity, Time / 4. Walking Through Memory: Critical Nostalgia and the City by Alastair Bonnett / 5. Selective Amnesia and Spectral Recollection in the Bloodlands by Phil Wood / 6. The Art of Wandering: Arthur Machen’s London Science by Merlin Coverley / 7. Wooden Stones by Gareth E. Rees / Part III: Power and Place / 8. Psychogeography Adrift: Negotiating Critical Inheritance in a Changed Context by Christopher Collier / 9. Confessions of an Anarcho-Flâneuse or Psychogeography the Mancunian Way by Morag Rose / Part IV Practising Psychogeography/Psychogeographical Practices/ 10. Psychogeography and Mythogeography: Currents in Radical Walking by Phil Smith / 11. Developing Schizocartography: Formulating a Theoretical Methodology for a Walking Practice by Tina Richardson / 12. Route Planning a Sensory Walk: Sniffing Out the Issues by Victoria Henshaw / Part V Outsider Psychogeography/ 13. Re-walking the City: People with Dementia Remember by Andrea Capstick / 14. Psychogeography, Anti-Psychologies and the Question of Social Change by Alexander John Bridger / Conclusion: The New Psychogeography / Notes on Contributors / Index

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Book SynopsisNorthern Albania and Montenegro are the only regions in Europe to have retained a true tribal society up to the mid-twentieth century. This book provides the first scholarly investigation of this tribal society, a pioneer work that offers a detailed survey of all the major Albanian-speaking tribes in Albania, Montenegro and Kosovo. Robert Elsie provides comprehensive material on the 69 different tribes, including data on their locations, religious affiliations, tribal structures and relations, population statistics, tribal folklore, legends and history. Also included are excerpts from the works of prominent nineteenth and early-twentieth century writers, such as Edith Durham and Johann Georg von Hahn, who travelled through the tribal regions, as well as short biographies on prominent figures linked to the tribes. As the first book of its kind, The Tribes of Albania will be of interest to scholars and students of the Balkans, of southeastern European anthropology, ethnography and history.Trade Review`The tribal system of northern Albania is one of the most fascinating aspects of a very distinctive part of Europe. Over hundreds of years, when their territory was under Ottoman rule but seldom fully under Ottoman control, these tribes provided a basis for social identity, local justice and military action. So cohesive were they that the unity of a tribe could easily survive the conversion of one part of it to Islam. Anyone who studies the history of these people will encounter tribal names and tribal identities at every step; and yet, until now, there has never been a general work gathering all the scattered information about them that survives in sources of many different kinds. The Tribes of Albania will be an indispensable and authoritative work of reference. There are few people in the world who could have written such a work; absolutely no one could have done it as well as Robert Elsie, whose knowledge of this material is unparalleled.’ - Sir Noel Malcolm, Senior Research Fellow, All Souls College, University of Oxford, `The tribalism of the north has been of primary significance to Albania right up until modern times, yet anyone attempting to study it soon encounters daunting difficulties. The topic was taboo in the Communist period, while earlier surveys and travellers’ accounts are inevitably scattered and inconsistent. Now Robert Elsie has very helpfully brought together a wealth of information, in as clear and systematic a fashion as the subject permits, to create this scholarly handbook to the northern tribes, their structures, geography, and history. It is to be welcomed as a valuable contribution to the ongoing demystification of the country.’ – Jason Tomes, author of King Zog: Self-Made Monarch of AlbaniaTable of ContentsIntroduction Editorial note The Tribes of the Northern Albanian Alps (Malësia e Madhe) The Tribes of the Pulat Region The Tribes of the Dukagjin Region The Tribes of the Gjakova Highlands (Malësia e Gjakovës) The Tribes of the Puka Region The Tribes of the Lezha Highlands (Malësia e Lezhës) The Tribes of the Kruja Highlands (Malësia e Krujës) The Tribes of Mirdita The Tribes of the Mat Region The Tribes of the Upper Drin Basin Minor Tribes Glossary Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis collection examines successful resettlement practices based on examples from well-known resettlement and development practitioners. It includes experiences from resettlement campaigns in Australia, Bhutan, Canada, Colombia, India, Ireland, Japan, Philippines, Russia, and the US, demonstrating the potential for relocation efforts to improve upon new inhabitants' previous standards of living.

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Book SynopsisKintyre poet and historian Angus Martin's interest in placea'names extends back over 40 years. This meticulously researched exploration covers over 200 Gaelic place-name elements, plus many others of Norse, Scots and English origin. Over 1200 individual place-names are examined, from the well-known to the obscure and forgotten. These names are drawn from a diverse range of sources, from mid-19th century Ordnance Survey maps and field notebooks to fishermen and shepherds whose store of names contained many known only to themselves. As well as looking at the origin and meaning of place-names, Martin also looks at their historical associations - the events and families connected with them - to provide a full and fascinating account which will illuminate the landscape of his native Kintyre. This, then, is a book which will interest not only students of place-names, but also archaeologists, local historians, genealogists, naturalists, and anyone with a passion for Kintyre and its colourful past.Trade Review'What we have here is far from being the average book on place-names. There is history - There's genealogy - There are notes on Kintyre writers and bards - The pages are full - as the now-deserted steadings and sheilings once were - of Kintyre people from the distant and the more recent past, working, fishing, farming, living hard but well.' Moira Burgess, Kintyre Magazine.

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Book SynopsisLeading geographer Denis Cosgrove provides a series of personal reflections on the complex connections between seeing, imagining and representing the world geographically. In a series of eloquent essays he draws upon pictorial images - including maps, sketches, cartoons, paintings, and photographs - to explore and elaborate upon the many and varied ways in which the vast and varied earth, and at times the heavens beyond, have been both imagined and represented as a place of human habitation. The essays include reflections upon geographical discovery; urban cartography and utopian visions; ideas of landscape and the shaping of America; wilderness and masculinity; conceptions of the Pacific; and the imaginative grip of the Equator. Extensively illustrated, this engaging work reveals the richness of the geographical imagination as expressed over the past five centuries.Trade Review"'Among modern geographers who have re-imagined, re-charged and extended their subject, Denis Cosgrove is pre-eminent, and his understanding of landscape, in particular, the most vital contribution. His essays in Geography and Vision explore how we see, envision and image the world. The range of his chosen topics is both their challenge and their excitement - from Renaissance arcadias to Ruskin's mythopoietic science, from meditations on the invisible Equator to extra-terrestrial cosmography for the twenty-first century, from American nature and urban mapping to the idea of the Pacific as a single geographical region. He manoeuvres nimbly between the facts of people and places and the metaphors that have been made of them. Conceptual complexities negotiate with pictorial images. And the essay form, upon which he meditates and in which he performs so agilely, is the ideal medium for Cosgrove's own mapping of the dialogues between "eyewitness knowledge and interpretation" and the "ideas, hopes and fears of imagined geographies".' John Dixon Hunt, Professor of the History & Theory of Landscape, School of Design, University of Pennsylvania 'Geography and Vision presents a compelling account of our imaginative encounter with the world. Through a series of wide-ranging and lucid essays on landscape and mapping, Denis Cosgrove reflects on the complex relations between seeing, imagining and representing the world geographically within the Western tradition. This book highlights the richness and the power of the geographical imagination, exploring the many ways in which it has shaped the cultures and landscapes we inhabit. Superbly crafted and well-illustrated, it will be a key point of reference for scholars across the arts and humanities for years to come.' Felix Driver, Professor of Human Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London 'Wise and illuminating, with broad interdisciplinary appeal, Geography and Vision is a richly rewarding book. A work of wide ranging scholarship in Europe and America, on different periods and places, the book's linked essays address a spectrum of representations, including maps, designs and art works, to explore the power and place of visual knowledge in the geographical imagination. Hopes and fears about nature, environment and globalism are framed in a cultural perspective which is both attentive to particular circumstances and to their place in broader terrestrial and celestial schema. Gracefully written, Geography and Vision keeps in sight humanity's sense of wonder about the world and its workings.' Stephen Daniels, Professor of Cultural Geography, University of Nottingham and Director AHRC Landscape and Environment Programme."

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Book SynopsisFormally incorporated into the British Empire in 1908 and again in 1917, the Anterctic Peninsula and wind-blown island chains of the South Atlantic became part of a pink-tinted empire. Some in Britain hoped that the entire Antarctic continent would be annexed. Those hopes were never to be realized yet successive British governments have been determined to maintain, and even fight for Britain's territorial possessions in this faraway region of the world. "Pink Ice" tells the story of the political struggles over Antarctica and the South Atlantic. It shows how Great Britain and Argentina have sought to invest these thinly populated spaces, composed mostly of ice, rock and water, with cultural and national importance. This is a phenomenon by no means exclusive to the South Atlantic. Providing the wider political and historical background to the 1982 Falklands conflict, the author demonstrates how political rivalries have on different occasions been played out in other competitive arenas such as World Cup football, reactions to outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease and trade disputes wherever they have occurred. The author has interviewed leading politicians and civil servants including Lords Carrington, Owen, Chalfont, Hurd and Shackleton, former Falkland Islands Governors Sir Cosmo Haskard and Sir Rex Hunt, and the Antarctic explorers Sir Edmund Hillary and Sir Vivian Fuchs. At a time when Britain has reaffirmed its commitment to maintaining its territorial presence in the region, "Pink Ice" provides a timely analysis of how territorial disputes simply refuse to fade away despite the claims made in favour of globalization.Trade Review"Dr Dodds has marshalled a wealth of research and details on a vibrant and poorly served area of the world... a detailed, well-researched and welcome addition to the literature." -International Journal of Tourism Research "I found Dodds' approach refreshing and vivid. His research has been excellent and his sources well documented. This is a first-class and absorbing account and a choice of reading for all those interested in the politics of the polar regions." -David J.Drewry (University of Hull)

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Book SynopsisLandscape, politics and history: the Italian mountains as a crucible of national and natural identity. This book is part of a wider current in environmental history, that explores the links between nature and nation. It uncovers how Italian identity and mountains have constituted one another. It argues that state regimes since unification in 1861 have made mountains into national symbols and resources, thereby affecting mountain communities and ecosystems. The nationalisation of Italian mountains has been a story of military conquest and resistance, ecological and social transformation, expropriating resources and imposing meanings. The wind of 'big' history was rolling through the Alps and the Apennines: State building and national identities, totalitarianism and democracy, economic development and environmental protection, scientific knowledge and vernacular practices are the substance of this book. The book starts with the revaluation of mountains as the repository of the last Italian wilderness and chronicles the discovery/ invention of mountains as wild, primitive, and rebellious places needing to be tamed. War World I permanently transformed mountain landscapes and people, nationalising both. When the Fascists came to power, the process of politicisation of mountains reached its acme; the regime constructed and exploited mountains both rhetorically and materially, on one hand celebrating ruralism and rural people and, on the other, giving mountain natural resources to large hydro-electric corporations. Having been the sanctuary of Resistance against the Nazi-Fascist occupation, the Italian mountains were emptied by the economic boom of the 1960s; only recently have the green of natural parks and the white of the ski resorts become the distinctive colors of the new, tourist-oriented Italian mountains.Trade ReviewThis is a highly original book that changes the way we think about one of the oldest and most studied nations on earth. Through abundant details and intriguing stories, Armiero convincingly shows how central to Italy's identity its mountains have become. Donald Worster, author of A Passion for Nature: The Life of John Muir Armiero scales the summits of environmental history, deftly blending cultural and materialist approaches. His book provides a full and fascinating account of the evolving role of mountains in shaping Italian nationalist imagination and the role of nationalism in shaping the mountain landscapes. J.R. McNeill [Armiero] deftly weaves together the varied threads of ecological and socioeconomic connections of mountain country and mountain peoples in the fabric of modern Italian history. The result is a rich and convincing pattern revealing the shapes of mountain images and mountain realities in culture, resistance movements, war, hydropower development, and landscape changes ... a new perspective on Italy. (Donald Hughes, Environmental History) Armiero proves the centrality of the European Alps and the Apennines in the narratives of the nation and its territory from the very beginning of the process of unification, and also in the conception and implementation of major public policies related to forestry, energy, tourism ... he combines, in a very fruitful way, an approach in terms of environmental history and the analysis of the symbolic aspects of the building of the Italian nation, materiality, and narratives. (Bernard Debarbieux, Mountain Research and Development)Table of ContentsCONTENTS: Introduction Chapter 1. Wild Mountains Chapter 2. Rebel Mountains Chapter 3. Heroic Mountains Chapter 4. Dark Mountains Chapter 5. Epilogue

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Book SynopsisLandscape, politics and history: the Italian mountains as a crucible of national and natural identity. This book is part of a wider current in environmental history, that explores the links between nature and nation. It uncovers how Italian identity and mountains have constituted one another. It argues that state regimes since unification in 1861 have made mountains into national symbols and resources, thereby affecting mountain communities and ecosystems. The nationalisation of Italian mountains has been a story of military conquest and resistance, ecological and social transformation, expropriating resources and imposing meanings. The wind of 'big' history was rolling through the Alps and the Apennines: State building and national identities, totalitarianism and democracy, economic development and environmental protection, scientific knowledge and vernacular practices are the substance of this book. The book starts with the revaluation of mountains as the repository of the last Italian wilderness and chronicles the discovery/ invention of mountains as wild, primitive, and rebellious places needing to be tamed. World War I permanently transformed mountain landscapes and people, nationalising both. When the Fascists came to power, the process of politicisation of mountains reached its acme; the regime constructed and exploited mountains both rhetorically and materially, on one hand celebrating ruralism and rural people and, on the other, giving mountain natural resources to large hydro-electric corporations. Having been the sanctuary of Resistance against the Nazi-Fascist occupation, the Italian mountains were emptied by the economic boom of the 1960s; only recently have the green of natural parks and the white of the ski resorts become the distinctive colors of the new, tourist-oriented Italian mountains.Trade Review[Armiero] deftly weaves together the varied threads of ecological and socioeconomic connections of mountain country and mountain peoples in the fabric of modern Italian history. The result is a rich and convincing pattern revealing the shapes of mountain images and mountain realities in culture, resistance movements, war, hydropower development, and landscape changes ... a new perspective on Italy. (Donald Hughes, Environmental History) Armiero proves the centrality of the European Alps and the Apennines in the narratives of the nation and its territory from the very beginning of the process of unification, and also in the conception and implementation of major public policies related to forestry, energy, tourism ... he combines, in a very fruitful way, an approach in terms of environmental history and the analysis of the symbolic aspects of the building of the Italian nation, materiality, and narratives. (Bernard Debarbieux, Mountain Research and Development)Table of ContentsCONTENTS: Introduction Chapter 1. Wild Mountains Chapter 2. Rebel Mountains Chapter 3. Heroic Mountains Chapter 4. Dark Mountains Chapter 5. Epilogue

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Book SynopsisLibrary of Science Book Club selection Discover magazine “What to Read” selection “A really great book.” —IRA FLATOW, Science Friday “One of the finest science writers I’ve ever read.” —Los Angeles Times “Ellard has a knack for distilling obscure scientific theories into practical wisdom.” —New York Times Book Review “[Ellard] mak[es] even the most mundane entomological experiment or exegesis of psychological geekspeak feel fresh and fascinating.” —NPR “Colin Ellard is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on the neuroscience of urban design. Here he offers an entirely new way to understand our cities—and ourselves.” —CHARLES MONTGOMERY, author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design Our surroundings can powerfully affect our thoughts, emotions, and physical responses, whether we’re awed by the Grand Canyon or Hagia Sophia, panicked in a crowded room, soothed by a walk in the park, or tempted in casinos and shopping malls. In Places of the Heart, Colin Ellard explores how our homes, workplaces, cities, and nature—places we escape to and can’t escape from—have influenced us throughout history, and how our brains and bodies respond to different types of real and virtual space. As he describes the insight he and other scientists have gained from new technologies, he assesses the influence these technologies will have on our evolving environment and asks what kind of world we are, and should be, creating. Colin Ellard is the author of You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon, but Get Lost in the Mall. A cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Waterloo and director of its Urban Realities Laboratory, he lives in Kitchener, Ontario.Trade ReviewPraise for Places of the Heart Library of Science Book Club selection Discover magazine “What to Read” selection Book Riot “Small Press Book to Read” selection “A really great book.” —IRA FLATOW, Science Friday “A great read.” —RUDY MAXA, Rudy Maxa’s World “From Neolithic monuments that awe to ‘playground casinos’ that empty wallets, Ellard argues that a scientific understanding of how our surroundings affect us must be the foundation on which we build the cities and homes of tomorrow.” —Discover “Meshing recent findings with thoughtful appraisals of their implications, Ellard looks at spaces and the awe, lust, boredom, affection or anxiety that they trigger. He is richly insightful, particularly on digital encroachments into the experience of place.” —Nature “Wide-ranging and absorbing. . . . Powerfully and comprehensively written. . . . An exceptional introduction to a vital part of the human experience.” —Colorado Review “Ellard breaks down psychological and neurological information in an accessible way. . . . Highly recommended.” —Book Riot “Aren’t architects and urban planners trained to design buildings and cities? Why should a psychologist have a say in this? Because Ellard brings tools to the design board that should help ensure more positive responses to urban environment, from a mundane alleyway to an awe-inspiring cathedral or city hall. . . . Places of the Heart should stimulate debate about how our cities are shaped and how they shape us.” —Waterloo Region Record “Ellard shows that simple distinctions between nature and culture tend to collapse where many modern technologies are concerned. . . . Many of the trends with which Ellard engages—such as virtual reality technology that would allow individuals to live in a curated, mediated, personalized, and highly commodified bubble—sound as if they were pulled from the pages of Ray Bradburyesque science fiction.” —Quill & Quire “If you care about your city and your happiness, read every page of this fascinating book. Places of the Heart offers a thrilling journey through the pathways of our cities and the human mind. This is no flight of fancy. It’s an evidence-based exploration of how the places we inhabit change our minds and bodies. Colin Ellard is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on the neuroscience of urban design. Here he offers an entirely new way to understand our cities—and ourselves.” —CHARLES MONTGOMERY, author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design “This beautifully written book grabs the reader from the start, with personal stories from the author’s life interwoven with history, archaeology, technology, and design.” —ESTHER M. STERNBERG, MD, author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being Praise for Colin Ellard “One of the finest science writers I’ve ever read.” —Los Angeles Times “Delightfully lucid. . . . Ellard has a knack for distilling obscure scientific theories into practical wisdom.” —New York Times Book Review “[Ellard] mak[es] even the most mundane entomological experiment or exegesis of psychological geekspeak feel fresh and fascinating.” —NPR “[Ellard] entertain[s] us with an explanation of the cold, hard science [and] artfully constructed exploration[s] of how our relationship to spaces plays a huge part in making us human.” —Quill & Quire “Fascinating.” —Globe and Mail “Smart.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer “Delightful.” —Publishers Weekly “Ellard writes with admirable clarity.” —Kirkus Reviews “As an architect . . . [Ellard] took me on a journey to places I’d never even considered before.” —SARAH SUSANKA, author of The Not So Big HousePraise for Places of the Heart Library of Science Book Club selection Discover magazine “What to Read” selection Book Riot “Small Press Book to Read” selection “A really great book.” —IRA FLATOW, Science Friday “A great read.” —RUDY MAXA, Rudy Maxa’s World “From Neolithic monuments that awe to `playground casinos’ that empty wallets, Ellard argues that a scientific understanding of how our surroundings affect us must be the foundation on which we build the cities and homes of tomorrow.” —Discover “Meshing recent findings with thoughtful appraisals of their implications, Ellard looks at spaces and the awe, lust, boredom, affection or anxiety that they trigger. He is richly insightful, particularly on digital encroachments into the experience of place.” —Nature “Wide-ranging and absorbing. . . . Powerfully and comprehensively written. . . . An exceptional introduction to a vital part of the human experience.” —Colorado Review “Ellard breaks down psychological and neurological information in an accessible way. . . . Highly recommended.” —Book Riot “Aren’t architects and urban planners trained to design buildings and cities? Why should a psychologist have a say in this? Because Ellard brings tools to the design board that should help ensure more positive responses to urban environment, from a mundane alleyway to an awe-inspiring cathedral or city hall. . . . Places of the Heart should stimulate debate about how our cities are shaped and how they shape us.” —Waterloo Region Record “Ellard shows that simple distinctions between nature and culture tend to collapse where many modern technologies are concerned. . . . Many of the trends with which Ellard engages—such as virtual reality technology that would allow individuals to live in a curated, mediated, personalized, and highly commodified bubble—sound as if they were pulled from the pages of Ray Bradburyesque science fiction.” —Quill & Quire “If you care about your city and your happiness, read every page of this fascinating book. Places of the Heart offers a thrilling journey through the pathways of our cities and the human mind. This is no flight of fancy. It’s an evidence-based exploration of how the places we inhabit change our minds and bodies. Colin Ellard is one of the world’s foremost thinkers on the neuroscience of urban design. Here he offers an entirely new way to understand our cities—and ourselves.” —CHARLES MONTGOMERY, author of Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design “This beautifully written book grabs the reader from the start, with personal stories from the author’s life interwoven with history, archaeology, technology, and design.” —ESTHER M. STERNBERG, MD, author of Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being Praise for Colin Ellard “One of the finest science writers I’ve ever read.” —Los Angeles Times “Delightfully lucid. . . . Ellard has a knack for distilling obscure scientific theories into practical wisdom.” —New York Times Book Review “[Ellard] mak[es] even the most mundane entomological experiment or exegesis of psychological geekspeak feel fresh and fascinating.” —NPR “[Ellard] entertain[s] us with an explanation of the cold, hard science [and] artfully constructed exploration[s] of how our relationship to spaces plays a huge part in making us human.” —Quill & Quire “Fascinating.” —Globe and Mail “Smart.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer “Delightful.” —Publishers Weekly “Ellard writes with admirable clarity.” —Kirkus Reviews “As an architect . . . [Ellard] took me on a journey to places I’d never even considered before.” —SARAH SUSANKA, author of The Not So Big HouseTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. The Nature in Space Chapter 2. Places of Affection Chapter 3. Places of Lust Chapter 4. Boring Places Chapter 5. Places of Anxiety Chapter 6. Places of Awe Chapter 7. Space and Technology I: The World in a Machine Chapter 8. Space and Technology II: The Machine in the World Conclusions: Coming Home Again Notes Acknowledgments Index

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