Description
Book SynopsisPlaces are today subject to contrary tendencies. They lose some functions, which may scale up to fewer more centralized places, or down to numerous more dispersed places, and they gain other functions, which are scaling up and down from other places. This prompts premature prophecies of the abolition of space and the obsolescence of place. At the same time, a growing literature testifies to the persistence of place as an incorrigible aspect of human experience, identity, and morality. Place is a common ground for thought and action, a community of experienced particulars that avoids solipsism and universalism. It draws us into the philosophy of the ordinary, into familiarity as a form of knowledge, into the wisdom of proximity. Each of these essays offers a philosophy of place, and reminds us that such philosophies ultimately decide how we make, use, and understand places, whether as accidents, instruments, or fields of care.
Trade Reviewan illuminating examination of many of the issues implicated by the notion of place and space. . . . These articles serve to make this a fine introduction to the philosophy of place. -- Steve Wall, University of South Florida * Philosophy in Review *
...each contribution makes an interesting reading. * Environmental Politics *
The articles are academically rigorous, and the arguments are presented in clear language. . . . A solid and enjoyable introduction to the underlying and tectonic philosophical issues for those scientists working in environmental policy, conservation biology, or any ecology-centered field of study. -- M. C. E. Peterson, University of Wisconsin Colleges * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction, Andrew Light, Jonathan M. Smith, and David Roberts Part 2 I Place and Meaning Chapter 3 1. Finding Place: Spatiality, Locality, and Subjectivity Chapter 4 2. In Its Place: Site and Meaning in Richard Serra's Public Sculpture Chapter 5 3. Sites of Symbolic Density: A Relativistic Approach to Experienced Space Chapter 6 4. Transformations in the Myth of the Inner Valleys as a Zionist Space Part 7 II Place and Ethics Chapter 8 5. Democracy and Sense of Place Values in Environmental Policy Chapter 9 6. From the Inside Out: The Farm as Place Chapter 10 7. Commonplaces Part 11 III Changing Places: Political, Technological, and Economic Chapter 12 8. Space-Shaping Technologies and the Geographical Disembedding of Place Chapter 13 9. Can a Sense of Place Be Preserved? Chapter 14 10. New Meanings of Place: The Place of the Poor and the Loss of Place as a Center of Mediation Chapter 15 11. Something Wild? Deleuze and Guattari and the Impossibility of Wilderness Part 16 IV Afterword Chapter 17 12. Down to Earth: Persons in Place and Natural History Chapter 18 Index Chapter 19 About the Editors and Contributors Chapter 20 Philosophy and Geography Style and Submission Guide
