Title: Spatial questions: cultural topologies and social spatialisations
Abstract: Spatial questions: cultural topologies and social spatialisations, by Rob Shields, Los Angeles, Sage, 2013, xiv + 197 pp., US$50.00 (paperback), ISBN 978-1-8486-0665-4 Understanding the connections between culture and space is perhaps the key tenet of cultural geographic study. With Spatial Questions: Cultural Topologies and Social Spatialisations Rob Shields identifies and expands upon a litany of theoretical origins helping explain the ways in which space, place, and geographic thoughts have been molded by cultural norms throughout history. In this work. Shields balances detailed inquiry toward various spatial thinkers while frequently interjecting his own views in these debates. For Shields, the ways we as humans comprehend space both reveal and affect how we act. Several threads of this mentality are brought together to form the entirety of the book, including three opening chapters which contextualize pre-twentieth century scholarship on culture-time-topology tensions. Shields begins the book by relating examples of ancient geographic texts to more recent trends in philosophies of space. Doing so establishes spatial knowledge as something organically cultural and provides a strong preface for deeper theoretical structuring of what cultural topologies really are. From here the book goes on to contend that space is problematic in nature, making it an inherently cultural phenomenon. Because space is often a social and not purely Euclidean construct, says Shields, many bodies of power, influence, and decision-making that involve spatial elements are cultural concerns. This line of thinking serves as a preface for multiple sections analyzing and critiquing theorists who challenge the idea of space as a void. A central part of this exploration is connecting critical theories on space to the development of Marxist and other politically charged conceptions of space, place, and human geography. The concepts presented in this book collectively offer an intricate theoretical background on how culture and space intersect and form one another. Moving from pure space to lived space, and then examining how the social construct of either comes to exist, Shields closes his book with chapters on space-time and possible ways to bring various perspectives together in practice. In essence, Shields wants more people to engage with cultural geographic thought by consciously raising the question, What is space? and supplementing it with further discussion of who answers (or does not answer) this question and why. The book also recognizes how space is often difficult to order or categorize. As a result, systematic network approaches to understanding spatiality are examined for their utility. This evokes an extension of the book's thesis: because space is cultural but also layered through networks of understanding and experience, space, while frequently structured and held as absolute, has a strong relative nature. …
Publication Year: 2014
Publication Date: 2014-05-04
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 4
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