Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)最新文献

{"title":"Book Review: City worlds, Unsettling cities: movement/settlement, Unruly cities? Order/disorder","authors":"P. Hubbard","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800307","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800307","url":null,"abstract":"This series of three books accompanies a third-level Open University course, ‘Understanding cities’, which is designed to take a ‘new’ look at cities. The basis for this claim appears to be that while many texts either document the urbanization process in relation to the historical geographies of capitalism or exploring the complex nature of urban social life, few consider how cities are produced in the context of the social relations that occur both beyond and within the city. While I remain unconvinced that this constitutes an entirely ‘new’ way of thinking and writing about cities, I can certainly see the merits of this approach as a way of encouraging students to think synthetically, engaging critically with debates about globalization and urbanization by thinking about how different geographies and histories intersect and overlap in the contemporary city. Accordingly, I think this series of books will be of interest to students on a wide variety of courses at different levels, having a generic appeal. Moreover, I suspect many lecturers will also have good reason to hunt these down because, by now, most know what to expect from OU texts – that they provide challenging material in an accessible format, that they are presented to the very highest production standards, and that they include specially commissioned and original essays from a carefully selected range of contributors who are widely recognized for the quality of their writing. As such, even though there will probably be few, if any, outside the OU who would prescribe all three as essential course texts, it is easy to imagine that many chapters here will appear on reading lists for courses in urban, social and cultural geography (as well as perhaps political and economic geography). From this viewpoint, there is much to recommend these books. For example, although most textbooks inevitably classify, codify and compartmentalize knowledge, this series does seem to be serious about encouraging students to think","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122295676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Material culture in the social world","authors":"B. Bender","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800312","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800312","url":null,"abstract":"fians in order secretly to practice thuggee, and then a chapter on the significance of disguise in Kipling’s Kim. Next comes a considerable jump to the role of Vivekananda’s Irish disciple, Margaret Noble, transformed into a new kind of Hindu woman with her rebirth as Sister Nevedita. This offers the prompt for the introduction of the subject of the following chapter, Sarojini Naidu, the anglicized poet and Indian nationalist. Although the book claims to consider postcolonial identities, only the case of the film actress Nargis deals with postIndependence Indian culture, and Nargis’s career effectively ended a mere ten years after British rule. Nargis, a morally marginal Muslim woman, most famously portrayed the eternal Hindu mother in Mehboob Khan’s Mother India. Her own person life as mistress, wife and mother of Hindu men, and her ambiguous conversion to Hinduism, act as a metaphor for the problematic status of Muslims in an increasingly Hindu India. I regret that Roy grants the past 40 years such scant attention, and would have gladly traded Burton and Kim for the new, diasporically oriented Bollywood movies and the Indian novel with its eye on the Booker Prize, both serving up a view of India from the inside looking out, looking back in. There is a world of difference between the opportunism of the flesh-and-blood Burton in the temporary disguise to facilitate his exploration and the strategy of the imagined Irish boy, Kim, standing for the anguished liminality of the Indian-born British of the ‘other ranks’. There is only the most tenuous of connections between Margaret Noble, who at the height of British imperialism becomes Indian in name, religion, loyalty, diet and dress, and Sarojini Naidu, who steadfastly remains Indian but utilizes what seems serviceable in English language and culture. Roy puts her central emphasis on the constancy of mimesis as a thing in itself and interprets its different use as a function of changing insecurities in colonial and postcolonial identity; where I disagree with her is in the underlying assumption that there are secure identities to be appropriated. The frequently used phrase ‘mimic man/woman’ devalues complex relationships by implying an imagined authenticity elsewhere. One searches in vain for the self-conscious element which would have brought this study to life. Roy writes as if from outside and above, but her name indicates that she is either Indian or of Indian descent and her affiliation that she teaches English at the University of California. She must surely live the Indian traffic of her research.","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130114456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: A feminist glossary of human geography","authors":"C. McEwan","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800314","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800314","url":null,"abstract":"But they are the sorts of things that one has come to expect from collections of this sort. My two favourites are Lechte’s Fifty key contemporaries thinkers (1994, Routledge) and Johnston et al.’s Dictionary of human geography (2000, Blackwell), both of which are examples of the encyclopedic-dictionary genre which succeed because they are scrupulously designed for ease of use and accessibility. The Dictionary of cultural theorists might be comprehensive in its coverage, but it suffers from the brevity of each individual entry. And it betrays a lack of attention to those features of design, organization, and integration which are essential if it is to be a useful pedagogic aid, rather than an idiosyncratic amalgam of unconnected great names.","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131016917","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Writing under the Raj: gender, race and rape in the British colonial imagination, 1830-1947","authors":"Georgina Gowans","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800310","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800310","url":null,"abstract":"notes that they were intendedly commercial, but although we are given a full picture of their producers (Rotella stresses the importance of the authorial persona in the texts) we are told little about how they were consumed or by whom. The novels are seen as reflecting (in some cases foretelling) social discourses, but we cannot fully verify their significance in transforming such discourses – except in the case of certain of the writings about Harlem, which appeared at the time of the urban riots of the mid-1960s and which played a role in developing a wider social commentary on their causes and contexts. Secondly, the three different phases of Rotella’s thesis are validated by reference to different cities: there must be a lingering doubt that if the focus had been on writing about only one city the match with the thesis might have been less. These, however, are minor points of criticism of what is otherwise an important book. October cities represents a major achievement in the consideration of the writing of urban America, and it does so in a fluent and attractive style that is virtually entirely free of the obfuscating language that too often passes for erudition. This reviewer, for one, hopes that Carlo Rotella will bring what he calls the ‘city of feeling’ and the ‘city of fact’ together again in another meeting of literary studies and social science: how about urban writing from the postindustrial to the postmodern city?","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"21 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133030540","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Sociable cities: the legacy of Ebenezer Howard","authors":"D. Herbert","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800308","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800308","url":null,"abstract":"This book celebrates the centenary year of the UK’s Town and Country Planning Association, established in 1899 with Ebenezer Howard as a founding member. Its two aims are to recount the story of the first century of Howard’s movement and to consider the continuing relevance of his ideas to the creation of sustainable new communities in the twenty-first century. The organization of the book into two parts, ‘The first century’ and ‘The coming century’, reflects these aims. The first part of the book covers familiar ground in the sense that many volumes have been written both on the major players in the development of town and country planning in Britain, such as Howard, Osborn and Abercrombie, and on the key concepts, such as garden cities, green belts and new towns. The achievements of the text here are to condense complex histories, circumstances and ideas into a succinct and legible summary. Strong strands emerge on both the characters and the concepts, which hold together and illuminate an important and influential story. The biographical details on Howard, Osborn and the others are of great interest and relevance, as are the accounts of the ways in which they worked to pursue the causes in which they had such commitment and belief. At times there is the sense that what we read has been written by committed admirers of the key figures. The first clue to this is Figure 1, where the face of Ebenezer Howard is said to display ‘passion and determination’ when the image could easily be interpreted as sadness and resignation. There are many clear insights and a welcome tendency to order the key factors in a rational and comprehensive way. The links through from garden cities to new towns, the variants in European applications (or not) of the concept and the measures of success are all well argued. The chapter on plotlands opened up a theme that perhaps deserves more attention in its own right. The second part of the book broadens the terms of reference considerably, and the Town and Country Planning Association’s own basic principles on future development provide the main unifying theme. These principles are stated on p. 115, with the premise that ‘all decisions to develop land should be based on a common and agreed framework of environmental considerations’. They are followed by the recognition of basic constraints that include the continuing dominance of private cars, lack of significant financial inputs and ongoing decentralization. The major challenges are stated on p. 171, and cover sustainability, infrastructure, structures and affordable housing. Without doubt, the ideas originating with Howard, Osborn and the others carry through and have continu354 Book reviews","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"77 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127704981","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Nothing: The Hole, the Holy, the Whole","authors":"A. Metcalfe","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800301","url":null,"abstract":"Although we routinely talk of distance, separation always retains an implicit sense of connection. Surrounding every thing is no-thing, a ground or horizon which is and isn’t there. This nothing is formless flesh which holds in place the things that, in turn, hold it. It is the presence of an absence, the divine or spiritual that allows things. Inspired by Durkheimian understandings of the wonderful and dreadful sacredness of sociality, this paper talks about relationality without reducing it to the fleshless interaction model. It tries to sing to joyous life the space of the constitutive ground in between.","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"159 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128085694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Indian traffic: identities in question in colonial and postcolonial India","authors":"P. Shurmer-smith","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800311","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800311","url":null,"abstract":"nial fiction changed in the light of the social, cultural, economic and political upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s – including increasing imperial anxiety and decline. However, Paxton’s multidisciplinary approach (including historical, political, economic and cultural perspectives as well as British literature and critical theory), together with her concern with issues of gender, sexuality, colonial discourse and the significance of the colonial contact zone, means that Writing Under the Raj is an interesting and wide-ranging book which will be of relevance to a broad field of readers, geographers included, particularly those involved with feminist and postcolonial debates.","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"63 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125120726","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Dictionary of cultural theorists","authors":"C. Barnett","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800313","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800313","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"81 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122699572","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cultural Geographies in Practice","authors":"P. Merriman","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800305","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800305","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"198 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"132808174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Book Review: Landscapes of the new west: gender and geography in contemporary women’s writing","authors":"J. Monk","doi":"10.1177/096746080100800315","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/096746080100800315","url":null,"abstract":"nist geographies; As such it contains information on concepts, terms, and the debates that have taken place within feminism more widely. As the editors recognize in the brief Introduction, entries in a glossary such as this can never be entirely authoritative or comprehensive. Readers will no doubt have their own list of omissions and quibbles over definitions. However, the explanations are informative, expansive and clear, and provide a good indication of the diversity and dynamism of feminist geographies. There is also meticulous crossreferencing and pointers towards further reading, both within geography and social sciences and humanities more broadly. The labour involved in preparing, writing and cross-referencing each entry by authors and editors is laudable. The entries are up-to-date and, in places, quite funny. I was amused to find an entry on ‘Essex girl’ – ‘perhaps the only geographically specific term used to refer to women in 1990s Britain’. Interestingly, ‘girl power’ and the Spice Girls make it into this edition; Camille Paglia does not. Under ‘icon/feminist icon’ is the entry ‘often used in association with Madonna – the singer, not the Virgin Mary’. Whoever said feminists don’t have a sense of humour? This collection is unique among glossaries and dictionaries in its focus on feminist geographies. For any student new to feminist perspectives within the discipline and wishing to discover the richness, breadth and diversity of approaches and subject matter, this book will be a revelation. For those more advanced students wishing to explore more detailed and dynamic debates within feminist geographies, the book will prove an invaluable companion. For teachers and students alike, the glossary is an excellent addition alongside other staple texts such as the Space, gender, knowledge reader and the WGSG book Feminist geographies. The bibliography, in addition to being an excellent resource in itself, attests to the very good health of feminist geographies at the end of the 1990s.","PeriodicalId":104830,"journal":{"name":"Ecumene (continues as Cultural Geographies)","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2001-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130326962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}