Kant and the Concept of Race


Book Description

Late eighteenth-century writings on race by Kant and four of his contemporaries. Kant and the Concept of Race features translations of four texts by Immanuel Kant frequently designated his Racenschriften (race essays), in which he develops and defends an early theory of race. Also included are translations of essays by four of Kant’s contemporaries—E. A. W. Zimmermann, Georg Forster, Christoph Meiners, and Christoph Girtanner—which illustrate that Kant’s interest in the subject of race was part of a larger discussion about human “differences,” one that impacted the development of scientific fields ranging from natural history to physical anthropology to biology.




Kant and the Human Sciences


Book Description

This book provides the first sustained attempt to extract from Kant's writings on biology, anthropology and history an account of the human sciences, their underlying unity, their presuppositions as well as their methodology; that is to say, Kant's philosophical and epistemological foundation of the human sciences.




Postmodern Geographies


Book Description

Written by one of America's foremost geographers, Postmodern Geographies contests the tendency, still dominant in most social science, to reduce human geography to a reflective mirror, or, as Marx called it, an "unnecessary complication." Beginning with a powerful critique of historicism and its constraining effects on the geographical imagination, Edward Soja builds on the work of Foucault, Berger, Giddens, Berman, Jameson and, above all, Henri Lefebvre, to argue for a historical and geographical materialism, a radical rethinking of the dialectics of space, time and social being. Soja charts the respatialization of social theory from the still unfolding encounter between Western Marxism and modern geography, through the current debates on the emergence of a postfordist regime of "flexible accumulation." The postmodern geography of Los Angeles, exposed in a provocative pair of essays, serves as a model in his account of the contemporary struggle for control over the social production of space.




The Dictionary of Human Geography


Book Description

THE DICTIONARY OF HUMAN GEOGRAPHY ‘Even better than before, the Dictionary is an essential tool for all human geographers and over the years has provided an invaluable guide to the changing boundaries and content of the discipline. No-one can afford to be without this fifth edition.’ Linda McDowell, University of Oxford ‘From explanations of core concepts and central debates to lucid discussions of the theories driving contemporary research, this is the best conceptual map to the creative and critical thinking that characterises contemporary human geography. The fifth edition belongs on the bookshelf of all serious students.’ Gerard Toal, Virginia Tech ‘With an exceptional balance between breadth and depth, this is undoubtedly a timely and ground-breaking revision of the Dictionary. An outstanding accomplishment of the editors and contributors, and a comprehensive and essential reference for any student or scholar interested in human geography.’ Mei-Po Kwan, Ohio State University ‘I can’t imagine life without it. Definitive, detailed yet accessible: there’s still no single-volume reference work in the field to rival it.’ Noel Castree, University of Manchester The Dictionary of Human Geography represents the definitive guide to issues and ideas, methods and theories in human geography. Now in its fifth edition, this ground-breaking text has been comprehensively revised to reflect the changing nature and practice of human geography and its rapidly developing connections with other fields. The major entries not only describe the development of concepts, contributions and debates in human geography, but also advance them. Shorter, definitional entries allow quick reference and coverage of the wider subject area. Changes to the fifth edition include entries from many new contributors at the forefront of developments in the field, and over 300 key terms appearing for the first time. It features a new consolidated bibliography along with a detailed index and systematic cross-referencing of headwords. The Dictionary of Human Geography continues to be the one guidebook no student, instructor or researcher in the field can afford to be without.




David Harvey's Geography (RLE Social & Cultural Geography)


Book Description

The emphasis of this book is to explore two major philosophical influences in contemporary human geography, namely logical positivism and Marxism, and to explore the relationships between philosophy, methodology and geographical research. Rather than being a biography of David Harvey, the book contributes to the understanding of one of the most innovative and iconoclastic scholars in contemporary Anglo-American human geography.




Remapping Memory


Book Description

"The essays in this book focus on contested memories in relation to time and space. Within the context of several profound cultural and political conflicts in the contemporary world, the contributors analyze historical self-configurations of human groups, and the construction by these groups of the spaces they shape and that shape them. What emerges is a view of the state as a highly contingent artifact of groups vying for legitimacy-whether through their own sense of "insiderhood," their control of positions within hierarchies, or their control of geographical territories. Boyarin's lead essay shows how the supposedly "objective" categories of space and time are, in fact, specific products of European modernity. Each case study, in turn, addresses the (re)constitution of space, time, and memory in relation to an event either of historical significance, like the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, or of cultural importance, like the Indian preoccupation with reincarnation. These ethnographic studies explore fundamental questions about the nature of memory, the limits of politics, and the complex links between them. By focusing on personal and collective identity as the site where constructions of memory and dimensionality are tested, shaped, and effected, the authors offer a new way of understanding how the politics of space, time and memory are negotiated to bring people to terms with their history."




Health and Medical Geography in Africa


Book Description

This contributed volume focuses on the evolution and current state of the sub-discipline of health and medical geography in Africa. It encompasses theoretical and methodological issues as well as the current teaching and research capacities of institutions offering programs in health and medical geography in Africa. Further, the book will review the level of adoption of the sub-discipline in State policies and practice and also provide practical illustrations, with case studies, of how studies in the sub-discipline are central to the actualization of Africa's development agenda. Particular attention is paid to the relationship between health and development. Through its direct and indirect impacts on labor productivity, population health and wellbeing matter for the social and economic development of households and national economies. Yet, health is not uniform in space. And so is development. Comparatively on many health and development indicators, Africa fairs poorly. The variation in health may present as differences in the occurrence and spread of diseases, the distribution of and access to healthcare facilities, and/or in health outcomes among the population. Reasons for these variations range from biology to the population’s levels of exposure and susceptibility to elements in their environment, including the social interactions taking place within the environment. The field of health and medical geography focuses on the spatial patterns and processes underlying these variations and provides pathways for understanding and addressing them. More specifically, the sub-discipline of health and medical geography focuses on, among others, how places (their characteristics and processes that go on in them) and environmental factors underlie and/or influence disease patterns, exposure and susceptibility to diseases, health variations, health behavior, health outcomes, and the provision of and access to healthcare services. This volume documents perspectives and applications in health and medical geography in Africa for academics, students, health practitioners, and development policymakers.







Rebuilding for Resilience: A Barrier Island Case


Book Description

Recurring extreme events of nature challenge disaster-prone settlements in complex ways. Devastating property damages are one of the tests of survival for such settlements in both economic and social terms. It also provides unique opportunities to rethink the environment cleared by massive natural disasters. However, rebuilding for long-term resiliency is one of the least investigated areas, particularly when employing tacit knowledge in the sustainable recovery process. This book builds a discursive field around the post-disaster rebuilding of Bolivar Peninsula aftermath Hurricane Ike to demonstrate reciprocity between disaster absorptive ecological formations such as barrier islands and their exploitative human occupation. In the process, it investigates the nexus between connectivity among open space networks to various levels of surge damage among Bolivar spontaneous settlements. Beyond scientific analyses, the Hurricane Ike study triangulates syntactical methods with structured observations and statistical analyses to offer a holistic reporting model for emerging scholars and independent investigators, which one may find quite absent in the mainstream disaster studies and journalism.