For Space

Doreen B Massey - The Open University
For Space
March 2005 | 232 pages | Sage UK
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ISBN: 9781446232408
Available from January 0001
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ISBN: 9781412903615
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Description

"The reason for my enthusiasm for this book is that Doreen Massey manages to describe a certain way of perceiving movement in space which I have been - and still am - working with on different levels in my work: i.e. the idea that space is not something static and neutral, a frozen entity, but is something intertwined with time and thus ever changing - also when we are not occupying it. Doreen's descriptions of her journey through England for example are clear and precise accounts of this idea, and she very sharply characterizes the attempts not to recognize this idea as utopian and nostalgic."
- Olafur Eliasson

In this book, Doreen Massey makes an impassioned argument for revitalising our imagination of space. She takes on some well-established assumptions from philosophy, and some familiar ways of characterising the twenty-first century world, and shows how they restrain our understanding of both the challenge and the potential of space.

The way we think about space matters. It inflects our understandings of the world, our attitudes to others, our politics. It affects, for instance, the way we understand globalisation, the way we approach cities, the way we develop, and practice, a sense of place. If time is the dimension of change then space is the dimension of the social: the contemporaneous co-existence of others. That is its challenge, and one that has been persistently evaded. For Space pursues its argument through philosophical and theoretical engagement, and through telling personal and political reflection. Doreen Massey asks questions such as how best to characterise these so-called spatial times, how it is that implicit spatial assumptions inflect our politics, and how we might develop a responsibility for place beyond place.

This book is "for space" in that it argues for a reinvigoration of the spatiality of our implicit cosmologies. For Space is essential reading for anyone interested in space and the spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities. Serious, and sometimes irreverent, it is a compelling manifesto: for re-imagining spaces for these times and facing up to their challenge.

Contents

PART ONE: SETTING THE SCENE

  • Opening Propositions

PART TWO: UNPROMISING ASSOCIATIONS

  • Space/Representation
  • The Prison-House of Synchrony
  • The Horizontalities of Deconstruction
  • The Life in Space

PART THREE: LIVING IN SPATIAL TIMES?

  • Spatializing the History of Modernity
  • Instantaneity/Depthlessness
  • Aspatial Globalization
  • (Contrary to Popular Opinion) Space Cannot Be Annihilated by Time
  • Elements for Alternatives

PART FOUR: RE-ORIENTATIONS

  • Slices through Space
  • The Elusiveness of Place

PART FIVE: A RELATIONAL POLITICS OF THE SPATIAL

  • 'Throwntogetherness': The Politics of the Event of Place
  • There Are No Rules of Space and Place
  • Making and Contesting Time-Spaces

Description

"The reason for my enthusiasm for this book is that Doreen Massey manages to describe a certain way of perceiving movement in space which I have been - and still am - working with on different levels in my work: i.e. the idea that space is not something static and neutral, a frozen entity, but is something intertwined with time and thus ever changing - also when we are not occupying it. Doreen's descriptions of her journey through England for example are clear and precise accounts of this idea, and she very sharply characterizes the attempts not to recognize this idea as utopian and nostalgic."
- Olafur Eliasson

In this book, Doreen Massey makes an impassioned argument for revitalising our imagination of space. She takes on some well-established assumptions from philosophy, and some familiar ways of characterising the twenty-first century world, and shows how they restrain our understanding of both the challenge and the potential of space.

The way we think about space matters. It inflects our understandings of the world, our attitudes to others, our politics. It affects, for instance, the way we understand globalisation, the way we approach cities, the way we develop, and practice, a sense of place. If time is the dimension of change then space is the dimension of the social: the contemporaneous co-existence of others. That is its challenge, and one that has been persistently evaded. For Space pursues its argument through philosophical and theoretical engagement, and through telling personal and political reflection. Doreen Massey asks questions such as how best to characterise these so-called spatial times, how it is that implicit spatial assumptions inflect our politics, and how we might develop a responsibility for place beyond place.

This book is "for space" in that it argues for a reinvigoration of the spatiality of our implicit cosmologies. For Space is essential reading for anyone interested in space and the spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities. Serious, and sometimes irreverent, it is a compelling manifesto: for re-imagining spaces for these times and facing up to their challenge.

Contents

PART ONE: SETTING THE SCENE

  • Opening Propositions

PART TWO: UNPROMISING ASSOCIATIONS

  • Space/Representation
  • The Prison-House of Synchrony
  • The Horizontalities of Deconstruction
  • The Life in Space

PART THREE: LIVING IN SPATIAL TIMES?

  • Spatializing the History of Modernity
  • Instantaneity/Depthlessness
  • Aspatial Globalization
  • (Contrary to Popular Opinion) Space Cannot Be Annihilated by Time
  • Elements for Alternatives

PART FOUR: RE-ORIENTATIONS

  • Slices through Space
  • The Elusiveness of Place

PART FIVE: A RELATIONAL POLITICS OF THE SPATIAL

  • 'Throwntogetherness': The Politics of the Event of Place
  • There Are No Rules of Space and Place
  • Making and Contesting Time-Spaces

March 2005 | 232 pages | Sage UK

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Hardcover 31/03/2026 9781412903615 $221.00
Paperback 31/03/2026 9781412903622 $114.00
180 Day Ebook 28/03/2023 9781446232408 $67.00
Lifetime 28/03/2023 9781446232408 $97.00

"The reason for my enthusiasm for this book is that Doreen Massey manages to describe a certain way of perceiving movement in space which I have been - and still am - working with on different levels in my work: i.e. the idea that space is not something static and neutral, a frozen entity, but is something intertwined with time and thus ever changing - also when we are not occupying it. Doreen's descriptions of her journey through England for example are clear and precise accounts of this idea, and she very sharply characterizes the attempts not to recognize this idea as utopian and nostalgic."
- Olafur Eliasson

In this book, Doreen Massey makes an impassioned argument for revitalising our imagination of space. She takes on some well-established assumptions from philosophy, and some familiar ways of characterising the twenty-first century world, and shows how they restrain our understanding of both the challenge and the potential of space.

The way we think about space matters. It inflects our understandings of the world, our attitudes to others, our politics. It affects, for instance, the way we understand globalisation, the way we approach cities, the way we develop, and practice, a sense of place. If time is the dimension of change then space is the dimension of the social: the contemporaneous co-existence of others. That is its challenge, and one that has been persistently evaded. For Space pursues its argument through philosophical and theoretical engagement, and through telling personal and political reflection. Doreen Massey asks questions such as how best to characterise these so-called spatial times, how it is that implicit spatial assumptions inflect our politics, and how we might develop a responsibility for place beyond place.

This book is "for space" in that it argues for a reinvigoration of the spatiality of our implicit cosmologies. For Space is essential reading for anyone interested in space and the spatial turn in the social sciences and humanities. Serious, and sometimes irreverent, it is a compelling manifesto: for re-imagining spaces for these times and facing up to their challenge.


Table Of Contents:

  • PART ONE: SETTING THE SCENE
  • Opening Propositions
  • PART TWO: UNPROMISING ASSOCIATIONS
  • Space/Representation
  • The Prison-House of Synchrony
  • The Horizontalities of Deconstruction
  • The Life in Space
  • PART THREE: LIVING IN SPATIAL TIMES?
  • Spatializing the History of Modernity
  • Instantaneity/Depthlessness
  • Aspatial Globalization
  • (Contrary to Popular Opinion) Space Cannot Be Annihilated by Time
  • Elements for Alternatives
  • PART FOUR: RE-ORIENTATIONS
  • Slices through Space
  • The Elusiveness of Place
  • PART FIVE: A RELATIONAL POLITICS OF THE SPATIAL
  • 'Throwntogetherness': The Politics of the Event of Place
  • There Are No Rules of Space and Place
  • Making and Contesting Time-Spaces

Recent Product Reviews:

"The reason for my enthusiasm for this book is that Doreen Massey manages to describe a certain way of perceiving movement in space which I have been - and still am - working with on different levels in my work: i.e. the idea that space is not something static and neutral, a frozen entity, but is something intertwined with time and thus ever changing - also when we are not occupying it. Doreen's descriptions of her journey through England for example are clear and precise accounts of this idea, and she very sharply characterizes the attempts not to recognize this idea as utopian and nostalgic."
Olaffur Eliasson
"Destined to be widely read by many who are not geographers... in a publishing market currently so driven by what publishers think students will read, its lack of fit into established genres is hugely refreshing... a great book to read in terms of its head-on engagement with the spatial."
Geographical Research
a classic, and it will always be.
Dr Paolo Cardullo, Sociology Department, Goldsmiths College
A truly superb text. Excellent in every way. Accessible for my first years (GEG10013 Human Geographies) and provides depth too for my second year module on Society and Space (GEG20015).
Dr SIMON PEMBERTON, Earth Sciences & Geography Department, Keele University
A very insightful and thought provoking text, actually enjoyed by students - not an easy task!
Ms Maria Feeney, Politics and Sociology (Paisley), University of the West of Scotland

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