Spatial Questions

Cultural Topologies and Social Spatialisation
Rob Shields - University of Alberta, Canada
Spatial Questions
September 2013 | 216 pages | Sage UK
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ISBN: 9781446286739
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ISBN: 9781848606647
Available from January 0001

Description

Space inevitably plays an important role in our social lives. When talking to our neighbors, reading the newspaper, going the gym, answering an e-mail, we all draw on our presuppositions and understanding of spatiality and temporality.

This book successfully illuminates these embedded experiences, questioning how to understand space as a multiple, dynamic, intangible, yet present, form of knowledge. Building from a history of philosopher's and geographer's theories of space, Rob Shields convincingly presents the importance of spatialization and cultural topology in social theory and the possibilities that lies within these theoretical tools.

Innovative and thought-provoking, this book goes beyond traditional ideas of time and space, seeking to understand the multiplicity of spatializations and relate them to our everyday life.




Contents

Overtures

  • From the Shan Hai Jing to Herodotus' Historiae and to Idrisi's Kitab Nuzhat
  • Mediterranean Geographies
  • Spatialisation and Space-Time
  • The Argument of this Book

Spatialisations

  • Space as Problem: Etymology/Translation
  • 'L'espace Lefebvre'
  • Respecting Lefebvre: Critical Tensions
  • The Spatialisations of Places and Regions
  • Memorial and Anticipatory Spatialisation: Time-Spaces
  • Vieux Quebec: The Example of Tourist Practices

Histories of Space

  • Mediterranean Geometric Space
  • Northern Europe: Mathematical Space
  • Dimensionality: Three, Four or More?
  • Flatness
  • Relativistic Space

The Socialness of Space

  • Recognising Spatialisation
  • Marx: The Economics of Land
  • Engels: Inequality and the Built Environment
  • Simmel: Spatial Projections of Social Forms
  • Cultural Understanding of Space: Emile Durkheim
  • Physical Planning, Land Use Planning, Spatialisation and Spatial Semantics
  • Spatial Struggles
  • Discourses on Space

Topologies

  • 'Another Kind of Analysis' - Beyond Geometry
  • Connectivity and Schematics
  • Geometry and Topology
  • The Seven Bridges of Königsburg
  • Non-Euclidean Space
  • The Topological Sensorium
  • Dimensionality and Orientability
  • Topological Archetypes: Folds, Bridges, Labyrinths
  • The 'Plushness' of the Real

Cultural Topology

  • Diagrams
  • Deleuze Folding Foucault
  • Heterotopias of Scale
  • Scale and Topology
  • Topology and the Social - Networks, Surfaces and Milieux
  • Relations and Boundary Objects
  • Cultural Topology
  • A Topology of Experience
  • The Cusp
  • Glossary of Terms

Additional materials

Description

Space inevitably plays an important role in our social lives. When talking to our neighbors, reading the newspaper, going the gym, answering an e-mail, we all draw on our presuppositions and understanding of spatiality and temporality.

This book successfully illuminates these embedded experiences, questioning how to understand space as a multiple, dynamic, intangible, yet present, form of knowledge. Building from a history of philosopher's and geographer's theories of space, Rob Shields convincingly presents the importance of spatialization and cultural topology in social theory and the possibilities that lies within these theoretical tools.

Innovative and thought-provoking, this book goes beyond traditional ideas of time and space, seeking to understand the multiplicity of spatializations and relate them to our everyday life.




Contents

Overtures

  • From the Shan Hai Jing to Herodotus' Historiae and to Idrisi's Kitab Nuzhat
  • Mediterranean Geographies
  • Spatialisation and Space-Time
  • The Argument of this Book

Spatialisations

  • Space as Problem: Etymology/Translation
  • 'L'espace Lefebvre'
  • Respecting Lefebvre: Critical Tensions
  • The Spatialisations of Places and Regions
  • Memorial and Anticipatory Spatialisation: Time-Spaces
  • Vieux Quebec: The Example of Tourist Practices

Histories of Space

  • Mediterranean Geometric Space
  • Northern Europe: Mathematical Space
  • Dimensionality: Three, Four or More?
  • Flatness
  • Relativistic Space

The Socialness of Space

  • Recognising Spatialisation
  • Marx: The Economics of Land
  • Engels: Inequality and the Built Environment
  • Simmel: Spatial Projections of Social Forms
  • Cultural Understanding of Space: Emile Durkheim
  • Physical Planning, Land Use Planning, Spatialisation and Spatial Semantics
  • Spatial Struggles
  • Discourses on Space

Topologies

  • 'Another Kind of Analysis' - Beyond Geometry
  • Connectivity and Schematics
  • Geometry and Topology
  • The Seven Bridges of Königsburg
  • Non-Euclidean Space
  • The Topological Sensorium
  • Dimensionality and Orientability
  • Topological Archetypes: Folds, Bridges, Labyrinths
  • The 'Plushness' of the Real

Cultural Topology

  • Diagrams
  • Deleuze Folding Foucault
  • Heterotopias of Scale
  • Scale and Topology
  • Topology and the Social - Networks, Surfaces and Milieux
  • Relations and Boundary Objects
  • Cultural Topology
  • A Topology of Experience
  • The Cusp
  • Glossary of Terms

Additional materials

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Spatial Questions

Cultural Topologies and Social Spatialisation


September 2013 | 216 pages | Sage UK

Format Published Date ISBN Price
Hardcover 31/03/2026 9781848606647 $221.00
Paperback 31/03/2026 9781848606654 $114.00
Lifetime 28/03/2023 9781446286739 $97.00
180 Day Ebook 28/03/2023 9781446286739 $67.00

Space inevitably plays an important role in our social lives. When talking to our neighbors, reading the newspaper, going the gym, answering an e-mail, we all draw on our presuppositions and understanding of spatiality and temporality.

This book successfully illuminates these embedded experiences, questioning how to understand space as a multiple, dynamic, intangible, yet present, form of knowledge. Building from a history of philosopher's and geographer's theories of space, Rob Shields convincingly presents the importance of spatialization and cultural topology in social theory and the possibilities that lies within these theoretical tools.

Innovative and thought-provoking, this book goes beyond traditional ideas of time and space, seeking to understand the multiplicity of spatializations and relate them to our everyday life.





Table Of Contents:

  • Overtures
  • From the Shan Hai Jing to Herodotus' Historiae and to Idrisi's Kitab Nuzhat
  • Mediterranean Geographies
  • Spatialisation and Space-Time
  • The Argument of this Book
  • Spatialisations
  • Space as Problem: Etymology/Translation
  • 'L'espace Lefebvre'
  • Respecting Lefebvre: Critical Tensions
  • The Spatialisations of Places and Regions
  • Memorial and Anticipatory Spatialisation: Time-Spaces
  • Vieux Quebec: The Example of Tourist Practices
  • Histories of Space
  • Mediterranean Geometric Space
  • Northern Europe: Mathematical Space
  • Dimensionality: Three, Four or More?
  • Flatness
  • Relativistic Space
  • The Socialness of Space
  • Recognising Spatialisation
  • Marx: The Economics of Land
  • Engels: Inequality and the Built Environment
  • Simmel: Spatial Projections of Social Forms
  • Cultural Understanding of Space: Emile Durkheim
  • Physical Planning, Land Use Planning, Spatialisation and Spatial Semantics
  • Spatial Struggles
  • Discourses on Space
  • Topologies
  • 'Another Kind of Analysis' - Beyond Geometry
  • Connectivity and Schematics
  • Geometry and Topology
  • The Seven Bridges of Königsburg
  • Non-Euclidean Space
  • The Topological Sensorium
  • Dimensionality and Orientability
  • Topological Archetypes: Folds, Bridges, Labyrinths
  • The 'Plushness' of the Real
  • Cultural Topology
  • Diagrams
  • Deleuze Folding Foucault
  • Heterotopias of Scale
  • Scale and Topology
  • Topology and the Social - Networks, Surfaces and Milieux
  • Relations and Boundary Objects
  • Cultural Topology
  • A Topology of Experience
  • The Cusp
  • Glossary of Terms

Recent Product Reviews:

'Rob Shields provides here an immensely sophisticated and detailed examination of the topological turn. He has been examining these issues for some decades and this book will surely become the standard work on cultural and spatial topology'
John Urry, Distinguished Professor, Dept of Sociology, Lancaster University
Spatial Questions provides one of the most complete accounts in the recent literature engaging with topology. The reader might be deceived by the apparently slim format, which nevertheless packs material that could easily inform several volumes on the topic. Spatial Questions is a welcome contribution to spatial theory and, given the prominence of the topic nowadays, as well as the hype built around the topological over the past years, the book might equally appeal to geographers and to a broader audience within the social sciences.
Iulian Barba-Lata, Wageningen University, Society and Space, Environment and Planning
Spatial Questions: Cultural Topologies and Social Spatialisation provides an important contribution to the study of topology at large and to those who engage with human geography in particular, coinciding with recent topological discussions in such journals as Progress in Human Geography (2014), Theory, Culture & Society (2012) and Dialogues in Human Geography (2011). As in his previous writings, Shields’ provides a vivid and clear discussion, accessible to a wide range of readers from various disciplines. These undoubtedly will find the call for a ‘topological turn’ valuable and thought provoking.
Yuval Karplus, Independent researcher, Geography Research Forum
A welcome contribution to spatial theory... allowing for a new and fresh understanding of “spacing” and the spatialisations that are accomplished through everyday activities, representations and conflicts.
Federico Boni, University of Milan, Sociologica

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