Essays that point to the emergence of a critical humanist geography.

Geography/ Cultural Studies

Essays that point to the emergence of a critical humanist geography.A fresh and far-ranging interpretation of the concept of place, this volume begins with a fundamental tension of our day: as communications technologies help create a truly global economy, the very political-economic processes that would seem to homogenize place actually increase the importance of individual localities, which are exposed to global flows of investment, population, goods, and pollution. Place, no less today than in the past, is fundamental to how the world works.The contributors to this volume-distinguished scholars from geography, art history, philosophy, anthropology, and American and English literature-investigate the ways in which place is embedded in everyday experience, its crucial role in the formation of group and individual identity, and its ability to reflect and reinforce power relations. Their essays draw from a wide array of methodologies and perspectives-including feminism, ethnography, poststructuralism, ecocriticism, and landscape iconography-to examine themes as diverse as morality and imagination, attention and absence, personal and group identity, social structure, home, nature, and cosmos. Contributors: Anne Buttimer, U College Dublin; Edward S. Casey, SUNY Stony Brook; Denis Cosgrove, UCLA; Tim Cresswell, U of Wales, Aberystwyth; Michael Curry, UCLA; Dydia DeLyser, Louisiana State U; James S. Duncan, U of Cambridge; Nancy G. Duncan, U of Cambridge; J. Nicholas Entrikin, UCLA; William Howarth, Princeton U; John Paul Jones III, U of Kentucky; David Ley, U of British Columbia; David Lowenthal, U College London; Karal Ann Marling, U of Minnesota; Patrick McGreevy, Clarion U; Kenneth R. Olwig, U of Trondheim, Norway; Marijane Osborn, UC Davis; Gillian R. Overing, Wake Forest U; Edward Relph, U of Toronto; Miles Richardson, Louisiana State U; Robert D. Sack, U of Wisconsin-Madison; Jonathan M. Smith, Texas A&M U; Yi-Fu Tuan, U of Wisconsin-Madison; April R. Veness, U of Delaware; and Wilbur Zelinsky, Pennsylvania State U.ISBN 0-8166-3756-3 Cloth £45.00 $64.95xxISBN 0-8166-3757-1 Paper £18.00 $25.95x576 Pages 34 black-and-white photos, 1 table 7 x 10 FebruaryTranslation Inquiries: University of Minnesota Press

What do we mean when we say, "I made the time pass more quickly," or, "I’m creating some ‘me’ time"? InThe Textures of Time, Michael Flaherty examines how we alter or customize our experience of time. His detailed analysis reveals different strategies we use to try to manipulate time, further describing and defining those strategies within six discrete time categories: Duration, Frequency, Sequence, Timing, Allocation, and Taking Time.

Using in-depth interviews and analyzing responses through a sociological lens, Flaherty unearths folk theories and practices, which he calls "time work," that construct circumstances in order to provoke desired forms of temporal experience. As such, time is not justinflicted on us; rather, its various textures result from our intervention, and/or from our efforts to create different forms of temporal experience. These first-person accounts also highlight ongoing tensions between agency and determinism in social groups. Ultimately, in keeping with his central thesis, Flaherty's lucid prose make this book a quick read, and the strategies he describes reveal the profound and inventive ways we "manage the clock."