Introducing Social Geographies

Description

This text provides a comprehensive introduction to social geography - the discipline that is traditionally concerned with social relations and the spatial structures that underpin them. This book takes this approach as a starting point to analyze inequality and oppression, and welfare issues which affect people's lives at both ideological and material levels. It explores the relationships between the social, economic, political and cultural spheres of geography, approached through their historical development within a theoretical framework influenced by radical, feminist and postmodern geographical thought. While exploring the cultural dimensions of socio-spatial difference, it also focuses on the material constraints operating in all spheres of social life. As well as different dimensions of social difference, it covers issues such as crime, housing, neighbourhood change and financial exclusion. It highlights the relevance of social geography to understanding and tackling urban and rural problems. The text also includes boxed case studies, summaries of key points and annotated suggestions for further reading.

Rachel Pain is Deputy Head of the Department of Geography, Durham University, UK.

Good value for money; it is highly recommended as essential reading for students engaging with the central concerns of a modern social geography. -- Submitted to Geography, April 2002 An ideal book for students first encountering social geography and a must for social geography courses. -- Educational Book Review