Approaches to Human Geography 2/e

Dr. Stuart C. Aitken is Professor of Geography and June Burnett Chair at SDSU. He directs the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Young People and Space (ISYS). Stuart's research interests include critical social theory, qualitative methods, children, families and communities. His recent books include The Ethnopoetics of Space and Transformation (Ashgate 2014), The Fight to Stay Put (Verlag 2013), Young People. Border Spaces and Revolutionary Imaginations (Routledge 2011), Qualitative Geographies (Sage 2010) and The Awkward Spaces of Fathering (Ashgate 2009). Stuart has published over 200 papers in academic journals and edited book collections. Professor Valentine has held prestigious international visiting fellowships at the Universities of Sydney, Australia and Otago, New Zealand and has visited and given keynote addresses at a range of prestigious international conferences. She was co-founder and co-editor of the international journal Social and Cultural Geography, and co-edited Gender, Place and Culture. She has undertaken international research in Europe, Africa and the USA and is committed to developing the University of Sheffield's international strategy within the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Ways of Knowing and Ways of Doing Geographic Research - Stuart C. Aitken and Gill Valentine Part I: PHILOSOPHIES Positivist Geography - Rob Kitchin Lived Emplacement and the Locality of Being: A Return to Humanistic Geography? - David Seamon Feminist Geographies of Difference, Relation, and Construction - Deborah P. Dixon and John Paul Jones III Marx and the Spirit of Marx - George Henderson and Eric Sheppard Structuration Theory: Agency, Structure and Everyday Life - Isabel Dyck and Robin A. Kearns Human Animal - David Lulka Realism as a Basis for Knowing the World - Andrew Sayer Postmodern Geographies and the Ruins of Modernity - David B. Clarke Poststructuralist Theories - Paul Harrison Postscript to Poststructuralist Theories in Geography - Stuart C. Aitken Actor-Network Theory, Networks, and Relational Geographies - Fernando J. Bosco Postcolonialism: Powers of Representation - Clive Barnett Geohumanities: Engaging Space and Place in the Humanities - Trevor M. Harris Mind the Gap: Reconsidering Geography's Twentieth Century Technological Settlements - Francis Harvey Part II: PEOPLE Institutions and Cultures - Gerard Rushton Places, People and Contexts - David Ley Memories and Desires - David Harvey Understanding the Heart of Place... - Robin A. Kearns Personal and Political - Vera Chouinard How I Became a Geographer - Michael F. Goodchild Movement and Encounter - Lawrence Knopp Spaces and Flows - Janice Monk Setting Out - Nigel Thrift Part III: PRACTICES Mapping and Geovisualization - Martin Dodge Quantification, Evidence and Positivism - A. Stewart Fotheringham Geographic Information Systems - Michael F. Goodchild Humanism and People-Centered Methods - Paul Rodaway To Build Another World: Activism in the Light of Marxist Geographic Thought - Michael Samers, Patrick Bigger and Oliver Belcher Producing Feminist Geographies: Theory, Methodologies and Research Strategies - Kim England Poststructuralist Approaches: Deconstruction and Discourse Analysis - John W. Wylie Pricing Dignity: Psychoanalytical Frameworks and the Burden of Proof - Maureen Sioh Research is Theft: Environmental Inquiry in a Postcolonial World - Paul Robbins Contested Geographies: Culture Wars, Personal Clashes and Joining Debate - Gill Valentine and Stuart C. Aitken

The book covers some of the (traditionally) most obtuse and difficult-to-grasp philosophical ideas that have influenced geographers/geography. The fact that these are presented in an inclusive and accessible manner is a key strength of this book. Many students have commented that the chapters they have read have encouraged them to read more in this field, which is fantastic from a lecturer's perspective. -- Richard White