‘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, Department of Sociology, Lancaster University
Our understanding of space is crucial to the way in which we understand major social problems and issues and the way we develop and maintain our worldviews.
Building from a history of philosophical and geographical theories of space, Shields presents the importance of spatialisation and cultural topology in social theory and the possibilities that lie within these theoretical tools.
Innovative and thought-provoking, this book goes beyond traditional ideas of spatiality and temporality to understand the multiplicity of spatialisations and relates them to everyday life.
Table of Content
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
About the author
Rob Shields is Henry Marshall Tory Chair and Professor in the Departments of Sociology and of Art and Design. Previously he was Professor of Sociology and past Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies at Carleton University.
His focus has been urban cultural studies, particularly the social use and meanings of the built environment, urban spaces and regions, including tourist destinations, local identities, and the impact of changing spatializations on cultural identities. This intellectual project has been extended through a peer-reviewed journal Space and Culture (SAGE) founded in 1997.
He is the author of Lefebvre, Love and Struggle (Routledge, 1998), which is a widely cited classic in the field. He′s also authored or edited, among others, Ecologies of Affect (WLUP, 2011), What Is A City? Rethinking the Urban After Hurricane Katrina (UGP, 2008), The Virtual (Routledge, 2002), Places on the Margin and Lifestyle Shopping (both Routledge, 1992).
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