Geographies of Power: Placing Scale / Edition 1

by Andrew Herod, Melissa W. Wright

Overview

At a time when references to things 'global' have gained more currency than ever, this book explores the nexus of power and space behind the politics of geographical scale.

• Explores the nexus of power and space behind the rescaling of contemporary social, economic and political life.
• Organized into three sections on theorizing scale, the discourses and rhetorics of scale, and scales of activism.
• Will stimulate discussion about how conceptions and visions of scale inform all aspects of social life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780631225584
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	10/22/2002
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Andrew Herod is Associate Professor of Geography at the University of Georgia. He is the author of Labor Geographies: Workers and the Landscapes of Capitalism (2001), editor of Organizing the Landscape: Geographical Perspectives on Labor Unionism (1998), and co-editor of An Unruly World? Globalization, Governance and Geography (1998).

Melissa W. Wright is Assistant Professor of Geography and Women's Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. She has published articles in Environment and Planning A, Antipode, Public Culture, Cultural Anthropology, Social Text, and Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy.

Table of Contents

List of Figures.

List of Contributors.

Acknowledgments.

Placing Scale: An Introduction. (Andrew Herod and Melissa W. Wright).

Part I: Theorizing Scale.

Introduction: Theorizing Scale. (Andrew Herod and Melissa W. Wright).

1. Beyond Global vs. Local: Economic Politics Outside the Binary Frame. (J. K. Gibson-Graham).

2. The Urban as an Object of Study in Global Cities Literatures: Representational Practices and Conceptions of Place and Scale. (Eugene J. McCann).

3. “Globalization,” the “Regulation Approach,” and the Politics of Scale. (Kevin Cox).

4. Retheorizing the Scale of Globalization: Topologies, Actor-Networks, and Cosmopolitanism. (Alan Latham).

Part II: Rhetoric of Scale.

Introduction: Rhetoric of Scale. (Andrew Herod and Melissa W. Wright).

5. “Adventure Travel for the Mind’’: Analyzing the United States Virtual Trade Mission’s Promotion of Globalization through Discourse and Corporate Media Strategies. (Ken Hillis, Michael Petit, and Altha J. Cravey).

6. Popular Culture, Academic Discourse, and the Incongruities of Scale. (Andrew Kirby).

7. Maintaining National Identity at the Border: Scale, Masculinity, and the Policing of Immigration in Southern California. (Susan P. Mains).

Part III: Scales of Praxis.

Introduction: Scales of Praxis. (Andrew Herod and Melissa W. Wright).

8. Contested Landscapes of Labor: Rival Unionism in the Farm Implements Industry. (Jeff Crump).

9. The Politics of Environmental Justice as the Politics of Scale: St. James Parish, Louisiana and the Shintech Siting Controversy. (Hilda Kurtz).

10. Networks, Governance, and the Politics of Scale: Inter-Urban Networks and the European Union. (Helga Leitner, Claire Pavlik, and Eric Sheppard).

Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Anyone who has grown weary of the shallow and circular globalization debate, and the political fatalism that it breeds, should read this book. Pushing beyond the conception of globalization as a force of nature, the contributors to this volume ask a series of fresh and provocative questions about geographical scale, its social relations, and its political construction. But rather than simply asking the scale question, Power, Politics, and Geography explores the answers. It is the best collection yet on the theory and praxis of geographical scale.“ Jamie Peck, Professor of Geography and Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This exciting book levers open a space for a politics that regards space as a living thing rather than a dead backdrop. In doing so, it challenges a whole series of preconceptions about what politics is or might be, and begins to formulate means of eating away at the foundations of concepts like globalization that so often are used by the powerful to peddle one world fits all solutions.” Professor Nigel Thrift, University of Bristol

"The book sets out to be an intervention in, and make a contribution to, a growing literature on questions of scale, rescaling, and politics of scale [...] this book is a welcome addition to what remains a very fertile and promising debate" Erik Swyngedouw, Environment and Planning

“Herod and Wright’s book is well organized and coherent … [Geographies of Power: Placing Scale] provides a useful overview of the new conceptualizations of geographical scale that are being developed by radical geographers.”
American Journal of Sociology

Editorial Reviews

"Anyone who has grown weary of the shallow and circular globalization debate, and the political fatalism that it breeds, should read this book. Pushing beyond the conception of globalization as a force of nature, the contributors to this volume ask a series of fresh and provocative questions about geographical scale, its social relations, and its political construction. But rather than simply asking the scale question, Power, Politics, and Geography explores the answers. It is the best collection yet on the theory and praxis of geographical scale.“ Jamie Peck, Professor of Geography and Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

This exciting book levers open a space for a politics that regards space as a living thing rather than a dead backdrop. In doing so, it challenges a whole series of preconceptions about what politics is or might be, and begins to formulate means of eating away at the foundations of concepts like globalization that so often are used by the powerful to peddle one world fits all solutions.” Professor Nigel Thrift, University of Bristol

"The book sets out to be an intervention in, and make a contribution to, a growing literature on questions of scale, rescaling, and politics of scale [...] this book is a welcome addition to what remains a very fertile and promising debate" Erik Swyngedouw, Environment and Planning

“Herod and Wright’s book is well organized and coherent … [Geographies of Power: Placing Scale] provides a useful overview of the new conceptualizations of geographical scale that are being developed by radical geographers.”
American Journal of Sociology

From the Publisher