Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory

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Summary: Handling the ignored spaces of Geography?
Review: Edward Soja is concerned in his book with what I would call the revival of the geographical discourse identity:after decades in which geographers focused on the understanding of Earth,nowadays we realise that there are a few geographical notions(space,place,territory,limits,borders,margins,periphery etc.)which are able to generate a major contribution to the raising of the new critical social discourse.Soja is one of those who enters this new challenging game.However,as I wrote in my book"Postmodern Geography and the Revival of Theory",this new direction in geography runs some risks,among which the neglecting of the status of Geography itself.Edward Soja doesn't seem to pay proper atttention to this issue...

Rating:
Summary: Crucially important work
Review: This is an extremely important book not only for geographers, who will undoubtedly know Soja very well, but also for those in other fields of the social sciences. Space, and the reassertion of it within academic discourse, is seen by many to be a critical component of contemporary social theory. In this book, Soja covers a broad range of perspectives, placing these within the realm of postmodernism. While in some areas I believe he glosses over some concepts and dismisses others too quickly, he manages to weave an intricate story of space from many corners of social theory. It is not a difficult read and is easy to pick up in any spot. I would highly recommend this book to other graduate students (in whatever field) considering space, and spatial analysis, as a component of their research.