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AXIOMS FOR READING THE LANDSCAPE

Just published in Progress in Physical Geography: Place Formation and Axioms for Reading the Natural LandscapeThis work is an attempt to develop some formalisms for analyzing the biophysical landscape from the perspective of place formation--how landscapes, environments, and places evolve and become different from each other. My original efforts were in the form of conceptual model, but (thanks in large measure to reviewers and critiques of earlier versions) I realized that (A) the critical principles could be reduced to axioms, and (B) a set of guidelines or axioms is a more effective (and honest) way to present the approach. The abstract is below:

A copy of the full text is attached.

 

 

Social Change in a Material World

Author(s):
Theodore Schatzki
Book summary:

Social Change in a Material World offers a new, practice theoretical account of social change and its explanation. Extending the author’s earlier account of social life, and drawing on general ideas about events, processes, and change, the book conceptualizes social changes as configurations of significant differences in bundles of practices and material arrangements. Illustrated with examples from the history of bourbon distillation and the formation and evolution of digitally-mediated associations in contemporary life, the book argues that chains of activity combine with material events and processes to cause social changes.  The book thereby stresses the significance of the material dimension of society for the constitution, determination, and explanation of social phenomena, as well as the types of space needed to understand them. The book also challenges the explanatory significance of such key phenomena as power, dependence, relations, mechanisms, and individual behavior. As such, it will appeal to sociologists, geographers, org studies scholars, and others interested in social life and social change.

Publication year:
In Press
Publisher:
Routledge
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
Ted Schatzki is Professor of Geography and Philosophy. He is also former Senior Associate Dean in the College of Arts & Sciences, former Chair of the Department of Philosophy, and cofounder and former codirector of the University’s Committee on Social Theory, which oversees a multidisciplinary graduate-level teaching and research program in social thought. Schatzki earned a degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University (1977) and degrees in philosophy from Oxford University (1979) and UC Berkeley (1982, 1986). His research interests lie in theorizing social life, and he is widely associated with a stream of thought called practice theory that is active today in a range of social disciplines, including geography, sociology, organizational studies, education, anthropology, international relations, and history. Schatzki is the author of five books: Social Practices (1996), The Site of the Social (2002), Martin Heidegger: Theorist of Space (2007),The Timespace of Human Activity (2010), and Social Change in a Material World (forthcoming). He has also co-edited three volumes on practice theory: The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory (2001), The Nexus of Practices (2017), and Questions of Practice in Philosophy and Social Theory (2018). In addition, he is author of numerous articles on such social topics as flat ontology, social space, learning, large social phenomena, art, social change, materiality, governance, and discourse, as well as many essays on human action and the philosophies of Wittgenstein and Heidegger, Schatzki has been a research fellow of the Fulbright Commission and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He has also been a visiting professor or researcher at the University of Exeter, The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, Aalborg University Copenhagen, the Karl-Franzens University in Graz, the Institute of Advanced Studies in Vienna, Lancaster University, the University of Zurich, The University of Bielefeld, The Free University in Berlin, The Charles Sturt University in Australia, the Catholic University Eichstaett-Ingolstadt in Germany, and the University of Bergen. In the spring of 2018 he received an honorary doctorate from Aalborg University in Denmark.
A&S department affiliation:

The Geography of the Internet Industry: Venture Capital, Dot-coms and Local Knowledge

Author(s):
Matthew Zook
Book summary:

This groundbreaking book analyses the geography of the commercial Internet industry. It presents the first accurate map of Internet domains in the world, by country, by region, by city, and for the United States, by neighborhood.

Demonstrates the extraordinary spatial concentration of the Internet industry.

Explains the geographic features of the high tech venture capital behind the Internet economy.

Demonstrates how venture capitalists' abilities to create and use tacit knowledge contributes to the clustering of the internet industry

Draws on in-depth interviews and field work in San Francisco Bay Area and New York City.

Publication year:
2005
Publisher:
Blackwell
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
For the past several years I have studied how the geoweb is produced (particularly the practices surrounding user-generated data) in order to better understand where, when, and by whom geo-coded content is being created. I focus on how code, space and place interact as people increasingly use mobile, digital technologies to navigate through their everyday, lived geographies. Of special interest is the complex and often duplicitous manner that code and content can congeal and individualize our experiences in the hybrid, digitally augmented places that cities are becoming.
As an economic geographer I also study how flows of material goods in the global economy are shaped by immaterial flows of information. Just as the global financial system is enabled by the materiality of high-speed fiber optic cables laid across the ocean, so too are the movement of cargo containers dependent upon the halo of virtual information that surrounds them as they move through space. My interest is in the range of ways in which material and virtual flows are intertwined: sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory, but always central to the evolution of spatial relations in the economy.
The FloatingSheep research blog provide an overview of this work, particularly some of the more quirky dimensions that are hard to place in more mainstream academic outlets. After all, the Internet (and information space more generally) can be a wild and woolly place.
I am also the Director of the The DOLLY Project (Data On Local Life and You) is a repository of billions of geolocated tweets that allows for real-time research and analysis. Building on top of existing open source technology, DOLLY ingests all geotagged tweets (~8 million a day), does basic analysis, indexing and geocoding to allows real-time search throughout the entire database (3 billion tweets since Dec 2011). DOLLY also forms the basis for establishing the Department of Geography at the University of Kentucky as a key center for critical research on big geosocial media data. We see DOLLY as both a key tool for our own work but also as a means to break down the technological barrier that is often present for researchers that would like to study big data but do not necessarily possess the required technical skills.
Most recently I joined the editorial team of the new journal, Big Data & Society: Critical Interdisciplinary Inquiries, an open access peer-reviewed scholarly journal that publishes interdisciplinary work principally in the social sciences, humanities and computing and their intersections with the arts and natural sciences about the implications of Big Data for societies. The Journal's key purpose is to provide a space for connecting debates about the emerging field of Big Data practices and how they are reconfiguring academic, social, industry, business and government relations, expertise, methods, concepts and knowledge.
A&S department affiliation:

Kentucky's Frontier Highway: Historic Landscapes along the Maysville Road

Author(s):
Karl Raitz
Nancy O'Malley
Book summary:

Eighteenth-century Kentucky beckoned to hunters, surveyors, and settlers from the mid-Atlantic coast colonies as a source of game, land, and new trade opportunities. Unfortunately, the Appalachian Mountains formed a daunting barrier that left only two primary roads to this fertile Eden. The steep grades and dense forests of the Cumberland Gap rendered the Wilderness Road impassable to wagons, and the northern route extending from southeastern Pennsylvania became the first main thoroughfare to the rugged West, winding along the Ohio River and linking Maysville to Lexington in the heart of the Bluegrass.

Kentucky's Frontier Highway reveals the astounding history of the Maysville Road, a route that served as a theater of local settlement, an engine of economic development, a symbol of the national political process, and an essential part of the Underground Railroad. Authors Karl Raitz and Nancy O'Malley chart its transformation from an ancient footpath used by Native Americans and early settlers to a central highway, examining the effect that its development had on the evolution of transportation technology as well as the usage and abandonment of other thoroughfares, and illustrating how this historic road shaped the wider American landscape.

Publication year:
2012
Publisher:
University Press of Kentucky
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
A long-time student of culture and its material artifacts, Karl has spent the past thirty-five years examining the manner in which people have created American landscapes. His field-based research interests blend rural and urban contexts, especially within America’s Middle West, Appalachia, and South. His past work included examinations of the relationships between European immigrants and occupational preadaptation, the social construction of sport and leisure places, and the creation of landscape symbol vocabularies. He is currently working on several projects relating to the spectacular role of the road—in its many guises and through its many commercial, political, and technical patrons—as a shaping influence on landscapes. Recent research projects include: The National Road and A Guide to the National Road, two edited books that were supported by funding from the Pioneer American Society and the National Endowment for the Humanities; The Great Valley Road: Shenandoah Landscapes from Prehistory to the Present, co-edited with Warren Hofstra, and a book co-authored with Nancy O’Malley, Kentucky’s Frontier Highway: Historic Landscapes along the Maysville Road.
A&S department affiliation:

Territory, the State and Urban Politics: A critical Appreciation of the Selected Writings of Kevin R. Cox

Editor(s):
Andrew Wood
Andrew Jonas
Book summary:

Following its rise to prominence in the 1990s work on territory, the state and urban politics continues to be a vibrant and dynamic area of academic concern. Focusing heavily on the work of one key influential figure in the development of the field - Kevin R. Cox - this volume draws together a collection of prominent and well established scholars to reflect on the development and state of the field and to establish a research agenda for future work.

Publication year:
2012
Publisher:
Farnham: Ashgate
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
With a background in economic and urban geography my research has broadly focused on two related themes. The first is the political dynamics of urban development. I am particularly interested in the governance of the city and how we might best understand the processes that enable and promote urban and suburban development. This research is reflected in a number of research projects, the most recent of which (with Kevin Ward, Manchester) examines the politics of urban revitalization in Lexington, Kentucky.
I have long been interested in how we might best theorize and understand the interests engaged in governing cities. This is reflected in my work on the property development industry in the U.S. along with a series of projects on the construction and mobilization of local business interests, in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
The second theme is the endemic tension between the mobility and fixity of economic forms and practices. This dates all the way back to my PhD work and is one of the three relationships central to my recent textbook with Sue Roberts
A&S department affiliation:

Economic Geography: Places, Networks and Flows

Author(s):
Andrew Wood
Susan Roberts
Book summary:

The tension between fixity and mobility also underpins my work with Gavin Bridge (Durham University) on the geographical reach of the international oil industry. We are principally interested in the changing geographies of knowledge in the industry and how different forms of knowledge and knowing help and/or hinder the globalization of US oil firms.

The stickiness of economic activity is key to a second ongoing research project, with Nick Phelps (University College London), examining the growth and development of the location consulting industry. Location consultants or site selectors broker between large firms and communities seeking to attract inward investment. We are interested in the role consultants play in enabling the mobility of capital and in shaping the landscape of investment and disinvestment. Findings from the project are outlined in two recent papers in Journal of Economic Geography and Environment and Planning A.

Publication year:
2011
Publisher:
Routledge
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
With a background in economic and urban geography my research has broadly focused on two related themes. The first is the political dynamics of urban development. I am particularly interested in the governance of the city and how we might best understand the processes that enable and promote urban and suburban development. This research is reflected in a number of research projects, the most recent of which (with Kevin Ward, Manchester) examines the politics of urban revitalization in Lexington, Kentucky.
I have long been interested in how we might best theorize and understand the interests engaged in governing cities. This is reflected in my work on the property development industry in the U.S. along with a series of projects on the construction and mobilization of local business interests, in both the United States and the United Kingdom.
The second theme is the endemic tension between the mobility and fixity of economic forms and practices. This dates all the way back to my PhD work and is one of the three relationships central to my recent textbook with Sue Roberts
A&S department affiliation:
Book URL:
http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415401821/

Migration - 2nd Edition

Author(s):
Michael Samers
Michael Collyer
Book summary:

International migration is a momentous and complex phenomenon, affecting millions of people in sending and receiving countries alike. The mediatized movement of people across borders has been a source of anxiety for many societies, as is witnessed by the world-wide rise of populist, anti-immigration politics. In such a juncture, there is a desperate need for reliable academic knowledge and insights. Migration written by two internationally acclaimed scholars provides a timely and carefully written overview of the state-of-the-art in this field. A must read book for anyone interesting in understanding our globalizing world.'Prof. Dr. Jan Rath, Professor of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands'Samer's and Collyer's text is a masterly tour de force, reviewing theories of migration, employment, citizenship and belonging. Wonderfully comprehensive yet engagingly accessible, it will become key reading for all students of migration across the social sciences.'Professor Linda McDowell, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK'This is a timely edition and a tour de force. Collyer and Samers answer the key questions about the dynamics of international migration, the incorporation of migrants and their descendants in host societies, markets and polities as well as the policies that are likely to affect these phenomena. They do so by a stimulating analysis of cutting edge research across social science disciplines. The book convincingly shows the contribution of geography and spatial concepts to the understanding of international mobility, its causes and consequences.' Virginie Guiraudon, Research Director at the Sciences Po Center for European Studies, France'International Migration is both a transnational movement that span state borders and a local phenomenon that imbues the everyday experience of people. Collyer and Samers propose a comprehensive and much-needed outlook of the different migration theories. They masterfully elicit the complex mechanics of international migrations and compellingly use the tools of geography to hold together the different scales and facets of migration processes. Migration is a must-read for students and scholars of migration.

 

Publication year:
2017
Publisher:
Routledge
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
Originally from Stamford, Connecticut in the suburbs of New York City, I received a BA in Geography from Clark University in Worcester, Massachussets in 1988, which included 6 months at the Université de Dijon (now the Université de Bourgogne). I then went on to study for my Masters of Science in Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991). From there I decided to undertake my D.Phil (PhD) at Oxford University, under the supervision of David Harvey and Erik Swyngedouw. My doctoral thesis (dissertation) focused on the "Production and regulation of North African immigrants in the Paris automobile industry, 1970-1990. While still finishing my D.Phil at Oxford, I accepted my first academic position at the University of Liverpool, and after 7 years in Liverpool, I moved to the University of Nottingham in 2002 and eventually became a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in 2005. I left Nottingham in 2006 to return to the United States, and accept an Associate Professorship at the University of Kentucky. In May 2018, I was promoted to Full Professor, and assumed this role on July 1, 2018.
A&S department affiliation:

The People, Place and Space Reader

Editor(s):
Jen Jack Gieseking
William Mangold
with Cindi Katz, Setha Low and Susan Saegert
Book summary:

The People, Place, and Space Reader brings together the writings of scholars, designers, and activists from a variety of fields to make sense of the makings and meanings of the world we inhabit. They help us to understand the relationships between people and the environment at all scales, and to consider the active roles individuals, groups, and social structures play in creating the environments in which people live, work, and play. These readings highlight the ways in which space and place are produced through large- and small-scale social, political, and economic practices, and offer new ways to think about how people engage the environment in multiple and diverse ways.

Providing an essential resource for students of urban studies, geography, sociology and many other areas, this book brings together important but, till now, widely dispersed writings across many inter-related disciplines. Introductions from the editors precede each section; introducing the texts, demonstrating their significance, and outlining the key issues surrounding the topic. A companion website, PeoplePlaceSpace.org, extends the work even further by providing an on-going series of additional reading lists that cover issues ranging from food security to foreclosure, psychiatric spaces to the environments of predator animals.

Publication year:
2014
Publisher:
Routledge
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
I was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland. I discovered geography in my undergrad cartographic studies at Mount Holyoke College--one of the last geography programs in a liberal arts college--but was unsure how to pursue my desires to conduct research and write about lesbian and queer spaces. After a stint as a management consultant for corporate entertainment and telecomm corporations and then serving as poetry editor for a small, radical press, I attended seminary. My studies there introduced me to psychoanalysis and critical social psychology, which I was keen to connect to geography though the study of environmental psychology, or how people relate to and produce a sense of space and place, and how space and place relate to and define us. I conducted a postdoc in Digital and Computational Studies at Bowdoin College and was then Assistant Professor of Public Humanities at Trinity College in Hartford. I identify as a woman and use he/him/his pronouns.
A&S department affiliation:

Migration

Author(s):
Michael Samers
Michael Collyer
Book summary:

International migration is a momentous and complex phenomenon, affecting millions of people in sending and receiving countries alike. The mediatized movement of people across borders has been a source of anxiety for many societies, as is witnessed by the world-wide rise of populist, anti-immigration politics. In such a juncture, there is a desperate need for reliable academic knowledge and insights. Migration written by two internationally acclaimed scholars provides a timely and carefully written overview of the state-of-the-art in this field. A must read book for anyone interesting in understanding our globalizing world.'Prof. Dr. Jan Rath, Professor of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands'Samer's and Collyer's text is a masterly tour de force, reviewing theories of migration, employment, citizenship and belonging. Wonderfully comprehensive yet engagingly accessible, it will become key reading for all students of migration across the social sciences.'Professor Linda McDowell, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, UK'This is a timely edition and a tour de force. Collyer and Samers answer the key questions about the dynamics of international migration, the incorporation of migrants and their descendants in host societies, markets and polities as well as the policies that are likely to affect these phenomena. They do so by a stimulating analysis of cutting edge research across social science disciplines. The book convincingly shows the contribution of geography and spatial concepts to the understanding of international mobility, its causes and consequences.' Virginie Guiraudon, Research Director at the Sciences Po Center for European Studies, France'International Migration is both a transnational movement that span state borders and a local phenomenon that imbues the everyday experience of people. Collyer and Samers propose a comprehensive and much-needed outlook of the different migration theories. They masterfully elicit the complex mechanics of international migrations and compellingly use the tools of geography to hold together the different scales and facets of migration processes. Migration is a must-read for students and scholars of migration.

Publication year:
2010
Publisher:
Routledge
Bio:
Photo:
Short bio:
Originally from Stamford, Connecticut in the suburbs of New York City, I received a BA in Geography from Clark University in Worcester, Massachussets in 1988, which included 6 months at the Université de Dijon (now the Université de Bourgogne). I then went on to study for my Masters of Science in Geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1991). From there I decided to undertake my D.Phil (PhD) at Oxford University, under the supervision of David Harvey and Erik Swyngedouw. My doctoral thesis (dissertation) focused on the "Production and regulation of North African immigrants in the Paris automobile industry, 1970-1990. While still finishing my D.Phil at Oxford, I accepted my first academic position at the University of Liverpool, and after 7 years in Liverpool, I moved to the University of Nottingham in 2002 and eventually became a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in 2005. I left Nottingham in 2006 to return to the United States, and accept an Associate Professorship at the University of Kentucky. In May 2018, I was promoted to Full Professor, and assumed this role on July 1, 2018.
A&S department affiliation:
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