Encyclopedia of Human Geography

Book excerpt: Human geography in the last decade has undergone a conceptual and methodological renaissance that transformed it into one of the most dynamic and innovative of the social sciences. Long a borrower of ideas from other disciplines, geography has become a contributor in its own right, and a "spatial turn" is evident in disciplines as diverse as Sociology, Anthropology, and Literary Criticism. With more than 300 entries written by an international team of leading authorities in the field, the Encyclopedia of Human Geography offers a comprehensive overview of the major ideas, concepts, terms, and approaches that characterize a notoriously diverse field. This multidisciplinary volume provides cross-cultural coverage of human geography as it is understood in the contemporary world and takes into account the enormous conceptual changes that have evolved since the 1970s, including a variety of social constructivist approaches. Key Features Examines a range of themes characterizing different schools of thought and addresses long-standing topics, such as urban, economic, and medical geography, as well as contemporary topics, including feminism, the social dimensions of GIS, and the social construction of nature Explores many of the dualities that long characterized social science—nature versus society, the individual versus the social, the historical versus the geographical, consumption versus production—and breaks them down using postmodern and poststructuralist approaches Illustrates how social and spatial structures draw upon people′s daily lives, which in turn structures their actions Looks at how globalization has manifested differently from place to place by discussing topics such as transnational capital, international trade, global commodity chains, global cities, international financial and telecommunications systems, and how the global economy is reshaping geopolitics and governance Key Themes Cartography/Geographical Information Systems Economic Geography Geographic Theory and History Political Geography Social/Cultural Geography Urban Geography