New Worlds, New Geographies (Space, Place and Society) - Softcover

Short, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0815628382 ISBN 13: 9780815628385

Publisher: Syracuse University Press, 2000

Synopsis

In this text, John Rennie Short connects global change, urban transformation and scholarly integrity. He elucidates the struggles of governments and individuals to situate themselves within the changing nation states and the restructurings of urban spaces into a type of global village.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

A puzzle, but an interesting one. First, the good news. Short (Geography/Syracuse Univ.), a self-described ``reluctant post-modernist,'' doesnt write the impenetrable, jargon-laden prose often embraced by postmodern authors. Unfortunately, the bad news is that ,despite its linguistic clarity, it is not clear what the book is about or why it was written. This volume combines autobiography initially with political geography, then the sociology of academia, and finally an alphabetic introduction to postmodernism. Anyone who has just returned from an extended visit to another planet will find the survey of major geopolitical developments in the first section quite useful; otherwise, it's pretty familiar territory. The brief sojourn inside the walls of the academy certainly ring true and will amuse those lacking first-hand experience of the petty battles among what Short terms academics, scholars, and intellectuals, but the reason for its presence in this book is a mystery. The most fun is to be had in the final section, where Short plays the role of postmodernist on postmodernism. Only the seemingly meaningless order of the alphabet is imposed herein, and from ``AIDS'' to ``zapper'' (as in the TV remote-control device) we are confronted with brief discussions of words that even in their selection reflect the conscious ambiguity of postmodernism. When ``deconstructionism'' is under the microscope, postmodernism is a school of thought, but the discussion of ``baldness'' implies that it is something you are in a very different way. Considering ``enlightenment'' casts postmodernity as a historical age following modernity, but somehow ``Japan'' manages to be a modern country in a postmodern world. Perhaps looking up ``author'' is the key to this puzzle, for we discover there that ``in the postmodernist world, the author has been declared dead. Long live the creative reader.'' Readers may find it more satisfying to spend time writing their own story than reading this one. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Syracuse University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0815628382
• ISBN 13: 9780815628385
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 248