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Social Geographies, Space and Society by Gill Valentine, Pearson Education Ltd, Harlow, England, 2001, xvi + 420p. paper Cdn$52.95 (ISBN 0582-35777-2)
With this textbook, Gill Valentine has largely achieved her goal to write a book that will inspire undergraduate geography students to specialise in social geography (p. 12). Abandoning the structure typical of social-geography textbooks, she explores the spatiality of social processes and their roles in the construction of space at eight different geographical scales, ranging from the body to the nation. Written in an engaging style, the book outlines significant theoretical and empirical issues in contemporary social geography.
After a brief introduction that summarises the intellectual history of social geography and the notion of scale, the book reviews geographical perspectives on the body, 'the geography closest in' (p. 15). The debates concerning the body will be new to many students, but other topics concerning body-building, tattoos and eating disorders are relevant to their daily lives. Chapter 3 provides a comprehensive review of research concerning housing design and gender, the home as a workplace and a site of violence and the social regulation of behaviour...