Modernity, Urbanism, and Modern Consumption

1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 423-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
P D Glennie ◽  
N J Thrift
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
Consumption Practices ◽  
History Of

In human geography, as in other social sciences, much recent work has focused on contemporary consumption practices. The aim of this paper is to bring historical perspectives on consumption to bear on theorisations of contemporary consumption, It is contended that many such theorisations are deficient because they inaccurately characterise the history of modern consumption. As a result, they are prone to stress novelty where there is continuity (and vice versa). It is suggested that the importance of several oft-stressed facets of contemporary consumption has been exaggerated, but the authors also seek to identify aspects of contemporary consumption that are genuinely important and novel.

scholarly journals Terrain, politics, history

2020 ◽  
pp. 204382062095135
Author(s):  
Stuart Elden
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Plenary Lecture ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
Geographical Society ◽  
Military Geography ◽  
The Earth ◽  
History Of

This article is based on the 2019 Dialogues in Human Geography plenary lecture at the Royal Geographical Society. It has four parts. The first discusses my work on territory in relation to recent work by geographers and others on the vertical, the volumetric, the voluminous, and the milieu as ways of thinking space in three-dimensions, of a fluid and dynamic earth. Second, it proposes using the concept of terrain to analyse the political materiality of territory. Third, it adds some cautions to this, through thinking about the history of the concept of terrain in geographical thought, which has tended to associate it with either physical or military geography. Finally, it suggests that this work is a way geographers might begin to respond to the challenge recently made by Bruno Latour, where he suggests that ‘belonging to a territory is the phenomenon most in need of rethinking and careful redescription; learning new ways to inhabit the Earth is our biggest challenge’. Responding to Latour continues this thinking about the relations between territory, Earth, land, and ground, and their limits.

Context, Social Construction, and Statistics: Regression, Social Science, and Human Geography

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Hepple
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Construction ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Social Constructivist ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Constructivist Perspective

In response to a paper by T J Barnes, published in 1998, the author accepts the same social-constructivist perspective, but argues that the structure of regression was not excessively constrained by its biometric origins. The history of regression and its use in the social sciences is examined, and the author argues that any assessment of regression in human geography must be set against this wider context.

scholarly journals Listening to plants: Conversations between critical plant studies and vegetal geography

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913252110621
Author(s):  
Anna M Lawrence
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Human Geography ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Cross Pollination ◽  
Plant Life ◽  
The Social ◽  
Broad Framework

Attention to plant life is currently flourishing across the social sciences and humanities. This paper introduces recent work in the informal sub-discipline of ‘vegetal geography’, placing it into conversation with the transdisciplinary field of ‘critical plant studies’ [CPS], a broad framework for re-evaluating plants and human-plant interactions informed by principles of agency, ethics, cognition and language. I explore three key themes of interest to multispecies scholars looking to attend more closely to vegetal life, namely: (1) plant otherness; (2) plant ethics; (3) plant-human attunements, in the hope of encouraging greater cross-pollination between more-than-human geography and critical plant studies.

German Engineers and American Social Theory: Historical Perspectives on Professionalization

1988 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-574 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. R. Gispen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Technological Progress ◽  
Technical Education ◽  
Engineering Profession ◽  
Historical Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

When historians turn to the social sciences for help with the task of ordering their data or making their sources speak more clearly, the results can be rewarding in unexpected ways. So it is if one applies the twin concepts profession and professionalization to the German context-in particular, to the history of German engineers in the nineteenth century. At first sight, an idea like the “professionalization of the German engineers” seems straightforward enough. In tandem with the growth of Germany's science-based industries and unparalleled system of technical education, it suggests the emergence of the men who occupied the critical positions in these institutions and embodied technological progress. A notion such as the “rise of the German engineering profession,” therefore, stirs visions of a grand metamorphosis, in which the land of poets and thinkers—and of Junkers, bureaucrats, and mandarins—turned into the world of Siemens, Porsche, Mannesmann, Bosch, Diesel, Daimler-Benz, etc.

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