Tag: Geography

The Florida Everglades: A land of alligators, outlaws and so much swampy, cinematic excess

June 23, 2011

BY LAURA A. OGDENAssociate professor of anthropology at Florida International University This movie poster from the film Shark River manages to cram almost every single Everglades-related stereotype into one “vivid color” tableau. It is really quite remarkable, reflecting, in particular, the racial binaries common to American landscape politics in the early 1950s. Here, we see, … More The Florida Everglades: A land of alligators, outlaws and so much swampy, cinematic excess

How motion, relationships, and productive tension help build better cities across the world

May 5, 2011

Barcelona has been hailed for its ability to inform future strategies for world cities in urban planning and regeneration. In the new book Mobile Urbanism, multiple contributors argue for a theorizing of both urban policymaking and place-making that understands them as groups of territorial and relational geographies. Image from Creative Commons. BY KEVIN WARD AND … More How motion, relationships, and productive tension help build better cities across the world

Egypt Q&A: Unrelenting protests are rooted in many years of civil unrest and bear the marks of a social revolution.

February 3, 2011

In Cairo, Egypt, a big banner that spells out “Leave,” in reference to Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak, appears on Feb. 1st, 2011. Throughout the Mubarak regime’s tenure, citizens have experienced violations of their civil rights on a daily basis. Photo by Essam Sharaf, courtesy of Creative Commons. Photo from Flickr. BY SALWA ISMAILProfessor of politics … More Egypt Q&A: Unrelenting protests are rooted in many years of civil unrest and bear the marks of a social revolution.

How widespread protests in Tunisia and Egypt could lead to a rapid transformation of geopolitics in the Middle East.

January 31, 2011

After this month’s uprising in Tunisia, many scholars and journalists pondered whether its example could spark other revolts. Still, many were taken by surprise when massive protests erupted in downtown Cairo on January 25th, 2011. Photo from Flickr. BY WALEED HAZBUNAssistant Professor of International Relations, American University of Beirut Watching Al Jazeera English in the … More How widespread protests in Tunisia and Egypt could lead to a rapid transformation of geopolitics in the Middle East.

Quadrant: Contemporary environmental ethics and former nuclear facilities

December 9, 2010

This post is published in connection with the University of Minnesota Press’s launch this week of an an online research archive (www.quadrant.umn.edu) and book series that stems from Quadrant, a new initiative to foster collaborative scholarship and revolutionize interdisciplinary publishing. This is Quadrant post 3 of 3; please see below for links to other posts. … More Quadrant: Contemporary environmental ethics and former nuclear facilities

CITY feature: Edward W. Soja and justice struggles in the contemporary world.

November 22, 2010

The following is a guest post from Andrea Gibbons, co-editor at the journal CITY: Analysis of urban trends, culture, theory, policy, action. CITY‘s current issue features leading urban theorist Edward Soja and his most recent book, Seeking Spatial Justice (Minnesota 2010), in which Soja argues that justice has a geography and that the equitable distribution … More CITY feature: Edward W. Soja and justice struggles in the contemporary world.

M. Bianet Castellanos: Tourism in Cancún and its social and economic effects on indigenous communities.

November 17, 2010

Beach in Cancún, Mexico. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. As a free trade zone and Latin America’s most popular destination, Cancún, Mexico, is more than just a tourist town. It is not only actively involved in the production of transnational capital but also forms an integral part of the state’s modernization plan for rural, indigenous … More M. Bianet Castellanos: Tourism in Cancún and its social and economic effects on indigenous communities.

UMP at AAG

April 21, 2010

This year’s Association of American Geographers meeting in Washington, DC, was quite a significant one for University of Minnesota Press. We released the much-anticipated Seeking Spatial Justice by Edward W. Soja, which sold out rather quickly; Stuart Elden’s Terror and Territory received not only the 2009 AAG Globe Book Award, but also the Julian Minghi … More UMP at AAG

Q&A with Stuart Elden: A new look at the concept of ‘territory’

April 14, 2010

Stuart Elden is professor of political geography at Durham University, UK. He is author of Terror and Territory: The Spatial Extent of Sovereignty, which has recently won the prestigious 2009 AAG Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography (see below for more info). “In this deftly argued and richly emprical book, Elden shows how, … More Q&A with Stuart Elden: A new look at the concept of ‘territory’