This blog is called Quotidian Geographies, but what is geography?
Every geography teacher needs to get (or read) a copy of this book, which was published back in 2016.
I hope that reading is an everyday act for most people.
It's an attempt to capture a sense of the subject of Geography in a short book, which has a number of themes running through it. It can be read in a few hours, and during that time you'll be scribbling in the margins, or reaching for the post-it notes to record quotes that attract your attention, or ideas to pursue further.
The book was written by Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography Danny Dorling, and geography lecturer Carl Lee, from Sheffield. Carl has previously written a well know textbook on cities, and a book called 'Home' which chronicles one geographical year in the city of Sheffield. He's also made a series of videos with Danny which you can find on YouTube, and run field trips when the GA Conference was last based in Sheffield.
Here's a description of the book from Danny's own website.
Geographers have a tradition of being curious explorers of both
places and ideas. Where does that highway go? Who lives in this big
house and why? How did we arrive at where we are? When are we going to
learn to live together? Can you really consume more and more and does it
really make you feel better?
Geographical questions are never stand-alone ones. All the questions we ask lead to other questions. Geography is about joining up the dots that help make up the big picture. Connections are everywhere.
Geography gives shape to our innate curiosity; cartography is older than writing. Channeling our twin urges to explore and understand, geographers uncover the hidden connections of human existence, from infant mortality in inner cities to the decision-makers who fly overhead in executive jets, from natural disasters to over-use of fossil fuels.
In this incisive introduction to the subject, Danny Dorling and Carl Lee reveal geography as a science which tackles all of the biggest issues that face us today, from globalisation to equality, from sustainability to population growth, from climate change to changing technology - and the complex interactions between them all.
I was lucky enough to receive a preview copy from Carl, and wrote about a review at the time it came out, over on the Living Geography blog. Globalisation, Equality and Sustainability are the three big ideas that frame the book, and there are plenty of brief vignettes to help illustrate each of them.
Danny's website also has a page which provides a link through to all the relevant details that lie behind the book, and some websites. Good to see that Living Geography gets a mention in the blog section, alongside George Monbiot, Tim Cresswell et al.
To take some ideas from the book further, here are 3 further suggestions.
1. Danny Dorling TEDx talk at Exeter University
It's an attempt to capture a sense of the subject of Geography in a short book, which has a number of themes running through it. It can be read in a few hours, and during that time you'll be scribbling in the margins, or reaching for the post-it notes to record quotes that attract your attention, or ideas to pursue further.
The text is supplemented by maps created by Ben Hennig. These were specially made for the book.
The book was written by Halford Mackinder Professor of Geography Danny Dorling, and geography lecturer Carl Lee, from Sheffield. Carl has previously written a well know textbook on cities, and a book called 'Home' which chronicles one geographical year in the city of Sheffield. He's also made a series of videos with Danny which you can find on YouTube, and run field trips when the GA Conference was last based in Sheffield.
Here's a description of the book from Danny's own website.
Geographers have a tradition of being curious explorers of both
places and ideas. Where does that highway go? Who lives in this big
house and why? How did we arrive at where we are? When are we going to
learn to live together? Can you really consume more and more and does it
really make you feel better? Geographical questions are never stand-alone ones. All the questions we ask lead to other questions. Geography is about joining up the dots that help make up the big picture. Connections are everywhere.
Geography gives shape to our innate curiosity; cartography is older than writing. Channeling our twin urges to explore and understand, geographers uncover the hidden connections of human existence, from infant mortality in inner cities to the decision-makers who fly overhead in executive jets, from natural disasters to over-use of fossil fuels.
In this incisive introduction to the subject, Danny Dorling and Carl Lee reveal geography as a science which tackles all of the biggest issues that face us today, from globalisation to equality, from sustainability to population growth, from climate change to changing technology - and the complex interactions between them all.
I was lucky enough to receive a preview copy from Carl, and wrote about a review at the time it came out, over on the Living Geography blog. Globalisation, Equality and Sustainability are the three big ideas that frame the book, and there are plenty of brief vignettes to help illustrate each of them.
Danny's website also has a page which provides a link through to all the relevant details that lie behind the book, and some websites. Good to see that Living Geography gets a mention in the blog section, alongside George Monbiot, Tim Cresswell et al.
To take some ideas from the book further, here are 3 further suggestions.
1. Danny Dorling TEDx talk at Exeter University
2. Carl Lee's 'Everything is connected to everything else' project - download a free copy of the book as a PDF
3. Paul Turner's response to the book... He was inspired to climb up a hill...
3. Paul Turner's response to the book... He was inspired to climb up a hill...
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