Cultural Geography

Citation

Norton, W., & Walton-Roberts, M. (2013). Cultural Geography: Environments, Landscapes, Identities, Inequalities (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press Canada.

Chapter Summary

The third edition has ten chapters in about 416 pages. Oxford University Press describes the book as an exploration of the relationship between people and the places they live in, analysing cultural identities and cultural landscapes at local and global scales. This edition brings in a second author, Margaret Walton-Roberts, to balance traditional and contemporary approaches, and the publisher says the text was revised with fuller discussion of identity and power, socio-spatial relationships, hybridity and nature, feminism and Marxism. The sequence of chapter titles runs from the discipline's history to landscape, then to identity and power, and finally to place.

Chapter 1: Introducing Cultural Geography

The opening chapter introduces the subject: the relationship between people and the places they live in, which the publisher's description takes as the book's starting point.

Chapters 2–3: The Tradition of Cultural Geography; Rethinking Cultural Geography

Two chapters on the development of the field. As the titles indicate, the first presents the tradition of cultural geography and the second its rethinking; together they give the balance of traditional and contemporary approaches that the publisher stresses.

Chapters 4–6: Environments, Ethics, Landscapes; Landscape Evolution; Regional Landscapes

A block on landscape. The first chapter links environments, ethics and landscapes, the second deals with landscape evolution and the third with regional landscapes.

Chapters 7–8: Power, Identity, Global Landscapes; Power, Identity, Representation

Two chapters whose titles make power and identity the organising themes, first in relation to global landscapes and then in relation to representation.

Chapter 9: Living in Place: The Socio-Spatial Relationship

Judging from the title, a chapter on living in place and on the relationship between social life and space, which the publisher calls "socio-spatial relationships".

Chapter 10: Cultural Geography: Continuing and Unfolding

The closing chapter; its title indicates a look at how the field continues and unfolds.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–3: The Field

• Cultural identities and cultural landscapes: the two objects of analysis named in the publisher's description, studied at local and global scales.
• Traditional and contemporary approaches: the contrast the book builds into its second and third chapters.

Chapters 4–9: Landscape, Identity and Place

• Cultural landscape: the visible record of culture in the environment, the subject of Chapters 4–6.
• Power and identity: the paired themes of Chapters 7 and 8.
• Representation: how places and groups are portrayed, the focus of Chapter 8.
• Socio-spatial relationship: the two-way link between social life and space explored in Chapter 9.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Traditional and contemporary together. The publisher highlights the new co-author's role in keeping a balance, and two early chapters are devoted to the discipline's tradition and to its rethinking, so students see where current ideas come from.
• Links to other fields. According to the publisher, the book shows cultural geography's relation to social, economic, political, environmental and physical geography.
• Updated themes. The revision strengthens the treatment of identity and power, socio-spatial relationships, hybridity and nature, feminism and Marxism, which the publisher presents as making the text more appropriate for today's student.
• Student engagement. The publisher lists boxed features, questions for critical thought and suggested further readings.

Limitations

• Themes run through the book rather than getting chapters. Feminism, Marxism and hybridity are not chapter topics; they are woven into chapters titled around landscape, power and place, so a reader looking for a focused account of one of them needs to follow it across chapters or consult a specialist book.
• No chapters on familiar cultural topics. The contents have no chapters named for language, religion, popular culture or heritage, which readers may expect from an introductory cultural geography text; if these topics are covered, they sit inside the broader chapters.
• Dated. The edition appeared in 2013, so later work in the field falls outside it.

Where It Fits in the Course

Norton and Walton-Roberts is the general textbook of this course, a survey that places the history of the discipline, landscape, identity, power and place side by side. Mitchell's Cultural Geography: A Critical Introduction is a critical account that treats culture as a field of struggle and argues for keeping power, economy and politics central; it is more of an argument than a survey and works well after the textbook as a contrast.

Four other books take up the core concepts. Cresswell's Place: An Introduction is a short student introduction to place, Tuan's Space and Place is a classic of humanistic geography on how people experience space and place, and Massey's For Space and Lefebvre's The Production of Space are theoretical works that treat space as produced by social relations. Chapter 9's discussion of the socio-spatial relationship is the natural point at which to turn to them.

How to Use This Book

The book is written for undergraduate courses in cultural and human geography; an introductory human geography course is helpful preparation.

A suggested plan: read Chapters 1–3 to understand how the subject developed and why it was rethought, then work through the landscape block (Chapters 4–6) and the power and identity chapters (Chapters 7–8). Chapter 9 turns to place, and Chapter 10 closes with the book's look at the field.

Use the questions for critical thought to test the arguments, and the suggested further readings to reach the original authors. Readers who want a more demanding theoretical treatment can move on to Mitchell, Massey or Lefebvre after Chapter 9.