Scale and Geographic Inquiry Nature, Society, and Method

by Sheppard, Eric; McMaster, Robert B.

• ISBN13: 9780631230700
• ISBN10: 063123070X
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-01-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

This book is the first contemporary book to compare and integrate the various ways geographers think about and use scale across the spectrum of the discipline and includes state-of-the-art contributions by authoritative human geographers, physical geographers, and GIS specialists. The editors place competing concepts of scale side by side, demonstrating how different aspects are significant for each, and providing a detailed comparative assessment. They set out from the premise that there is much acknowledged common ground between these different approaches and that valuable insight can be gained by exploring it. In light of the increased interest in global change and globalisation, there has been a huge surge of interest in the environmental and human sciences in the relationship between the global, the regional and the local. For this reason, this cutting edge survey of how geographers conceptualise scale should be of interest across a broad range of disciplines.

Author Biography

Eric Sheppard is Fesler-Lampert Professor in Geography at the University of Minnesota. He is the co-author and editor of a number of books, including A Companion to Economic Geography (Blackwell, 2001) and Reading Economic Geography (Blackwell, 2003), and of over 80 scholarly articles. His current research interests include spatiality and political economy, environmental justice, critical GIS and interurban policy and activist networks.Robert B. McMaster is Professor of Geography and Associate Dean for Planning in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. His areas of research include multiple scale databases and cartographic generalization, GIS and society, including environmental risk assessment and public participation GIS (PPGIS), and the history of US academic cartography. From 1990 to 1996, he served as editor of Cartography and Geographic Information Science, and is currently a Vice President of the International Cartographic Association.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	vii
List of Tables	x
List of Contributors	xi
Preface	xv
Introduction: Scale and Geographic Inquiry	1	(212)
Robert B. McMaster and Eric Sheppard
1 Fractals and Scale in Environmental Assessment and Monitoring	23	(18)
Nina Siu-Ngan Lam
2 Population and Environment Interactions: Spatial Considerations in Landscape Characterization and Modeling	41	(25)
Stephen J. Walsh, Kelley A. Crews-Meyer, Thomas W. Crawford, William F. Welsh
3 Crossing the Divide: Linking Global and Local Scales in Human-Environment systems	66	(20)
William E. Easterling and Colin Polsky
4 Independence, Contingency, and Scale Linkage in Physical Geography	86	(15)
Jonathan D. Phillips
5 Embedded Scales in Biogeography	101	(28)
Susy S. Ziegler, Gary M. Pereira, Dwight A. Brown
6 Scaled Geographies: Nature, Place, and the Politics of scale	129	(25)
Erik Swyngedouw
7 Scales of Cybergeography	154	(16)
Michael F. Goodchild
8 A Long Way from Home: Domesticating the Social Production of scale	170	(22)
Sallie Marston
9 Scale Bending and the Fate of the National	192	(21)
Neil Smith
10 Is There a Europe of Cities? World Cities and the Limitations of Geographical scale Analyses	213	(23)
Peter J. Taylor
11 The Politics of Scale and Networks of Spatial Connectivity: Transnational Interurban Networks and the Resealing of Political Governance in Europe	236	(20)
Helga Leitner
12 Scale and Geographic Inquiry: Contrasts, Intersections, and Boundaries	256	(12)
Eric Sheppard and Robert B. McMaster
Index	268