Transformations of Urban and Suburban Landscapes Perspectives from Philosophy, Geography, and Architecture

by Backhaus, Gary; Murungi, John; Connell, Ruth; Conroy, Francis; Hague, Mary A.; Hatley, James; Macauley, David; Scott, John A.; Shanahan, Derek; Siegel, Nancy

• ISBN13: 9780739103357
• ISBN10: 0739103350
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-04-25
• Publisher: Lexington Books

Summary

The study of landscape and place has become an increasingly fertile realm of inquiry in the humanities and social sciences. In this new book of essays, selected from presentations at the first annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Geography, scholars investigate the experiences and meanings that inscribe urban and suburban landscapes. Gary Backhaus and John Murungi bring philosophy and geography into a dialogue with a host of other disciplines to explore a fundamental dialectic: while our collective and personal activity modifies the landscape, in turn, the landscape modifies human identities, and social and environmental relations. Whether proposing a peripatetic politics, conducting a sociological analysis of building security systems, or critically examining the formation of New York City's municipal parks, each essay sheds distinctive light on this fascinating and engaging aspect of contemporary environmental studies.

Table of Contents

Figures	vii
Preface	ix
Introduction: Landings	1	(18)
Gary Backhaus
John Murungi
On the Question of Land: A Philosophical Perspective	19	(16)
John Murungi
Where the Beaver Gnaw: Predatory Space in the Urban Landscape	35	(20)
James Hatley
The Deceptive Environment: The Architecture of Security	55	(26)
Ruth Connell
Getting Nowhere Fast? Intrinsic Worth, Utility, and Sense of Place at the Century's Turn	81	(16)
Francis Conroy
Auto-Mobility and the Route-Scape: A Critical Phenomenology	97	(28)
Gary Backhaus
Having a Need to Act	125	(28)
John A. Scott
Municipal Parks in New York City: Olmsted, Riis, and the Transformation of the Urban Landscape, 1851897	153	(40)
Mary Hague
Nancy Siegel
Walking the Urban Environment: Pedestrian Practices and Peripatetic Politics	193	(34)
David Macauley
Valid Research in Human Geography and the Image of the Ideal Science	227	(26)
Derek Shanahan
Selected Bibliography	253	(10)
Index	263	(4)
About the Contributors	267