Book Reviews

Books reviewed:
M. Steiner (ed.), Clusters and Regional Specialisation. On Geography,Technology, and Networks
Denis J.B. Shaw, Russia in the Modern World. A New Geography
Ron Martin, Money and the Space Economy     

Governmentalities of Urban Crises in Inner‐city Athens,Greece

Through the notion of “conjuncture” this paper explores the interplay of urban crises that have been unfolding in the city of Athens during the past 7 years (2008–2014). By focusing on specific “critical moments” that have significantly influenced the narratives, discourses and subsequent policies concerning “Athens in crisis”, it examines a number of intertwined approaches and tactics that shaped the governmentality of such crisis. These approaches and tactics, that work in tandem, include emergency‐driven policies and politics; politics of fear that occasionally transform into geographies of fear; processes of defining the “public” and “public enemies”; and redefinitions of (il)legalities. Yet, they have repercussions on people, places and politics. In this context, certain issues are deemed critical or urgent while others do not or are even obscured.     

Life Narratives of the Past: Herta Müller on Communist Romania

Narratives of the past are created and, in some cases, recreated, through literary works by revealing fragments from past traumas, reinterpreting past events, or focusing on historical events held in the collective memory. In a text dedicated to excavation and memory, Walter Benjamin notes that when approaching one’s personal past, one must proceed like a person digging in the ground, and not be afraid of returning repeatedly to the same matter. This essay argues that Herta Müller uses this method to address the personal and collective Romanian past, creating through her novels a literary remembrance of the past that deeply resonates with the memories of those affected by totalitarian regimes. Never presenting a linear or whole narrative of the past but rather the pieces of a life-narrative puzzle, Müller’s literary world becomes a medium through which the victims of totalitarian regimes can regain control over the narratives of their past.     

SPACES OF DIZZINESS AND DREAD: NAVIGATING ACROPHOBIA

As part of emerging disciplinary interests in well‐being and emotions, geographers have recently begun to pay attention to common but often neglected psychological conditions that have the potential to impact considerably upon individuals and their daily lives. Specifically extending the scope of geographical inquiry on phobias, this paper considers acrophobia (known as being scared of heights). Through interviews with ten sufferers, the spatial character and intensity of the condition is articulated. The findings tell us that underpinning acrophobia is mathematical height: the vertical elevation from the lowest possible resting point of the body to the point at which the symptoms of acrophobia occur. This point is however ‐ even for each individual ‐ highly variable, context dependant and, in terms of explanatory potential, does not convey personal experiences. Instead, the idea of ‘encounter spaces’ provides far greater elaboration. Created by sufferers ‘dysfunctional’ spatial perceptions, these are the occupied spaces of mixed emotional and physical responses (such as fear and rapid breathing) and reactionary practices that are tactical yet somewhat involuntary in nature (such as gripping tighter or getting lower). Depending on the particular circumstances, sufferers might choose to, feel forced to, or might inadvertently enter encounter spaces. Their impacts also extend beyond immediate effects to sufferers’ longer term lives and well‐being. This might be negatively impacted, for example, through cumulative encounters, worrying about potential encounters or missing out on life events. At this level, reactionary practices ‐ again which are tactical yet somewhat involuntary ‐ are often employed in order to avoid height. Ultimately, the overall impact of acrophobia on an individual depends on a number of factors including the severity of their condition, the attitudes of the people they associate with, their job, lifestyle and the environments which they have to, or would like to, frequent. Consequently, while some sufferers cope with ease, others constantly navigate the altitude of their lives.     

‘It was entirely his fault’: constructing white masculinities and the Haga Man assaults in Umeå, Sweden 1998–2006

Several cases of single repeat offenders in urban space have raised public concern in Sweden during recent decades. Few studies have been conducted on the consequences of the ‘hostage situations’ that emerge when one individual offender causes fear and affects a large group of people in a specific place. The concern of this article is to examine consequences of the Haga Man phenomenon: the case of a serial rapist operating between 1998 and 2006 in Umeå, a medium-sized Swedish city. The article focuses on the construction of white masculinities among male respondents in Umeå during the time of the attacks. I examine how men positioned themselves in relation to the public image of the offender as a ‘normal Swede’ and how they related to women's increasing fear of violence in urban space. Three prominent constructions of masculinity emerged from the research data: the dangerous stranger, the suspect and the protector. These three constructions of masculinity were not clear-cut and did not ‘belong’ to specific men – several of the interviewees articulated various forms of masculinities but stressed them in different ways depending on, for instance, age and/or ethnicity/race. I conclude that men largely positioned themselves as protectors as a strategy to distance themselves from the perpetrator (the image of the ‘normal Swedish man’ performing the rapes) and to ensure that they would not be perceived as suspects. However, men largely perceived that women's increased fear of crime was ‘one man's fault’ and broader issues about gendered power relations in space were not raised.     

Here We Go Again: Presidential Elections and the National Media

The fear of death is a major preoccupation in the West. This is not surprising given the debt we owe to Hobbes, who encourages this fear and makes it a central feature of his account of human nature. Rousseau, in contrast, wishes to reduce this fear as much as possible. Amour propre and the humanity Rousseau encourages are incompatible with excessive concern for self-preservation. This accounts for his antipathy to doctors and the medical arts. Rousseau, through his presentation of Emile and the savage, initially claims that the fear of death is unnatural and that humans should take a stoic stance toward it and all human attachments that lead to our "feeling death twice." A closer reading reveals that humans always have an awareness of death and that modern humans cannot entirely avoid these attachments. We can, however, avoid making preservation our highest goal, and this is essential to our happiness and ability to have compassion for others.     

‘La doble condición’: landmine victims,forced displacement,and disability in Colombia’s Magdalena Medio

The small body of scholarship that examines the intersection between forced displacement and physical disability draws important attention to the material difficulties simultaneously disabled and displaced people experience. Instead of focusing on disability as a condition lived against the spatial backdrop of forced displacement, this paper approaches disability and displacement as mutually referential spatial conditions. Based on fieldwork with internally displaced landmine victims in Colombia’s Magdalena Medio region, this research highlights how the intersection between physical impairment and forced displacement produces both disabling spatial imaginaries of fear as well as painfully embodied rhythms of daily life. Nonetheless, this paper draws attention to urban agricultural projects’ enabling potential to produce grounding rhythms of labor for landmine victims. Finally, this paper suggests that contexts of forced displacement require close consideration of spatial imaginaries of fear as well as experiences of direct structural violence as key factors underpinning the social production of disability.     

高校校园学生治安感知及犯罪恐惧的地理空间研究——以珠海市香洲区四所校园为例

近年随着高校的迅猛发展,校园扩张、开放性加大,其“社会生态性”愈发显著,校园治安问题也日益凸显。本文从空间层面切入,选取珠海市香洲区四所新建高校展开研究,结合实际案发情况、学生治安感知及犯罪恐惧等综合分析校园治安问题。研究通过问卷采集基础数据,利用统计分析方法研究学生治安感知与犯罪恐惧的情况,并运用GIS分析犯罪恐惧空间分布特征。研究发现学生对校园治安感知情况与实际案发情况基本相符,而犯罪恐惧与之并不完全一致;不同校园的犯罪恐惧案件类型和恐惧空间具有相似性,犯罪恐惧空间呈现昼夜差异。研究最后总结出犯罪恐惧集中的若干场所类型及其主要特征,并提出相应的提升安全感的普适性措施。     

地理学的安全感研究:基于地点的综合理解、应用及展望

安全是人们对日常生活空间的基本需求,安全感则反映了人们希望免于危险的主观感知。20世纪90年代以来,基于地点的安全感研究成为社会地理学及其相关学科的重要议题,学者们重视探索地点的物理、社会-文化环境特征与人的安全需求、生活质量之间的关系。运用地点理论开展安全感研究,一方面倡导建构具有情感、价值、意义的安全地点,另一方面为预防犯罪的跨学科安全空间综合研究提供了平台,促使人文地理学通过整合社会学、环境心理学等学科的研究成果完善社会-生活空间理论,提高人们的社会-生活空间质量。本文通过回顾地理学、社会学、犯罪学、环境心理学等相关学科对犯罪地理与安全感的主要研究成果,梳理了不同学科的研究兴趣及其最新进展;在此基础上讨论了人文地理学基于地点理论研究安全感的主要方向及趋势,旨在建构基于地点理论的安全地理学研究框架,为人文地理学社会-生活空间研究提供借鉴。