This new title from Tauris provides a critical perspective on key concepts within cultural geography. A critical perspective, as the editors explain in the introduction (pp. vii‐xviii), politicises cultural geography. It questions the politics of doing cultural geography as well as the politics that contest and maintain different geographical imaginings, systems of meaning, and ways of life. This focus on a critical geography, however, perhaps emphasises the Anglo of Anglo‐American cultural geography, which is certainly reflected in the listed contributors (pp. 213‐214). Without rekindling debates about the differences between British and American cultural geography, this Dictionary is likely to have greater relevance to cultural geography as it is taught outside America.
Despite the title, the book does not follow the expected conventions of a dictionary. It is not ordered alphabetically and, as Atkinson and colleagues explain the entries are not definitions, but explore “fields of meaning” (Williams, 1985). The entries do not cross‐reference, and the index (pp. 215‐222) is of limited value in identifying topics covered in more than one contribution. Entries – perhaps better described as short essays – typically describe the multiple and changing meanings of key concepts in different contexts, historically and geographically and finish with a useful bibliography that separates a small number of Key References from Other References. While some of the entries' “fields of meaning” have been explored elsewhere, this does not detract from the value of having a more succinct account in one volume that will be more accessible to undergraduate students of cultural geography, cultural studies, sociology and related disciplines, the intended market for the Dictionary.
Although the editors chose not to prioritise any of the concepts, they still find it useful to group them into one of three parts. Part one, Space, Knowledge and Power, explores the differing negotiations of power and knowledge that represent and shape the world. It includes entries on concepts such as Post‐structuralism, Mapping/Cartography, Travel/Tourism and Governance. Difference and Belonging. Part Two, introduces the key concepts on how identity is discursively as well as materially mapped onto boundaries of social inclusion and exclusion, for example, of The Body, Whiteness, (Dis)ability and Heritage. Part Three, Borders and Boundaries, questions the many taken‐for‐granted boundaries like Private/Public, Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Nature/Culture and opens up new possibilities in the contributions on Diaspora, Hybridity and Cyborg Cultures. What these examples demonstrate is the breadth of the material included in this Dictionary within three staple routes of enquiry for cultural geographers. Each part has a short introduction that puts the key concepts into the context of cultural geography's theoretical or pedagogical concerns. These introductions do not add much more to the understanding of the entries, and, I suspect, most readers will refer to the individual concepts that interest them. Entries can be read independently.
The Dictionary is a comprehensive and accessible resource on key concepts within cultural geography, particularly cultural geography as taught mostly in British universities. Above all, it is an affordable publication for many students to own and refer back to throughout their studies.
