Postcolonial Geographies

Postcolonialism and geography are intimately linked through the spatiality of colonial discourse as well as the material effects of colonialism and decolonization.Geographical ideas about space, place, landscape, and location have helped to articulate different experiences of colonialism both in the past and present and the "here" and "there". At the same time, while spatial images such as mobility, margins and exile abound in postcolonial writings, more material geographies have often been overlooked.Postcolonial Geographies presents the first sustained geographical analysis of postcolonialism. Exploring and developing the connections between postcolonialism and geography, the essays in this book--ranging across Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, and North America--investigate the geographies of postcolonialism and chart the contours of a postcolonial geography. Contributors:Morag Bell, Claire Dwyer, Haydie Gooder, Jane M. Jacobs, M. Satish Kumar, Alan Lester, Mark McGuinness, Karen M. Morin, Richard Phillips, Marcus Power, Jenny Robinson, James D. Sidaway, John Wylie

"Drawing on a course road tested for over a decade, Sharp has delivered an invaluable aid for teaching students about the complex political, cultural and spatial logics of colonialism and post-colonialism. Difficult theoretical jargon is demystified and the generous use of illustrations and quotes from both academic and popular sources means students can work with manageable measures of primary material. This book has succeeded in delivering a meaningful conversation between political economic accounts of development and cultural accounts of identity. It is a must-have for anyone studying colonialism and post-colonialism." - Jane M Jacobs, Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh Geographies of Post-Colonialism introduces the principal themes and theories relating to postcolonialism. Written from a geographical perspective, the text includes extended explanations of the cultural and material aspects of the subject. Exploring post-colonialism through the geographies of imagination, knowledge and power, the text is split into three comprehensive sections: Colonialisms discusses Western representations of the ′Other′ and the relationship between this and the European self-image. Neo-colonialisms discusses the continuing legacies of colonial ways of knowing through an examination of global culture, tourism and popular culture. Post-colonialisms discusses the core arguments about post-colonialism and culture with a focus on ′hybridity′. Comprehensive and accessible, illustrated with learning features throughout, Geographies of Post-Colonialism will be the key resource for students in human geography and development studies.

"Drawing on a course road tested for over a decade, Sharp has delivered an invaluable aid for teaching students about the complex political, cultural and spatial logics of colonialism and post-colonialism. Difficult theoretical jargon is demystified and the generous use of illustrations and quotes from both academic and popular sources means students can work with manageable measures of primary material. This book has succeeded in delivering a meaningful conversation between political economic accounts of development and cultural accounts of identity. It is a must-have for anyone studying colonialism and post-colonialism." - Jane M Jacobs, Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh Geographies of Post-Colonialism introduces the principal themes and theories relating to postcolonialism. Written from a geographical perspective, the text includes extended explanations of the cultural and material aspects of the subject. Exploring post-colonialism through the geographies of imagination, knowledge and power, the text is split into three comprehensive sections: Colonialisms discusses Western representations of the ′Other′ and the relationship between this and the European self-image. Neo-colonialisms discusses the continuing legacies of colonial ways of knowing through an examination of global culture, tourism and popular culture. Post-colonialisms discusses the core arguments about post-colonialism and culture with a focus on ′hybridity′. Comprehensive and accessible, illustrated with learning features throughout, Geographies of Post-Colonialism will be the key resource for students in human geography and development studies.

This collection of original essays by scholars of geography from India, Western Europe, and the USA provides important insights into the way contemporary geographers are engaging with India. The earlier narrow colonial focus that saw India as a country of resources and "peoples" (tribes and castes) has now been discarded for a broader view located in mainstream intellectual frameworks and informed by a public policy perspective. This volume highlights how contemporary geographers see and write on topics such as the state, nation, community, environment, and division of labor, while keeping in mind issues of spatiality and territoriality.

Drawing lessons from the complex and often contradictory position of white women writing in the colonial period, This unique book explores how feminism and poststructuralism can bring new types of understanding to the production of geographical knowledge. Through a series of colonial and postcolonial case studies, essays address the ways in which white women have written and mapped different geographies, in both the late nineteenth century and today, illustrating the diverse objects (landscapes, spaces, views), the variety of media (letters, travel writing, paintings, sculpture, cartographic maps, political discourse), and the different understandings and representations of people and place.

Postcolonialism is a book that examines the influence of postcolonial theory in critical geographical thought and scholarship. Aimed at advanced-level students and researchers, the book is a lively, stimulating and relevant introduction to ‘postcolonial geography’ that elaborates on the critical interventions in social, cultural and political life this important subfield is poised to make. The book is structured around three intersecting parts – Spaces, 'Identity'/hybridity, Knowledge – that broadly follow the trajectory of postcolonial studies since the late 1970s. It comprises ten main chapters, each of which is situated at the intersections of postcolonialism and critical human geography. In doing so, Postcolonialism develops three key arguments. First, that postcolonialism is best conceived as an intellectually creative and practical set of methodologies or approaches for critically engaging existing manifestations of power and exclusion in everyday life and in taken-as-given spaces. Second, that postcolonialism is, at its core, concerned with the politics of representation, both in terms of how people and space are represented, but also the politics surrounding who is able to represent themselves and on what/whose terms. Third, the book argues that postcolonialism itself is an inherently geographical intellectual enterprise, despite its origins in literary theory. In developing these arguments and addressing a series of relevant and international case studies and examples throughout, Postcolonialism not only demonstrates the importance of postcolonial theory to the contemporary critical geographical imagination. It also argues that geographers have much to offer to continued theorizations and workings of postcolonial theory, politics and intellectual debates going forward. This is a book that brings critical analyses of the continued and omnipresent legacies of colonialism and imperialism to the heart of human geography, but also one that returns an avowedly critical geographical disposition to the core of interdisciplinary postcolonial studies.

A fresh approach to scholarship on the diverse nature of Indian anticolonial processes. Brings together a varied selection of literature to explore Indian anticolonialism in new ways Offers a different perspective to geographers seeking to understand political resistance to colonialism Addresses contemporary studies that argue nationalism was joined by other political processes, such as revolutionary and anarchist ideologies, to shape the Indian independence movement Includes a focus on a specific anticolonial group, the “Pondicherry Gang,” and investigates their significant impact which went beyond South India Helps readers understand the diverse nature of anticolonialism, which in turn prompts thinking about the various geographies produced through anticolonial activity

Bringing together many of the leading human geographers from around the English-speaking world, Envisioning Human Geographies offers a series of personal visions for the future of human geography. The result is a vigorous and far-sighted debate about what human geography could and should be concerned with in the twenty-first century. The individual contributors develop their arguments to address the shape and direction of human geographies, with each chapter looking forward and envisioning an intellectual future for the subject. The result is a set of powerful statements written around the themes of: ·space ·nature ·enclosure ·political-economy ·non-representation ·post-colonialism ·feminism ·post-structuralism ·computation ·morality ·spirituality ·activism. The statements are tied via an introduction that discusses the ideological, academic and aesthetic prompts that fire the human geographical imagination. Envisioning Human Geographies maps out important new territories of enquiry for human geography, and is essential reading for all students studying the nature and philosophy of the subject.