Questioning the implicit assumptions that we make about space, this text considers conventional notions of social science, as well as demonstrating how a vigorous understanding of space can impact on political consequences.

The Risk of Freedom presents an in-depth analysis of the philosophy of Jan Patočka, one of the most influential Central European thinkers of the twentieth century, examining both the phenomenological and ethical-political aspects of his work. In particular, Francesco Tava takes an original approach to the problem of freedom, which represents a recurring theme in Patočka’s work, both in his early and later writings. Freedom is conceived of as a difficult and dangerous experience. In his deep analysis of this particular problem, Tava identifies the authentic ethical content of Patočka’s work and clarifies its connections with phenomenology, history of philosophy, politics and dissidence. The Risk of Freedom retraces Patočka’s philosophical journey and elucidates its more problematic and less evident traits, such as his original ethical conception, his political ideals and his direct commitment as a dissident.

»Geographies of Love« is the first study to explore the cultural lifeworlds of British, Australian and Indian chick- and ladlit characters. Offering unique case studies including »Bridget Jones's Diary«, »About a Boy« and »Almost Single«, the book explores how women and men search for love and how they commit themselves to romances in specific spaces and places: the home and the office as well as shops, clubs and bars. This cross-disciplinary study provides scholars, students and keen readers with multiple points of access and easily-relatable situations. It applies the complex phenomenon of cultural geographies within the field of literary studies and sheds new light on a most passionate feeling.

The Competition Grid: Experimenting With and Within Architecture Competitions is a comprehensive review of architectural competitions. Each section features international research overviews as well as lively discussions with experts that draw on first-hand experience of the competition process.

This book is the result of a research project designed and carried out at the Department of Architecture, University of Florence. This book discusses urban public spaces and, more specifically, run-down, inactive micro-spaces that are barely used due to their location, dimensions, morphology or semantic characteristics. In literature, these spaces are often defined as “residual urban spaces.” A large abandoned industrial area on the outskirts of a town or a small interstitial space in a historical centre can be residual. With respect to such a broad subject matter, the book seeks to radically limit the field, concentrating on public residual spaces found in the oldest parts of cities. The book reflects on this theme and introduces a method for reading and assessment of the residuality of public spaces in historical contexts (Residuality Assessment Process) which was tested in the historical centre of Florence. It is the authors’ view that residual spaces, above all if designed according to a system logic, can go from being problems to potential activators of urban and social regeneration processes, offering a useful contribution to improve city life.

Focusing on the significance of travel in Joseph Conrad, E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, Henry James, and Edith Wharton, Robert Burden shows how travel enabled a new consciousness of mobility and borders during the modernist period. For these authors, Burden suggests, travel becomes a narrative paradigm and dominant trope by which they explore questions of identity and otherness related to deep-seated concerns with the crisis of national cultural identity. He pays particular attention to the important distinction between travel and tourism, at the same time that he attends to the slippage between seeing and sightseeing, between the local character and the stereotype, between art and kitsch, and between older and newer ways of storytelling in the representational crisis of modernism. Burden argues that the greater awareness of cultural difference that characterizes both the travel writing and fiction of these expatriate writers became a defining feature of literary modernism, resulting in a consciousness of cultural difference that challenged the ethnographic project of empire.

"Museums across the world are facing the task of capturing, reflecting and representing the notion of complex identities; personal, religious and ethnic. Narratives of national allegiances are being slowly replaced and supplemented by indigenous and minority voices providing a more complex understanding of diversity especially where intangible heritage is called on as a witness. The approach taken by Scandinavian museums in response to this challenge highlights the hybrid forms of cultural diversity and how they interrelate and work together." "By bringing together debates and discussions of identity and diversity, this volume offers a particular insight into a broad geographic region and its diverse people, from the Sami and the limit to new migrants. It also presents a set of historical views on the formation of national museums and their contested perceptions of identity. Whilst developing new arguments and furthering an ongoing debate, it offers museum curators possible ways forward."--BOOK JACKET.

Landscapes of Liminality expands upon existing notions of spatial practice and spatial theory, and examines more intricately the contingent notion of “liminality” as a space of “in-between-ness” that avoids either essentialism or stasis. It capitalises on the extensive research that has already been undertaken in this area, and elaborates on the increasingly important and interrelated notion of liminality within contemporary discussions of spatial practice and theories of place. Bringing together international scholarship, the book offers a broad range of cross-disciplinary approaches to theories of liminality including literary studies, cultural studies, human geography, social studies, and art and design. The volume offers a timely and fascinating intervention which will help in shaping current debates concerning landscape theory, spatial practice, and discussions of liminality.