Space

Review Lynda Johnston and Robyn Longhurst’s Space, Place, and Sex weaves together the intellectual fruits of the 1990s, highlighting on-going conceptual trajectories as they develop in the 2000s, to demonstrate that sex, sexuality, and gender, on the one hand, and place and space, on the other, are necessarily intimately entwined. . . . While this book is theory-rich, it is exceptionally accessible, with chapters building theory into case study from the ground up. . . . This book will be a valuable read to the comparatively uninitiated with regard to geographies of sexualities because of its accessible, targeted use of theory and case study. It will also be invaluable to feminists, cultural geographers, gender researchers, and queer theorists, as a foundation work outlining future directions in research that does justice to both place and sexualities. ― Women's Studies Journal The authors traverse a range of spaces from the body to the globe in a highly accessible and engaging text. . . . Whether considered alone or as a collection of tightly connected contributions, each chapter in the book mixes original research with critical reviews of existing literature to present a well written and carefully nuanced argument. . . . While the focus of the book might be geographies of sexualities, the authors introduce key geographical concepts such as place, space, scale and embodiment with a rare and refreshing clarity. For these reasons and more, this book should be read by both scholars and students alike and would serve as an excellent text on any course introducing Human Geography. ― New Zealand Geographer With compelling attention to transnational space as well as the body, two of the finest geographers working on gender and sexualities have offered us a fascinating book. It will be of interest to social and cultural geographers, as well as queer theorists who need to enrich their geographical imaginations. -- Michael Brown, University of Washington Johnston and Longhurst have produced a much-needed, accessible volume that intertwines sex, sexuality, and gender, moving from the body to the global. Sexual politics are shown to be integral to everyday lives, making this an important book not only for geographies of sexualities but geography itself, and one that should be on every human geography reading list. -- Kath Browne, University of Brighton I use Space, Place, and Sex as the required reader for a second-year Gender Studies unit, and it’s been highly successful. Students have been really receptive to the book and its ideas, and it has provided a fantastic core for the unit’s development around spatiality. -- Alison Bartlett, University of Western Australia Product Description This accessible and engaging book provides a critical geography of sex and sexuality from the body to the globe. Drawing on queer, feminist, gender, social, and cultural studies, Lynda Johnston and Robyn Longhurst highlight the complex nature of sex and sexuality and how they are connected to both virtual and physical spaces and places. Their aim is to enrich our understanding of sexual identities and practices_whether they be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, asexual, queer, or heterosexual. Drawing on a diverse array of historical and contemporary examples, the authors argue convincingly that sexual politics permeate all places and spaces at every level of geographical scale. Thus, they illustrate, sexuality affects the way people live in and interact with space and place, as space and place in turn affect people's sexuality. About the Author Lynda Johnston is associate professor in the Department of Geography, Tourism and Environmental Planning at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand. Robyn Longhurst is professor in the Department of Geography, Tourism, and Environmental Planning at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.