I like the blurring of boundaries idea- I once found a copy of Henri Lefebvre's
Production of Space in the Astronomy section in Waterstone's in Liverpool...
Quoting Carl Griffin <[log in to unmask]>:
> Duncan,
>
> Quite. All book chain stores have taken a noticeable turn away from
> keeping non-technical, non-specialist stock. As such the way in which what
> appears on the shelves of the vast majority of bookshops does not reflect
> ANY academic discipline as it stands today. Try walking into a branch of
> Waterstones and finding a classic - and massive seller - like EP
> Thompson's 'The Making of the English Working Class'! Maps, atlases etc
> merely represent the public face of what the non-academic geography
> community (i.e. the vast majority of the population) perceive to be the
> geographers stock-in-trade.
>
> Of course we need more books for ‘non-academic’ audiences. But these books
> must represent geographical thinking today (yes, not just cartography) and
> as such must not shy away from addressing complex ideas, debates etc. If
> we can manage to get such challenging but ‘popular’ books onto the shelves
> of Waterstones, Borders et al then we are doing rather better than most
> other subjects. Such a course of action - amongst other crucial outreach
> work - is vital unless we are prepared to stand back, as I predicted in my
> previous posting, and watch smaller geography departments be shut down as
> year-on-year fewer and fewer 18 year olds choose to read geography at
> university.
>
> Carl.
>
>
> Dr. Carl J. Griffin,
> Research Fellow in Human Geography,
> Oxford University Centre for the Environment,
> University of Oxford,
> South Parks Road,
> OXFORD,
> OX1 3QY
>
> Tel: 01865 285185
> E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>
>
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