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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