- Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
- ISBN: 978-0-8166-2389-1
- Published: June 28, 1996
What is the relationship between place and behavior?
In this fascinating volume, Tim Cresswell examines this question via “transgressive acts” that are judged as inappropriate not only because they are committed by marginalized groups but also because of where they occur.
In Place/Out of Place seeks to illustrate the ways in which the idea of geographical deviance is used as an ideological tool to maintain an established order. Cresswell looks at graffiti in New York City, the attempts by various “hippie” groups to hold a free festival at Stonehenge during the summer solstices of 1984-86, and the Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in Berkshire, England. In each of the cases described, the groups involved were designated as out of place both by the media and by politicians, whose descriptions included an array of images such as dirt, disease, madness, and foreignness.
Reviews
“Through a close reading of that which is considered to be ‘out of place’ in our society, Cresswell casts a brilliant light on the role of space and place in the practices of everyday life and the maintenance of ideological belief. From his choice of data to his mode of analysis, Cresswell, more than any other writer today, reminds one of the late Erving Goffman. This is new cultural geography at its best.”
James S. Duncan
“Cresswell has provided an intriguing set of ideas for thinking through how relations of power are established in and through place, and for how the spaces of economy and society are produced and maintained. . . . deserves a wide readership in any field seeking to understand the role of space in social life.”
Don Mitchell
Once in a great while, a book comes along that is theoretically sophisticated, highly original, analytically compelling, and a pleasure to read. This is one such book. Drawing in a range of contemporary literature and social theorists as well as three case studies, Tim Cresswell persuasively demonstrates that the ideologies that define appropriate and inappropriate behaviour are innately geographical.
Byron Miller Annals of the Association of American Geographers