Geographer Edward Soja's book discusses the critical intellectual landscape of Geography as a field that increasingly concerns more fields crossing the academia. Focusing on the 'spatial turn' of critical theory, Soja attempts to introduce such an emphasis into 'space' to geography and foster a re-thinking within the discipline itself. This turn in relation to art is of crucial importance, in terms of how contemporary art practices actively engage with the ideas of space, border, and to a wider extent the regional and the national. Moreover, these practices are also subject to (unconscious) engagements with the politics of space.

'Postmodern Geographies stands as the cardinal broadcast and defence of theory's spatial turn. From the suppression of space in modern social science and the disciplinary aloofness of geography to the spatial returns of Foucault and Lefebvre and the construction of Marxist geographies alert to urbanization and global development, renowned geographer Edward W. Soja details the trajectory of this turn and lays out its key debates. An expanded critique of historicism and a refined grasp of materialist dialectics bolster Soja s attempt to introduce geography to postmodernity, animating a series of engagements with Heidegger, Giddens, Castells, and others. Two exploratory essays on the postfordist landscapes of Los Angeles complete the book, offering a glimpse of Soja s new geography carried into its highest register.' - from back cover.

Includes a bibliography and an index.