Georges Benko

Geography, History and Social Sciences - GeoJournal Library Georges Benko 1995 edition

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Table of Contents: Part I: Introduction. 1. Geography, history and social sciences: an introduction; G. B. Benko. Part II: Spatial Thinking in History. 2. Lefebvre, Lacan and the production of space; D. Gregory. 3. World time and world space, or just hegemonic time and space? M. Santos. 4. The language of space; M. Foucault. 5. Geography before geography: Pre-Hellenistic meteors and climates; J.-F. Staszak. 6. Geographical systems and the order of reality; M. Hampl. Part III: Cities and Landscapes in Time. 7. Landscapes as overlapping neighbourhoods; T. Hagerstrand. 8. The urban and the rural: an historical-geographic overview; C. M. Weaver. 9. Space and creativity. Belle Epoque' Paris: genesis of a world-class artistic centre; P. Claval. 10. From Weimar to Nuremberg: social legitimacy as a spatial process in Germany, 1923-1938; U. Strohmayer. Part IV: Economics. 11. Contemporary acceleration: world-time and world-space; M. Santos. 12. Structural change, theories of regulation and regional development; M. F. Dunford, D. Perrons. 13. Theory of regulation and territory: an historical view; G. B. Benko. Part V: Politics. 14. Territoriality and the state; R. J. Johnston. 15. The spatial and the political: Close encounters; J. Levy. 16. Space and communication: a brief analytical look at the concept of space in the social theory; J. Lazar. Part IV: Conclusion. 17. Conclusion: the spatialization of thesocial sciences; U. Strohmayer. List of figures. Contributors. Index."Publisher Marketing: Georges Benko -Societies are much messier than our theories of them- Michael Mann The Sources of Social Power 1 Towards a unified social theory Why are there communication problems between the different disciplines of the social sciences? And why should there be so much misunderstanding? Most probably because the encounter of several disciplines is in fact the encounter of several different histories, and therefore of several different cultures, each interpreting the other according to the code dictated by its own culture. Inevitably geographers view other disciplines through their own cultural filter, and even a benevolent view remains 'ethnocentric'. It was in order to avoid such ethnocentricity that Femand Braudel called for more unity among the social sciences in 1958: -l wish the social sciences . . . would stop discussing their respective differences so much . . . and instead look for common ground . . . on which to reach their first agreement. Personally I would call these ways: quantification, spatial awareness and 'longue duree'-. In its place at the center of the social sciences, geography reduces all social reality to its spatial dimensions. Unfortunately, as a discipline, it considers itself all too often to be in a world of its own. There is a need in France for a figure like Vidal de la Blanche who could refocus attention away from issues of time and space, towards space and social reality. Geographic research will only take a step forward once it learns to address the problems facing all the sciences."

Contributor Bio:  Benko, Georges Georges Benko is Professor of Geography at the University of Paris I (Pantheon-Sorbonne). He is a member of the editorial boards of "Espaces et Societes" and "GeoJournal" and editor of the series "Geographies en Libert&eacute" and "Theorie Sociale Contemporaine," both published by l'Harmattan in Paris. He is the author of "Geographie des Technopoles" (Masson), co-author (with Alain Lipietz) of "Les Regions qui Gagnent" and editor of various books on Industrial Change and Social Theory. Ulf Strohmayer is currently lecturer in human geography at the University of Wales, Lampeter. He is the author of numerous articles, co-editor of two books and author, together with Matthew Hannah, of "Gnostic Materialism: Cosmology and the Ruins of Social Theory."Contributor Bio:  Strohmayer, Ulf Ulf Strohmayer is a graduate of Munich Technical University and The Pennsylvania State University. Currently, he is Professor of Geography at the National University of Ireland, Galway, after teaching previously at the University of Wales at Lampeter. Educated in Germany, Sweden, USA and France, he has also held visiting teaching and research posts at the Universite de Pau et des Pays de L Adour, Dresden Technical University, Binghamton University and the Maison des Sciences de l Homme in Paris. His interest in social theory and philosophy is matched by an equal curiosity about the conditions and consequences of historical processes of modernisation in Western Europe, all of which have informed his extensive publication record. He has also edited numerous volumes on social theory and the history of geographic thought.