Taking-Place: Non-Representational Theories and Geography

Dr Ben Anderson and Dr Paul Harrison are both Lecturers in the Department of Geography, Durham University, UK

• 1: The Promise of Non-Representational Theories; I: Life; 2: Vitalist Geographies: Life and the More-Than-Human; 3: Forces of Nature, Forms of Life: Calibrating Ethology and Phenomenology; 4: Placing Affective Relations: Uncertain Geographies of Pain; 5: Non-Representational Subjects?; II: Representation; 6: Representation and Difference; 7: Representation and Everyday Use: How to Feel Things with Words; 8: Language and the Event: The Unthought of Appearing Worlds; 9: Testimony and the Truth of the Other; Interlude; 10: ‘The 27th Letter': An Interview with Nigel Thrift; III: Ethics; 11: Thinking in Transition: The Affirmative Refrain of Experience/Experiment; 12: Encountering O/other Bodies: Practice, Emotion and Ethics; 13: ‘Just Being There …': Ethics, Experimentation and the Cultivation of Care; 14: Ethics and the Non-Human: The Matterings of Animal Sentience in the Meat Industry; IV: Politics; 15: Politics and Difference; 16: Working with Multiples: A Non-Representational Approach to Environmental Issues; 17: Events, Spontaneity and Abrupt Conditions; 18: Envisioning the Future: Ontology, Time and the Politics of Non-Representation

'Non-representational theories have exercised the discipline more than most in the first decade of the 21st century. This collection provides insights into what moved a generation of geographers to experiment with this style of work, and where such experimentation might still lead.' Sarah J. Whatmore, University of Oxford, UK 'I read the manuscript of this book in two (long) sittings. I felt impelled to do so, to keep turning the pages. I was excited, moved, surprised, inspired; but always learning, sensing possibilities for thought-and-action leading me far from my academic comfort zone. As a gathering together of the remarkable intellectual and creative energies released by non-representational theory, this volume is a mightily impressive achievement where the multiple "rough grounds" of bodies, lives, events, movements, relations and spaces are allowed to challenge singular constructs of nature, society, politics, ethics, the human and the future. The volume serves simultaneously as a work of exposition and experiment, a rejoinder to critics, an elaboration of further paths, and a generous affirmation of responding geographically to more-than-representational worlds.' Chris Philo, University of Glasgow, UK 'Taking Place is a beautifully illustrated map of the most interesting work being pursued in geography today. It explores what nature, culture, language, and ethics can become once "social constructivism" has to share the bill with a variety of new materialisms. The book is a wonderful resource for political theorists, ethnographers, urbanists, ecophilosophers, and anyone interested in the strange magic of the encounter between things, events, places, and our accounts of them' Jane Bennett, The Johns Hopkins University, USA 'Taking-Place will be a valuable starting point for those curious about non-representational theories in geography. It also offers much in the way of new ideas and inspiration for those already fascinated by this field.' New Zealand Geographer 'The strength of this collection is the clear purpose expressed in the writing. The various authors are taking subjectivity seriously and trying to address many of the concerns expressed against NRT more generally.' Antipode