Water Worlds: Human Geographies of the Ocean

Dr Jon Anderson is a Senior Lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Cardiff, UK and Dr Kimberley Peters in a Lecturer in Human Geography at Aberystwyth University, UK.

• Contents: Foreword: on thalassography; Introduction: ’A perfect and absolute blank’: human geographies of the ocean, Jon Anderson and Kimberley Peters. Part I Ocean Knowledges: Understanding the Water World: Mediterranean metaphors: travel, translation, and oceanic imaginaries in the ’new Mediterraneans’ of the Arctic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean, Philip E. Steinberg; ’Plenty of weeds and penguins’: charting ocean knowledge, Anne-Flore Laloë; Geographies of coral reef conservation: global trends and environmental constructions, Bärbel G. Bischof; Merging with the medium? Knowing the place of the surfed wave, Jon Anderson. Part II Ocean Experiences: Embodied Performances, Practices and Emotions: The day we drove on the ocean (and lived to tell the tale about it): of deltas, ice roads, waterscapes and other meshworks, Phillip Vannini and Jonathan Taggart; What I talk about when I talk about kayaking, Jon Anderson; Deep ethnography: witnessing the ghosts of SS Thistlegorm, Stephanie Merchant. Part III Ocean Natures: Mobilities and More-Than-Human Concerns: Sustaining livelihoods: mobility and governance in the Senegalese Atlantic, Juliette Hallaire and Deirdre McKay; Governance of the seas: a more-than-human perspective on the Cardigan Bay scallop fishery, Christopher Bear; ’With perfect regularity throughout’; more-than-human geographies of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, Anyaa Anim-Addo; Taking more-than-human geographies to sea: ocean natures and offshore radio piracy, Kimberley Peters. Index.

’This terrific book examines many elements of watery worlds, both historically and in the present. This is a very good example of how a new area of thinking and research can be brought into being through a carefully edited single book. It deserves a wide readership.’ John Urry, Lancaster University, UK ’In this smart collection of essays, human geographers and others are (re)introduced to the watery parts of the globe. If human geographers, and social scientists in general, have been largely neglectful of seas and oceans then this is a brilliant corrective which does some of the necessary catching up. Here the sea becomes a space of both control and rebellion, a material entity as well as a space of representation and practice. It sets an inspiring agenda for further research as it goes some way to filling in the blank space of the sea.’ Tim Cresswell, Northeastern University, Boston, USA