Description

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How do our everyday environments inform our activities, routines and encounters? In what way has globalization affected the sites in which we work, relax and interact? Is there still a place for local identity in a globalized age?

This book examines the ways in which we use local spaces and global processes to shape our identities. Showing how enhanced tourism, communication developments and increased diversity have effected the way we live every day, the text also explains how individuals, communities and cities react to such globalizing forces on a local level. Each chapter unravels complex connections between place, identity and global processes, and carefully outlines what core theory can tell us about key contemporary debates, including surveillance, environmental change and sustainability. Taking examples from urban and rural life, shopping malls and virtual worlds, the book encourages us to look at our immediate surroundings in a sociological light.

Highlighting the interdependence of space and society in a rapidly changing world, this text is essential reading for those studying place and identity in Sociology, Cultural Studies, Geography, Urban Studies and Rural Studies.

About the Author

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DAVID THORNS Professor of Sociology and Director of the Social Science Research Centre at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has over 30 years experience as an urban researcher and has published many books, including The Transformation of Cities (2002). HARVEY PERKINS Professor of Human Geography at Lincoln University, New Zealand. He has over 20 years experience as an urban and regional researcher and consultant throughout the UK and USA.DAVID THORNS Professor of Sociology and Director of the Social Science Research Centre at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has over 30 years experience as an urban researcher and has published many books, including The Transformation of Cities (2002). HARVEY PERKINS Professor of Human Geography at Lincoln University, New Zealand. He has over 20 years experience as an urban and regional researcher and consultant throughout the UK and USA.