Beyond the Map (from the author of Off the Map)
Unruly enclaves, ghostly places, emerging lands and our search for new utopias
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- £10.99
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- £10.99
Publisher Description
Geography is getting stranger. Out there, fleets of new islands are under construction and micro-nations are struggling into the light. As new borders and boundaries ebb and flow with increasing speed, it feels as if our old maps are being discarded, redrawn or torn up.
Alastair Bonnett uncovers the stories of thirty-nine extraordinary places, each of which challenges us to re-imagine the world around us. From emerging islands, disruptive enclaves and bold utopian visions to uncanny ruins, ghostly tunnels and hidden landscapes – these are destinations that lie beyond ordinary coordinates.
A follow on from the critically acclaimed Off the Map, this is a timely and fascinating discussion of place, ownership and ideas of state.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Ranging from downright funny to deadly serious, each chapter in this guide from social geography professor Bonnett (New Views) takes the reader on a journey to an unusual location. These spots are physical (infamous Mokattam Village, also known as Cairo's Garbage City) and virtual (the online world Second Life), and exist in the past (Doggerland, a chunk of southern England now sunk beneath the sea), present (the Islamic State) and future (new islands rising in the Gulf of Bothnia, between Sweden and Finland.) On the surface, these places have little in common. But Bonnett isn't interested in surfaces. His point is that even in the age of Google Earth, many places defy mapping, and that defiance reveals much about how humanity both influences and is influenced by its natural and man-made surroundings. Bonnett calls into question the very solidity of "place" itself, and big issues like pollution and global warming, ethnic violence, and the plight of the global poor hover over all he has to say. "The world exhibited here is fragmented and fragmenting," he writes. By turns delightful and sobering, this book, like the best travel, inspires both the mind and the imagination.
