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Autumn 2008 Vol 93 Part 3 GeographyAN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL In this issue: Poetry and place The geographies of veiling Identity in Britain Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 Abcdefg Geography Editorial Policy Geography aims to re-energise the subject at all levels of education by stimulating dialogue and debate about the essential character and contribution of the subject. It will publish substantive, relevant and challenging articles on all aspects of geography and geographical education with the intention of fulfilling this aim and consolidating the status of the subject in schools, colleges and universities, as well as in the public domain. The Editorial Collective welcome articles which: Articles submitted to Geography should be relevant to the following readership: G Promote conversation, interaction and debate between geographers and educationalists in G Geographers in school schools, colleges and universities; G Geographers in higher education research and teaching G Provide scholarly summaries and interpretations of current research and debates about particular G Teacher educators and researchers in geography aspects of geography or about geography as a education whole; G Undergraduates and postgraduates in geography/ geography education G Present learned summaries and interpretations of current research findings, issues and trends in For information about presentation of material, see geographical education, and education more widely www.geography.org.uk/download/GA_JGeography as relevant to geography; Presentation.pdf G Explore the implications and consequences of change in the subject and in education for the well- Submit your article to: being and progress of geography at all levels; Dorcas Turner, Assistant Editor, G Make meaningful and substantive connections The Geographical Association, between everyday life, public policy and 160 Solly Street, Sheffield S1 4BF geographical understanding and so help widen tel: 0114 296 0088; participation and interest in geography; fax: 0114 296 7176; e-mail: [email protected] G Foster a critical and analytical approach to the subject and aim to challenge popular assumptions about place, space and environment; G Explore and develop opportunities to gain Forthcoming in Geography geographical insights from, and develop synergies with, other disciplines and new and unusual Spring 2009: Sustainability resources. G sustaining geography G sustainable schools G human-wildlife conflict in Ethiopia G sustainability of teacher supply G community conservation in south-west Africa G education for sustainable development G recycling We are currently developing teaching resources based on articles featured in @ Geography. These will be available via the GA website www.geography.org.uk. Check the home- page for news of when these become available. © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 ContentsAbcdefg Contents Editorial: Place and identity 130 Eleanor Rawling for the Editorial Collective Place: encountering geography as philosophy 132 Tim Cresswell The geographies of veiling: 140 Muslim women in Britain Claire Dwyer Contesting the urban renaissance: 148 journalism and the post-industrial city Tim Hall Is the future secure for 158 geography education? Graham Butt Challenging Assumptions 166 Identity in Britain: investigating the social geology Bethan Thomas Spotlight on… Poetry and place Introduction 171 Eleanor Rawling Poetry and place: some personal reflections 172 Owen Sheers A sense of place: W.B. Yeats and 176 ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ Keith Hopper Poetry and place: the shape of words 181 Hayden Lorimer Review article: The Corruption of 183 the Curriculum David Lambert Reviews 186 Edited by Hedley Knibbs Indexes to Volume 93 (2008) 192 129 Annual Conference and Exhibition INVESTIGATING GEOGRAPHY University of Manchester • 16-18 April 2009 I Value for money CPD I Extensive programme of topical lectures I Hands-on workshops for all phases I Keynote Address on Natural Hazards by the BBC’s Iain Stewart I A new series of sessions focusing on and reporting recent research into geographical education I Evening and daytime social events For further details and online booking visit: www.geography.org.uk/annualconference www.geography.org.uk furthering the learning and teaching of geography © Geography 2008 Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 geographical study. How disappointing, then, that the Editorial: restructured pilot geography GCSE no longer features AbcdefgEditorial its innovative option modules, so schools have lost the possibility of studying the Geography in the News Place and option. identity The question of ensuring school geography’s relevance and dynamic links with the university subject is one Eleanor Rawling considered by Graham Butt in his article ‘Is the future for the Editorial Collective of geography education secure?’. After examining declining examination entries and some of the he Autumn 2008 issue of Geography features a problems implicit in the changing social, political and range of articles covering topics as diverse as educational contexts, Butt examines the implications TMuslim women in Britain, innovative mapping for the geography community. This article is essential techniques and poetry and place. However, there are reading for all geographers whether in schools, some common themes and emphases – notably place universities or the professions. and identity. This issue has a special Spotlight on Poetry and Place Tim Cresswell looks at how place study has developed feature which aims to provoke thinking about the over the past 40 years and gives examples of how expressive relationship which poetry has with place, current approaches can illuminate issues in Britain and what geographers and educationalists can learn today. He notes that the most frequent answer given from a stronger engagement with expressive writing. by potential students to the question ‘why study Two of the contributors are not geographers: Keith geography?’ is ‘an interest in places’, although they Hopper is a lecturer in literature and film studies and usually refer to the details of actual places rather than Owen Sheers is a published poet and writer. Between to any general ideas. He makes a plea for young them, their contributions illuminate different facets of people to ‘encounter geography as philosophy’ and so ‘a sense of place’. Hopper’s detailed reading and to consider place as a set of changing ideas. ‘Thinking deconstruction of Yeats’s poem, ‘The Lake Isle of about place in this way,’ he argues, ‘provides students Innisfree’, demonstrates how the actual island is hard with the tools to get beyond the specifics of a to equate with the poetic description and how Yeats’s particular case study and to approach any number of imagery has been ‘commodified’ by tourism and the real world geographies imaginatively and thoughtfully’. film industry. Yet, analysis of the poem reveals how Yeats’s sense of place was actively constructed in the One of Cresswell’s examples concerns immigration in gap between the real and imagined worlds. Sheers, by Britain and this is developed in Claire Dwyer’s in-depth contrast, examines his personal experiences of poetry study of the geographies of veiling. Dwyer draws on and place, as intricately intertwined in the creative her recent research project with young British Muslim process (‘places define poems which define places’). women in two schools to illustrate how ‘veiling is a Finally, cultural geographer Hayden Lorimer has written spatial practice … invested with different meanings in a brief commentary inspired by these articles and the different contexts’ of the home, the mosque, the presenting his own interest in the ‘new moves afoot in school and the street. Identity is explored in a different cultural geography’ that place an increased emphasis way in Bethan Thomas’s article ‘Identity in Britain’, on ‘creative performance, presentation and writing of where she explains how a new atlas challenges our geographical studies of place and landscape’. assumptions about the social geography of Britain by using some innovative mapping techniques. The editorial collective hopes that you enjoy this issue and that it will stimulate at least some of you to write Tim Hall’s article ‘Contesting the urban renaissance’ for the journal. As the format, length and style of the is interested in how the journalistic narratives articles is now different, we urge you to read the employed by the national press affect our perceptions advice regarding Editorial Policy and Presentation of of place. He uses examples of urban regeneration Materials. These are available either via the GA projects to show how the press consistently website (www.geography.org.uk/journals/thenew challenges myths about the post-industrial city. geography) or by e-mailing Dorcas Turner Teachers at all levels will be sympathetic to Hall’s plea ([email protected]). 131 that press coverage should be analysed critically in Geography Vol 93 Part 3 Autumn 2008 © Geography 2008 Place: encountering geography as philosophy contemporary society. The final section of the article Place: illustrates these issues by looking at the way notions of place can inform our approaches to British high streets, the politics of immigration and the interrelations encountering between digital media and the material landscape. The article argues for an earlier encounter with geography as philosophy in order to inform and enliven familiar geography as themes in contemporary geography.