Johnston Spatial Politics for Massey

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technologies have enabled working on themove.

This section of the book highlights how thechallenge for any author is providing relevant

facts that are meaningful for an internationalaudience. Thus, data presented in this sectionis predominantly orientated towards North

America and Europe, although Asia and Africaare discussed in relation to the internet andmobile communications. While general trans-port statistics give an interesting overview ofhistorical change, it hides the spatial variation

within countries, regions and cities that linkricher debates such as access and equity (orlack of it).

The third section is a slim discussion of someof the spatial implications of mobility (corpo-real and virtual), but again this falls back to alimited overview of some existing debates ratherthan presenting fresh evidence or theoreticalconsiderations. So yes, we do know that air traveland technology have manifestly reconfiguredthe global world, but what are the challenges forsociety, changing global and local economies,let alone the environment? For instance,chapter 11 takes on the topic of e-shopping

demonstrating how this has taken off in varyingdegrees in different nations. Kellerman sellssuch developments around concepts of conve-nience, speed and accessibility. E-shopping canbe done anywhere at any time, and amazinglycould turn into a form of empowerment for

women, notably in developing nations (p.189). I am not sure whether Kellerman is infer-ring that men might now do the shopping, orthat women can just manage this task moreeasily between low paid part time work, drop-

ping off the kids at school and cleaning thehouse through the use of their smart phone onthe bus or walking the odd mile to the nearest

water point. Either way the impact on local highstreets or local traders and local communities,the environmental aspects of logistics ofe-shopped goods, or the exploitation of labourto service e-shopping is not mentioned at all. Asmobility and changes to mobility (e.g. the roleof mobile communications and the internet)has such far reaching social and economic

implications, it is a shame that Kellerman hasnot seized the opportunity to reveal thesecomplex interconnections, and at least raise thequestions if not provide answers.

In Daily Spatial MobilitiesKellerman has pro-duced what is at best a useful book for under-graduates to grasp some key perspectives onsome of the current mobilities debates, and at

its worst a superficial overview with facts thatwill soon fall out of date. He has some novelty indrawing together different perspectives fromacross the disciplines that contribute to thestudy of transport and mobility, but sadly

without a new or radical stance that left mefeeling rather disappointed.

References

Jain, J., T.Line& G.Lyons(2011), A Troublesome

Transport Challenge? Working Round the SchoolRun. Journal of Transport Geography 19, pp. 1608

1615.

Shaw, J. & S. Hesse (2010), Transport, geography

and the new mobilities. Transactions of the Institute

of British Geographers35, pp. 305312.

University of the West of England Juliet Jain

Spatial Politics: Essays for Doreen Massey.DAVID FEATHERSTONE & JOE PAINTER, eds.Chichester 2013: Wiley-Blackwell. 300 pp. ISBN 978-1-4443-3831-7 (cloth); 978-1-4443-3830-0 (paper),39.95.

The publication offestschriftenvolumes is a rela-tively rare occurrence in British geographynow. This reflects a range of factors not least

the changing nature of the academic publish-ing industry but more importantly, perhaps,the changing nature of the geographical enter-prise. Compared to the situation only a fewdecades ago, the number of practising geogra-phers contributing substantially to the disci-plines research literature has increased manyfold. Previously, a few individuals dominatedthe discipline, not only its intellectual agendabut also the pattern of appointments to uni-

versity posts. (Think of Darby, Stamp and

Wooldridge in England: in Germany, ElisabethLichtenberger referred to a few popes hav-ing such influence!) Today, the institutionalstructure is much more democratic and many

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intellectual agendas are being continuallycreated and re-created through structurationprocesses as the work of a myriad scholars isintertwined.

Nevertheless, a few individuals make verysubstantial and significant contributions to thediscipline and have been the subjects of such

volumes although the termfestschriftis rarelyused. Doreen Massey is a more than entirely

worthy addition to that list of persons so hon-oured and, like some other recent additions tothe genre (David Harvey and David Smith butnot Dick Chorley and Peter Haggett), she hascontributed to the book herself. The justifica-tion for honouring Doreen is made by one of

the contributors Rogrio Haesbaert (a Brazil-ian professor): A great geographer . . . is notthe one who can demonstrate dominance ofthe literature in his or her specialty, but one

who is able to contribute something new, tooffer an innovative reading and thus make aunique contribution to their whole field(p. 147). His and his co-authors contributionsdemonstrate Doreens justified stature in thiscontext, despite her expressed dislike of bigglobal stars . . . strutting the worlds stage

(p. 260).The opening and concluding chapters ofSpatial Politics provide contextual material,comprising a substantial editorial introductoryoverview of The many trajectories of DoreenMassey and a concluding editorial conversa-tion with her. There is also a brief Foreword byKen Livingstone which, apart from reflectingon Doreens political activity and impact, pro-

vides a fascinating brief critique of the contem-porary UK economic and political situations

from the left. These three pieces do not providea full memoir of her career, however: there areno reflections on her time as a student atOxford; on her work at the Centre for Environ-mental Studies in London; on the SocialScience Research Councils specially-createdresearch fellowship to which she was appointedto undertake the work at the London School ofEconomics which led to Spatial Divisions of Labour; or on her contributions to the manyinnovative courses she was involved in at the

Open University.Any long and highly productive career especially one such as Doreens characterisedby innovation leaves a whole variety of traces

through the relevant literature(s the plural isparticularly apposite here). Some can readilybe captured in her case by key phrases notablyspatial divisions of labour, power geometry, and

a global sense of place. They, like all of herwork, illustrate the predominant theme of hercareer encapsulated in the title of a book sheedited with John Allen Geography Matters!

Doreens many and varied contributions toscholarly and political debate over the last fourdecades have been readily compartmentalisedby the editors into four categories: Space, poli-tics, and radical democracy; Regions, labourand uneven development; Reconceptualisingplace; and Political trajectories. Each con-

tains several essays not all of them by academ-ics, let alone geographers whose authors drawon Doreens inspirations. They vary consider-ably. Some provide excellent overviews of bothher work and others that it has stimulated such as David Slaters on Space, democracyand difference, Allan Cochranes on Spatialdivisions and regional assemblages, JamiePecks on Making space for labour, and Jane

Wills on Space and politics. Others are lessimpressive and some less central to any of

Doreens trajectories. A few including one bya professor of communication studies! aresomewhat impenetrable, certainly to somebodyused to Doreens clarity and not versed in thelanguages and theories they deploy.

The range of authors and their subjectmatter from the socialist transformation of

Venezuela (by a government minister aformer professor of geography) to AotoreaNew Zealands Waitangi Tribunal; from hege-monic spatial orders to photographic spatial

experiments; and from the interactionsbetween societies and nature to politicalempowerment in place illustrate the range ofDoreens interests, scholarly interactions andpolitical interventions. That wide spread ofsubject matter and the varying origins and life/career trajectories of those participating in thisproject themselves illustrate her concept of aglobal sense of place varying strands beingdrawn together into this particular immutablemobile.

Featherstone and Painter say that theirvolume was compiled to honour, engage withand take forward Doreen Masseys vital geo-graphical and political contributions (p. 1). It

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certainly does that, placing those contributionsin context and illustrating their continuingimportance to so much contemporary work.Several leading scholars have received more

than one festschrift; retirement from formal,full-time employment is often just a way stationalong a trajectory the work continues, but

without a salary and administration/meetings.We can hope for (expect) much more fromDoreen and anticipate that it will stimulatefurther opportunities to reflect on and cel-

ebrate her contributions and their impact.

University of Bristol Ron Johnston

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Johnston Spatial Politics for Massey

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