Practising Human Geography is a critical introduction to key issues in the practice of human geography, informed by the question 'how do geographers do research?' In examining those methods and practices that are essential to doing geography, the text presents a theoretically-informed discussion of the construction and interpretation of geographical data - including: the use of core research methodologies; using official and non-official sources; and the interpretative role of the researcher.

Framed by an overview of how ideas of practising human geography have changed, the twelve chapters offer a comprehensive and integrated overview of research methodologies. The text is illustrated throughout with text boxes, case studies, and definitions of key terms. Practising Human Geography will introduce geographers - from undergraduate to faculty - to the core issues that inform research design and practice.

This book arises out of an ESRC project devoted to an examination of the economic, social and cultural impacts of the 'service class' on rural areas. The research was an attempt to document these impacts through close empirical work in a set of three rural communities, but something happened on the way. The authors found that the 'rural' became a real sticking point. Respondents used it in different ways - as a bludgeon, as a badge, as a barometer - to signify many different things - security, identity, community, domesticity, gender, sexuality, ethnicity - nearly always by drawing on many different sources - the media, the landscape, friends and kin, animals. It became abundantly clear that the 'rural', whatever chameleon form it took, was a prime and deeply felt determinant of the actions of many respondents. Yet it was also clear that to the authors they possessed no theoretical framework that could allow them to negotiate the 'rural' to deconstruct its diverse nature as a category. Rather each of the extended essays in the book is an attempt by each author to draw out one aspect of the 'rural' by drawing on different traditions in social and cultural theory.

"SAGE Handbooks set a standard amongst compendia for fields within the social sciences...The book is well produced and includes an excellent index..one that will prove useful to graduate students..." Paul B. Thompson, Michigan State University"This book raises the theoretical level of rural studies to new heights the Handbook of Rural Studies will likely become a key resource on the bookshelves of the next generation of graduate students." Gary Paul Green, University of Wisconsin-Madison

"This Handbook powerfully demonstrates that rural spaces, rural societies and rural natures are at the very forefront of critical social science endeavour. Read this book, become a rural social scientist." Henry Buller, University of Exeter"An outstandingly comprehensive review of theory, research and the study of rural questions an essential reference for students, scholars, politicians, developers and rural activists." Imre Kovach, Institute for Political Sciences, Budapest

"This collection is an essential addition to any rural scholar s library and will be a critical resource for both established rural scholars and rising graduate students interested in rural research topics." Peter B. Nelson, Middlebury College"The Handbook of Rural Studies is a tour de force on changing rural people and places in a rapidly urbanizing global economy -- the most comprehensive interdisciplinary treatment of 'rural' available anywhere. This is absolutely must reading for social scientists concerned about finding a prominent place for 'rural' in scholarly discourse, institutional analysis, and public policy debates on the political economy of space." Daniel T. Lichter, Cornell University

The Handbook of Rural Studiesrepresents the vitality and theoretical innovation at work in rural studies. It shows how political economy and the "cultural turn" have led to very significant new thinking in the cultural representations of: rurality; nature; sustainability; new economies; power and rurality; new consumerism; and exclusion and rurality.

It is organized in three sections: approaches to rural studies; rural research: key theoretical co-ordinates and new rural relations.

In a rich and textured discussion, the Handbook of Rural Studies explains the key moments in which the theorization of culture, nature, politics, agency, and space in rural contexts have transmitted ideas back into wider social science."

Practising Human Geography is a critical introduction to key issues in the practice of human geography, informed by the question 'how do geographers do research?' In examining those methods and practices that are essential to doing geography, the text presents a theoretically-informed discussion of the construction and interpretation of geographical data - including: the use of core research methodologies; using official and non-official sources; and the interpretative role of the researcher.

Framed by an overview of how ideas of practising human geography have changed, the twelve chapters offer a comprehensive and integrated overview of research methodologies. The text is illustrated throughout with text boxes, case studies, and definitions of key terms. Practising Human Geography will introduce geographers - from undergraduate to faculty - to the core issues that inform research design and practice.

Spaces of Geographical Thought examines key ideas - like space and place - which inform the geographic imagination. The text: discusses the core conceptual vocabulary of human geography: agency: structure; state: society; culture: economy; space: place; black: white; man: woman; nature: culture; local: global; and time: space; explains the significance of these binaries in the constitution of geographic thought; and shows how many of these binaries have been interrogated and re-imagined in more recent geographical thinking. A consideration of these binaries will define the concepts and situate students in the most current geographical arguments and debates. The text will be required reading for all modules on the philosophy of geography and on geographical theory.