About the Book
In Rhythmanalysis, Henri Lefebvre put forward his ideas on the relationship between time and space, particularly how rhythms characterize space. Here, leading geographers advance and expand on Lefebvre's theories, examining how they intersect with current theoretical and political concerns within the social sciences.
In terms of geography, rhythmanalysis highlights tensions between repetition and innovation, between the need for consistency and the need for disruption. These tensions reveal the ways in which social time is managed to ensure a measure of stability through the instantiation of temporal norms, whilst at the same time showing how this is often challenged.
In looking at the rhythms of geographies, and drawing upon a wide range of geographical contexts, this book explores the ordering of different rhythms according to four main themes: rhythms of nature, rhythms of everyday life, rhythms of mobility, and the official and routine rhythms which superimpose themselves on the multiple rhythms of the body.
Table of Contents:
Contents: Introduction: thinking about rhythm and space, Tim Edensor; Part I Power and the Rhythms of Place: Consuming urban rhythms: let's ravalejar, Monica Degen; Life hacking and everyday rhythm, Tracey Potts; The aesthetics of place-temporality in everyday urban space: the case of Fitzroy Square, Filipa Matos Wunderlich. Part II Resisting Rhythms: Urban outreach and the polyrhythmic city, Tom Hall; Fascinatin' rhythm(s): polyrhythmia and the syncopated echoes of the everyday, Deirdre Conlon; 'I'm in a park and I'm practically dead': insomnia, arrhythmia and Withnail and I, Craig Meadows. Part III Mobile Rhythms: 'He who thinks, in modern traffic, is lost': automation and the pedestrian rhythms of interwar London, Richard Hornsey; Improvising rhythms: re-reading urban time and space through everyday practices of cycling, Justin Spinney; Repetition and difference: rhythms and mobile place-making in Santiago de Chile, Paola Jiron; 'The engine sang an even song': rhythm and mobilities among early women aviators, Dydia DeLyser. Part IV Dressage and Bodies: Rumba and rhythmic 'natures' in Cuba, Shannon Hensley; Equine beats: unique rhythms (and floating harmony) of horses and their riders, Rhys Evans and Alexandra Franklin. Part V Rhythms and Socio-Natures: 'The breath of the moon': the rhythmic and affective time-spaces of UK tides, Owain Jones; Re-thinking catastrophe in the time of climate change, James Evans; Bibliography; Index.
About the Author :
Dr Tim Edensor is Reader in Cultural Geography at the Department of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK
Monica Degan, Tracey Potts, Filipa Matos Wunderlich, Thomas Hall, Deirdre Conlon, Craig Meadows, Richard Hornsey, Justin Spinney, Paola Jiron, Dydia Delyser, Shannon Hensley, Rhys Evans, Alex Franklin, Owain Jones and James Evans.
Review :
'Geographies of Rhythm brings together fascinating contributions to the emerging field of rhythm analysis. Taking its starting point in Henri Lefebvre's inspiring but unfinished analysis, it works through concrete analyses to reach beyond his initial suggestions. The collection addresses a diverse range of issues, which are however connected in a common effort to show how places are always in a process of becoming but at the same time stabilised by repeated patterns of flow or rhythms. This should be a useful text for all those interested in the way in which rhythm analysis can advance the understanding of timespace, place and everyday life.'
'Geographies of Rhythm brings together fascinating contributions to the emerging field of rhythm analysis. Taking its starting point in Henri Lefebvre's inspiring but unfinished analysis, it works through concrete analyses to reach beyond his initial suggestions. The collection addresses a diverse range of issues, which are however connected in a common effort to show how places are always in a process of becoming but at the same time stabilised by repeated patterns of flow or rhythms. This should be a useful text for all those interested in the way in which rhythm analysis can advance the understanding of timespace, place and everyday life.'
Kirsten Simonsen, Roskilde University, Denmark
'There is no doubt that the role of rhythm in the constitution and re-constitution of society is an under-explored facet of our existence. Taking off from Henri Lefebvre's suggestive essay on rhythmanalysis the chapters in this book go a long way to correcting this oversight. From horseriding to piloting planes, from city to the country, from interwar London to contemporary Santiago these smart and welcoming essays chart the role of rhythm in a diverse array of everyday lives. In doing so they bring rhythm right into the centre of an inter-disciplinary understanding of the mobilities of life. This book makes the project of rhythmanalysis a reality and it is sure to be a key reading for generations of scholars to come.'
Tim Cresswell, Royal Holloway, University of London, UK
'Geographies of Rhythm mobilizes Henri Lefebvre's "rhythmanalysis" for the 21st century. Edensor and his contributors show how attention to the polyrhythmic quality of everyday life leads to a new approach to politics, aesthetics and ethics - and to a damning critique of economic rationality and utilitarian thinking and planning.'
Rob Shields, University of Alberta, Canada
