About the Book
LOGICS OF DISLOCATION is the first volume to systematically apply a postmodern sensibility to economic geography. In clear, jargon-free prose, author Trevor J. Barnes integrates a comprehensive review of economic geography's recent past with innovative work in economics, philosophy, and the sociology of science, clarifying key poststructuralist ideas and demonstrating their relevance to the field. In its critique of the rationalism and essentialism that characterizes prevailing models in the field, and its exploration of alternative conceptualizations, this book offers both a novel reconstruction of economic geography's past and a basis for a reconceived future.
About the Author :
Trevor J. Barnes, Ph.D., grew up in Cornwall and attended University College, London, completing a joint degree in economics and geography in 1978. He continued his studies at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. In 1983, he moved to the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where he is currently Professor of Geography.
Review :
..".superb ...anyone interested in economic geography per se or its kindred fields (such as urban and regional economics or regional science), or more generally in the production of place, should read Barnes's book. Throughout, Barnes displays remarkable intellectual breadth and scope, keen critical abilities, sensitivity to wider sociopolitical debates and contexts, and a lively, highly readable prose style. I highly recommend Logics of Dislocation to geographers and nongeographers alike." -- Jennifer R. Wolch, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, The Annals of the American Academy ..".ambitious, stimulating and clearly written." --Keith Bassett, Department of Geography, University of Bristol, Bristol, U.K., Geoforum.
"In doing so, Barnes has written the best book about economic geography that I have ever read. I provides a context and a justification for what Barnes describes as economic geography moved by Anti-Enlightenment thought, or what he describes 'post-prefixed' economic geographies, which include feminist-informed analyses of labor markets, and development geography which draws upon post-colonial theory, and which continue to proliferate. Such approaches reject the search for one form of economic order and for a single rationality, but accept a multiple vision of economies, which are consistently being made, worked upon, and contested. ...the book is a model of clear, convincing and compelling writing. It is a pleasure to read." -- Andrew Leyshon, Geography, University of Bristol, UK. Growth and Change
"Logics of Dislocation creatively and thoughtfully 'reconstructs' economic geography in the light of recent post-Enlightenment approaches to knowledge and social theory. Offering open-ended examples and explorations rather than a blueprint for the future of the field, Trevor Barnes has written an engaging book that will attract scholars and students alike, speaking not only to those on the cutting edge of poststructuralist thought but also to the historian of geographic thought. The book is critical but modest, highly readable but rigorously responsible to complex debates, open to new ideas but attracted to old ones--and able to detect their possibilities for innovative (re)combination. If you want a book that can engage with theory (from neoclassical economics to Marxism), method (from spatial science to deconstruction), language (from mathematics to metaphor), and the practice of geographical research, here's one you can read with profit and pleasure." --Julie Graham, Ph.D., Dept of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
"Trevor Barnes wants to rewrite the agenda on economic geography by telling stories about the history of the subject and the subject itself which make the Familiar into the strange and the strange into the Familiar. That, in large part, he succeeds is a tribute to the quiet power of his writing, the breadth of his vision, of what constitutes economic geography, his eye for the telling juxtaposition and his ability to unerringly go for the intellectual jugular. This is a book, then, that will be of interest to not only economic geographers, but all those who subscribe to the importance of interdisciplinary work on the economy, from whatever background." --Professor Nigel Thrift, Bristol University, Bristol, UK
"The 1970s and 1980s were remarkable decades in the development of economic geography. In the space of fifteen years, a series of critical projects--Marxism, critical realism, localities, and flexible production--emerged to challenge the Enlightenment project of the 1960s quantitative revolution. These developments served to elevate the discipline to a position of unprecedented visibility within the wider social sciences. In this book, Barnes fixes his own analytical gaze on these critical projects and finds them wanting. In careful and convincing fashion, he first demonstrates the fundamentally rationalist underpinnings of these ideas, then embarks on his own penetrating critique of the Enlightenment project of spatial science. The result is a dazzling display of intellectual virtuosity, certain to cement Barnes's reputation as one of human geography's leading theoretical minds." --Professor Meric Gertler, Ph.D., Univ of Toronto
