Political Geography

Colin Flint is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at Utah State University, USA.

Peter J. Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Geography at Northumbria University, UK.

The new and updated seventh edition of Political Geography once again shows itself fit to tackle a frequently and rapidly changing geopolitical landscape. It retains the intellectual clarity, rigour and vision of previous editions based upon its world-systems approach, and is complemented by the perspective of feminist geography. The book successfully integrates the complexity of individuals with the complexity of the world-economy by merging the compatible, but different, research agendas of the co-authors.

This edition explores the importance of states in corporate globalization, challenges to this globalization, and the increasingly influential role of China. It also discusses the dynamics of the capitalist world-economy and the constant tension between the global scale of economic processes and the territorialization of politics in the current context of geopolitical change. The chapters have been updated with new examples - new sections on art and war, intimate geopolitics and geopolitical constructs reflect the vibrancy and diversity of the academic study of the subject. Sections have been updated and added to the material of the previous edition to reflect the role of the so-called Islamic State in global geopolitics. The book offers a framework to help students make their own judgements of how we got where we are today, and what may or should be done about it.

Political Geography remains a core text for students of political geography, geopolitics, international relations and political science, as well as more broadly across human geography and the social sciences.

The updated edition explores the corporatization of politics, challenges to globalization, and the increasingly influential role of China. New material includes sections on art and war, intimate geopolitics, geopolitical constructs and the role of the so-called Islamic State in global geopolitics.

Preface to the seventh edition  Tips for reading this book  Acknowledgements  Prologue: episodes in the life and times of a sub-discipline  1 A world-systems approach to political geography  2 Geopolitics rampant  3 Geography of imperialisms  4 Territorial states  5 Nation, nationalism and citizenship  6 Political geography of democracy  7 Cities as localities  8 Place and identity politics  Epilogue: a political geography framework for understanding our twenty-first-century world Glossary  Bibliography  Index