Abstract
The “inspiring book” is a highly interesting work by Doreen Massey, able to trigger points of critical reflection that directly and indirectly make it possible to understand why “geography matters”. Despite the fact that the book is not exactly “new”, many of the issues addressed still seem highly relevant and unresolved today, such as the increase of inequality in the world, local identities in a shifting world, places in the context of a global world, international migration, Europe and the new boundaries. Doreen’s legacy lies in the fact that we can use her ideas as a kind of ‘open source’, always bearing in mind openness—social and spatial equalities—and a different, better kind of future. She has inspired generations of geographers to see the world differently introducing her “relational” approach to understanding space—the dimension that presents us with the existence of others and place—continuously builts and rebuilts through relations. She was an inspiring and open teacher guaranteeing that the courses dealt with issues that were socially and politically important. The theory was never abstract for her. She had a strong sense of responsibility for the world's complexity, for politics and the injustices of contemporary life.
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Notes
- 1.
The “The Shape of the World” course was offered between 1995 and 2005 at the Open University (Undergraduate course, Social Sciences, 30 ECTS credits, 32 weeks, approximately 600 h of study). It was taught “by distance-learning methods, and the books supplement course materials provided to the enrolled students, TV and radio programmes, tutorials and summer schools” (Johnston 1998, 129).
- 2.
The five books are: “Geographical Worlds” (1995) by Allen and Massey, “A Shrinking World? Global Unevenness and Inequality” (1995) by Allen and Hamnett, “An Overcrowded World? Population, Resources and the Environment” (1995) by Sarre and Blunden, “A Place in the World? Places, Cultures and Globalization” (1995) by Massey and Jess, “A Global World? Re-ordering Political Space” (1995) by Anderson, Brook and Cochrane.
- 3.
The Open University (http://www.open.ac.uk/) was established in the United Kingdom in 1969 to open up higher education to all, regardless of background or circumstances. It was the world’s first successful distance teaching university, founded on communications technology and innovation. Its mission is to be open to people, places, methods and ideas—and as such, equality and diversity are at the heart of everything it does. It has promoted educational opportunity and social justice by providing high-quality education to more than 2 million people. It is the leading university for flexible, innovative teaching and world-leading research in the United Kingdom and in 157 countries worldwide.
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The author is grateful to Beppe Dematteis for his important suggestions and Ian Lister for his feedbacks in improving the flow of this chapter.
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Rossignolo, C. (2022). A Place in the World? Places, Cultures and Globalization, 1995. Doreen Massey’s Lessons: Is the World Really Shrinking or Is the Geography of the World Teaching Us Openness and Diversity?. In: Perrone, C. (eds) Critical Planning and Design. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-93107-0_9
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