This book examines how ideas about place and space have been transformed in recent decades. It
offers a unique understanding of the ways in which postcolonial writers have contested views of
place as fixed and unchanging and are remapping conceptions of world geography with chapters
on cartography botany and gardens spice ecologies animals and zoos and cities as well as
reference to the importance of archaeology and travel in such debates. Writers whose work
receives detailed attention include Amitav Ghosh Derek Walcott Jamaica Kincaid Salman
Rushdie Michael Ondaatje and Robert Kroetsch. Challenging both older colonial and more recent
global constructions of place the book argues for an environmental politics that is attentive
to the concerns of disadvantaged peoples animal rights and ecological issues. Its range and
insights make it essential reading for anyone interested in the changing physical and human
geography of the contemporary world.
