Patterned Ground: Entanglements of Nature and Culture [Paperback]

Patterned Groundunravels the entangled relationships between nature and culture. Around 100 entries by leading names in new geography and related disciplines focus on various ‘objects’ in the landscape – from beaches to battlefields, bees to horses, police stations to post-offices, trees to tractors. Each piece, written by an expert in the field, explores the way in which we understand that object and its relationship to the world around it. This book is neither encyclopedia nor dictionary, but a knowledgeable and impassioned engagement with the world. In this sense, it chimes with earlier experiments in understanding the earth and its landscapes, whether these endeavors have been conducted within the sciences, the social sciences or the arts.

Patterned Groundbacktracks from familiar and obvious ways of seeing patterns in the world, and discovers it anew. In this way, it opens up new possibilities for thinking about the relationships between ourselves, objects and the ground on which we walk.

Stephan Harrisonis Senior Research Associate at the School of Geography, Oxford University.

Steve Pileis Reader at The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Nigel Thriftis Head of the Life & Environmental Sciences Division, Oxford University.

PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
GUIDE FOR READERS
SECTION ONE: FLOW
Introduction
Pipes
Cities
Ecosystems
Rivers
Ridges
Cliffs
Scree
Drifts
Virtual Space
Post Offices
Drumlins
Glaciers
Climate
Lakes
Rivers
Meanders
Railways
Freeways
Fields
Trade
Colonies
Continents
Battlefields
Dust
Pollution
Climate
Lakes
Fire
God
Water
Oceans
Ice Sheets
Sun
Water
Pollutants
Trade
Airports
SECTION TWO: SITE
Introduction
Mountains
Fields
Fieldwork
Hospitals
Wilderness
Parks
Farms
Bogs
Humans
Islands
Beaches
Deslóe