Ashgate Publishing Co.

Senses of place; senses of time.

Academics and practitioners in geography and in the museum and heritage fields from across Europe examine the relationships between place and time as they are related through the medium of heritage. By creative imagination, they explain, individuals and societies transform the material world into cultural and economic realms of meaning and lived experience, but there is also a dimension of time, and the possibility of conflict with the meanings that other people attribute to a place. Within sections on creating senses of place from senses of time, the public/official creation of identities, and insiders and outsiders, they explore such topics as the commodification of regional identities, building on Inuit past, and three examples from Belfast of literature and the constitution of place identity. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

A shared legacy; essays on Irish and Scottish art and visual culture.

This collection brings together a unique selection of new research by leading Irish, Scottish, English and North American scholars to explore the ways in which the visual can operate within the context of two countries with related experiences of lost statehood and retained nationhood. Covering three centuries, the essays take the discussion of Irish and Scottish art beyond the former isolationist approach to address the problems of nationality in a wider context. The authors identify national concerns through a range of themes, including race, class, and union/assimilation versus nationalism/internationalism. Several authors incorporate photography, magic-lantern slides and embroidery and textiles, in addition to painting and sculpture, into their considerations of visual culture. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Spatial planning, urban form, and sustainable transport.

The density, shape, configuration, and other urban forms of cities are widely recognized to have an impact on elements of sustainability such as social equity, accessibility, ecology, economic performance, pollution, and health. The 12 papers presented here by Williams (Oxford Brookes U., UK) consider the relationship between urban form and sustainable transport. The papers investigate the relationship between urban form in combination with such factors as changing demographies, different lifestyles, and land use on sustainable transport. They also empirically examine the impact of transport infrastructure on employment development, factors of urban form that affect petroleum consumption, and exposure to air pollution by car drivers in select European cities. The volume concludes with essays that consider planning policies to facilitate sustainable mobility and their operation and are based on research conducted in Australia and the United States. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

St Wulfstan and his world.

Wulfstan of Worcester (1012-95) was an English bishop at the time of the Norman conquest who managed to survive in office when French-speaking Normans were taking over English government and almost all other key positions in the Church and society. Contributors whose fields are unidentified explore such aspects as his politics of accommodation, the library of Worcester and the spirituality of the medieval book, the chronology of forgery production at Worcester from about 1000 to the early 12th century, Wulfstan's estates, the city of Worcester, reconstructing his cathedral, the physical setting of the cult of St. Wulfstan, and music at the cathedral. The 11 papers are from three symposia marking the 900th anniversary of his death. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Time and space; the geohistory of art.

Originating from a session of the same title, held at the 30th International Congress of the History of Art, in London, 2000, and chaired by editors Kaufman and Pilliod (both art & archaeology, Princeton U.), this volume contains essays by nine art historians on topics pertaining to the relation of geography to art. It presents a critique of some of the long-standing central conceptions of geographical reasoning in art history, and opens up new areas of investigation. Topics include Amsterdam, 1200-1700; Chinese painting history; the geohistory of painting practice in China; a critical geography of "new" Central Europe; and how art makes cultures. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Time present and time past; the art of John Everett Millais.

While Manet and Monet were creating impressionism in France, across the channel, Millais (1829-96) was purveying kitsch, Victorian sentimentality. This according to received wisdom in art history. Barlow (history of art, U. of Northumbria-Newcastle) sets out to test that evaluation, looking especially at his later work, after the 10-year period when he was the leading light of the Pre- Raphaelite Brotherhood. He discusses Millais' medievalism, his Ruskin, transitional acts, anecdotal aestheticism, masculine impressions, struggles for power, ghosts and memorials, and his legacy. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Transnational buildings in local environments.

Presas argues that office buildings were once constructed to local standards of environmental sensitivity, whereas those designed and built for multinational corporations can serve as models for environmentally responsible policies and structures within local communities. She describes how the globalization of trade, information, and awareness of environment has transformed cities' approach to place and function, how urban office buildings are being environmentally restructured to meet the resulting expectations, and how globalization has affected ecological modernization. She offers case studies from Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, and Beijing, and closes by describing "glocalization," a process in which transnational corporations and their structures inform urban environments at the local level. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Turning houses into homes; a history of the retailing and consumption of domestic furnishings.

Although it may be said that cave paintings were among the first conscious efforts to make the place a little more homey, it appears that it was not until the 18th century that people understood themselves as consumers. Edwards (art and design, Loughborough U.) shows how retailers became increasingly powerful in issues of taste, how they found specific products to meet general consumer demands for comfort and convenience, how the concepts of "home" and "decoration" became important and complex parts of modern culture, and how, in a sophisticated mass market, the retailer could maintain the illusion of individual attention that persists to the present. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Urban environmental planning; policies, instruments, and methods in an international perspective, 2d ed.

This collection of 23 articles addresses the urgent need to maintain and even enhance urban living situations through environmental management and planning. Primarily studies of real-life situations, the articles address environmental and spatial conflicts in such locations as the UK, Hong Kong, Lisbon, New York, Seattle, and a nuclear weapons site in Washington state. They examine methods and innovations in dealing with negative environment spillovers, including in such urban centers as Seattle and Amsterdam. They also examine the effects of positive environmental spillovers and analyze the spatial plan as a tool for sustainability. They examine how zoning works in Holland, America, and in an integrated study of 12 countries from the latest studies and literature. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Visualising research; a guide to the research process in art and design.

Gray and Malins (both design, Robert Gordon U., Scotland) guide graduate students in art and design through the research process, describing and evaluating appropriate strategies, and suggesting how to embed research experience into contemporary practice. They walk readers through planning the journey, mapping the terrain, locating their position, crossing the terrain, interpreting the map, and recounting the journey. The glossary includes references for further study of each term or concept. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The vital landscape; nature and the built environment in nineteenth-century Britain.

Taylor (design and architectural history and theory, U. of Western Australia) considers the development of landscape architecture and related built structures in 19th-century Britain. He argues that developments in biological and life sciences had a significant influence on how the use of these spaces were conceived and, consequently, their design. He also suggests that the features of these landscapes and spaces that related to conditions of enclosure and exposure, proximity and distance, and interconnectivity came to influence how humans came to think of themselves as having inner worlds of motivations and emotions and outer worlds of environmental and social influences. (Annotation ©2006 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)