ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits Massey’s 1991 seminal text ‘A global sense of place’ to show its significance today. It makes five main arguments: first, that by asking spatial questions ‘A global sense of place’ enriched Marxist geography’s focus on capital with debates on gender and race. Second, that the concept of ‘power-geometries’ introduced in the text provides us with an understanding of the unequal positions of places in a global system of power relations. Third, that Massey shows here how a preoccupation with place can indeed be a progressive endeavour, raising questions of geographical responsibility. Fourth, that our conceptualizations of spatial relations, far from being just an intellectual exercise, have implications for our politics in place and across places. Finally, that Massey’s choice of medium and language are conscious choices to undermine the distanced authority of the academic intellectual and find a more direct way of talking to broader audiences.
