Written by: Anthony Watkins on October 12, 2015

The book starts out announcing that Social Geography is an inherently ambiguous and eclectic field to research. From the beginning of time as we know it, there has been a social grouping, a social scale. This scale basically separates the “haves” and the “have-nots.” People were labeled based on geographic locations. Although this basic look by Valentine views cultural and political geographies as a subtitle of space and society, this brought about a new framing tool to view social identities by race, gender, sexual identity and disability, not to mention income position.

I was a little taken aback with this reading about social geographies. I was born in 1948 and raised in the Hill-top area of Tacoma, Washington – a predominantly black society. Since I lived in a blue collar community, I never really recognized social geographies in my youth.

Valentine also writes about social justice as a responsibility of the human race. I agree that when any of us see social injustice, we must question it and do our part to solve it.

About the Author

Anthony Watkins