This study evaluates debates about modern cultures, both within and outside of human geography. Its purpose is to demonstrate the centrality of geographical concerns of areal differentiation and integration in contemporary considerations of the cultural. Philip Crang argues that there is no simple relationship between cultural identity and place. Instead, he develops a three-fold geographical framework for cultural analysis. Firstly, he argues that the cultural is local, constituted in particular contexts; secondly, that in the modern world these contexts are produced through flows of people, ideas and artefacts across time and space; and thirdly, that rather than resulting in a homogenized, singular world culture, these flows are associated with the staging and performance of constructed cultural differences. This text articulates this framework through discussions of spatial constructions of near and far, public and private, and the tasteful and untasteful. It brings together debates on the cultural geographies of race, class, gender, age and sexuality.
Drawing on case study material from a variety of countries, this text should be welcomed by those seeking a fresh and challenging perspective on the relations between culture, space and place.