Notes on Geographical Worlds – edited by John Allen and Doreen Massey 
1995, Oxford University Press: Oxford

Introduction

“our knowledge of the world and how we make sense of it is always from a certain standpoint, a certain location (p.2) – therefore geography is about understanding ‘us’ as well as ‘them’
-	because of this there are aw plurality of geographical imaginations
these imaginations are what we use to “develop a sense of the global nature of places…[and of] how we are all connected” (p.3)

-	there are many globalisations which unevenly affect the world – “each ‘globalization’ is constructing a different world” (p.3)

Chapter One – Imagining the World

As an example, the chapter looks at various issues concerning the ownership of land, and notes various problems in ascribing certain areas of land to certain groups of people, such as:
-	groups are rarely ‘indigenous’ or ‘undiluted’ – so arguments that groups ‘have always been there’ rarely form valid claims
-	can anybody have the right to claim exclusive ownership over an area of land?

The key question is not just who occupies the land, but how they relate to the natural world, will one groups understanding and use of nature prevent the co-existence of another, with a different view

The global nature of local issues such as land is needs to be recognized – does a global need for a resource, timber, say, justify denying people access to things that have ‘always been there’?

Different types of knowledge also need to be recognized – practical –‘how long does it take to walk’ instead of “abstract generalizable units”

Maps are means of representing things – and therefore decided their importance,
-	“the particular interpretation a map adopts helps endow a place with that meaning” (p.20)
-	“the way we imagine the world matters: it has effects” (p.21)
e.g. ‘the West’ vs. ‘the communists’ – no examination of capitalist ideology, or lack of study of Iraqi

maps are social contructions as much as they are technical products