Alex Hughes

Suzanne Reimer

Individuals, consumer groups, nation states and supra-national bodies increasingly have interrogated the ethics of particular production and consumption relations such as GM foods. Flowing from and bound up with these political concerns is the growing interest in the mutual dependence of sites of (for example) production, distribution, retailing, design, advertising, marketing and final consumption. This timely volume draws together contributions concerned with the production, circulation and consumption of commodities. Not only do these case study examples seek to transcend older understandings of production and consumption, but they also explicitly tap into wider public debate about the meanings, origins and biographies of commodities. Taking a geographical approach to the analysis of links between producers and consumers, the book focuses upon the ways in which these ties increasingly are stretched across spaces and places. Critical engagements with the ways in which these spaces and places affect the economies, cultures and politics of the connections between producers and consumers are skilfully threaded through each section.

Geographies of Commodity Chains

Justin Spinney

Philip Pinch

This book brings together research working at the boundary between design knowledges and mobilities, offering a novel collection for both theorists and practitioners. Drawing upon detailed case studies, it demonstrates the diverse roles of design in shaping mobility at different spaces and scales: across cities; within different types of buildings and infrastructures; and through commuting, work and leisure activities. A range of international scholars illustrate the designed mobilities of car parks, traffic lights, street benches, pedestrian wayfinding systems and accessible design in the urban environment; they examine spaces within hospitals, airports and train stations and investigate design practices for bicycles, future urban vehicles and MotoGP motorcycle racing. Other contributions explore overlooked mobile artefacts such as television and video game remote controls, 3D printing and the types of packaging which enable objects themselves to move around. This book demonstrates how the tools, assumptions and processes of design shape spaces of mobility, and also illuminates how shifts in the fluidity and circulation of people, practices and materials in turn reconfigure practices of design. Mobilising Design develops multi-disciplinary understandings of design, drawing upon diverse literatures including design history, product design, architecture and cultural geography. By highlighting often invisible artefacts and associated knowledges and controversies, the book foregrounds the taken-for-granted ways in which everyday mobility is designed. It will be of interest to scholars in geography, sociology, economic history, architecture, design and urban theory.

Suzanne Reimer

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