『Introduction to Cultural Geography』 is an introductory book that introduces cultural geography, a subfield of geography, particularly human geography.
This is an introductory book that describes various research methods and major research cases in cultural geography in three categories: △Cultural Practice and Politics △Cultural Objects, Texts, and Media △Social and Cultural Theory.
It systematically explains the core framework of cultural geography and introduces major issues and perspectives in recent cultural geography.
It introduces the past, present, and latest trends in cultural geography, and provides in-depth coverage of concepts, theories, and topics that are considered important in contemporary cultural geography, such as representation and non-representation, everyday life, emotion and affect, and materiality, with abundant case studies.
It can be used as an introductory text for undergraduate students majoring in geography education and geography, and as a research guide for graduate students.

Everything would be a little easier if we could start with a clear, simple, and uncontroversial definition of 'cultural geography'.
However, presenting this kind of definition is misleading and problematic for several reasons.
First of all, there is the word 'culture'.
The terms 'culture' and 'cultural' have many meanings and are very difficult to define precisely.
Culture is one of those words that is very familiar, widely used, and taken for granted, but it is actually quite difficult to define.

---From "Chapter 1 Introduction"

We know that listening to a particular piece of music for even a short time can change a person's mood and influence their feelings about themselves and the spaces they occupy.
These examples demonstrate the potential for specific consumption habits to transform mood and experiences.
Listening to loud ska music can help you forget about your worries and responsibilities, and listening to your favorite music can make time pass more quickly when doing chores or homework.
Listening to music on headphones can transform a long trip, a shopping trip can lift your spirits or make you feel hopeless, a book or movie can stay in your head for days or change the way you see the world, a television program can be the basis for an ice-breaker conversation with a stranger, and shared cultural interests can form the foundation of a friendship or a romantic relationship.
As the previous examples show, consumption is often considered a natural part of everyday life, but consumption practices can sometimes change the geography of everyday life.

---From "Chapter 3 Cultural Consumption"

Each of the approaches described so far in this chapter can be used to create three distinct but overlapping geographies of the scene in the photograph.
To be clear, it is impossible to create a 'complete' geography of this train station.
But we are missing one element.
This is the practice we call 'inhabitation' of a building.
Advocates of political economic and materialist approaches to architecture urge attention to the everyday practices that play a crucial role in giving meaning to buildings.
Both approaches emphasize the importance of physical practices within buildings (Chapter 12): using the building, walking in it, sitting in it, redesigning it, cleaning it, or doing almost anything else you currently do in the building of your choice.

---From Chapter 4 Architectural Geography

So when we think about landscape, we almost always think of it in terms of perspective, a common but specific way of looking at things.
However, as Cosgrove argues, there are many problems with viewing landscapes in perspective.
(…) Looking again at Constable's 'Hay Wagon', it is clear that it is the landowning class that gazes upon the rural workers in the landscape, not the other way around.
Therefore, the concept of perspective is a kind of invention, and even an illusion.
Perspective is a particular way of seeing that has evolved over time, and upon closer examination, it has the potential to be understood as problematic and even oppressive.

---From "Chapter 5 Scenery"

Cohen's point is that the print media is partly responsible for the conflict between the two groups, not simply reproducing it but creating a series of "battles."
He argued that without these reports, the conflict between the two groups would have been far less severe and the resulting violence would not have occurred.
Cohen's case is just one of several approaches that question textual representation and the legitimacy of assuming that it merely represents reality.
In many ways, the geography of texts raises questions about who and what can (or cannot) represent.

---From "Chapter 6: Geography of Text"

But the situation is a little more complicated than this.
Over time, in some areas, certain types of skateboarding became an acceptable part of everyday public spaces.
Nolan shows that while skateboarding has an 'underground' image in Newcastle, Australia, skateboarding is permitted in a variety of public spaces.
In Newcastle, local councillors distinguish between 'good' and 'bad' skateboarding, with 'good' activity being using skateboards as a means of transport and 'bad' activity being performing tricks that cause damage to public or private property.
However, some shopping malls and parks are designated as "no skateboarding zones," so skateboarders simply passing through those zones are behaving both "in place" and "out of place."
Soon, it becomes acceptable behavior in the 'wrong' space.

---From "Chapter 7: Geography of Practice"

This created two problems for Rose.
First, this is the 'standard' that academic geographers assume when writing.
So the voices of geographers were predominantly male, white, and surprisingly narrow and homogeneous.
Second, this also meant that research in human geography (with very few exceptions) made little attempt to consider the diverse experiences of place felt by other social groups, particularly women, ethnic minorities, people with various disabilities, children, and gay, lesbian, or bisexual people.

---From "Chapter 8 Identity"

A conceptual framework called Actor-Network Theory (ANT) has played a crucial role for geographers thinking from this perspective. ANT is one way of looking at the world that "recognizes that societies, organizations, actors, and machines are all the product of patterned networks of diverse materials (not just humans)" (Law, 1992: 2).
That is, geographical issues and contexts (and almost everything in the world) are understood as complex and (to use ANT terminology) heterogeneous associations of humans and non-humans.
Heterogeneous means dissimilar, distinct, and composed of multiple components (i.e., the opposite of homogeneous).

---From "Chapter 10 Matter"

Emotions and feelings are not easily separated from the context of 'real life'.
In fact, these two are always mutually constitutive.
For example, socially constructed emotions often trigger physical affect (a corny love song might make you cry), whereas affective sensations lead to the social construction of emotions (a corny love song might make you cry).
Crucially, both emotions and affect are important to cultural geographers.

---From Chapter 11, Geography of Emotions and Affect

In this section we have examined the various ways in which places and spaces can be said to be socially constructed.
We can see that space and place are not entirely 'natural' or 'neutral' containers for social action, but that individuals and society intervene to shape space according to their needs.
Furthermore, Lefebvre's research on the production of space was instrumental in demonstrating that many spaces tend to represent the needs of dominant groups, particularly the professional elite.
Space is therefore something processual, vibrant, and continuous.
Space and place are always and already in progress.

---From "Chapter 13: Places of Overlook"