Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies (28 page)
Read Unruly Places: Lost Spaces, Secret Cities, and Other Inscrutable Geographies Online
Authors: Alastair Bonnett
Because place is integral to human identity, so too are the paradoxes of place. People’s most fundamental ideas and attachments don’t happen anywhere or nowhere; they are fashioned within and through their relationship to place. This may not be a new argument, but it’s one we still find difficult to discuss. Or, more precisely, we find it hard to talk about with ambition, as something with intellectual content and reach. Thankfully there are some signs that we are at the start of a period of reflection on the nature of place. I find it telling that a book called
The Destruction of Memory
, by Robert Bevan, is all about the destruction of place, more specifically the last century’s depressingly long roll call of places that were bombed or demolished for the sake of militant ideologies of one sort or another. Such authors as Paul Kingsnorth in Britain, Marc Augé in France, and James Kunstler in the United States, who have put the death of real places and the rise of non-places and “nowheres” onto the cultural agenda, are feeding into the same conversation. Yet while those who care about place have a lot to be troubled about, it would be a shame if this discussion was limited to nostalgic laments. As we have seen, the world is still full of unexpected places that have the power to delight, sometimes appall, but always intrigue. These unruly places provoke us and force us to think about the neglected but fundamental role of place in our lives. They challenge us to see ourselves for what we are: a place-making and place-loving species.
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Many thanks to Robin Harvie at Aurum and Courtney Young at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for their tireless help, encouragement, and many suggestions; James Macdonald Lockhart for his faith and patience; and Rachel, Louis, and Aphra for their numerous ideas and for listening.
Ababda people/territory,
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Ackroyd, Peter,
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Aerial Navigation Act (1911/Britain),
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African Development Fund,
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Afweyne (Mohamed Abdi Hassan),
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Adam
before conflict,
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soccer and,
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Adam Brandy Company,
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airspace
national airspace,
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spy zone/satellites and,
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Almeida, Alfredo Wagner Berno de,
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alveolar echinococcosis,
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Ames, Justin,
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Andaman and Nicobar islanders’ origins,
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anti-claims
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Bir Tawil
Aral Sea
Amu Darya/Syr Darya rivers and,
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fishing/human settlements and,
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island within/nature reserve,
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maps and,
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Aralqum Desert
Aralqum Desert
climate/health impacts,
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“Small Aral Sea” and,
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Aral Sea
Arc of Triumph, North Korea,
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Archaeological Park of Sicilian Incompletion, The
children’s city,
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architectural propaganda,
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Argueta, Marcos,
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Aristotle,
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armed rebels
revolutionary socialist ideologies and,
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FARC
Armenian genocide (1915),
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Armstrong, Louis,
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Arne
asbestos
“fibro shack,”
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blue-asbestos mining
Athos, Mount
legend of,
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Atkinson, Rowland,
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Aunty (Ana Teresa Barbosa da Costa),
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Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia,
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Baarle-Nassau/Baarle-Hertog and borders,
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Babcock, William,
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Bailey, Richard,
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Bakunin, Mikhail,
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Bates, “Paddy” Roy/family,
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Bay of Bengal waters,
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Bay of Biscay waters,
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Bechvovinka, Russia,
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Bedouins of Negev Desert
al-Talalqah clan,
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Wadi al-Ne’am village,
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Beeferman, Leah,
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bin Laden, Osama,
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Bir Tawil
border disputes and,
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Hala’ib Triangle and,
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Internet and,
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black sites
description,
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Blandy, Sarah,
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blue-asbestos mining
Koegas, South Africa,
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Wittenoom, Western Australia
Bogotá Declaration (1976),
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Boiler Fires (World War II),
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Conference of Berlin and,
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