Overview

How do landscapes work as class codes? In Landscapes of Privilege , James and Nancy Duncan look at how the aesthetics of physical landscapes are fully enmeshed in producing the American class system. Focusing on an archetypal upper class American suburb - Bedford in Westchester County, NY - they show how the physical presentation of a place carries with it a range of markers of inclusion and exclusion. Landscapes are very important in conveying social distinction and hierarchy - even while they make the ordering of a place appear 'natural' to everyone. Landscapes essentially act as cultural codes. If they encode affluence, residents work to reproduce them through stringent aesthetic rules, zoning restrictions, and slow growth coalitions. In full, this process has produced the physical form of the contemporary upper middle-class American suburb. Genuinely innovative, Landscapes of Privilege is one of the first books to apply critical landscape theory to the social production of American elites.

Full Product Details

Author:   Nancy Duncan ,  Nancy Duncan
Publisher:   Taylor & Francis Ltd
Imprint:   Routledge
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.10cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.560kg
ISBN:  

9780415946872

ISBN 10:   0415946875
Pages:   320
Publication Date:   12 November 2003
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction 2. Bedford in Context 3. The Narrative Structures: The Cultural Codes of a Landscape Aesthetic 4. Anxious Pleasures: Place-Based Identity and the Look of the Land 5. Legislating Beauty: The Politics of Exclusion 6. The Taxman Cometh: The Gift of Nature in Suburbia 7. Fabricating History: The Production of Heritage in Beford Village 8. Another Country: Latino Labor and the Politics of Disappearance 9. Epilogue

Reviews

I think that this book will make quite a stir: not just in the suburb under study...but in the wider academic community where its transcendence.will generate much commentary and not a little jealousy. <br>-John Agnew, author of Geopolitics (Routledge) <br> Studying elites is an interesting subject, and this book makes the most of the topic using critical landscape theory.. <br>No.1, Vol.71; Pg.105<br>-Journal of the American Planning Association-Landscape of Privilege: The Politic of the Aesthetics in an American Suburb, January 1, 2005 <br>... the authors support a well-framed, strong central arguement with abundant empirical evidence in a clearly organized format and with engaging, eloquent text. It is worth careful reading and reflection.. <br>-Journal of Cultural Geography, Kelly S, Draper, University of Colorado <br>

Author Information

James Duncan is a University Lecturer in Geography at Cambridge University, and Nancy Duncan is Affiliated Lecturer of Geography at Cambridge University.

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