Professor Nigel Thrift is the current Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick and a leading academic in the field of human geography. The University of Warwick coat of arms The University of Warwick is one of the leading universities in the United Kingdom. ...

Biography

Born in 1949, Thrift has held posts at numerous universities including University of Wales, Aberystwyth, University of Wales, Lampeter, the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford. At Oxford, Thrift served as Head of the Life and Environmental Sciences Division before becoming Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research. In 2005 he was appointed Vice Chancellor of the University of Warwick, taking up the position in July 2006. Affiliations University of Wales, AMBA, ACU, Universities UK, HiPACT Website http://www. ... University of Wales, Lampeter Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan   University of Wales, Lampeter (Welsh: Prifysgol Cymru, Llanbedr Pont Steffan) is a university in Lampeter, Wales, the oldest degree awarding institution in Wales, and the third oldest in England and Wales after Oxford and Cambridge. ... The University of Bristol is a university in Bristol, England. ... The University of Oxford (usually abbreviated as Oxon. ... The University of Warwick coat of arms The University of Warwick is one of the leading universities in the United Kingdom. ...

Contribution to Geography

Professor Thrift is one of the world's leading human geographers and social scientists, and is credited for coining the phrase soft modernity as well as originating 'Non-Representational Theory'. Awarded many prizes and commendations recognising his research, he was elected Fellow of the British Academy in 2003. Prof. Thrift sits on a number of advisory committees for the UK Government, and was a member of the ESRC Research Priorities Board. In 1982 Prof. Thrift co-founded the journal Environment and Planning D: Society and Space whilst serving as managing editor, since 1979, of Environment and Planning A. Population density by country, 2006 Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earths surface. ... The social sciences are groups of academic disciplines that study the human aspects of the world. ... The British Academy is the United Kingdoms national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Economic and Social Research Council is the main UK state funding agency for research and graduate studies in the social sciences. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ...

It has been suggested that Thrift's career reflects and in some cases spurred the substantial intellectual changes in Human Geography in the 1980s and '90s. Thrift can most readily be associted with poststructuralism through his attention to subjectivity, representation identity and practice. Most recently he has written on what he terms 'non-representational theory', which stresses performative and embodied knowledges and is a radical attempt to wrench the social sciences and humanities out of an emphasis on representation and interpretation by moving away from contemplative models of thought and action to those based on practice. Thrift has claimed that non-representational theory addresses the 'unprocessual' nature of much of social and cultural theory. Major themes within non-representational theory include subjectification; space as a verb; technologies of being; embodiment; and play & excess. Non-representational theory has provoked substantial debate within the field of Human Geography around our mediation of our world through language and how we might see, sense and communicate beyond it. Population density by country, 2006 Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earths surface. ... Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and... Non-representational theory is a theory developed in human geography, largely by the work of Nigel Thrift. ... Population density by country, 2006 Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earths surface. ...

It has been argued that Thrift's work has prompted a variety of engagements across Human Geography. His work on time, language, power, representations and the body have been influential in a movement towards a more dynamic approach to theoretical and empirical issues of the naturalisation of socially constructed phenomena. For some Thrift has helped the field of Human Geography move beyond a reliance on Marxism and opened up an engagement with and development of new perspectives. Population density by country, 2006 Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earths surface. ... A pocket watch, a device used to tell time Look up time in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... In cognitive psychology a representation is a hypothetical internal cognitive symbol that represents external reality. ... With regard to living things, a body is the integral physical material of an individual. ... Population density by country, 2006 Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earths surface. ...

Partial Bibliography

Corbridge S, Martin R & Thrift N (Eds.) (1997) Money, Power and Space, Oxford: Blackwell
Leyshon A & Thrift N (Eds.) (1997) Money/Space: Geographies of Monetary Transformation, London: Routledge
Peet R & Thrift N (Eds.) (1989) New Models in Geography: The Political-Economy Perspective, Boston: Unwin-Hyman
Pile S & Thrift N (Eds.) (1995) Mapping the Subject: Geographies of Cultural Transformation, New York, NY: Routledge
Thrift (1981) "Owners time and own time: The making of capitalist time consciousness, 1300-1880" in Pred A (Ed.) Space and Time in Geography: Essays dedicated to Torston Hagerstrand, Lund: Lund Studies in Geography Series B, No. 48
Thrift N (1983) "On the determination of social action in space and time", Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 1: pp. 23-57
Thrift N (1996) Spatial Formations, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Thrift N (1999) “Steps to an Ecology of Place” in Massey D, Allen J & Sarre P (Eds.) Human Geography Today, Cambridge: Polity Press: pp. 295–323
Thrift N (2000a) "Performing cultures in the new economy", Annals of the Association of American Geographers 4: pp. 674-692
Thrift N (2000b) "Afterwords", Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 18 (3): pp. 213-255
Thrift N & Olds K (1996) "Refiguring the economic in economic geography", Progress in Human Geography 20: pp. 311-337

See also

• Human geography
• Lampeter Geography School
• Warwick University

Population density by country, 2006 Human geography is a branch of geography that focuses on the study of patterns and processes that shape human interaction with the environment, with particular reference to the causes and consequences of the spatial distribution of human activity on the Earths surface. ... The Lampeter Geography School was an important collection of academics based at the Geography department of the University of Wales, Lampeter. ... University of Warwick Motto: Mens agitat molem Logo © University of Warwick The University of Warwick is a world-class campus university which, despite its name, is located mainly inside the southern boundary of Coventry, England, some 11 km ( 7 miles) from the town of Warwick, the remainder of the campus...

References

Hubbard P, Kitchin R & Valentine G (Eds.) (2004) Key Thinkers on Space and Place, London: Sage
Warf B (2004) "Nigel Thrift" in Hubbard P, Kitchin R & Valentine G (Eds.) Key Thinkers on Space and Place, London: Sage