language and objects’ (2000: 415). Some of this
work attempts to apply ‘abstract’ body theory
to ‘real’ bodies (for example,Thrift, 1997, exam-
ines the bodily practices of dance and play).
This work has the potential for furthering
understandings of body–subjectivity–space
relations but I would caution cultural geo-
graphers against invoking bodies that appear to
be mess and matter free. In talking about sub-
jectivity we need to talk about the ‘shape,
depth, biology, insides, outsides, and boundaries
of bodies placed in particular temporal and
spatial contexts’ (Longhurst, 2001: 2).The leaky,
messy, awkward zones of the inside/outside of
bodies and their resulting spatial relationships
need to be examined. Focusing on a body that
has no specified materiality (skin colour, body
shape, genitalia, impairments, etc.) will not
further feminist, socialist, anti-racist or disability
activist agendas. Denying the weighty material-
ity of flesh and fluid will help preserve hege-
monic bodily practices and politics.
To conclude, in this introduction I have not
provided a point-by-point review of the
chapters. Instead I have raised three key
themes that I think are reiterated throughout
the section. I haven’t pointed to the ways in
which the contributions differ. Such a reading
of the chapters would have provided a differ-
ent, perhaps better, introduction. In the final
instance I leave you to tread your own path
and to make your own (to use Probyn’s
phrase) ‘connections and dis/connections’
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