Duke University Press The Nature of Space (Latin America in Translation)

In The Nature of Space, pioneering Afro-Brazilian geographer Milton Santos attends to globalization writ large and how local and global orders intersect in the construction of space. Santos offers a theory of human space based on relationships between time and ontology. He argues that when geographers consider the inseparability of time and space, they can then transcend fragmented realities and partial truths without trying to theorize their way around them. Based on these premises, Santos examines the role of space, which he defines as indissoluble systems of objects and systems of actions in social processes, while providing a geographic contribution to the production of a critical social theory. Review "Milton Santos was one of the most important Black thinkers in the Americas writing in the last four decades, one of the most important Brazilian intellectuals of all time, and one of the most cited and noteworthy geographers in Latin America. This extremely important translation subverts our tendencies to ignore scholarship being produced in the global South and marks a key step in decolonizing thought in US academe."--Keisha-Khan Y. Perry, author of "Black Women against the Land Grab: The Fight for Racial Justice in Brazil" "Milton Santos is one of the most distinguished intellectuals of our epoch. So many of us have learned from him. I have long seen in his work something that became one of my modus operandi: transversality . . . not the familiar knowledge silos but the cutting across of those silos."--Saskia Sassen, Columbia University About the Author Milton Santos (1926–2001) was Professor of Geography at the University of São Paulo and the author of many books, including The Shared Space: The Two Circuits of the Urban Economy in Underdeveloped Countries. Brenda Baletti teaches in the Thompson Writing Program at Duke University. Susanna Hecht is Professor of Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles and Professor of International History at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.