Researching Urban Space and the Built Environment - Paperback

by Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin (Author), Elaine Tierney (Author), Charlotte Wildman (Author)

Researching urban space and the built environment is a unique and accessible guide to the planning, researching and writing of spatial histories.

Back Jacket

Researching urban space and the built environment is an accessible guide for historians keen to explore the spatial dimensions of the past. Written in a clear and lively style, it equips readers with the tools to effectively plan, research and write spatial histories.

The book explores why the 'spatial turn' matters so much to historians, and how the subject of space is a cutting-edge and interdisciplinary subject area. By outlining and summarising the theories and methodologies particularly pertinent to spatial research, and by providing hands-on advice about locating evidence and archives, the book supports readers in the development of their own original projects. Through engagement with a wide range of primary evidence, including buildings, manuscripts, oral history interviews, visual sources and material cultures, and discussion of early modern and modern historical case-studies, the guide opens up a huge variety of research possibilities.

This guide is an ideal research companion for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as independent researchers. It is especially tailored for students in history and related disciplines encountering spatial themes and methodologies for the first time.

Author Biography

Jasmine Kilburn-Toppin is Lecturer in Early Modern History at Cardiff University

Elaine Tierney is a historian of design and material culture in the V&A Research Institute (VARI)

Charlotte Wildman is Senior Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Manchester