Mapping, Not the Map

The previous chapter has usefully confirmed one of the starting points for the overarching topic that this volume has been addressing: a discussion of spatiality may appear at the outset to be an exercise in intellectual abstraction divorced from everyday reality, and hence may not be seen as “relevant” when addressing the human dimensions of cultural activity; in fact, however, space and place impinge in a very concrete manner on how we live our lives. Their effects are felt by all of us, often in visceral and painful ways; thus, they have consequences for, and are reciprocally nuanced by, artistic products and culturally informed activities. This is what we have sought to demonstrate in this volume, and what we have observed within a variety of very different contexts and cultural forms. But whatever view we take on the controversial issue of Heidegger’s political tendencies, the fact remains that his philosophical work has exercised huge influence on contemporary thinking about space, which suggests that, at a minimum, some of what he has written strikes a chord that we recognize and acknowledge as valid comment.