Professor Joe Painter focuses mainly on the prosaic geographies of the state.

Preface to the Second Edition
Introduction
Politics, Geography and Political Geography
State Formation
From Welfare State to Workfare State
Democracy, Citizenship and Elections
Politics and the City
Identity Politics and Social Movements
Nationalism and Regionalism
Imperialism and Post-Colonialism
Geopolitics and Anti-Geopolitics
Bibliography

"A very good overview. Covers the key topics well and in an accessible and engaging style."
- Dr Daniel Hammett, Department of Geography, Sheffield University
This is a revised and updated edition of a core undergraduate resource for political geography. Focusing on the social and cultural while systematically overviewing the entire discipline, Joe Painter and Alex Jeffrey explain:

• Politics, geography, and 'political' geography: power, resources, institutions, and the history of the field


• State formation: classical views alongside recent work on governance and governmentality


• Welfare to workfare state: the restructuring of present state strategies


• Democracy, citizenship and law: different models of democracy in European and global contexts


• Identity and social movements: the relation between identity and political action
  


• Nationalism and regionalism: ethnicity, national identity and "otherness"


• Imperialism and post-colonialism: from world systems theory to post-structuralist accounts


• Geopolitics: the political, economic, and strategic significance of geography.
  

Comprehensive, accessible and illustrated with real world examples, Political Geography provides undergraduates with a thorough understanding of the relationship between geography and politics.