A Place in the World? Places, Cultures and Globalization, 1995. Doreen Massey's Lessons: Is the World Really Shrinking or Is the Geography of the World Teaching Us Openness and Diversity?

The “inspiring book” is an highly interesting work by Doreen Massey, able to trigger points of critical reflection that directly and indirectly make it possible to understand why “geography matters”. Despite the fact that the book is not exactly “new”, many of the issues addressed still seem highly relevant and unresolved today, such as the increase of inequality in the world, local identities in a shifting world, places in the context of a global world, international migration, Europe and the new boundaries. Doreen’s legacy lies in the fact that we can use her ideas as a kind of ‘open source’, always bearing in mind openness – social and spatial equalities – and a different, better kind of future. She has inspired generations of geographers to see the world differently introducing her “relational” approach to understanding space - the dimension that presents us with the existence of others - and place - continuously builts and rebuilts through relations. She was an inspiring and open teacher guaranteeing that the courses dealt with issues that were socially and politically important. The theory was never abstract for her. She had a strong sense of responsibility for the world's complexity, for politics and the injustices of contemporary life.