The first edition of Place and Experience established Jeff Malpas as one of the leading philosophers and thinkers of place and space and provided a creative and refreshing alternative to prevailing post-structuralist and postmodern theories of place. It is a foundational and ground-breaking book in its attempt to lay out a sustained and rigorous account of place and its significance.
The main argument of Place and Experience has three strands: first, that human being is inextricably bound to place; second, that place encompasses subjectivity and objectivity, being reducible to neither but foundational to both; and third that place, which is distinct from, but also related to space and time, is methodologically and ontologically fundamental. The development of this argument involves considerations concerning the nature of place and its relation to space and time; the character of that mode of philosophical investigation that is oriented to place and that is referred to as ‘philosophical topography’; the nature of subjectivity and objectivity as inter-related concepts that also connect with intersubjectivity; and the way place is tied to memory, identity, and the self. Malpas draws on a rich array of writers and philosophers, including Wordsworth, Kant, Proust, Heidegger and Donald Davidson.
This second edition is revised throughout, including a new chapter on the consequences of the human embeddedness in place, especially as this relates to the ethical and politics, and a new foreword by Edward Casey. It also includes a new set of additional features, such as chapter summaries, illustrations, annotated further reading, and a glossary, which make this second edition more useful to teachers and students alike.
“The new edition of this pioneering book remains at the forefront of philosophical engagements with place and space. Profound and challenging, as well as engagingly written, it moves seamlessly across registers – from Proust and Wordsworth to taxi driver knowledge, from Heidegger to analytic philosophy. This is a fundamental work for philosophers, geographers and all those concerned with the question of human experience.” – Stuart Elden, University of Warwick, UK and Monash University, Australia
“This expanded and revised edition of Place and Experience signifies the enduring importance of Malpas’s path-breaking contributions to place and space studies. Eminently readable, full of compelling and illustrative examples, and authoritatively argued, the book masterfully articulates the deep integration of place to human experience.” – Janet Donohoe, University of West Georgia, USA
“This important and now classic book is a crucial contribution to our understanding of the deep connections between place and all things human. Transcending disciplinary boundaries, Place and Experience offers valuable lessons for architects, urban and environmental designers, and all those willing to challenge the seeming inevitability of homogeneous space and placelessness brought about by our technological civilization.” – Alberto Pérez-Gómez, McGill University, Canada
“Ever since Plato, an abiding methodological conceit of philosophy has been to separate conceptual questions from empirical conceptions. Jeff Malpas challenges this conceit. In drawing on literature, anthropology, psychology, and the history of science, as well as philosophy, he opens up new paths and possibilities for thinking seriously about embodied human being in the world and its prospects in difficult times.” – Richard Eldridge, Swarthmore College, USA
“This is a book filled with provocative ideas about agency, locality, self, spatiality, past and person. It also established Jeff Malpas as a pre-eminent philosopher of place. If you want to understand the complex unity of place, there is no better book with which to begin.” – Edward Relph, University of Toronto, Canada
“Jeff Malpas’s beautiful work about place has fed the architecture of my own creative work for many years now. This splendid new edition of his classic text spans from the past of our memories to the future we already live in – thanks to globalization and that thing we call “connectedness” – urging us to more properly locate our thoughts, our actions and our experiences so that we might locate, more entirely, ourselves. A nourishing, inspiring and important book.” – Ashley Hay, author of A Hundred Small Lessons
Jeff Malpas, 
