Showing Off: The Geltung Hypothesis

by Philip L. Wagner

Book Overview

Hardly a place exists on earth that has not been shaped in some way by human beings. Every day we modify and even sweep away natural landscapes as we build places to live and work. But why we react... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 029279102X
• ISBN13: 9780292791022
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: University of Texas Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 1.31 lbs.

Customer Reviews

exploration of human communications & spatial behaviour

. . . A brief kudo for this seminal work by a major American cultural geographer and philosopher of human-environment interaction. For over 50 years Phil Wagner has been a leading thinker in the so-called "Berkeley school of Cultural Geography". His 1960's book on "Human Use of the Earth" prefigured much of today's environmental ethos. Earlier, Wagner & Marvin Mikesell edited "Readings in Cultural Geography" which has provided four decades of students and lay readers with the quintessential collection of critical thoughts from pivotal writers in this field. PLW's long time exploration into human communication has brought him to a hypothesis that the desire for recognition and status drives human behaviour. Hence, access to venues for such expression and feedback affect spatial organization of human performance, and render the built environment a stage for enactment of "geltung" or status seeking behaviour. The process of following Wagner's line of reasoning offers an additional range of directions for readers to explore their own understanding of communicative behaviour. Like Thorsten Veblen's 1920's work on elites and conspicuous consumption, or Vance Packard's 1950's work on the Status Seekers, or C. Wright Mills' 1960's querry into power relations, this little book and the Geltung hypothesis has the power to influence thinkers and students for generations to come. It also points to new interpretations of Hegel's question of the master-slave dialectic. Aside from a poor title, weak cover, and equally inept marketing, the book's major fault lies in too much editing intended to reach a pseudo - popular market. Hence the final thin volume leaves out much of the meat found in earlier drafts. Nevertheless, it is well written, easy to read, and bereft of jargon, which Wagner has translated into ordinary language, a hallmark of his down-to-earth erudition and scholarship.