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book’s sheer scope sometimes left this reader in a complete muddle; in particular, Part ii’s summary of the project of modernity moved at such a merry pace that it took several re-reads before i felt justi-fied in moving along. at times the strengths of the book – the quick pace, lively writing, case studies peppered with references to choice spatial theory – can be overwhelming, but the sheer number of theorists and writers whose work is covered make the book an excellent springboard for students of organization and management who perhaps want to bring a more geographical slant to their work, or vice versa. Quibbling aside, dale and Burrell have produced a timely book which attempts to pull together many disparate strands of spatial theory via a series of high-ly original case studies. in particular, this reviewer was mightily impressed by the neat introduction to the intersection between spatial theory and identity politics. With its lively and informal – though never demotic – style, The Spaces of Organisation and the

Organisation of Space has the potential to appeal to a wide audience, including students of organization, management and geography.

ReferencesCroUCH, d. (2003): ‘Spacing, performing and becoming: tan-

gles in the mundane’, Environment and Planning A 35 (1): 1945–1960.

FoUCaUlt, M. (1978 [1976]): The History of Sexuality, vol. 1. Pantheon, new York.

lEFEBVrE, H. (1991 [1974]): The Production of Space. Black-well, oxford.

tHriFt, n. (2000): ‘Performing cultures in the new economy’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers 90 (4): 674–692.

Ealasaid MunroInstitute of GeographySchool of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghUnited Kingdom

The Awkward Spaces of Fathering. Aitken, Stuart C. ashgate, Farnham 2009. 253 + xii pp. 978-0-7546-7005-6 (hbk).

the purpose at the heart of The Awkward Spaces of Fathering is to elaborate upon previously missing constructs and theories of space and fatherhood in aitken’s earlier work (2005) through the lives and voices of men who are fathers. the book examines the historical transformation of contemporary father-ing within the changing context of anglo-american society with particular focus on events over the last twenty years. aitken makes the case for how popu-lar media and empirically-based social science stud-ies have influenced the ways in which fathers are understood in society. He discusses the changes to family type and structure as well as increased par-ticipation by women in the labour market that have led to shifts in familial power relations. the story outlined as taken for granted that no-tions of “­fathers” have evolved from one of a dis-tant figurehead, to today’s father as economic pro-vider, friend, carer, emotional actor and masculine role model, all rolled into one. aitken argues that family practices can now be understood in terms of co-parenting and attributes of motherhood identi-fied with socio-economic and emotional provision should equally apply to current-day fathers. aitken

makes the case throughout the book (but at length in Chapter 2 and the Conclusion) that while a focus on co-parenting might appear potentially liberating for fathers it does not go far enough in giving voice to the full role of fathers as ‘men’s co-parenting tends to be seen as interdependent with, in opposition to, and at times, less than mothering’ (p. 31). aitken carefully clarifies that he is not implying that fa-thering can be defined in isolation from mother-ing. rather, he argues for the day-to-day work of fathering in its multitude of forms to be brought to the fore. in other words, fatherhood is an important space and area of study in its own right. in order to make this case aitken rejects notions of fathers as embedded in everyday family life as this implies a hierarchical structure, and places men’s lives ‘be-sides their fathering, beside their families, besides their community’ (p. 19) to provide insights into the emotional work of fathering. according to the author, the structure of the book is merely a pedagogical device; however, this can not be read as a reference book as each chapter builds on the last. to help understand the shape and aims of the book and follow the author’s arguments the introduction is a ‘must read’ chapter. Each chap-ter sets out to encounter fathering in a different way to highlight the variegated notions of fathering ‘that circle around journeys, homes, places and commu-

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nities’ (p. 229). aitken achieves this with skill and ease but sometimes the narrative accounts are un-necessarily lengthy and distract the reader from the key points. Excluding the introduction and conclu-sion the book is divided into four parts: ‘Framing’, ‘Closing in’, ‘Moving’ and ‘Stopping’. Part i ‘Framing’, looks at the ‘institutional con-structions of fatherhood and larger context that spa-tially frame the subject of the father’ (p. 7). Part ii entitled ‘Closing in’, and Part iii, ‘Moving’, are about highlighting through cinematic means and ethnogeographies, renderings of fathers and their spaces linked to mobilities, and Part iV ‘Stopping’ looks at domesticity, communities and power-rela-tions. Each part is sub divided into chapters, where aitken draws on anecdotal stories from fathers and links them to, and grounds them in, theoretical un-derstandings of fathering as both, connected to, and more than, an event in space (deleuze and Guattari 1987; Strohmayer 1998). to do this aitken has ex-perimented methodologically and theoretically to look at new ways of communicating his thoughts and findings. to achieve this aitken employs ethnopoet-ry arguing that ‘poetry can be an emotive construct of language’ (p. 16) and ‘ethnopoetry is an attempt to represent the nonrepresentable aspects of narratives’ (p. 17); to ‘bring … participants more fully into the text, and intersperse their stories, thoughts, and po-etry in their words and silences with nuggets gleaned from academic literature’ (pp. 8–9). taking a few of the chapters in detail, Chapter 1 – ‘Partially remembered Stories’ – sets the scene by drawing on a participant’s story of fathering to highlight how previous spatial frames have not been useful, as they have pitted fathering practices against mothering practices. aitken acknowledges the history of this trajectory and highlights the deficit it creates, and shows how the emotional as-pects of fathering are hidden in favour of a more media friendly account. aitken makes an important contribution here, but his method at times feels in-structional and leaves the reader little scope to take breath and evaluate the points. in Chapter 2 – ‘Fa-thering Frames’ – rather than giving a synopsis of well-rehearsed stories of the marginalized father figure distant from his family, aitken sets out to challenge Enlightenment thinking by highlighting the hidden, yet present, emotional aspects of father-ing in these texts arguing that this aspect has been obscured by frames of reference which ‘constrain families to a particular spatiality and place men at the margins of an imagined private domesticity’ (p.

54). therefore aitken sets out to complicate the faces of families by celebrating the changing con-text of fathering geographies as both work and an affect that is less about the individualized, neolib-eral subject and more about a communal household and community economics. this is both a brave and excellent contribution to the wider field as it breaks down popular notions of men as a public figures and sets out to illuminate how individuals understand themselves as fathers, and ‘how these subject po-sitions are constituted spatially through discourses of public and private, inside and outside, home and away, imaginary and real, and so forth’ (p. 54; cf. Mitchell et al. 2004, p. 3). Chapters 4 and 7 provide a bit of visual relief from the dense and at times heavy-going ethno-graphical accounts to provide thumbnail sketches that depict partial stories of fathering movements and migrations. taking four award-winning movies as the frames of reference (American Beauty, 1999; There Will be Blood, 2007; A Perfect World, 1991 and Paris Texas, 1983) aitken provides a reading of their larger significances and cultural connections. in Chapter 4 he examines how American Beauty (1999) and There Will be Blood (2007) represent issues of affect, bodies, landscape, and consump-tion to represent different readings of the worlds of fathering from being located outside of community space. Chapter 7 also uses film (A Perfect World, 1991 and Paris Texas, 1983) to highlight how a look at fathering in motion enables a deeper take on the changing practices of fathers in families and families in communities than previous social/spatial constructions and frames of fathering have provid-ed. Chapters 9, 10 and 11 form the part of the final section in the book, which looks at ‘the processes through which spaces and spatialities of homes and communities relate to ever evolving notions of fa-thering’ (p. 170). drawing on key thinkers such as lefebvre, Massey and Butler, aitken problematizes notions of space, place and scale. this discussion permeates these chapters, which take three very dif-ferent fathering stories based loosely on different aspects of home and relates them to how fathering spaces are produced, ‘inculcate power through spa-tial practices, and how embodied ideas of father-ing are worked through those spaces and power- relations’ (p. 171). it is clear to the reader that throughout this book the inspiration for aitken’s undertaking is to go be-yond work on identity and the generation of mean-ing; it is, rather to highlight that post-structuralist

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thinking on affect has a valuable contribution to make to geographical understanding of space, and also a more personal endeavour, which is to dem-onstrate how aitken’s own academic and fathering practices have been informed and shaped through his connections with the men and families who have been part of his research life. this position is discussed in relation to fascinatingly frank autobio-graphical accounts of aitken’s relationship with his partner, becoming a father and fathering. Sadly, only a fleeting glance, usually in footnote form, is given to the ways that aitken informed his participants about his endeavour. as the reader you are never very sure about his decision making, such as how he chose the participants, in what ways they were informed about what the project was about or why their stories had been chosen over others. obviously as the narratives in this book have been collected during multiple research projects and the book itself tries to cover a range of subjects, maybe it would have been too complex to add this infor-mation in, however, i think the reader would have greatly benefited from this knowledge. What is not clear is the intended audience for this book as, with a price of £60 for hardback, it is unlikely to appeal to the student market. With its particular attention to the emotional aspect of fa-thering this book is not useful for those wanting a general overview of key debates and the historical trajectory of fatherhood and general parenting. the experimental style of writing, which uses poetry,

prose, and conversation does not quite provide the light relief from the heavy nature of the text that i would have liked. However, this aside, aitken has undertaken a considerable challenge to bring to-gether a decade of research and work and present it in such a way that it not only highlights the emo-tional aspects of fathering, but extends knowledge on fathering, families and community from which geographers and other social scientists can benefit. this is an exceptionally ambitious book and not an easy read by any stretch of the imagination, but well worth it providing you have the time and purpose to engage with the material.

References:aitKEn, S. C. (2005): ‘the awkward spaces of fathering’, in

van HoVEn, B. and HÖrSCHElMann, K. (eds): Spaces of Masculinities. routledge, london, pp. 222–236.

dElEUZE, G. and GUattari, F. (1987): A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. athlone, london.

MitCHEll, K., MarSton, S. and KatZ, C. (eds) (2004): Life’s Work: Geographies of Social Reproduction. Blackwell, oxford.

StroHMaYEr, U. (1998): ‘the event of space: geographic al-lusions in the phenomenological tradition’, Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 16 (1): 105–121.

Olivia StevensonThe Stirling Institute of EducationUniversity of StirlingUnited Kingdom