Locating value: An introduction

This edited volume provides a critical and reflexive consideration of value as it is theorised, applied and critiqued across a range of disciplinary perspectives, including economic, environmental and cultural geography, heritage and museum studies, political ecology, sociology and urban and regional planning. The collection explores value’s conceptual utility in a wide range of geographical and institutional contexts. This introductory chapter outlines why we think value is worth scrutiny and summarises some of the key philosophical debates, theoretical lineages and associated problems that thinking with value brings. We review geographers’ previous encounters with value and posit that value, as it is enacted as a process and practice, is deserving of more sustained attention. We then introduce the contributions and themes running through the book.