Toposophia: Thinking Place/Making Space On Dwelling

On Dwelling explores the meaning of dwelling in places where we humans live and work—from our homes to the very planet we co-inhabit. Crossing boundaries and disciplines, it lays the groundwork for addressing place-based issues like migration, ethnic division, resource use, and human-caused peril to the earth itself. On Dwelling: Poetry, Place, and Politics unfolds the meaning of dwelling as both being in the world, and being on the earth with others. Dennis E. Skocz traces a path from the places we call home, through the global market place (said to foster a “world without borders”), to the planet we co-inhabit. The book addresses themes of displacement, contested space, and estrangement along with specific issues like migration, ethnic division, and resource use. Embracing the discourses of poetry, philosophy, and politics the book uses a cross-disciplinary approach to tackle the diversity and complexity of the topic. The investigation is grounded in phenomenology, with economics, jurisprudence, political theory, geo-physics, cultural anthropology, and other sciences coming into play. It builds on first-person “lived experience” and the “lifeworld” as a concrete basis for understanding. Challenged by real-world issues of co-existence, the book culminates in sketching a “political space” where stakeholders in the future of the planet can collaborate across the globe for the earth and its dwellers.