This book offers a theoretical and practical exploration of the beach as space and places unique disciplinary lenses (Political Science and Geography). If we accept that what one possesses, one has a claim to, becoming property, then how that possession is enforced, socially, makes all the difference in defining what constitutes territoriality. Morgan and his colleagues have carried out various studies and applied various methods to study the developing coast of Florida. From these efforts, we compare the different regions of the State (e.g., Florida panhandle vs. South Florida) in terms of local beach culture and economics to unpack the topic of tension between beach property and access using firsthand accounts in many cases. This book approaches the complex topic of territoriality on Florida’s beaches from multiple perspectives but related methods involving time geography, a public space index, participatory mapping/cartography, and transboundary viewsheds. This analysis illustrates the fruitfulness of conceptualizations of property that are complex, multiplicative, and evolving. It calls for a recognition of human rights to the commons -- both now and in the future. And it highlights the constructed nature of public space - as a space that provides meaning through bodily performance and encounter.
Approaches the complex topic of territoriality on Florida’s beaches from methods of participatory mapping/cartography and performance art.
Offers a theoretical and practical exploration of the beach as space and place.
Utilizes the lens of territoriality and field-based participant cartographic mapping to understand better how the developed shoreline is territorialized.
Author(s): John D. Morgan, Jocelyn Evans
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 110
City: Cham
Preface
Author Prelude 1: Revelations from a Childhood Spent Along Florida’s Atlantic Beaches
Author Prelude 2: A Picture of the Dunes in Destin in the Late 1960s
The Organization of the Book
Contents
Chapter 1: On the Tension
What Do We Mean by Territorial Tension?
Right to the Beach
Chapter 2: The Legal Geography of the Beach—Essentialist View
The Public Right to the Shoreline
Owning Property at/on the Beach
Tensions Around Access to the Beach
Beachfront Municipalities at the Center of the Tension
Chapter 3: The Legal Geography of the Beach—Social Constructivist View
Coastal Geography as Socially Constructed Space
Cultural Implications for Territoriality
Spatial Dimensions of the Commons
Contestation in the Production of Public Space
Coastal Geography and a Polyrational Theory of Property
Chapter 4: Time Geography of a Beach Trip
Case Study: Time Geography of a Beach Trip
Design
Results
Chapter 5: Public Space Index
Measuring Beach Quality
Public Space Index
Fieldwork at Five Beaches in Northwest Florida
Public Space Index Results
Chapter 6: Participatory Mapping
Sketch Mapping
Revealed Territories (Results)
Beyond the Clipboard (Additional Ethnographic Methods)
Chapter 7: Transboundary Viewsheds
Case Study: Balloon Aerial Photography
Case Study Location
Estimated Viewshed from Existing Elevation Data
Validating via Field Observation and Sketch Map
Validation via Low-Oblique Aerial Photography
Transboundary Viewshed Maps
Chapter 8: Territoriality on the Beachfront
Implied Territoriality
Explicit Territoriality
The Case of the Ghost Chairs
Life, Liberty, and Beaches
References
Index
