Skip to content

Professor Graham Squires

Developing Knowledge

  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • Research
  • Media
  • CONTACT

Category: Posts | Free Content

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Posts | Free Content
  • Page 2

Influential books #75 The order of things by Michel Foucault

Postmodern thinking on taxonomies, in that structures are set within the parameters of their own historical epistemological norms such as scientific discourse. Subtitled the ‘Archaeology

Read MoreInfluential books #75 The order of things by Michel Foucault

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #74 Urban Planning and Real Estate Development by John Ratcliffe, Michael Stubbs and Miles Keeping

Now a decade on since the third edition. A really great theory-practice book at the nexus of urban planning and real estate development.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #73 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money by John Maynard Keynes

Famous for macroeconomic thinking on the positives of fiscal intervention as counter-cyclical to peaks and troughs in growth.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #72 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume

In erring towards science over faith, this book places an importance on realising the human limits of understanding in physical and mental reasoning.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #71 Property Valuation: The five methods by Douglas Scarrett and Sylvia Osborn

Useful practical reading on valuation methods

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #70 Property Valuation by Peter Wyatt

One of the go-to textbooks for commercial and industrial property (real estate) valuations and appraisals.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #69 Thirdspace by Edward Soja

Rebalancing historical, spatial, and social considerations in the production of space. Further real and imagined dimensions are used to build a new theoretical urban frame.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #68 The social contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Beyond the idea of the monarchy making legislative decisions, the social contract progresses to argue an allocation of power by the people.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #67 Poverty in the United Kingdom by Peter Townsend

A thorough body of work exploring poverty from theory to practice as applied to the United Kingdom. Published at a pivotal political turn in 1979.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #66 Edge City by Joel Garreau

Popularising the ‘Edge City’ term for growing development of commercial hub activity outside of the urban core.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #65 Constructions of neoliberal reason by Jamie Peck

Compelling historical critique of the neoliberal project of free(er) markets that has dominated contemporary thinking and practice.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #64 Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss

Reflective book on travels in South America that strengthened structuralist thinking. The idea that there are underlying universal structures in the human condition.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #63 Cities of tomorrow by Peter Hall

Text that provides a history of urban planning in addition to some of the social and economic problems that underpin its theory and practice.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #62 Principles of Economics by Alfred Marshall

Popularising early thought on human behaviour in the neoclassical economics paradigm – diagrams, maths, marginal utilities, and elasticities being embedded as principles.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #61 To-morrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform by Ebenezer Howard

Book that energised the garden city movement as a utopian desire to live in harmony with nature

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #60 Stabilizing an unstable economy by Hyman Minsky

Book that attracted new attention post global financial crisis, in that accumulation of non-government debt creates a condition for instability in the economy.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #59 A general view of positivism by Auguste Comte

Initial founding writings on the idea of positivism, where observations in science are seen as the most effective approach.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #58 New State Spaces by Neil Brenner

How globalisation of capital has created new governance of the state beyond the nation

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #57 Walkable city by Jeff Speck

Exploring and supporting the movement for more walkable cities given the modern historical influence of the car.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #56 Capitalism and freedom by Milton Friedman

Work post WW2 that promotes the idea of limited government involvement, to enable universal market efficiency, and thus liberalism in the sense of individual freedoms.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #55 A theory of justice by John Rawls

A touchstone for political theory of distributive justice, looking normatively to rebalance equality of opportunity and helping the more disadvantaged in society.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #54 Housing policy and economic power by Michael Ball

A political economy look at owner-occupation at the turn of the 21st century

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #53 Cities are good for you by Leo Hollis

Recent accessible and interesting overview on why cities are enriching places for people

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #52 The Isolated State by Johann von Thunen

Origins of spatial economics where the price willing to rent land is spatially and locationally determined

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #51 Method in social science by Andrew Sayer

A focus on realism in methods that helped popularise more rigorous empirical and theoretical research

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #50 Critique of pure reason by Immanuel Kant

Moving forward philosophies on the nature of reality by developing thought on both rationalism and empiricism, and in doing so synthesising separations of reason and

Read MoreInfluential books #50 Critique of pure reason by Immanuel Kant

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #49 The global city by Saskia Sassen

One of the first to crystallise thinking of city economies working as hierarchies in a global system

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #48 Orientalism by Edward Said

How a Eurocentric romantic view of the ‘east’ has served to perpetuate dominance and power

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #47 Towards Cosmopolis by Leonie Sandercock

A book that exerts post-modern urban planning as one that includes diversity, community and environment.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #46 The principles of political economy and taxation by David Ricardo

Classical economic thinking that brought to prominence the benefits of free trade via comparative advantage, and an articulation of how population growth increases economic rent

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #45 The road to serfdom by Friedrich Hayek

WW2 reminder that excessive central planning can risk losing individual freedoms.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #44 Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes

17th Century writing on social contract, where power is handed to an absolute sovereign in return for some form of protection.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #43 Spatial divisions of labour by Doreen Massey

Marxist geography analysis of why spatial inequalities persist via the production process

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #42 All that is solid by Danny Dorling

A focus on UK Housing directions to encourage a long look at wealth and inequality, rather than simply building more homes

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #41 Capital Vol.1 by Karl Marx

The central text of Marxian economics, a critique of capitalism from a perspective of the production process. Marx was a self proclaimed non-Marxist.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #40 Running by Ronnie O’Sullivan

Inspirational biography on his snooker career and how he came back to win the masters

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #39 The Formation of Critical Realism by Roy Bhaskar

The main architect behind one of the most influential modern philosophies of our time, in interview this gives a good primer into understanding its emergence,

Read MoreInfluential books #39 The Formation of Critical Realism by Roy Bhaskar

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #38 The rules of sociological method by Emile Durkheim

Proponent of sociology as a positivist science, encouraging a school of structural-functionalism thinking, whilst encouraging thought on a collective rather than individual basis – e.g.

Read MoreInfluential books #38 The rules of sociological method by Emile Durkheim

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #37 Measuring America by Andro Linklater

Modern America needed to be measured to become wealthy. Interesting alternative focus on how this big land sale happened.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #36 Principles of political economy by John Stuart Mill

Bringing economic theory closer to the reality of societies biggest concerns, and setting the benchmark for scholarly work over the next two centuries.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #35 Housing Policy in The United States by Alex Schwartz

Intensely detailed outline of the history and evolution of housing policy that has shaped US housing sector.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #34 House of Debt by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi

Readable and robust account of the cause and effect of debt tied up in housing

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #33 The Firm, the market, and the law by Ronald Coase

Laying the foundations in thinking that costs external to the market can be dealt with by better defined property rights

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #32 Prison Notebooks by Antonio Gramsci

Often converted into books as translated excerpts, the work generated 20th century thinking on cultural hegemony, where cultural formed ideology such as capitalism (and communism)

Read MoreInfluential books #32 Prison Notebooks by Antonio Gramsci

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #31 The protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism by Max Weber

Sociological and economic realisation that promotion of hard work and discipline in Protestantism coincided with capitalistic conditions.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #30 Towers of Capital by Colin Lizieri

Thoughtful and practical take on the supply of commercial buildings, that house those managing money to perpetuate wealth.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #29 The New Urban Frontier by Neil Smith

Almost personalising gentrification in cities as some form of revenge by capital on (non-capital owning) people

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #28 The Just City by Susan Fainstein

Arguing for normative social justice based approaches rather than growth strategies to deal with city problems of inequity, democracy and diversity.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #27 The Future of The Professions by Richard and Daniel Susskind

A look into the past and some insightful futurist thinking as to what types of jobs will be left once the digital revolution fully takes

Read MoreInfluential books #27 The Future of The Professions by Richard and Daniel Susskind

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #26 Owning the Earth by Andro Linklater

Insightful writing on the global history of land ownership, questioning where we are heading, as well as providing alternatives to an ever increasing individualised private

Read MoreInfluential books #26 Owning the Earth by Andro Linklater

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #25 Triumph of The City by Edward Glaeser

Contemporary take on what cities contribute to the economy and economics

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #24 The Economy of Cities by Jane Jacobs

A contribution to urban theory from the late 1960s on the major determinants of urban growth in the economy.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #23 An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Malthus

Late 18th century text that brought to light the relationship between natural resources and human demography.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #22 The Production of Space by Henri Lefebvre

Bridging philosophy of mind and material, enabling an intellectual and practical take on how space is produced.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #21 The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle

Classic investment guide that shows the most sensible path is playing the long game.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #20 The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

It is difficult to ignore this writing at the birth of the industrial revolution. This revolutionised economics as a discipline covering topics such as division

Read MoreInfluential books #20 The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #19 Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty

The modern touchstone of trends in capital accumulation and inequality of income and wealth. Demonstrating that structures remain but with room for change.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #18 Rethinking the Economics of­ Land and Housing by Ryan-Collins, Lloyd and Macfarlane

Some new and not so new (but relevant) solutions to the ‘crisis’ of housing and land supply.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #17 Misbehaving: The making of behavioural economics by Richard Thaler

A gathering of examples in a popular format that contributed to the now mainstream field of behavioural economics.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #16 The Language Instinct by Stephen Pinker

Exploring evolutions in human language as nature and nurture with a popular science edge.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #15 Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy by Joseph Schumpeter

Useful thinking in to how progress is not necessary a linear path. As new ways will create and destroy rather than revolutionise.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #14 The Condition of Postmodernity by David Harvey

Critical study of late 20th century postmodernism in that materialism must have greater attention. The reality of poverty is argued as more material consequence than

Read MoreInfluential books #14 The Condition of Postmodernity by David Harvey

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #13 The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

Time is an illusion of the mind-ego. Being present and conscious takes us out of the mind and into blissful awareness. Everyone should read this.

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #12 Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom

Work challenging the notion that common property will fail due to monopolistic tendencies. Examples in the political economy demonstrate that in some circumstances the crowd

Read MoreInfluential books #12 Governing the Commons by Elinor Ostrom

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential Books #11 Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky

Part of his wider work on America’s involvement with global politics as invasion. Focussed on a narrative questioning whether this involvement is to purposefully maintain

Read MoreInfluential Books #11 Hegemony or Survival by Noam Chomsky

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #10 The Economics of Welfare by Arthur Pigou

Opening up economics to better engage with those subjects external to the market such and public goods and the environment. Internalising external costs of climate

Read MoreInfluential books #10 The Economics of Welfare by Arthur Pigou

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #9 Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Wonderful concise explanation of geopolitics being shaped and constrained by geography. Great to step back and see a bigger picture in a time where people

Read MoreInfluential books #9 Prisoners of Geography by Tim Marshall

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #8 Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman

Bestseller that takes economics into psychology territory, largely by distinguishing between instinct and thought in making economic decisions

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #7 The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters

Helpful way to make practical what psychologists made complex. Managing your chimp, human, and computer is all you need to be the best you can

Read MoreInfluential books #7 The Chimp Paradox by Steve Peters

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #6 Other People’s Money by John Kay

Very convincing account of How and why the financial industry does little for the real economy

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #5 Progress and Poverty by Henry George

A classic that explores why poverty exists against vast wealth. There are also some very simple fiscal solutions that many are still uncomfortable with today

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #4 Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson

The origin and spread of nationalism could not be any more relevant today – Is it possible have no national identity?

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #3 Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen

A reminder that economic development needs to be set in relation to freedom and access of opportunity

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Influential books #2 The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer

Such a realisation that the inner voice in your mind isn’t you, and so opens a portal to the unmanifested. You are free.

Categories: Posts | Free Content
post-image

Influential books #1 Saving Capitalism by Robert Reich

Useful guide to how we arrived in our current political economy, and possibly how we can fix a broken economic system

Categories: Posts | Free Content

Posts navigation

Next
Copyright © 2022 Professor Graham Squires. All rights reserved.
Knowledge by WEN Themes
  • ABOUT
  • BLOG
  • Research
  • Media
  • CONTACT