Pedwell’s rich study examines the diverse ways in which empathy is mobilised – from political speeches that uphold neoliberalism, to postcolonial literatures that refuse certain forms of empathic connection. Empathy is an affective relation often conceptualized in liberal and neoliberal thought as the imaginative and felt ability to “put oneself in the other’s shoes”.

Like the Charlie Hebdo images that merged debates about Islam with national discussions of same-sex marriage, comics play on multiple registers and themes. This also means that, removed from the contexts the authors are relating to, circulating through new international conduits, they are sometimes difficult to make sense of.

Society and Space is pleased to offer a conversation with Scott Rodgers, Clive Barnett, and Allan Cochrane, the authors of “Media practices and urban politics: conceptualizing the powers of the media-urban nexus.”

Martins’ engagement of the images she has selected to highlight, her interaction with protagonists, subject matter, and the motives of those who held the camera, is never allowed to detract from, or impinge on, what she has to say. Her myriad takes, rather, are threaded in to chapter content and argumentative thrust strategically and seamlessly, to illuminating effect.

"Co-habiting with Ghosts" adds to an emergent body of literature which is moving beyond the worn-out question “are ghosts real?”, and asking instead, what impact does experiencing “a ghost” (whatever that may or may not be) have for people in our rational modern world? Lipman is not attempting to explain away ghosts as many academics do, but rather takes the more difficult path of adopting a critical approach to trying to understand and make sense of them within the personal, social and spatial contexts they occur.