Showing Off: The Geltung Hypothesis [Paperback]

Philip L. Wagner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1996

Hardly a place exists on earth that has not been shaped in some way by human beings. Every day we modify and even sweep away natural landscapes as we build places to live and work. But why we react and interact as social beings intent on exercising ecological dominance poses an endlessly compelling puzzle for everyone from novelists to geographers.

In Showing Off, distinguished geographer Philip L. Wagner offers a persuasive hypothesis. Drawing on a lifetime of inquiry, travel, and teaching, he asserts that the strive for Geltung--personal standing, recognition, acceptance, esteem, and influence--shapes all of our interactions and defines the unique social character of human beings.

Wagner applies the Geltung hypothesis to a wide range of human activities from falling in love and spreading gossip to buying goods and making war. His examples demonstrate how communication and display--"showing off"--impel geographic change, as they reveal how and why people with the most Geltung tend to occupy the most desirable places.

This broad vision draws insights from many fields. A major contribution to cultural geography, the book also sheds new light on individual psychology and psychopathology and suggests new themes for cognitive science and even philosophy. Sure to stir lively debate in many circles, it will be provocative reading for everyone fascinated by the continuum between people and places.

Product Details

• Paperback: 170 pages
• Publisher: University of Texas Press (1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0292791038
• ISBN-13: 978-0292791039
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,209,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exploration of human communications & spatial behaviour, October 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Showing Off: The Geltung Hypothesis (Paperback)

. . . A brief kudo for this seminal work by a major American cultural geographer and philosopher of human-environment interaction. For over 50 years Phil Wagner has been a leading thinker in the so-called "Berkeley school of Cultural Geography". His 1960's book on "Human Use of the Earth" prefigured much of today's environmental ethos. Earlier, Wagner & Marvin Mikesell edited "Readings in Cultural Geography" which has provided four decades of students and lay readers with the quintessential collection of critical thoughts from pivotal writers in this field. PLW's long time exploration into human communication has brought him to a hypothesis that the desire for recognition and status drives human behaviour. Hence, access to venues for such expression and feedback affect spatial organization of human performance, and render the built environment a stage for enactment of "geltung" or status seeking behaviour. The process of following Wagner's line of reasoning offers an additional range of directions for readers to explore their own understanding of communicative behaviour. Like Thorsten Veblen's 1920's work on elites and conspicuous consumption, or Vance Packard's 1950's work on the Status Seekers, or C. Wright Mills' 1960's querry into power relations, this little book and the Geltung hypothesis has the power to influence thinkers and students for generations to come. It also points to new interpretations of Hegel's question of the master-slave dialectic. Aside from a poor title, weak cover, and equally inept marketing, the book's major fault lies in too much editing intended to reach a pseudo - popular market. Hence the final thin volume leaves out much of the meat found in earlier drafts. Nevertheless, it is well written, easy to read, and bereft of jargon, which Wagner has translated into ordinary language, a hallmark of his down-to-earth erudition and scholarship.