Text books

In 2006 I left the universities after six years of studies and with degrees in three different disciplines. Six years mean I've accumulated a lot of text books. Seeing how I've been unemployed for the last years -- a common situation for academics in social sciences -- it's easy to forget many of the things once learned. So I thought I'd re-read some of my books. After all, I took all those courses in human geography, environmental science, ecological economics, and business administration because I loved it. It's worth taking the time to refresh my knowledge of them every now and then. Just because I don't work with it, doesn't mean I should let go of it.

So what books have I taken down from the book shelves? This is my first "batch":

• Kotler: Marketing Management

• Söderlund: Den nöjda kunden. Kundtillfredsställelse -- orsaker och effekter [The Satisfied Costumer. Costumer Satisfaction -- Causes & Effects]

• Lidskog et al: Samhälle, risk och miljö. Sociologiska perspektiv på det moderna samhällets miljöproblem [Society, Risk, and Environment. Sociological Perspectives on the Environmental Issues of the Modern Society]

• Nyström: Planeringens grunder. En översikt. [The Basics/Foundations of (Spatial) Planning. An overview.]

• Rubenson: Miljöbalken. Den nya miljörätten. [The Environmental Code. The New Environmental Law.] (slightly outdated -- the MB was new in 2000 when I took the course)

• Crang: Cultural Geography

• Macnaghten & Urry: Contested Natures.
  

• Dicken: Global Shift. Reshaping the Gobal Economic Map in the 21st Century.

• Atkins et al: People, Land, & Time. An Historical Introduction to the Relations Between Landscape, Culture, & Environment.

• Moberg et al: Miljösystemanalytiska verktyg -- en introduktion med koppling till beslutssituationer. [Environmental System Analysis Tools -- An Introduction Linked to Decision-Making Situations.]

• Ricklefs: The Economy of Nature. (a book on ecology)

Does it sound like fun books? My sis don't think so. She isn't interested in academic work. But I love cultural geography and landscape studies, am intested in economics, care for the environment, am fascinated with planning, and find marketing both fun and interesting.

In fact, I wanted to become a marketer before I got disillusioned: it just ended up being about how to manipulate people into buying all sorts of things. I got tired of the manipulation and consumerism. That was at the same time I began to get more interested in environmental issues, human rights and international justice. Which led me to the universities -- I've studied at two different ones -- and six years that turned out to be the best in my life.