Smoking Geographies: Space, Place and Tobacco

Smoking is one of the most important public health issues worldwide, and is a major determinant of preventable mortality and morbidity in developed and developing countries. Strong spatial and social inequalities exist in smoking behaviour at the international, regional and local levels, as well as between various socioeconomic groups. These differences make a significant contribution to widening health inequalities noted in recent years.

Smoking Geographies provides a research-led assessment of the impact of geographical factors on smoking initiation, duration, and cessation. Using a range of different theoretical perspectives, the authors draw on the burgeoning literatures in the fields of human geography, medical sociology, public health and epidemiology that have identified place-based mechanisms associated with smoking behaviour.

The contributors uncover how geography can lead us to understand not only why people smoke but also broader issues of tobacco control, providing a deeper understanding of how smoking and tobacco is ‘governed’. This governance takes the form of legislation regarding where people may smoke, but also more subtle governance as a climate is produced in which smoking becomes ‘denormalised’.

Keywords: Smoking, public health, mortality, morbidity, active smoking, passive smoking, tobacco, tobacco consumption, cancer, cancer deaths, spatial inequalities, social inequalities, socioeconomic, health inequalities, smoking epidemic, Big Tobacco, developing world, smoking-related mortality, WHO, tobacco control, smoking norms, smoking cessation, health geography, health-related behaviour, lung cancer, ‘smoking islands’, tobacco advertising, denormalising smoking, smoker identities, place and smoking, smoking ban. , Human Geography