The sphere in which individuals live and which they are affected by, including tangible objects and people, social and cultural phenomena, and the images which influence human behaviour. This is a huge theme in Canadian geography; see Canad. Geog./Géog. canad. (2000) 44, 1; (2002) 46, 1 and 46, 4; (2004) 48, 3; and (2006) 50, 4. Buciek et al. (2006) Geografiska B 88, 2 consider the ability of the Danish kulturmiljø (cultural milieu) to capture and incorporate the ‘multiple and often contradictory cultural practices of different groups of actors and, not the least to transgress the often rather static and confined view on local history, which often results from the heritage perspective’.

In economic geography, Waxell (2005) Geografiska regionstudie 62 finds the local milieu to be important for knowledge transfer, and Maskell (2004) PHG 28, 1 questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieux whereas codified knowledge ‘may roam the globe almost frictionlessly’. See also Gareau (2008) Antipode 40, 1 on the neoliberal milieu.