Édouard Glissant and the Geography of Relation

Abstract

Édouard Glissant’s notions Relation, Place (<em>Lieu</em>), “forced poetics”, “le drive”, and “detour” are discussed through close readings of Glissant’s representations of lived relational, material, physical and discursive geographies in the Caribbean, which are unfolded with references to Caribbean archival research. Using Denmark, a former colonial power in the Caribbean and whose educational policies are influenced by international trends and organisations as a case, the author draws on surveys, interviews, studies of Danish education in geography, and ministerial guidelines and regulations for teaching geography. Bojsen’s analysis confirms recent research from other scholars that suggest a growing predominant utilitarian and economy-focused conceptualization of geography in Denmark, where physical geography appears to be increasingly disconnected from social and cultural parameters. However, her reading deploys Glissant’s geography of “Relation”, which she considers a counter-geography, to tease out the potential room for dissidence in this development and concludes by suggesting how Glissant’s notions may lead to constructive critical questions about how geography, mobility and connectedness can be taught in primary and secondary schools in Denmark and elsewhere.